forZe reverse sweep Sprout to win Copenhagen Games

FORZE came back from a map down to beat Sprout 2-1 and claim the title at Copenhagen Games 2019.

The Russian team justified their favoritism in the tournament and took down Sprout in convincing fashion. Even though the series went the full distance, FORZE looked the better side for large portions of the match and could have won it 2-0 had they not squandered a map point on Nuke. The victory comes a massive boost to the CIS side - who had not yet attended a LAN event this year -, while Sprout leave Denmark with yet another silver medal - their third from the last three events.

Nuke, Sprout's map pick, began with the German side hopping out to a 3-0 lead after a successful upper site execute in the pistol round. Once they had money in the bank, FORZE set up a strong defence and gave Sprout's men very little room to operate, but a 1v3 clutch by Timo "⁠Spiidi⁠" Richter in the 14th round turned the game on its head and allowed his team to bring the deficit to just one round before the break.

FORZE came out of the break with a bang as they took the pistol round after Evgenii "⁠FL1T⁠" Lebedev toyed with Sabit "⁠mirbit⁠" Coktasar on the site, but their celebrations were cut short as Sprout responded on eco. A back-and forth period of play ensued as neither side could stamp their authority on proceedings, but then FORZE ran away with the lead and brought the scoreline to 14-10.

It looked like the game was petering out for a FORZE victory, but Sprout fought back valiantly and forced overtime, in which Florian "⁠syrsoN⁠" Rische and Josef "⁠faveN⁠" Baumann would come up huge for the team, who won four rounds without response to win their map pick.

Next up was Mirage, a map on which FORZE had defeated Epsilon earlier in the tournament. The Russian team came out of the gate looking scary and won seven rounds without response to put Sprout in danger of getting blown out.

The German side were struggling to keep up with the pace of the offensive side, but then finally managed to get their footing in the game. Suddenly, the first half went in a completely different direction as FORZE ran out of stream, allowing Sprout to claim the last eight rounds and gain some momentum.

Just like on Nuke, FORZE looked the livelier of the two sides after the break as they picked up the pistol round and the subsequent two. After that, the game turned into a scrappy affair as rounds kept going back and forth before the Russians took control of proceedings and won four rounds in a row en route to a 16-11 finish.

Inferno, the all-deciding map, started in the same manner as Mirage, with FORZE racing to a 7-0 lead, this time on the CT side. And just like on the previous map, Sprout were the better side during the latter stages of the half, bringing the deficit to just three rounds before switching sides.

The German team carried that momentum into the second half and came out on top of a messy pistol round that had plenty of action across the map. There was no follow-up, though, as FORZE responded immediately and went on a dominant run that saw them lose just one more round before wrapping things up, dealing the finishing blow with a 1v2 clutch by FL1T after a B fake.

Copenhagen Games 2019 final standings:

1. FORZE - $49,675
2. Sprout - $19,570
3-4. Movistar Riders - $9,785
3-4. Tricked - $9,785
5-6. Epsilon - $3,010
5-6. Söderberg & Partners - $3,010
7-8. Ambush - $1,505
7-8. Gambit Youngsters - $1,505