Map 1: Cobble (C9 Wins 16-14)

The first map of the ESL ESEA Pro League Grand Finals was an extremely hard fought one, as Cloud9 went on to take down the European favorites, Fnatic, on Cobblestone to take a 1-0 series lead.

The map began with Cloud9 winning the pistol round and they followed that up with two anti-eco rounds to start off the series with a 3-0 lead. Their fantastic run on the Terrorist side continued with the scoreline blooming to a 5-2 advantage before Fnatic finally put their foot down to hold back the Americans. The half ended in a surprisingly close 8-7 scoreline, but the Europeans looked to have found their comfort zone.

The second half began with Cloud9 getting off to a blazing fast start. They took the first five rounds of the half and it propelled them into a commanding 12-8 lead. The Americans' aggressive pushes and holds resembled that of Fnatic's when the Europeans are excelling on the map and this forced Fnatic to finally call a tactical pause.

A couple of rounds later, Cloud9 had taken the Europeans' to match point but, that was when Fnatic's offense came to life. They went on to win five rounds straight but Cloud9's patient saves eventually won them the map on 30th round.

Map 2: Cache (Fnatic win 16-6)

Aside from FREAKAZ0ID’s amazing round, Fnatic came out of the gate looking scary. They took eight of the first nine rounds and immediately put Cloud9 in danger of getting blown out.

The several rounds Could9 edged out were few and far between as Fnatic took a 12-3 halftime lead. Fnatic’s economic control was absolutely crushing as Cloud9 never had any real chance to build on the few round wins they had in the half.

The second half started with Cloud9 winning the pistol round and the following anti-eco’s, but they were out-classed when Fnatic finally bought up. Fnatic went on to close out the map without giving up a single round after their first buy round, cruising to a 16-6 win.

Map 3: Overpass (Fnatic win 16-14)

The first couple of round on Overpass were extremely highly contested as they both teams traded literally round for round. Winning the pistol round meant nothing for Fnatic as they took too long to execute onto the A site and shroud absolutely demolished them with a sick triple kill.

One-for-one the map continued to swing back and forth until Cloud9 finally broke Fnatic’s economy in the seventh round; this gave them enough room to go on a five round spree and build up their own bank. With a decent amount of money, Cloud9’s arsenal of grenades secured them a respectable 9-6 scoreline into the second half.

Just like the first half, Fnatic won the pistol but Cloud9 came right back to win the next round. This time they carried this momentum into three more rounds and got out to a significant 13-7 lead.

Looking like the map was all but over, Fnatic finally got their second round of the half in round 21 then won the next round to break the Cloud9 economy. JW finally got his hands on an AWP and wreaked havoc for the North Americans.

With that, the momentum completely shifted in favor of the Swedish side and they closed out the map by winning nine of the last ten rounds en route to a 16-14 finish.

Map 4: Dust 2 (Fnatic win 19-15)

The map began with Fnatic once again winning the pistol round then shroud went huge to single-handedly win the next round.

The crazy solo performance by shroud forced Fnatic into a couple of eco rounds and Cloud9 transitioned this early momentum into a significant 8-1 lead. Any round Fnatic took in the first half was quickly countered with a round by Cloud9 and the Europeans were held off of any economic development.

The second half began with Cloud9 holding onto a significant 10-5 lead and they grew this lead by winning the first two rounds. Even as Fnatic rallied to take the next four rounds, the map looked to be in Cloud9’s favor and when they won three rounds straight, to bring it to match point this map looked to be over.

This is when the insanity began.

Down 15-9, Fnatic won two rounds straight before Cloud9 went into a buy round that looked impossible for the Swedes to win. flusha came up huge for his team as he secured four kills in the round to once again, break the Cloud9 economy.

Cloud9 patiently saved to try and take the 30th round but the Swedes were fully prepared to fight off the North Americans and two early kills for Olofmeister spelled the end of regulation.

Carrying their momentum into overtime, Fnatic just crushed their North American counterparts, winning four straight to close out the match.

With the win, Fnatic become the ESL ESEA Pro League Champions and take home the $100,000 USD first place prize.

Paul Park is a writer for theScore eSports. You can follow him on Twitter.