Live updates from Elisa Masters Espoo semis

FURIA 1-0 HAVU

On to Nuke, where FURIA have been nearly as bad as HAVU have been on Mirage.

The Brazilians have a 1-3 record on CS2 and most recently lost to 9 Pandas 13-4.

FURIA 13-7 HAVU

As expected, HAVU drop Mirage. The question now is how they can do on far more comfortable battlegrounds of Nuke and, if required, Ancient.

FURIA 12-7 HAVU

FURIA 10-7 HAVU

HAVU anchor Samu "⁠uli⁠" Leirilaakso is top of the board on stage. It's the inexperienced players keeping the Finns in this match.

FURIA 9-6 HAVU

Big moment for the 19-year-old lurker!

FURIA 9-5 HAVU

FURIA's fragging trio?

FURIA 7-5 HAVU

Those two force-buy wins were crucial for FURIA. HAVU seemed caught off guard by the pace and style of IGL-again Andrei "⁠arT⁠" Piovezan in frantic executions, and go into half-time trailing by two.

FURIA 5-5 HAVU

Kaike "⁠KSCERATO⁠" Cerato has had enough. It's two 3Ks in three rounds for the best player in the server and both came on weak buys for FURIA.

FURIA 4-5 HAVU

HAVU, like they have all event, are playing nothing like their online selves. The No. 127 team in the world are leading FURIA on their bogey map.

FURIA 3-3 HAVU

It's not pretty but HAVU are on the board gun-round wise.

FURIA 1-2 HAVU

HAVU have already matched the Mirage total they gathered vs MIBR with a pistol win and conversion.

FURIA 0-0 HAVU

End of the underdog run, or just the beginning?

HAVU have a 0% win-rate on Mirage in the last three months. They'll need a miracle to not start down 1-0.

FalleN pre-game: "Awesome to be in Finland. I know you guys will be supporting the other team but we'll give a good show."

"We have to come with a great mentality. No stress, give everything we can. arT's feeling a bit sick but we can give a bit of extra energy."

Pre-game to BanKs: "We had no expectations for ourselves. We have nothing to lose."

On playing on LAN: "We have the freedom to go away from our strats, we are instantly ready to react. When we play online, we don't have the ability to go away from that. Against ENCE and GL we had insane confidence, we were always ready to react."

On FURIA: "It's easier to play against MOUZ than FURIA, but we'll see to be honest. If we have confidence like against MOUZ and GL it won't be a problem."

Next up: Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo has to bring out his worst Librarian and silence the Finnish crowd.

Date	Matches
Elisa Masters Espoo 2023
02/12/2023	HAVU 18:00 FURIA	Match

Post-game to HLTV: "My first arena, first time with a big crowd, so it's just an amazing feeling to be able to win and to be able to concentrate on the game, instead of the surroundings."

On the comeback: "I know that we were down 5-10 and it's a big lead now in MR12, but to be honest I was pretty confident we would come back. When we lost the pistol it was looked kinda dark (laughs), but then we won the second round and you could feel in the energy level that we were gonna bounce back."

On the possibility of making his trial permanent: "Right now I'm just being told to go there and there, play and play, so I just do it. I'm not really sure what my future is like, so we will wait and see."

sense has been on trial since October 4

The Swedish AWPer topped the server in the win against ENCE and now leads the event in terms of rating with a 1.37. He joined James "⁠BanKs⁠" Banks for a quick post-match interview.

On the win: "We're just going into games to have fun, and it's working out so far."

On his individual form: "I think I'm just lucky (laughs). I'm enjoying CS2 a lot, I know a lot of people don't like it, but I'm enjoying it so much. I played CS:GO for 10 years and now a new game that I'm just grinding and playing a lot, and it's working out."

ENCE 11-10 Apeks

After five straight losses, Pavle "⁠Maden⁠" Bošković put up a wall on the B site to put ENCE back in the lead.

ENCE 10-10 Apeks

From 5-10 to 10-10, Apeks have tied up the scores on Anubis. They are now on a five-round streak, and their finances are booming.

Let's see if ENCE's experience allows them to return to winning ways, or if the Apeks vibes are too much to handle for Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander and company.

ENCE 10-6 Apeks

A third pistol-round victory in the series for ENCE got them up to double digits, but Apeks have not given up yet and just won the first gun round of the half.

ENCE 7-5 Apeks

It looked like ENCE were about to run out of steam on their offense, but Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander took the reigns and found a quad-kill that included a 1vs2.

His team stays two rounds ahead but now moves on to the less-favored CT side.

ENCE 6-3 Apeks

ENCE are staying in the lead, and have just gotten up to six round after an anti-eco victory. They look much better on Anubis, and Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García is topping the board with 13.

Tim "⁠nawwk⁠" Jonasson isn't far behind the Spaniard, though.

ENCE 3-1 Apeks

Despite losing Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi a while ago, the European combine is looking much better on the Egypt-inspired map. Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García has already warmed up his AWP in a 1vs4 clutch attempt, which was stopped after two kills.

ENCE 7-13 Apeks

Damjan "⁠kyxsan⁠" Stoilkovski secured the pistol round for Apeks with three crips headshots, and Ådne "⁠sense⁠" Fredriksen clutched a 1vs2 in the resulting round to take his team up to 11.

ENCE got some rounds on the board, but it was far too late to put together a convincing comeback attempt. Anubis is up next, and ENCE need to wake up.

ENCE 7-12 Apeks

It's still a long way to go, but ENCE have finally found some sustained success. They are now five rounds away from forcing overtime, but Apeks are up to a full buy in the next.

ENCE 3-9 Apeks

Apeks are here to play. The Macedonian-Nordic team has closed in on double digits in the first half as everything seems to be going right for the team. Even when things get close, Aleksandar "⁠CacaNito⁠" Kjulukoski finds a jumping AK-47 headshot on Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García.

ENCE 2-7 Apeks

ENCE haven't started this series well. Apeks are one step ahead of their opponents, shutting down every ENCE play with conviction, and the Damjan "⁠kyxsan⁠" Stoilkovski-led squad have already secured the first half.

ENCE 1-3 Apeks

ENCE won the pistol round, but Apeks answered with a force-buy victory. Tim "⁠nawwk⁠" Jonasson is up to seven kills on the Apeks side, and the Swedish AWPer needs to get the better of Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García to give his team a chance.

ENCE 0-0 Apeks

The match is just minutes away, and the veto has been announced. ENCE picked Vertigo to start the series, while Apeks went for Anubis.

Ancient is the decider if needed.

The desk discussed Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García's quiet performances in Finland so far, as the Spanish AWPer is currently averaging a 1.05 rating. He stopped by James "⁠BanKs⁠" Banks to talk about his performances in CS2.

"I'm still adapting to CS2. The AWP is good, but it's not as good as in CS:GO. I need to find new ways to approach and reach the same level as before," he said. "We didn't practice too much with gla1ve and kuben, so we need to rely on our individual skill. We just need to have fun together and win this semi-final."

When asked if ENCE consider themselves favorites, SunPayus confidently said they are still the front-runners for the entire event.

The first semi-final of Elisa Masters Espoo is set to begin shortly, and ENCE will look to make the final in their first event with Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander. The European combine is slightly favored in the matchup but has shown hot-and-cold form in Finland so far, while Apeks are currently undefeated after they beat MOUZ and FURIA in the group stage.

Apeks's good form meant Joakim "⁠jkaem⁠" Myrbostad gave some fighting talk in an interview with HLTV after their group-stage escapades.

"The fact that we beat MOUZ in overtime with the little experience that some of our players have makes me so proud. FURIA had no chance. So why not, why not win the whole thing?"

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jkaem: "Why not win the whole thing?"

Another tough test is next for Apeks, but jkaem's form in Finland gives them reason for confidence. The Norwegian veteran is sitting at a 1.45 average rating across three maps of play.

It's day four of the $200,000 Espoo tournament and it's down to the final four teams — a rather surprising set that doesn't include three out of the four highest-ranked teams in attendance.

Only ENCE remain from the pre-tournament favorites, and it's them who will play in the first semi-final against Apeks, ready to receive the organization's home crowd once again after beating GamerLegion on stage yesterday.

The only true Finnish representatives and undoubtedly the surprise of the tournament, HAVU, will follow later with their first stage match against FURIA, who will be big favorites after taking down MOUZ last night.

Date	Matches
Elisa Masters Espoo 2023
02/12/2023	Apeks 15:00 ENCE	Match
02/12/2023	HAVU 18:00 FURIA	Match