Kinguin edge past Ghost; through to ZOTAC Cup Masters final

Kinguin have booked their spot in the grand final of the ZOTAC Cup Masters after defeating Ghost in a three-map series.

The first semi-final in Hong Kong began on Mirage, Kinguin's map pick, with the Polish side immediately responding after losing the pistol round. Ghost took some time to find their feet again, but from the sevent round onwards their double AWP setup proved very effective.

The Canadian team went on to take the lead at 6-5, but then Kinguin hit back immediately to restore parity. Back-to-back clutches from Kenneth "⁠koosta⁠" Suen then gave Ghost a two-round before the Polish side managed to grab the final round to make it a 7-8 half.

Kinguin came from the break determined to retake the lead and bagged the opening three rounds of the half, but then Matthew "⁠WARDELL⁠" Yu went huge with two fantastic clutches to put Ghost back in the game.

With the momentum now in their favour, Joshua "⁠steel⁠" Nissan's troops strung six rounds together to bring the scoreline to 14-10, but a lost anti-eco swung the tide back in Kinguin's favour, with the Polish side winning six rounds in a row to lock down the map and take the lead in the series.

Kinguin picked up where they had left off and shut down a fast A push, with Paweł "⁠reatz⁠" Jańczak getting three kills to his name. That was the start of a great run by the Polish team, who surged to a 7-2 lead as Ghost struggled to find to break through the Polish defence.

A round win on a shoddy buy instantly put Ghost back in the game, with the Canadian team losing just one more round before the break to cut the deficit to 7-8.

Now playing on the CT side, Ghost took the pistol round after overturning a 3v5 situation and took the lead after following it up with the subsequent anti-ecos. The Canadians kept a water-tight defence for the rest of the half and quickly wrapped things up, taking the series to Overpass.

Yassine "⁠Subroza⁠" Taoufik opened up the action on the decider map with a quad kill to give Ghost an early lead in the game. Kinguin responded in the third round with a very low buy and took control of proceedings, twice securing a three-round lead. Ghost were unwilling to let the game slip away, however, and picked up the pace to bring the deficit to a solitary round by the end of the half.

The second half turned out to be a one-way street as Kinguin won seven rounds without response to hit match point. It was only then that Ghost managed to get on the board, but a triple-kill by Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas in an A execute nailed the Canadians' coffin and put the Polish side through to Sunday's grand final.

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