Arguably the most intense and most interesting Semi-Final of the two, Team YoYoTech met up with the REGret eSports in a match that would determine who would still be in the running for gold and who would have to settle with bronze at best.

Both teams have proven that they can tend towards the more unstable LAN performance, Team YoYoTech having had problems maintaining their form throughout the Outpost on Fire 4 tournament last week and REGret eSports dropped the ball in the Group Stage and had problems versus Immortal eSports they thought they would not have.

So when both of them met up for the second time, this time on maps they had free control over, it would be more a battle of wits and keeping up the motivation rather than a simple show of who is better or stronger. Team YoYoTech felt confident, after watching the Immortal - REGret match earlier, that they had what it takes to pick mp_citystreets against them and REGret eSports preferred to go with mp_crash over their earlier mp_backlot.

mp_citystreets

A closer match than this, when looking at rounds won and lost, cannot be found quickly and both teams were hoping to at some point in the match take contorl of the map and run away with it. Yet it never happened, both teams had players who were struggling and players who were keeping their team in the game. So at any given moment in the match, the momentum was able to shift and that would be perilous for the opposite five players.

Team YoYoTech started on attack and were hoping to storm out of the gate and catch REGret eSports by surprise. Yet, the Swedes have learned how to cope with that, after a similarly aggressive Immoratl eSports overran them in the first map of the day. So they anticipated the early B push quite well and kept control of mid. First round in favour of REGret eSports.

But as would be the heart of this map, Team YoYoTech quickly bounced back and when saruz pushed through mid and took down four, whilst being in a 2on3, the teams were equal for the first, but definitely not the last time. Although they kept trading, it was always Team YoYoTech who managed to come in front first and would then lose the following round. Perhaps never having to trail had its own advantage?

To no one's surprise, the game was tied at halftime and when REGret eSports then moved over to the attacking side, the pace of the game remained similar. The gap between them got increased by a slight bit and it was REGret eSports who became the leading team in the 2nd half, even managing to hit the double figures before YoYoTech. Especially saruz stepped up his game from some of the earlier matches, being aggressive on the defense by pushing over the market and awaiting the REGret eSports push out of B alley. This tactic was semi-successful. When it worked, it meant that YoYoTech had the round in the bag, as he seemed to not give up his position there. When it failed, it usually meant that REGret had an unhindered entrance into B, as saruz was the only B defender in that strategy.

However, REGret eSports' mistake was not noticing when saruz was doing this strategy. There was not a lot of variety in the defensive strategies by Team YoYoTech and even though they kept doing the mid push, it was still allowed to work towards the latter rounds, whereas they were expected to have adapted to it and prevent saruz from reaching the catwalk bin at wooden.

When they couldn't, it was no surprise that Team YoYoTech had closed the gap and even hit match point, going up against the trend of the 2nd half. However, with the final round determining either a win for YYT or a draw and overtime possibilities for REGret eSports, it all came down to saruz again. He had successfully done his push again, but the rest of his team had lost their footing on A and he was forced in a 1on2. He walked down towards A and caught a Swede on the stairs, at the right timing. He only managed to tag him, but lost no momentum when he heard the plant was being made and he took tidde down before the bomb got placed. Waiting very patiently for the final REGret eSports player to come for the bomb, he won the round and secured his team the first map win and a leg up in this Best-of-Three.

mp_crash

The expected smoke break ensued and the map already changed to mp_crash in the mean time. I personally was expecting an even closer game than the mp_citystreets one, having seen that the Swedes were really controlled and prepared in their Quarter Final, at the same time keeping a good amount of flexibility in their play to quickly adapt.

But what I did not account for, was the fact that rEplan could shift into another gear. He simply became unleashed on this map and was never to be seen, but always making the frags. The one round where he made the advanced jump on the Crash defenders spawn roof to guard A was so successful, that he took four Swedes down who all wanted to plant the bomb and single-handedly won that round.

Lest you think it was only down to rEplan, k1mi put in his fair share of effort as well and his AK work proved very effective and together with rEplan, they became the duo of death for Team YoYoTech. The beginning rounds with Team YoYoTech on defense seemed to point towards a mp_citystreets-like game pace, but once fekuj and saruz worked the kinks in their A building defense out, they just started getting round after round and only had to concede three on the entire defensive side.

In the first round of the attacking Finnish side, rEplan was quickly down alone and had nowhere to go. He was faced with four REGret eSports players and only one minute of play left. In a weird series of events, coupled with some insane shots, he managed to take down two at once and then very patiently take his time to move through the map. He then found another Swede lying around and even managed to plant the bomb at B. Then he made another walk over B long, through link to the sand bag garden and finished tidde off without any problem.

With only a handful of rounds needed for the Finns and a dozen for the Swedes, it would really be a Herculean task, should they pull off the comeback. But once again, rEplan and k1mi did not want to slow things down and not create the opportunity for the REGret eSports side to come back into this match. The final round was then quickly decided for Team YoYoTech and a final score of 13 : 04 sent the Swedes packing.

Although the score of the 2nd map was not quite indicative of how close the match was played and felt like from a spectator's point of view, it does mean that the Swedes will only be able to play the match for 3rd/4th place and walk away with a very minimal prize. However, in all respects, they should be pleased with how they have done so far.

Team YoYoTech are even more quickly becoming the tournament favourite with their showing here. They will need to play a very on-fire Phantasmagoria, if we want a close and exciting Grand Final to behold.

02		00
Maps: mp_citystreets: 13 - 11 mp_crash: 13 - 04
Team YoYoTech Juho "juho_O" Sihvo Kimi "k1mi" V Ville "rEplan" Ijäs Sasu "saruz" Salakka Valtteri "fekuj" Immonen		REGret eSports Markus "mAAmu" Pasuri Andreas "midnajt" Forsberg Adam "jesuz" Blänning Tim "oxider" Nilsson Daniel "tidde" Asp

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