Sweden's Schroet Kommando takes out Team9 in CPL Championship Finals!
SK > Team9 13-8 (9-3; 4-5) :: HLTV demo
Mirror provided by Dathorn Internet Services
SK > Team9 13-8 (9-3; 4-5) :: HLTV demo
Mirror provided by Dathorn Internet Services
Schroet Kommando (line-up: Element, Potti, Heaton, fisker, ahl) took out Team9 (line-up: vesslan, XeqtR, Luciano, quick, Lucchese) in the all-Swedish CPL finals match (click here for a round-by-round recap). The match, played on Dust2, was largely one-sided in favor of the incredibly strong SK who got a decisive 9-3 lead on the first half as Terrorists. 9 managed to score five rounds in their Terrorist half, but it wasn't enough for victory as a play-of-the-game move by Potti stopped an A rush and dashed T9's hopes for the $60k.
Earlier in the day 9 won the lower bracket, and beat 3D.
Here are the final standings:
| Final Standings | Predictions |
|---|---|
| 1) SK - $60,000 2) Team9 - $42,000 3) 3D - $28,000 4) a-Losers.MSI - $18,000 5) Four Kings (4K) - $12,000 6) Echo7 - $10,000 7) RDW - $6,000 8) Forsaken - $4,000 9) TAU - $3,000 10) Gamers-X - $3,000 11) zEx - $3,000 12) Gamesimplex - $3,000 13) GBR Titans - $2,000 14) Good Game - $2,000 15) e2sports - $2,000 16) MIBR - $2,000 | rizzuh 1) Team9 2) zEx 3) SK 4) 3D sublyme 1) 3D 2) SK 3) zEx 4) Team9 |
Many shocking things happened at this CPL event, although it did lack a whole lot of upsets in general. zEx was probably the only major upset. Whereas I predicted them to place second in the world, they only managed to get placed into the 9-12 category (unranked). I--and many other esports fans--thought that zEx had learned how to dominate on LAN, but clearly they need some work as evidenced by their early double-OT match with J1N: A strong clan, but one that shouldn't be in zEx's league.
HLTV coverage was pretty average this time around, though I was able to see the finals. The CPLCast.com website coordinated all the scorebots and HLTV brilliantly and I must thank the CPL for that. I still think the CPL has ways to go until HLTV will be reliable for their events. Thankfully, TsN shoutcasted many great matches. The big HLTV bomb was dropped in the finals match where the CPL admins stopped HLTV before the delay had caught up to the thousands of spectators, so no one saw the final two rounds. That was idiotic (though you can find a full HLTV demo linked above).
And, finally, Europeans once again take center stage. Four of the top five teams are Euros, with America's 3D securing third place. Clearly America has not centralized its skill at this point. I have to admit that I was impressed with 3D, on the other hand. 3D has an odd thing of doing good in everything besides the CPL, and kicking into great when playing in Angel Munoz's domain. The same must be said for SK, whom I had no faith in as well. Team9 did excellent, but their money-based tactics did not work as well as they would have hoped. T9 and SK have very similar playing styles, and the major difference came down to personal skill in this reporter's opinion.
So, there you go. Depending on how you think about it, it's either another six months of Euro trash talk, or another six months of American preparation. It's becoming painfully clear that all of America's hopes cannot just rest on the shoulders of 3D. The U.S. needs more top CPL contenders: That means more skillful teams and a whole lot more patience for those on the Western side of the Atlantic.
And that wraps up CS-Nation's coverage of this CPL event. It took a very big effort, and a lot of colored text. We'll see you guys this Winter for the next CPL event!
. Ah well.. got a stroll through 56K memory lane anyway :)
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