Imperial beat Gambit to meet OpTic in DHS final

Imperial have defeated Gambit in two maps (Cache 16-12, Mirage 16-9) to secure their place in the DreamHack Open Summer grand final, where they'll face off against OpTic.

The series started on Cache, the choice of Gambit, but it was Imperial who dominated the first half of the map, leading 7-0 as Counter-Terrorists after a few multi-kills from Rokas "⁠EspiranTo⁠" Milasauskas and 1v1 clutches by Jesper "⁠TENZKI⁠" Plougmann and Žygimantas "⁠nukkye⁠" Chmieliauskas.

Gambit then got their first two on the board after successful executes towards each site, but EspiranTo continued his rampage and put up two triples and three doubles with the AWP in the last six rounds to give Imperial 13 rounds going into the offense.

Gambit put up a fight in the second half, clinching the first five rounds before EspiranTo secured map point with a 1v2 clutch and a double in a B attack. Mihail "⁠Dosia⁠" Stolyarov & co. attempted to come back, with Abay "⁠HObbit⁠" Khassenov spearheading the way with two 1v1s and a couple of multikills, but it all came crashing down when Imperial pierced the B bombsite and won the 3v3 afterplant for 16-12.

EspiranTo kicked Mirage off with a triple-kill in the pistol round, with Imperial taking a 3-0 lead as Terrorists on the back of it, surviving a dangerous anti-eco in the third round.

HObbit's triple on A gave Gambit their first, while Dauren "⁠AdreN⁠" Kystaubayev followed it up with a triple of his own with the AWP, equalizing the score at 3-3. The next two rounds were exchanged and Imperial took advantage of that despite low economy, winning the forcebuy round on A, courtesy of doubles from Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković and nukkye.

Gambit recovered after being down 4-7, as they secured three of the last four rounds and topped it off with a pistol round win. Imperial didn't wait for the gunrounds, stealing an AK in the second-round forcebuy to use it to break Gambit in the third.

From there, the European mixture powered to match point after their players took turns making big plays and quickly closed things out, advancing to the grand final at 16-9.