FURIA scrape win over INTZ to qualify for ECS S7 Finals

FURIA punched their ticket to the ECS Season 7 Finals after winning the third North American regular season tournament by beating INTZ in the final.

The Brazilian showdown, a rematch of the DreamHack Open Rio Group A decider, began on Inferno, where INTZ, who continue to field Jaccob "⁠yay⁠" Whiteaker as a stand-in due to Marcelo "⁠chelo⁠" Cespedes's passport issues, took the lead after a successful T side pistol, but an anti-eco blunder in the third round marked the beginning of what would be an extremely painful half for Vito "⁠kNgV-⁠" Giuseppe's men.

FURIA took control of the game after that and ran away with the lead thanks in part to a fantastic showing from Kaike "⁠KSCERATO⁠" Cerato. The 19-year-old showed just why he was on MIBR's shortlist before they signed João "⁠felps⁠" Vasconcellos as he completely destroyed INTZ, an ace in the 15th round being just the icing on the cake after a half that saw him go 26-4 and average 141 damage per round.

There was more misery to come for INTZ, who were outplayed once again in the second half. KSCERATO put in five more frags as Terrorist to power his side to a convincing 16-4 victory, ending the game with an astonishing 2.55 rating.

FURIA through to the LAN finals

Train, the map that followed, was a completely different story. The first half was closely contested as neither side was able to stamp their authority on proceedings and string more than a few rounds together, with FURIA taking a narrow 8-7 lead into the break.

Now playing on the Terrorist side, FURIA won four of the opening five rounds of the half, bringing the scoreline to 12-8. It looked like Andrei "⁠arT⁠" Piovezan's side had the game under control, but then INTZ kept their defense very tight and compact, winning eight rounds in a row to take the series to Mirage.

A flying start from FURIA on the CT side saw them take a commanding 6-1 lead. INTZ were struggling to break through the defence, but after a couple of messy rounds they finally managed to get a foothold in the game, ending the half with a respectable three-round deficit.

FURIA came out of the break looking the livelier of the two sides and lost just one of the first six rounds of the half to bring their lead to 14-7. INTZ refused to throw in the towel, however, and mounted an impressive comeback, even recovering from three match points down to force overtime. Their efforts would be in vain, though, as FURIA dominated the game after regulation to pick up a hard-fought win in this domestic match-up.

ECS Season 7 North America Week 3Best of 3

FURIA

Matchpage

2

1

28th April 2019

INTZ

16

Inferno

4

12

Train

16

19

Mirage

15

FURIA	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Kaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoKSCERATO	74 - 40	+34	91.5	84.1%	1.44
Andrei 'arT' PiovezanarT	63 - 51	+12	86.3	72.0%	1.26
Yuri 'yuurih' Santosyuurih	64 - 49	+15	80.3	76.8%	1.17
Vinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoVINI	62 - 59	+3	82.5	76.8%	1.17
Rinaldo 'ableJ' Moda JuniorableJ	45 - 57	-12	62.8	72.0%	0.87

INTZ	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Alexandre 'xand' Zizixand	70 - 63	+7	89.3	69.5%	1.21
Vito 'kNgV-' GiuseppekNgV-	50 - 61	-11	70.5	63.4%	0.93
Jaccob 'yay' Whiteakeryay	46 - 61	-15	70.0	61.0%	0.85
Gustavo 'yel' Knittelyel	48 - 57	-9	59.6	61.0%	0.85
Lucas 'destiny' Bullodestiny	42 - 66	-24	62.7	63.4%	0.78

The final standings of ECS Season 7 NA Week 3 are:

1. FURIA - $12,000 + spot at finals
2. INTZ - $5,000
3-4. Cloud9 - $2,500
3-4. Luminosity - $2,500
5-8. Singularity - $750
5-8. Spacestation - $750
5-8. Bad News Bears - $750
5-8. ATK - $750

FURIA are the sixth team confirmed for the ECS Season 7 Finals, which will be held at the SSE Arena, in London, from June 6-9. With only two regular season tournaments left to play, the final spots at the UK event will go to the teams who have earned the most prize money over the course of the season in both regions.

The team list for the event currently looks as follows:

Astralis
North
Vitality
Earnings Leader

Complexity
NRG
FURIA
Earnings Leader