In what turned out to be one of the longest days in Intel Extreme Masters history, we went down from six remaining teams to the final two who would clash for the title. With TaZ, Neo and Pasha of Virtus.pro as well as Zeus and Edward of Natus Vincere, there were still former champions fighting for yet another World Championship title. Did they make it to the grand final? Our recap tells you how the third day in Katowice went down!

Quarterfinals

Starting off the day, it was Natus Vincere and Tempo Storm fighting to meet Luminosity in the semifinals. After a full set of 89 rounds and three maps, it was the experienced CIS team who put a stop to Tempo Storm’s impressive run at Intel Extreme Masters. HEN1 especially put on another great show, leaving fans looking forward to more great performances as these newcomers continue to hunt the legends.

In the second quarterfinal, two teams with Intel Extreme Masters titles to their names met for the chance to fight Astralis. Despite being in front of their home crowd, Virtus.pro didn’t find the right moves to stop Fnatic. With 16-5 on Train and 16-8 on Inferno, the Swedes did their best to work towards the second Intel Extreme Masters trophy for their organization following their 2009 win while fielding f0rest, GeT_RiGhT and more.

Results

Natus Vincere vs. Tempo Storm - 2-1

vs. Tempo Storm - 2-1 Fnatic vs. Virtus.pro - 2-0

Semifinals

In the first semifinal, Luminosity once more underlined the fact that they are on their way to the top. While it took two overtimes on Overpass for them to score the first map against Natus Vincere, Inferno saw them scoring a solid nine rounds starting as T. Moving onto a solid defensive play, FalleN and his mates crushed Edwards and Zeus’s dreams of another Intel Extreme Masters World Championship title, taking the match to 2-0 in their favor.

Fnatic and Astralis had three very different maps to play. On Overpass it was olofmeister and his team taking the lead early on, letting Astralis score just six rounds before scoring the final sixteenth round. On Cache, however, it was more of a close match that saw Astralis coming back from a 5-10 at halftime, turning this into 16-12 in their favor and taking the match to the third and final map. On Inferno it was once again Fnatic building up a lead starting as CT, winning their game with a strong defense and offense by 16-7 and moving on to yet another grand final after adding dennis to their team.

Results

Luminosity Gaming vs. Natus Vincere - 2-0

vs. Natus Vincere - 2-0 Fnatic vs. Astralis - 2-1

The grand final’s almost here!

Today the grand final will see Luminosity Gaming and Fnatic face off for the lion’s share of the US$250,000 prize pool as well as the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship trophy - make sure you’re watching from 18:00 CET!

For all the latest updates about the event, head over to the the official Intel Extreme Masters site and make sure you’re following ESL Counter-Strike on Twitter and Facebook.

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