Curse defeated compLexity in the upper semi-final of ESEA Season 14 Global Finals 2-0 (22-20 on de_inferno_se, 16-7 on de_cache) to secure at least a top three placement and a clash with NiP in the upper final.

Upper bracket semi-final expectedly pitted North America's two best teams against each other, Curse and compLexity.

Number two seed of the tournament, Curse, made the better start by winning their CT pistol on de_inferno_se and shortly going up 6-2, with Todd "anger" Williams and Keven "AZK" Lariviere having a couple of important 3-kill actions in the process.

However, the former Quantic squad found a solution to unlocking the defense with several well-timed attacks to each bombsite, winning 5 of the next 6 rounds. The last two rounds of the half though went to Curse, with Williams ending up on top of the scoreboard with 21:11 as his team led 9-6.

anger was on fire on inferno

In the second half pistol, Spencer "hiko" Martin and day one star Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert showed that the B bombsite will be tough to take, as they held their own against a full attack, making the score 9-7.

Unfortunately for them, an eco on the other bombsite then went Curse's way, which quickly resulted in a 12-7 lead.

Instead of letting their opponents run away with the map, coL retaliated in the same manner, by winning an eco thanks to 4 great kills from Braxton "swag" Pierce, including protecting Martin's defuse in a 2-on-2 situation.

That allowed them to gain money control, making the score 12-12 soon after, and despite losing round 25 to Lariviere's 1vs1, coL then reset Curse's economy and eventually went into their first lead of the map 14-13.

Sean "sgares" Gares won a 1-on-1 to put coL on match point, but Curse fought back with their own clutch play, firstly by their newest member Justin "mosbeck" Mosbeck in a 1-on-1, and then Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham with a 1-on-3 in the B bombsite to take the match into overtime.

Skadoodle with the overtime-worthy clutch

coL didn't crumble though, and they defended two of three attacks which all went to the B site, but they then dropped another two match points as Curse brought the match into double overtime, with the only notable round being Eric "adreN" Hoag's 4-kill action while defending the A site.

At the start of the second overtime, Latham's AWP finally made a difference with 3 headshots which put Curse back into the lead after a long time playing catch-up. Going up 20-19, Curse was also about to win the first round of second half, but Gares' PC crashed causing a lengthy break.

After finally getting matters sorted, Latham's another 3 AWP kills helped Curse win the first round and for the first time put them on two match points. The key rounds once again came down to the wire, and it was Lariviere and Williams that clinched a 2-on-2 to win the map 22-20.

A 45 minute break followed before de_cache finally went under way, and Curse continued where they left off going up 2-0.

However, they were caught off guard by a surprise third round buy from coL which seemed to turn the match on its head as Gares' team won 4 in a row. It wasn't enough though, as Curse quickly regained control and the lead, going ahead 8-5.

It could have become even worse for compLexity had Pierce not won a 1-on-1 for 8-6, which eventually turned into 8-7 and saved coL's half.

ESEA LAN debutant mosbeck won several important clutches for his team

They then made a big mistake in the second pistol round, allowing Mosbeck to defuse in a 2-on-3 situation, which stopped their mini-comeback. coL tried to get back straight away by buying in rounds two and three, but Curse won the close situations and stayed ahead.

Latham then bought a SCAR-20 auto-sniper and practically destroyed his opponents with multiple kills every round, making his team's job much easier on their way to what would end up being a 16-7 victory.

ESEA Invite Season 14 Global FinalsBest of 2 ComplexityMatchpage 0 2 17th August 2013 Curse 20Inferno_se 22 7Cache 16

Curse	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Keven 'AZK' LariviereAZK	64 - 43	+21	-	1.40
Todd 'anger' Williamsanger	64 - 42	+22	-	1.33
Tyler 'Skadoodle' LathamSkadoodle	48 - 38	+10	-	1.20
Eric 'adreN' HoagadreN	32 - 45	-13	-	0.77
Justin 'mosbeck' Mosbeckmosbeck	29 - 46	-17	-	0.62

Complexity	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Spencer 'Hiko' MartinHiko	51 - 45	+6	-	1.12
Braxton 'swag' Pierceswag	46 - 44	+2	-	1.04
Jordan 'n0thing' Gilbertn0thing	47 - 52	-5	-	0.96
Kory 'SEMPHIS' FriesenSEMPHIS	37 - 46	-9	-	0.85
Sean 'seang@res' Garesseang@res	33 - 51	-18	-	0.70

Curse have thus secured at least a top three placing as they advance to the upper final to meet NiP later tonight around 01:00 . compLexity are going to have to make their way through the lower bracket, and their first opponent will be MonoManiac.

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