ALTERNATE aTTaX emerged victorious from the ESWC final after beating the local favorites LDLC in three maps to take the bulk of the $75,000 prize pool.

The home team’s Dust2 was up first, with LDLC taking the CT side in the first half. Flying out of the gate, Kévin "⁠Ex6TenZ⁠" Droolans’s team took the pistol round as well as the first buy round, establishing a quick and early five round lead. The German squad were quick to retaliate, though, taking the following four rounds after breaking the CT economy to crawl back into it and get within one. With the momentum on their side, and on the oft-preferred terrorist side, ALTERNATE aTTaX racked up a few more to take the half 8 – 7.

The B site was the one chosen by LDLC, who pushed their way in and planted the bomb, but down 2 vs. 4 were unable to stop ALTERNATE aTTaX’s blitzkrieg on the retake. Another play on B in an eco which should have under no circumstances go to the French-Belgian-British team, went their way as Alex "⁠ALEX⁠" McMeekin found himself with four P250 kills by the end of the ordeal. In the end ALTERNATE aTTaX ended up bouncing back and putting up the wall, stopping LDLC and winning most of the tight clutches for a 16 – 11 win.



The trophy for the winner of this match-up

Again LDLC were first out of the gate, with a fast B take on Cobblestone in the pistol round followed by some eco bashes. After a round win by ALTERNATE aTTaX and the following reset by LDLC, the francophone team started to build a healthy lead, 5 – 1. With 7 – 3 on the scoreboard for LDLC, things were looking peachy as ALTERNATE aTTaX were constantly running into paper problems, which ended with LDLC taking 11 before the half.

Another pistol round secured by LDLC started to make it look like a third map would be necessary to resolve this ESWC final. Indeed, LDLC won four out of five rounds in the second half to finish 16 – 5 and secure a third map.



ALTERNATE aTTaX emerge victorious after three maps

Cache was to be the deciding match of the ESWC final, and Kevin "⁠keev⁠" Bartholomäus the player to win a 2 vs. 1 clutch situation and put his team up ahead after the pistol round. The map, which has been a good map for ALTERNATE aTTaX lately, started as planned for the German team, who started racking up rounds led in frags by their star AWPer, keev. After winning the five first rounds, LDLC and ALTERNATE aTTaX traded rounds as both teams adapted and struggled counting nickels and dimes until ALTERNATE aTTaX got the reigns of the half back closing it out 11 – 4.

LDLC came out ready to put up a fight winning the pistol round with Valentin "⁠mistou⁠" Balbastro coming out big with three P2000 headshots, but a 1 vs. 2 afterplant clutch by keev on the second round killed LDLC’s economy and put them in a very complicated situation. Mistakes by ALTERNATE aTTaX on A, allowing LDLC to play the close angles effectively meant Antoine "⁠to1nou⁠" Pirard’s triple with a five-seven would launch LDLC back in it, but still with a very long way to go at 7 – 12.

It was finally ALTERNATE aTTaX’s match to take, as the German team managed to keep LDLC at bay and close out the map 16 – 13 in one of many forcebuys.

