SK Gaming

The second semi-final of the IEM V European Championship Finals proved to be every bit as epic as one could have hoped for given the calibre of the two teams competing:

mTw and

Frag eXecutors . At the end of one of the classic rivalries of modern day CS it was the Danes from mTw who progressed to the final, on the last round of the third map no less!

mTw 21:19

Frag eXecutors (nuke - T 9:6, CT 6:9, OT - 2:3, 4:1)

mTw 14:16

Frag eXecutors (train - CT 10:5, T 4:11)

mTw 16:14

Frag eXecutors (inferno - CT 7:8, T 9:6)

The first two maps saw mTw the team to jump out to leads, with FX forced to play catch up the whole way pretty much. That the Poles did though as they always managed to keep pace, even if they were a few rounds behind, winning when the pressure was on them. On nuke mTw took the first battle in the war as after FX looked resurgent it was the Danes who took the map in the overtime. On the second map FX put on their own pressure performance to just squeeze past the finish line and knot the series at one map apiece.

Both teams were fired up the whole way through as they shouted to each other each time one won or lost a clutch round. The breaks between maps, and sometimes halves, were the only respite from an intense fight to the death between the Danish and Polish sides who have plenty of titles on their resumes.

The third map was set to be a nail-biter the whole way as FX faced an inferno which has troubled them for a while but which they said before this series they had been practicing a lot since they expected teams to see them throwing it. Practice seemed to have paid off as this time FX did what they had been unable to the previous two maps and became firm frontrunners. Getting up to 8:2 their Terrorist half was rolling and they had players getting multi-entry kills to break open sites over and over. Then mTw locked down their defensive game though and the Danes took the remaining five rounds straight to finish the half down only a round.

FX didn't seem too phased as they sprang back out to the lead, getting up to 12 rounds while mTw still remained on seven. This was not a series which would see anyone blowing the other away without answer though. mTw became successfully taking over the sites and FX proved unable to pull off retakes time and time again. Still the game wasn't out of sight for the Polish legends as they found themselves at 14:14 with a chance to play for all the marbles. As the tension was ratcheted up to the highest level mTw prevailed and FX were left to curse missed opportunities and running into a team capable of winning key clutch rounds to stay in games and then win them.

mTw's winning moment of celebration:

Go to Video

mTw will face

Fnatic in the final of the IEM V European Championship at 16:20 CET on Sunday the 23rd.

Thorin

@Thooorin on twitter.
http://www.facebook.com/Thooorin

Esports journalism

Professional:
2001-2002 Pro-cybernews (Editor-in-Chief)
2002-2003 Gamers.nu (Lead Editor)
2004-2005 ESportsEA (Editor-in-Chief, Consultant)
2006-2008 ESportsEA (Editor, Community feature host)
2008 TAO-CS volume 1 (Co-author)
2008 TAO-fRoD (Co-author)
2008-2009 WinOut.net (Editor-in-Chief, Consultant)
2009-2012 SK Gaming (Editor-in-Chief)
2012-2013 Team Acer (Editor-in-Chief)
2013-2014 OnGamers (Senior eSports Content Creator)

Pro bono publico:
2001-2002 XSReality (Site administrator)
2003-2004 Team3D (Editor-in-Chief, Consultant)
2012-2013 fragbite (Blogger)
2013-XXXX [POD]Cast (Co-host)

CS movies:
2005 Down with the s1ckn3ss
2006 T01_natu
2009 fRoD Quick and nasty (part 1)

Events attended for coverage purposes:
2001 CPL London (Pro-cybernews)
2001 WCG Qualifier (Pro-cybernews)
2002 CPL Summer (Gamers.nu)
2002 WCG Qualifier (Gamers.nu)
2002 CPL Oslo (Gamers.nu)
2002 CPL Winter (Gamers.nu)
2003 CPL Cannes (Gamers.nu)
2003 Clikarena (Gamers.nu)
2004 CPL Winter (ESportsEA)
2009 WEM (SK Gaming)
2010 IEM IV European Championship (SK Gaming)
2010 IEM IV World Championship (SK Gaming)
2010 Arbalet Best of Four (SK Gaming)
2010 Arbalet Cup Europe (SK Gaming)
2010 e-Stars Seoul (SK Gaming)
2010 WCG (SK Gaming)
2010 WEM (SK Gaming)
2011 IEM V European Championship (SK Gaming)
2011 Assembly Winter (SK Gaming)
2011 IEM V World Championship (SK Gaming)
2011 Copenhagen Games (SK Gaming)
2011 Dreamhack Summer (SK Gaming)
2011 SK vs. FX showmatch (SK Gaming)
2011 e-Stars Seoul (SK Gaming)
2011 ESWC (SK Gaming)
2012 IEM VI Kiev (SK Gaming)
2012 IEM VI World Championship (SK Gaming)
2012 WCS Europe (Team Acer)
2012 Dreamhack Open Valencia (Team Acer)
2012 Dreamhack Winter (Team Acer)
2012 IPL5 (Team Acer)
2012 HomeStory Cup VI (Team Acer)
2013 IEM VII World Championship (Team Acer)
2013 MLG Winter Championship (Team Acer)
2013 LCS Europe Spring Week 10 (Team Acer)
2013 WCS EU S1 Ro16 (Team Acer)
2013 LCS Europe Summer Week 9 (Team Acer)
2013 WCS EU S2 final / LCS Europe Summer playoffs (Team Acer)
2013 Riot S3 World Championship (Team Acer)
2013 Battle of the Atlantic (OnGamers)
2013 Battle of the Atlantic (OnGamers)
2014 LCS Europe Spring Week 5 (OnGamers)

Esports commentary/analysis

Professional:
2010 IEM IV European Championship (ESL-TV)
2010 IEM IV Asian Finals (ESL-TV)
2010 IEM IV World Championship (ESL-TV)
2010 IEM V Shanghai (ESL-TV)
2011 ESEA-invite S8 (WinOut)
2011 GameGune (WinOut)
2011 SEC (WinOut)
2013 Dreamhack SteelSeries CS:GO Championship (DH-TV)
2014 Dreamhack Steelseries CS:GO Invitational (DH-TV)
2014 Dreamhack Summer (DH-TV)
2014 Gfinity G3
2014 Dreamhack Stockholm CS:GO Invitational (DH-TV)

Pro bono publico:
2010 ESWC (lvl^)
2010 Arbalet Cup Dallas (lvl^)
2010 GameGune (lvl^)
2010 fnatic PLAY (lvl^)
2010 WCG Nordic (SK Gaming)
2011 Dreamhack Winter BEAT IT (whisenhunt)
2011 EPS Winter (whisenhunt/ESL-TV)
2011 WCG (whisenhunt)
2011 IEM VI Kiev EU qualifier (SK Gaming)
2013 FACEIT Sunday Cup April 28th (FACEIT)
2013 Prague Challenge (District)
2013 FACEIT Sunday Cup September 8th (FACEIT)
2013 FACEIT Monday Cup September 9th (FACEIT)
2014 ESEA Invite S15 LAN finals (NiPTV)

Miscellaneous:
* Winner of the Heaven Media 'E-sports Journalist of the year' awards for 2012 and 2013.