Kinguin, EnVyUs to WESG 2016 Final
Kinguin defeat Virtus.pro 2-0 (16-14 on Dust2 and 16-5 on Mirage) in an upset and EnVyUs take down Space Soldiers 2-1 (8-16 on Cache, 22-19 on Cobblestone, and 16-14 on Dust2) in the WESG 2016 World Finals semifinals.
The semifinals of the $1.5 million WESG 2016 World Finals in Changzhou, China saw Virtus.pro and Kinguin in one match-up and Space Soldiers and Envy in the other as all four teams locked horns for a leviathan $800,000 first place prize.
With VP and EnVyUs both having been billed as heavy favourites ahead of the tournament's commencement (ranked #6 and #11 on our rankings respectively), Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski and crew quickly found themselves on the back foot as Polish rivals and upstarts Kinguin edged out their map pick of Dust2 16-14.
rallen & co. of Kinguin took down Polish rivals VP in a semifinal stunner
Any chance of a classic Golden Five comeback was then quickly snuffed out as a Michał "MICHU" Müller and Mikołaj "mouz" Karolewski led effort on Virtus.pro's map pick of Mirage closed out the map 16-5 and relegated their elite Polish brethren to a 3-4th place finish (dependent on the third place decider later today).
Kinguin | K - D | +/- | ADR | Rating 2.0 |
---|---|---|---|---|
39 - 32 | +7 | 93.7 | 1.34 | |
40 - 27 | +13 | 78.2 | 1.32 | |
40 - 31 | +9 | 80.5 | 1.20 | |
30 - 32 | -2 | 67.6 | 1.06 | |
38 - 30 | +8 | 68.0 | 1.05 |
Virtus.pro | K - D | +/- | ADR | Rating 2.0 |
---|---|---|---|---|
34 - 31 | +3 | 73.5 | 1.13 | |
31 - 37 | -6 | 71.4 | 1.00 | |
32 - 43 | -11 | 84.1 | 0.94 | |
29 - 38 | -9 | 57.5 | 0.84 | |
24 - 40 | -16 | 52.5 | 0.64 |
The second semifinal also began in unexpected fashion as Ahmet "paz" Karahoca powered his team to a 16-8 victory on nV's map pick of Cache. The second map of Cobblestone then went the long mile with 9-6 halves being traded and two overtimes playing out; with Kenny "kennyS" Schrub in fine form however, it was the French team who closed out the second map 22-19.
With the decider map being Dust2, Space Soldiers defended the first half with a 9-6 lead. EnVyUs then appeared to have the second pistolround in their hands, but Engin "ngiN" Kor picked up four quick pistol kills in a two-versus-four to give Space Soldiers the round.
However, solid defending from the French team inched them forward and Vincent "Happy" Schopenhauer & co. eventually secured a 16-14 victory and moved into the grand finals.
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stich writes for HLTV.org in a blue moon and can be found on Twitter