【】-cs case free

FORZE was unable to step up to the task on home soil, losing the quarter-final series of EPICENTER to HEROIC, 2-0 (16-6 Mirage, 16-12 Nuke).

The seemingly unbalanced quarter-final draw was a result of FORZE overcoming Evil Geniuses in the final match of the group stage, but a different kind of FORZE showed up in the playoffs. HEROIC dominated the first halves of both Mirage and Nuke, which allowed them to close out the series and advance to the semi-final, where they will face Vitality.

The Danish side started 8-1 up on the CT side of Mirage, FORZE's map pick, as they fended off multiple 1vX attempts from the Russian side. FORZE then got their second round and followed it up by resolving a 2v2 afterplant on A in their favor, making the score 9-3. Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund had a big round in B apartments soon after that, helping his side close out the half dominantly, 12-3.

Dmitriy "⁠facecrack⁠" Alekseyev's two USP-S headshots started FORZE strong in the second-half pistol round, but doubles from Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller and Patrick "⁠es3tag⁠" Hansen turned it around, extending HEROIC's lead even further. FORZE managed to halt the Danes at 14-3, winning an eco round, which they followed up to make the score 14-6. Then, FORZE were looking good to continue their comeback attempt, but facecrack wasted too much time after taking down two players in the 1v2, resulting in HEROIC claiming the map shortly, 16-6.

Heroic silenced the crowd in Moscow with a resounding win over forZe

Bogdan "⁠xsepower⁠" Chernikov's triple with the AWP gave FORZE their first on the CT side of Nuke, but with three rounds before and three rounds after going HEROIC's way, the start of the map was similar to that of Mirage. Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer and co. were able to break into the bombsites with little issues, trading efficiently and holding down the afterplants. Johannes "⁠b0RUP⁠" Borup's 1v1 in round 13 just added insult to injury, seeing HEROIC claim a massive 12-3 lead after the offensive side.

FORZE had an even bigger mountain to climb in the second half of Nuke than they did on Mirage, and once again failed to claim the pistol, allowing the Danes to reach fourteen rounds. With good A explosions, the Russian side started streaking rounds together. Andrey "⁠Jerry⁠" Mekhryakov's team displayed a solid T-side on the map, but with no room for error, the map was claimed by HEROIC after a triple kill by cadiaN on the A bombsite.

EPICENTER 2019Best of 3 HEROIC

HEROIC

Matchpage 2 0 21st December 2019

FORZE 16Mirage 6 16Nuke 12

HEROIC	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Johannes 'b0RUP' Borupb0RUP	48 - 35	+13	88.8	1.35
Martin 'stavn' Lundstavn	38 - 31	+7	88.1	1.31
Casper 'cadiaN' MøllercadiaN	36 - 23	+13	69.8	1.24
Patrick 'es3tag' Hansenes3tag	31 - 28	+3	75.0	1.11
Marco 'Snappi' PfeifferSnappi	26 - 27	-1	64.4	0.96

FORZE	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Bogdan 'xsepower' Chernikovxsepower	30 - 31	-1	65.7	1.08
Dmitriy 'facecrack' Alekseyevfacecrack	35 - 41	-6	77.2	1.04
Almaz 'almazer' Asadullinalmazer	29 - 32	-3	66.3	0.91
Evgenii 'FL1T' LebedevFL1T	29 - 39	-10	70.8	0.83
Andrey 'Jerry' MekhryakovJerry	21 - 36	-15	46.5	0.72