Virtus.pro makes it to the final at EPICENTER where they will face SK after winning two maps, Cache and Inferno, in the three map series against G2.

The second semifinal of EPICENTER started on Cache, with Virtus.pro on the terrorist taking the first pistol round to kick the series off. In a rare occurrence, G2 didn’t force on the second round, and went into the first gun round with a full buy. Defending A from the Virtus.pro push, G2 got on the board. The French were unable to follow it up, though, allowing Virtus.pro to keep the lead. G2 didn’t give up, though, as they won a pistol buy round with a saved AWP and a saved M4 defending A from the Polish offensive.

Once again G2 were unable to chain two rounds in a row, and were once again on an eco as Virtus.pro extended their lead to 6-2. Finally, G2 were able to get it together late in the half, winning five rounds in a row to take the lead, 7-6. The last two rounds saw Virtus.pro bring it back to a tie, and with full buys on both sides in the last round, it was ultimately Virtus.pro taking the lead thanks to a huge triple by Filip "⁠NEO⁠" Kubski on highway turning the tide of the round in favor of his team.

Once again Virtus.pro took the pistol round, and put up an 11-7 lead early in the second half, but G2 kept the match alive by winning the first gun round with a play in the B site that ended in a plant after Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon cleared it with two entries. G2 weren’t able to follow it up, though, and Virtus.pro quickly got a lead and built a solid economy. A quad-kill by Paweł "⁠byali⁠" Bieliński on A in the twenty third round gave the 15-8 lead and ruining G2’s economy and putting his team on the verge of the map win, and although G2 were able to win a force to get their ninth, a level headed play by Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas late in the following round killing two on the B site gave his team the victory in the first round.

pashaBiceps was crucial on VP’s win on Cache

G2 came out swinging on Virtus.pro’s pick, Nuke, winning the first five rounds on the defending side without skipping a beat. The Poles got on the board in the seventh round, and followed it up on the eighth with a play down secret and into the B site. Virtus.pro ended up planting on B once again, on a 3vs3, and a great triple by Jarosław "⁠pashaBiceps⁠" Jarząbkowski got his team back in it starting to dwindle G2’s money. However, the French side were able to win the following round thanks to a 1vs3 clutch by Nathan "⁠NBK-⁠" Schmitt around hut including a wallbang through squeaky.

Despite a slow start, Virtus.pro were able to bring it back to within one before the switch. They were unable to tie it up, though, as G2 took the pistol round with a play that led them to plant on the B site and properly defend the site. G2 brought it up to 11-7, but a late double by NEO on A in the first gun round to stop the French team’s advance got the Poles on the board in the second half. The French team were able to trade the following round, though, forcing Virtus.pro on an eco and starting to run away with the map. With 14-9 on the board, G2 called a timeout to get set ahead of the late rounds of the map.

A double by byali stopped G2 from taking secret in the twenty fifth round, keeping Virtus.pro’s dream of turning it around alive as they started to link rounds together. G2 got onto match point, 15-12, but were denied the victory by byali and TaZ as the former got a triple on A which TaZ finished off with the last frag and defused the bomb to keep the map going.The match made it all the way to the last round as Virtus.pro were able to bring it all the way to 15-14, but a forcebuy by G2 was enough as the French team as they took the B site and defended it to take it to a third map.

G2’s CT side mistakes and the inability to win pistols cost them the third map comeback

The last map, inferno, started out going the way of Virtus.pro as the Poles won the pistol round on the CT side with an ironclad A site defense. Down 0-3, G2 played a really late B execute which they were able to win after defending the plant. The French team wasn’t able to replicate the play the following round, though, as Virtus.pro stopped them on their way to B resetting G2’s economy and taking the 4-1 lead.

G2 were able to stay alive bringing it to 3-6 and forcing Virtus.pro on an eco. After almost losing to the eco, shox clutched a 1vs3 afterplant on A to keep his team on the Polish side’s wake. The Poles had another idea, however, as they took control of the following two rounds sweeping G2 to take a 9-4 lead, which they extended to 10-5 before the half.

Winning the second pistol round, a quick plant on A they defended against a four player retake, Virtus.pro could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Down 5-13, shox was able to get a triple as the Polish team tried to make it out of apartments and onto the A site, keeping their hopes alive at a comeback on the CT side.

Having gotten their economy stable, G2 started to win rounds in an attempt at a comeback, getting their tenth round when trailing 9-13 and forcing Virtus.pro on a forcebuy, but were unable to win it as Virtus.pro got an early frag and with two saved AKs wore G2 down until they could plant and defend the 2vs1 against NBK-. G2 had a big advantage to reset Virtus.pro in a 5vs3, but doubles by Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski and byali gave their team the map point, which they won the following round for a spot in the final.

EPICENTER 2017 Best of 3 G2 Matchpage 1 2 Virtus.pro 9 Cache 16 16 Nuke 14 10 Inferno 16