Virtus.pro over Tempo in Group D

The Group D winners' match at DreamHack Masters Malmö was between Virtus.pro and Tempo Storm, the #5 and #13 ranked teams in the world respectively, with the first ever offline encounter between the two having gone the way of Tempo Storm (16-9 on Cobblestone) at IEM Katowice in the month before.

The Brazilian team got things off to a rolling start with a T-side pistolround that saw them overwhelm the Poles and put a round on the board. However, much like the Group C winners' match, the second round was a complete reversal as this time it was Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski who utilised the SS08 or Scout and a grenade to devastating effect to break down Tempo's set-up and force the latter team to save.

Virtus.pro used this momentum to pull ahead to a 3-1 lead but it was once again a Henrique "⁠HEN1⁠" Teles-led offensive that afterwards saw the Brazilians pick up successful T-side rounds to take the lead at 4-3.

With Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas having a penchant for solid CT-sided play in offline games, the Polish elder and Snax combined to continue shutting down Tempo's takes afterwards and regained the advantage in the half. Despite a few more rounds accrued by João "⁠felps⁠" Vasconcellos and crew, the first half ultimately went to the Poles' advtange: 9-6.

The second pistolround saw Paweł "⁠byali⁠" Bieliński secure three Glock kills in quick succession (and even secure a fourth by the round's end), meaning that VP moved ahead to a commanding 10-6 scoreline, with breathing room to spare for their T-side.

The Poles kept this pressure up going into the first gunround and, with a Tempo defense looking increasingly fragmented, Filip "⁠NEO⁠" Kubski and crew moved ahead to a 14-6 advantage. The ensuing round was the Ricardo "⁠boltz⁠" Prass show as the former Luminosity player secured three kills to put the Brazilians back on the board and give the team some newfound hope.

This hope worked for the next few rounds as Tempo Storm managed to fight their way back to a 9-14 deficit but that exact round saw byali win a one-versus-two at the B site to put the Polish team back in the game. The round afterwards saw all the dominoes fall as VP overwhelmed the A-site and took the game 16-9.

DreamHack Masters Malmö 2016Best of 1

Virtus.pro

Matchpage

16

9

13th April 2016

Tempo Storm

16

Mirage

9

Virtus.pro	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Janusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiSnax	21 - 13	+8	98.4	72.0%	1.42
Paweł 'byali' Bielińskibyali	21 - 13	+8	76.4	80.0%	1.33
Jarosław 'pashaBiceps' JarząbkowskipashaBiceps	19 - 16	+3	88.6	68.0%	1.22
Wiktor 'TaZ' WojtasTaZ	17 - 16	+1	79.5	80.0%	1.06
Filip 'NEO' KubskiNEO	13 - 15	-2	66.4	72.0%	0.98

Tempo Storm	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Henrique 'HEN1' TelesHEN1	20 - 15	+5	83.3	68.0%	1.16
Ricardo 'boltz' Prassboltz	15 - 18	-3	64.0	60.0%	0.90
Lucas 'LUCAS1' TelesLUCAS1	14 - 22	-8	72.8	64.0%	0.86
João 'felps' Vasconcellosfelps	15 - 19	-4	76.8	56.0%	0.82
Gustavo 'SHOOWTiME' GonçalvesSHOOWTiME	9 - 18	-9	42.6	60.0%	0.69

Day three at DreamHack Masters Malmö will be the final day of the closed-doors group stages, with four best-of-three decider matches taking place to determine the remaining four teams who will advance to the Malmö Arena playoffs on Saturday. First up will be TYLOO versus Luminosity at 11:00 .

stich writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter