SK Gaming

After clashing in the group-stage yesterday afternoon,

Virtus.pro once again met face to face, this time within the semi-finals however. With much more at stake this time around, Moscow Five stepped up their game dramatically and as a result were able to conquer Virtus.Pro, defeating them on de_inferno with a score of 16:12 and de_train with a score of 16:13 in order to proceed to the grand finals.

Strangely enough however, it looks like Moscow Five are fighting for more than just the $5,000 first place prize now however. After losing to Virtus.Pro yesterday afternoon, the team sponsors threatened to withdraw the teams July salary unless they stepped up their game. Bellow is a statement given to HLTV.org from Moscow Five team manager Dmitryi "ddd1ms" Smelyi explaining the situation:

"For losing to Virtus.pro my team will not get any salary this month. I say that. They will need to earn the money in this championship by themselves if they don't want to die from starvation. Virtus.pro guys have done a good job, they have prepared well for the game against M5."

Moscow Five will now face off against

SK Gaming in the grand finals of the ICSC8. SK Gaming hae yet to drop a map throughout the LAN finals and have so far defeated the likes of

Frag eXecutors and

KerchNET this weekend.

Moscow Five vs

SK Gaming - hltv1.verygames.net:27050

Frag eXecutors and Virtus.pro will also be facing off against each other in the battle for third place where a $2,000 prize will be awarded to the winning team.

Frag eXecutors vs Virtus.pro - hltv1.verygames.net:27052