Asia Minor - IEM Katowice 2019Grayhound outshine ViCi 2-1; through to IEM Katowice New Challengers Stage
Grayhound have secured a 2-1 victory over ViCi in the Asia Minor's consolidation final, copping the second New Challengers slot of the tournament.
The series commenced on Grayhound's pick, Overpass, where ViCi opened the action to a successful CT pistol round. Ollie "DickStacy" Tierney's men retaliated as soon as rifles were on the table, stealing the lead early-on at 3-2. While an early round advantage was established by Grayhound, the Aussie representatives proceeded to struggle immensely against the defence, consistently unable to secure bomb plants or breach sites successfully. This led to all of the remaining rounds falling in ViCi's favour for a solid 12-3 CT half.
Christopher "dexter" Nong secured a USP 3k in the second pistol, converting a potentially dangerous 3v2 post-plant situation into a map life extension for Grayhound's CT side. The Australian-majority squad managed to claw a few rounds in, but rifles on ViCi led to a financial reset for Grayhound, creating space for the Ts. The opportunity was not squandered, as Zhuo "advent" Liang and co. extended their position to map point, later closing out their opponents' map pick at 16-6.
ViCi secured a second successful pistol round, on this occasion on the T side of Mirage. The Asian reps leapt to a 3-0 lead, but their Oceanic counterparts were right on their tail, as upon reaching their first full-buy Grayhound took the lead with four rounds of their own. An eco round victory from ViCi equalised the score, but the Australian squad proceeded to consistently fend off the aggressors, persisting all the way to the conclusion of the first half at a solid 11-4 CT-side performance.
Asserting their position as the leaders, Grayhound transferred the accumulated momentum onto the T half. A pistol round victory was succeeded by a whopping four consecutive rounds, producing map point for the team. ViCi prolonged their stay on Mirage by landing two consecutive rounds, but no substantial comeback was to be seen, as Grayhound pushed the series into map 3 with a 16-6 success.
Dust2 witnessed a fruitful T pistol on Grayhound's part, with immediate follow-up in the form of three consecutive rounds. Initially ViCi were looking shaky, as only a single round was accrued in the early stages of the half, but the Chinese squad were able to re-focus as the game wore on. The last rounds of the half saw dominance from the CTs, as the duo of Andrew "kaze" Khong and ZhiHong "aumaN" Liu put work in for their team, concluding ViCi's CT-side performance on a 9-6 note.
Once more ViCi were able to effectively extend their momentum into the latter half, as the teams went one-for-one in pistol rounds on the map. No setbacks were seen over the following three rounds, extending the Terrorists' lead to a worrisome 12-7 for Grayhound. Faced with this predicament, DickStacy and co. took things into their hands and restored parity, albeit after some struggle, at 13-13. The T economy was in tatters after consecutive losses, leading to struggle and an eventual defeat, as Grayhound closed out the series with a close 16-13 scoreline.
 ViCi |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 60 - 43 | +17 | 85.5 | 71.2% | 1.29 | |
| 56 - 49 | +7 | 92.8 | 67.1% | 1.19 | |
| 56 - 45 | +11 | 79.5 | 68.5% | 1.17 | |
| 44 - 47 | -3 | 70.6 | 67.1% | 1.01 | |
| 25 - 51 | -26 | 39.1 | 65.8% | 0.66 |
 Grayhound |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 63 - 49 | +14 | 90.5 | 72.6% | 1.28 | |
| 58 - 48 | +10 | 82.6 | 68.5% | 1.17 | |
| 41 - 44 | -3 | 57.4 | 69.9% | 0.91 | |
| 39 - 51 | -12 | 68.5 | 60.3% | 0.85 | |
| 34 - 49 | -15 | 57.7 | 69.9% | 0.84 |
Asia Minor final standings:
1.
Renegades - $30,000 + spot in New Challengers Stage
2.
3.ViCi - $5,000 + spot in Minor's Play-In tournament
4.MVP PK
5-6.
5-6.
7-8.Beyond
7-8.Aequus
Following Grayhound's qualification, the team list for the IEM Katowice's New Challengers Stage now looks as follows:
Minors play-in #1
Americas Minor #2
Dmytro 'jR' Chervak
Joakim 'jkaem' Myrbostad
Damian 'daps' Steele
Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov
Hansel 'BnTeT' Ferdinand
Alex 'ALEX' McMeekin
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