WePlay! Lock and Load Recap - Day 4

Penultimate day is behind us and we are here to retrace all the interesting moments of our WePlay! Lock and Load CS:GO tournament. Did you miss it? Don't worry. Just continue reading. 

Virtus.Pro vs OpTic Gaming

The opening match started in 11:00 CET between Polish guys from Virtus.Pro against Danish squad from OpTic Gaming. The "pick and ban" phase looked as follows: 

1. Virtus.pro removed Inferno

2. OpTic removed Cache

3. Virtus.pro picked Train

4. OpTic picked Nuke

5. Virtus.pro removed Overpass

6. OpTic removed Dust2

7. Mirage was left over

I wasn't surprised that VP went for de_train. If you watched them in the opening match of our event, you will remember that they used this map against Russian team Gambit. Their CT side was that strong (especially snatchie and byali were so deadly) that they finished the half 12:3 for them.  And guess what, this was exactly the same story. The double-AWP setup in Snatchie and MICHU hands were too strong to let Danes do anything at all. And god knows they tried. Fast pushes A, classic 3-1-1 split A, contact B. Nothing actually worked and VP took the lead 12:3 again. 

However, as I mentioned two days ago in my recap, this is "heavily-CT-side" map and the Danes showed exactly the same performance as Virtus.Pro. So the first map went to the overtime. Rules said, that if the match goes for overtime, teams are staying on the same sides as they finished the second half. Normally it's ok, but on maps like Train or Nuke it could be a real problem, and it really was for VP. They can't manage to do anything on T side and the Danes stole the opponent's map 19:16.

On the OpTic map, de_nuke the Virtus.Pro had last chance to prove that the new lineup will be competitive against the best in Counter-Strike world. They managed to do the first step, while they won the knife round and could pick a CT side. The first half was actually really settled while the Danes squad won 6 rounds and the first half went 6:9 for VP. After the replacing the sides, new "fire-power" in OpTic Gaming, 20-year-old Ismail "refrezh" Ali prove himself and with his great performance (52/41 K/D ration in the end) the OpTic Gaming closed the match 16:12, 2:0 respectively. 

BIG vs Spirit

The second series started after lunch, 14:00 CET between German BIG and Russian-Ukrainian Team Spirit. The VETO looked as follows:

1. Spirit removed Train

2. BIG removed Nuke

3. Spirit picked Mirage

4. BIG picked Dust2

5. Spirit removed Overpass

6. BIG removed Inferno

7. Cache was left over

This match was probably the most interesting one for the viewers, while the whole series went for all 3 maps. The show started on de_mirage, Team Spirit map pick. Russian squad started as a CT and managed to win 8 rounds. As I said, this series was really balanced from both teams and the same story was in the second half. It was a real rollercoaster from both sides, round-by-round, however with a happy ending for Team Spirit while they won their map-pick 16:13. 

The series continued on classic de_dust2. This map is more about the fire-power and good communication than a "structure-CS" like in Overpass for example. That's why I watched very closely the new beast from Turkey, Ismailcan "XANTARES" Dörtkardeş. I heard rumours that this guy kill 5 thousand bots every day as a warmup. And because of that match, I started to believe in this story. He was the key factor for BIG, not only in the first half. With his performance he helped his team to progress in the final match. Let's look at his crazy skill:

Last, but not least it was de_cache which should decide who will fight for the trophy and $25,000 in cash. Another close map with all aspects of good CS. Individual skills (i was actually surprised how nex is good after his injury last month), rotations and clutches. We all know that playing online is very different from playing on the big stage in front of a huge crowd (it could actually help Spirit), but in the end the experienced squad from Germany closed the whole series 16:11 with gob b, while he clutched 1vs2 "post-plant" situation on A site. Team Spirit left our tournament on the 5-8th place, but I must admit that these guys have a real potential to make something great this year. Don't give up boys your time will come!

HellRaisers vs Furia Esports

The third match of the days was between a 3rd invited team, European mix HellRaisers and IEM Katowice qualifier from Brazil, Furia Esports. Let's check ho the veto went.

1. HellRaisers removed Nuke

2. FURIA removed Dust2

3. HellRaisers picked Inferno

4. FURIA picked Cache

5. HellRaisers removed Overpass

6. FURIA removed Train

7. Mirage was left over

In my predictions, before the match started I pointed two guys from HR roster, Turkish sniper woxic and Jordanian entry-fragger ISSAA. Both of them joined the team at the beginning of 2018 and with their fire-power, the team stayed on the highest level during the whole year. Especially on Major in London, where the squad earned The Status Legends, which means they also booked ticked for the first Major this year, in Katowice. Why I am telling all this? It's simple. Those two guys were key to success in this series. Woxic played his aggressive style on both maps, while the ISSAA had such a great percentile of openings (almost every round). I can't forget on new addition from Gambit Esports, 24-year-old Abay "HObbit" Khasenov from Kazakhstan, while he stands out most in clutches (especially in cache) and eventually ended up with 48-34 K/D rating. 

On the other hand, the whole Brazilian squad amazed me a lot! I am not gonna lie, I didn't give them too much attention (except worldwide tournaments, we don't know much about Latin American scene). The first time I really saw them, was 2 weeks ago at Minor qualification tournament for IEM Major, where the squad booked the "last-call" ticket to Katowice. Even though they lost this series (16:12 on Inferno, 16:10 on Cache) they showed the whole world that Brazilian scene is not only about ex SK-Gaming squad (FalleN and co.) anymore. I was so impressed by 19-year-old Yuri "yuurih" Santos and the main star of the squad Kaike "kscerato" Cerato. Except for 1 or 2 maps, both of them played great during the whole tournament. They earned my attention and respect for the following events for sure. Furia Esports ended in our tournament in 5-8th place.

Vitality vs pro100

The last quarter-final match of the day started at 20:00 CET with French team Vitality and Ukrainian pro100 on board. The veto looked as follows:

1. Vitality removed Cache

2. pro100 removed Train

3. Vitality picked Dust2

4. pro100 picked Nuke

5. Vitality removed Mirage

6. pro100 removed Inferno

7. Overpass was left over

I would love to describe this match as an amazing Hollywood story with many storylines, but I can't. Simply because this series was the fastest of all and from the beginning to the end we knew who will take the last spot for today semi-finals matches. In my prediction, I warned all of you that if ZywOo will have a day, pro100 can't think about the winning this match. And he did, as always. He wasn't only one step ahead of the whole team pro100, but his teammates as well, just look at the stats:

See? I am not lying. He is one of the most talented guys in Counter-Strike Global Offensive right now. In almost every aspect of the game. He doesn't have a weak spot. Like... There are no more words necessary. The whole match went 2:0 for French Vitality and they will join the OpTic Gaming in the second semi-final today!

 Pro100 ended as the rest of the teams in 5-8th place in our ranking. Thank you and see you next time guys!