QuakeLive
Day three of the IEM IV European Finals playoff bracket saw the most important games of the tournament, with six qualification spots for the world finals in CeBIT up for grabs. Those who won their quarter finals advanced immediately into the top six while the losers had to duel against each other to take the last two places.
Benjamin 'calipt' Jakob couldn't continue his fairytale story as he bowed out to Alexei 'Cypher' Yanushevsky. Initially calipt looked promising on ztn, although he always missed out on mega, as he managed to pick at Cypher grabbing the odd kill and narrowly lost out 8-6. From thereon however Cypher dominated the following two maps, timing armours perfectly and consistently fragging without dropping too much health.
Kevin 'Strenx' Baeza strolled past his quarter final opponent, Alessandro 'stermy' Avallone, in three games. Strenx knew of Stermy's efficient rail usage and restricted it to the max on dm6 and eased the first win into his pocket 6-1. ztn was a lot closer, despite Stermy being hammered 26-1 on it yesterday by fox, as Strenx faced an uphill climb after a huge momentum change benefited Stermy following an impressive mid-air rail halfway through the game at red armour. A close 9-7 win simply urged on Strenx, who was "fearing [Stermy's] aim," as he dominated dm13 15-0 to comfortably advance to Sunday's semi-finals.
Anton 'Cooller' Singov took down Magnus 'fox' Olsson in a hotly-contested five-game series and both players put on a considerable display of skill and determination in their attempts to take a qualification spot. The first two games were heavily one-sided in both players' favour, and it took the third game on dm13 to bring out a closer encounter. fox went 9-0 up and Cooller began what would've been an awesome comeback, but couldn't find the right opportunities to attack the defensive Swede who maintained composure to take the map 10-7.
On the back foot and facing an unexpected loss Cooller found a railgun on dm6 and consistently put it to use, and before he and everyone else knew he won 10-0. At 2-2 in maps and ztn as a decider both mouz players jumped in and the gravity of the situation began to show when approaching half time: the score was only 1-1. Cooller again suddenly woke up and scored four quick frags, knowing victory was in his grasp. The map ended 10-4 in the Russian's favour and the series 3-2 overall.
The final two maps, dm6 and t7, played out in favour of av3k as he patrolled the map and powerups with no real problems, overcoming his previous frustrations. In the interview after the game av3k told of his judgemental problems regarding whether he should've attacked k1llsen in certain situations or not: "If you think about attacking, you've already lost."
With the four assured European qualifiers, av3k, Cooller, Cypher and Strenx, the remaining four hopefuls played their games to snatch the last two places the hard way.
fox had one more shot at the top six following his impressive match versus Cooller, against an agitated k1llsen. Throughout the game the pair exchanged frags and when conceding an uneccessary death k1llsen expressed his anger physically, which eventually let him down. A brilliant first map win wasn't enough to cover k1llsen's frustration who often found himself only a frag or two behind before dropping concentration and losing focus, taking him out of the game. He lost 3-1.
IEM IV European Quake Live finalists:
Maciek 'av3k' Krzykowski
Anton 'Cooller' Singov
Alexei 'Cypher' Yanushevsky
Magnus 'fox' Olsson
Alessandro 'stermy' Avallone
Kevin 'Strenx' Baeza
The semi-finals begin tomorrow at midday CET on ESL TV. Keep track of the bracket via our coverage page.
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Picture credit: ESL World
Benjamin 'calipt' Jakob couldn't continue his fairytale story as he bowed out to Alexei 'Cypher' Yanushevsky. Initially calipt looked promising on ztn, although he always missed out on mega, as he managed to pick at Cypher grabbing the odd kill and narrowly lost out 8-6. From thereon however Cypher dominated the following two maps, timing armours perfectly and consistently fragging without dropping too much health.
Kevin 'Strenx' Baeza strolled past his quarter final opponent, Alessandro 'stermy' Avallone, in three games. Strenx knew of Stermy's efficient rail usage and restricted it to the max on dm6 and eased the first win into his pocket 6-1. ztn was a lot closer, despite Stermy being hammered 26-1 on it yesterday by fox, as Strenx faced an uphill climb after a huge momentum change benefited Stermy following an impressive mid-air rail halfway through the game at red armour. A close 9-7 win simply urged on Strenx, who was "fearing [Stermy's] aim," as he dominated dm13 15-0 to comfortably advance to Sunday's semi-finals.
Anton 'Cooller' Singov took down Magnus 'fox' Olsson in a hotly-contested five-game series and both players put on a considerable display of skill and determination in their attempts to take a qualification spot. The first two games were heavily one-sided in both players' favour, and it took the third game on dm13 to bring out a closer encounter. fox went 9-0 up and Cooller began what would've been an awesome comeback, but couldn't find the right opportunities to attack the defensive Swede who maintained composure to take the map 10-7.
On the back foot and facing an unexpected loss Cooller found a railgun on dm6 and consistently put it to use, and before he and everyone else knew he won 10-0. At 2-2 in maps and ztn as a decider both mouz players jumped in and the gravity of the situation began to show when approaching half time: the score was only 1-1. Cooller again suddenly woke up and scored four quick frags, knowing victory was in his grasp. The map ended 10-4 in the Russian's favour and the series 3-2 overall.
"If you think about attacking - if you should or not - you've already lost."
The last semi-final, between Maciej 'av3k' Krzykowski and Marcel 'k1llsen' Paul, was perhaps the closest despite av3k's 3-1 win. The Pole won ztn confidently 9-1 but slumped to a 13-4 loss on dm13 and didn't look like he was in the game. t9 only added to his frustration as k1llsen began repeatedly jumping through a teleporter, angering the Serious player, and again lost but only by two kills.The final two maps, dm6 and t7, played out in favour of av3k as he patrolled the map and powerups with no real problems, overcoming his previous frustrations. In the interview after the game av3k told of his judgemental problems regarding whether he should've attacked k1llsen in certain situations or not: "If you think about attacking, you've already lost."
With the four assured European qualifiers, av3k, Cooller, Cypher and Strenx, the remaining four hopefuls played their games to snatch the last two places the hard way.
"Happy enough? Yes. I came here to qualify for the world championship."
Stermy faced calipt and the German went ahead in all three of their games but couldn't hold his lead for any of them. He made it a lot more difficult for Stermy than he will have wanted it to be, but was overpowered in the mid-to-late stages of the matches. calipt remained optimistic in the post-game interview, saying how he was happy to get to where he had, while Stermy was relieved to have achieved his aim of qualifying.fox had one more shot at the top six following his impressive match versus Cooller, against an agitated k1llsen. Throughout the game the pair exchanged frags and when conceding an uneccessary death k1llsen expressed his anger physically, which eventually let him down. A brilliant first map win wasn't enough to cover k1llsen's frustration who often found himself only a frag or two behind before dropping concentration and losing focus, taking him out of the game. He lost 3-1.
IEM IV European Quake Live finalists:
Maciek 'av3k' Krzykowski
Anton 'Cooller' Singov
Alexei 'Cypher' Yanushevsky
Magnus 'fox' Olsson
Alessandro 'stermy' Avallone
Kevin 'Strenx' Baeza
The semi-finals begin tomorrow at midday CET on ESL TV. Keep track of the bracket via our coverage page.
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Picture credit: ESL World
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