Last night the conclusion of the Gfinity UK Championship took place in the Gfinity Arena in London. This event has seen teams battle it out over the last few months and it all came down to this; EZSkins, who were the favourites for the night, and Team Infused, arguably the team that most deserved the other spot in this final. Both have progressed through the tournament without dropping a single map to be in London to fight for the £2,500 first place prize.

Infused took an early lead in this best of 5 series, narrowly winning their map choice of Train in a nail-biting 16-14 game. EZSkins were fighting from behind the whole map and never gave up. This can no doubt be due to wisdom and experience CS veterans like Sam “RattlesnK” Gawn and the new addition George “HudzG” Hoskins bring to team.

Hungry to dethrone the dubbed “UK super team“, Infused kept the pressure up going into EZSkins’ first maps choice of Cache. A solid 10-5 lock-down on CT saw Infused get themselves into a great position to secure a second map in this best of 5, 16-7, and put themselves just one map away from walking away with the Gfinity UK Championship title.

Going into map 3 EZSkins had it all to play for. They were 2-0 down in maps and going into Team Infused’s second map choice, Mirage. In almost a reverse of Cache, EZSkins came out the gates fighting and took a dominant lead on Mirage and Infused found themselves coming from behind at half time for the first time in this series. Without the motivation and security of a half time lead, Infused’s play started to fall apart and even the energetic motivation from team manager Neil “NeilM” Murphy couldn’t get them back on track, and they lost their first map 16-9.

Despite having a comfortable win under their belt, EZSkins were still only one map away from going home with second place but they were heading into their second map choice of the evening, Inferno. Once again EZSkins dominated the first half, leaving Infused with an uphill fight on their hands and only 4 rounds on the scoreboard. Much like Mirage, Infused failed to find their motivation after a half time defeat and lost Inferno 16-7 taking this best of 5 series to the fifth and final map, Overpass.

By this point EZSkins had the motivation that Team Infused started this series off with, off the back of two solid wins. Either Overpass wasn’t Team Infused’s map, or the tiredness had started to creep in but we saw the heaviest half time defeat of the series in this final map, 12-3 to EZSkins. Infused’s Gfinity journey ended there as their didn’t get another point on the board and EZSkins took the map 16-3 winning the Gfinity UK Qualifier 3-2.

Final Standings:

1st EZSkins – £2,500

2nd Team Infused – £1,500

3rd/4th CAZ eSports/Choke Gaming – £500