ESL Pro League Season 3 Finals - Semi-Finals Recap

Luminosity Gaming vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas - 13:2, 3:2 (16: 4); 5:10, 3:6 (8:16); 10:5, 6:5 (16:10)

Winner: Luminosity Gaming

Maps: de_Overpass, de_Dust2, de_Cobblestone

MVP: Lincoln "fnx" Lau

Starting today was a semi-final best-of-three between the two number one ranked teams in their respective regions. The first game was on Overpass where Luminosity looked like the team who won the last major. The first half was dominated by the Brazilians. Only on the second round the Brazilians set the pace for the game after FNX got an anti-eco ace. After that play luminosity never looked back and closed out the first half with a commanding (13:2) lead. NIP took the following pistol and the second round anti-eco but lost the third and the momentum. Luminosity never looked back after that and closed out the game (16:4).

The second game was opposite of the first with NiP dominating the first half of Dust 2, near the end of the first half the Brazilians staged a mini comeback to bring the game a little closer. On the first round of the second half, it looked like Luminosity would take the round but Xizt had other ideas. With only 12 hp he secured a 1v3 clutch to give NIP the round. After dropping 3 rounds, NIP took the next few to close out the game (8:16).

The third and deciding game of the series was on Cobblestone and started with the Luminosity on the T-side and NIP as the CTs. On round 12 Get_Right landed 3 headshots on Luminosity including two that came during a 1v2 clutch. The best part, they all came via Mag 7. That (5:7) and would prove to be the last round the Swedes would take in the first half. Luminosity took the first 5 rounds of the second half to put them up (15:5) however when NIP’s back was against the wall they fought back and were able to secure On round 24 it came down to a 1v2 clutch. Get Right was able to delay long enough that even though he died the bomb exploded securing NIP the round and allowing to fight for a little longer. However by round 26 the game was over as Luminosity won a 3v2 at the B bombsite to close out the game (16-10) and the match (2:1).

G2 eSports vs. Fnatic - 2:13, 14:1 (16:14); 4:11, 4:5 (8:16); 6:9, 6:7 (12:16)

Winner: G2 eSports

Maps: de_Inferno, de_Cache, de_Train

MVP: Richard "shox" Papillon

This first map between G2 and Fnatic was utter domination by G2 through the first 10 rounds, on round 9 the closest Fnatic came to winning a round in the first 11 rounds. It came down to a 1v1 duel that Flusha had the advantage in. In an act of desperation, Scream threw a smoke and went for the defuse. Flusha sprayed through and missed all his bullets as Scream defused the bomb to preserve the perfect streak. However on round 12 Fnatic finally took a round. After dropping two rounds G2 stopped what little momentum Fnatic had. After a dominant CT- side the half ended (2:13) in favour of the French. After a horrible first half, Fnatic finally woke up as they took 8 straight rounds to start the second half before dropping round 24. Even that minor setback could not stop the Fnatic comeback as they took the next round and reset the French economy. After that Fnatic took two more rounds to take all of the following; the half (14:1), the map (16:14) and all of NIP’s magic.



On the second map which was Cache G2 aimed to bounce back after their collapse and they did that by securing the opening pistol as the Counter-Terrorists. Again G2 had a dominating first half as they won it (4:11). Following the same storyline as the first map, Fnatic started to stage a comeback thanks to an insane pistol ace by Dennis. G2 However were having none of it and stopped the comeback after Fnatic managed to bring their total rounds up to 8. With G2 only one round away from match point Fnatic called a timeout with hopes of preventing G2 from closing the map out. The timeout didn’t pay immediate dividends as G2 kept their momentum and got the game to match point where they promptly took the game (8:16)

Train which was the third map started eerily similar to the first two maps in this series with G2 taking 8 rounds without dropping one. Fnatic’s time finally came after two G2 players rushed through a smoke and were taken down by JW leaving Fnatic with a 5v3 that they converted into a round. After winning that round Fnatic won the next 4. They then lost and then won the next round, to finish the half (6:9). The second half started with Fnatic winning the pistol but losing the anti-eco that came next. With all the momentum G2 only quickly got up to 14 rounds while dropping only one in the process. On round 26 down (11:14) Fnatic completed an amazing 3v5 retake on A. Rebounding from that round G2 won the next round to take the series to match point and wasted no time closing out the game to the tune of a (12:16) score.



The finals take place tomorrow at 12:00 pm EST between G2 and Luminosity.

Images courtesy of @rojphotographer

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