We have reached the grand final of the ninth official Counter-Strike: Global Offensive major tournament in Cologne, Germany. After a spectacular best-of-three series against the Polish veterans, we are now waiting for the second semi-final match between the Swedish giant Fnatic and the North American Team Liquid to end.

This is our team's second consecutive major final. The previous one was during the $1,000,000 MLG Columbus 2016 challenge, which the Brazilians won over Na'Vi.

The opening map of the best-of-three series against Virtus.pro was our pick, Cobblestone. As usual we managed to take the pistol round, albeit narrowly, once again thanks to Fernando 'fer' Alvarenga, who has been outstanding in pistol rounds during the entire tournament. Two rounds after, the Poles scored the first weapon round via timeout, but without any survivors after the end of the round. The Counter-Strike veteran Wiktor 'TaZ' Wojtas secured two important back to back rounds with total of nine kills and allowed his team to take lead. SK Gaming managed to win the 10th round flawlessly, but VP were able take control again and won the next three rounds to end the half 9-6 in their favor.

We secured the second pistol round as well and this time also the following first of the half weapon round. After winning five rounds in a row, Jarosław 'pasha' Jarząbkowski broke our winning streak on an economic round. Similar to TaZ's earlier performance, Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo won two back to back rounds with total of eight frags with the AWP and secured map point. Unfortunately, the Polish legend Filip 'NEO' Kubski was able to clutch one-on-two situation in the last round and forced overtime.

The first round of the overtime went to the Polish team, as we saw Janusz 'Snax' Pogorzelski winning another one-on-one situation against Marcelo 'coldzera' David. However, disappointed of the outcome of the previous round, coldzera came up with a beautiful ace during the next one. Despite winning the first round of the second half of the overtime too, NEO once more managed to clutch a round for his team and take the first map of the series with two rounds on top of us. This map was the first ever that we failed to close in our favor during the tournament so far.

The second map was Nuke chosen by the Polish side of Virtus.pro. For the third time in the series, SK Gaming won the all important, especially on this map, pistol round. This secured us initial five rounds lead. VP won the 6th round, but the Brazilians once again turned the tide in their favor and scored a team ace on the 7th round, resetting Virtus.pro's economy. Several rounds exchanged afterwards, but in the end FalleN's four frags during the 14th round with the AWP delivered twelve rounds in total in our scoreboard.

Virtus.pro won the pistol round of the second half, but we managed to catch the Poles off guard and win a latter economic round. SK Gaming secured the last round of the map in a four-on-one situation, winning it 16-5 and delivering the third and deciding map.

The last map of the match was randomly drawn and luckily happened to be Mirage, on which both teams have outstanding records. Once again we scored the pistol round, but this time VP were prepared and seized seven rounds in a row soon after. Epitácio 'TACO' de Melo Filho won the 11th round for SK Gaming, but Virtus.pro continued to outfrag us and won the first half 9-6.

Our defensive side was by far more successful, as we managed to take the pistol round and the following five rounds almost without any casualties as well. Lincoln 'fnx' Lau kept SK Gaming moving forward in the right direction almost during the entire second half. Pasha, or known among the fans as "Papa Biceps", was on the verge to win the most valuable round in the entire tournament, as he managed to sneak throughout CT spawn and backstab two in a one-on-three situation, but fer was able to take him down on the way to bombsite A. Ever since this round, Virtus.pro were unable to come back and lost the third and final map 12-16 against the Brazilian powerhouse.


Our Brazilians are one step closer to be crowned as two times world champions in the discipline of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive! SK Gaming will face either Fnatic or Team Liquid tomorrow, 10th of July, at 17:00 CEST, in this final ride.

Update: Our opponent for the grand final has been decided and it will be North America's Team Liquid!

More updates from the ESL One Cologne 2016 event are coming soon. Stay tuned.