mouz, Virtus to CEVO semi

mousesports and Virtus.pro are through to the last-four stage of the CEVO Season 8 finals after defeating Luminosity and dignitas, respectively.

Day two of the CEVO Finals kicked off with an enticing clash between mousesports and Luminosity Gaming for the top spot in Group A. de_dust2 was the first map of the series, and here Luminosity were in control for most of the first half, taking an 11-4 lead into the break after winning ten of the first 11 rounds of the game.

But mousesports came out of the gate looking really scary, turning the game on its head by winning the first nine rounds of the second half. Luminosity then finally managed to pick up a round, but Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač kept his team in command until the end.

NiKo was on fire against Luminosity 

The map that followed was de_mirage, where yet another stellar performance from the Bosnian inspired mousesports to a convincing 11-4 half-time lead. The German team picked up where they had left off and grew their lead by winning the pistol round and the following two anti-ecos, and even though Luminosity tried to respond in gun play, the deficit was just too big to recover from.

CEVO Professional Season 8 FinalsBest of 3 LuminosityMatchpage 0 2 7th November 2015 MOUZ 12Dust2 16 7Mirage 16

MOUZ	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Nikola 'NiKo' KovačNiKo	52 - 30	+22	-	1.55
Johannes 'nex' Magetnex	39 - 30	+9	-	1.23
Chris 'chrisJ' de JongchrisJ	36 - 31	+5	-	1.07
Denis 'denis' Howelldenis	35 - 31	+4	-	1.04
Fatih 'gob b' Dayikgob b	28 - 31	-3	-	0.85

Luminosity	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Fernando 'fer' Alvarengafer	39 - 38	+1	-	1.14
Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFalleN	37 - 38	-1	-	0.98
Marcelo 'coldzera' Davidcoldzera	33 - 34	-1	-	0.93
Ricardo 'boltz' Prassboltz	24 - 42	-18	-	0.70
Lucas 'steel' Lopessteel	20 - 38	-18	-	0.58

The other Upper Bracket final pitted dignitas, the surprise package of the tournament, against Virtus.pro, who had kicked off their campaign with a 2-0 victory against Conquest. The first map of the series, de_train, was an extremely hard fought one as 30 rounds could not decide a winner. In overtime, dignitas were the stronger of the two sides, picking up two rounds in each half to seal a 19-17 victory.

Map #2 was de_inferno, where Virtus.pro looked dominant during the early stages, cruising to a 7-1 lead while playing on the CT side of the map. dignitas then picked themselves up and restructured their attack to bring the scoreline to 6-9 at the end of the half. Now playing as CT, dignitas picked up the pistol round but fell short in the first anti-eco, which ruined their economy.

Virtus.pro through to the playoffs 

The game was beginning to look lopsided as Virtus.pro brought the scoreline to 14-7, but then the momentum swung in favor of dignitas, who secured six rounds in a row to reduce the deficit to just one round. Virtus.pro were unwilling to let the map slide, however, and picked up back-to-back rounds to level up the series at 1-1.

It all came down to de_mirage, where dignitas came out strongly, cruising to a 5-0 lead. But Virtus.pro tightened up their defense and held off the Danes in the final stages of the half to pick up a 9-6 lead. The second half was a hard-fought one, but in the end the Polish team secured a 16-11 victory that puts them through to the last-four stage.

CEVO Professional Season 8 FinalsBest of 3 Virtus.proMatchpage 2 1 7th November 2015 Dignitas 17Train 19 16Inferno 13 16Mirage 11

Virtus.pro	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Janusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiSnax	75 - 56	+19	-	1.15
Filip 'NEO' KubskiNEO	68 - 57	+11	-	1.11
Wiktor 'TaZ' WojtasTaZ	67 - 58	+9	-	1.09
Jarosław 'pashaBiceps' JarząbkowskipashaBiceps	65 - 63	+2	-	1.01
Paweł 'byali' Bielińskibyali	54 - 62	-8	-	0.86

Dignitas	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Philip 'aizy' Aistrupaizy	74 - 66	+8	-	1.17
Jesper 'TENZKI' PlougmannTENZKI	67 - 66	+1	-	1.00
Mathias 'MSL' LauridsenMSL	61 - 69	-8	-	0.90
Markus 'Kjaerbye' KjærbyeKjaerbye	50 - 64	-14	-	0.80
Jacob 'Pimp' WinnechePimp	44 - 64	-20	-	0.74

Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač Age: 18 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 1.18 Maps played: 251 KPR: 0.83 DPR: 0.70