In the most interesting clash of the day so far, fnatic overcame ESC Gaming after three maps 11-16 on de_train, 16-10 on de_dust2 and 16-9 on de_mirage. That set them up for the upper-bracket semi-final clash with Alternate, who surprised Lemondogs by winning in two maps.

The match started on de_train, with ESC Gaming on the less favored Terrorist side. The Swedish-Danish team took the pistol round, but the Poles came right back into it with a buy in the second round. They used a similar tactic as in their previous big match on de_train, against Natus Vincere in IEM6 final, which helped them even the score at 1-1.

Following two ecos by fnatic, the teams exchanged rounds as the score stood 4-2 in favor of ESC. From then on fnatic began racking up rounds, with their main AWPer Michael "Friis" Jørgensen leading the way. The Poles only managed to get one more round until the end of the half, thanks to a 1vs2 clutch by Jarosław "pasha" Jarząbkowski, leaving fnatic in the lead 10-5.

However, it was now the Poles' turn to defend and they evened the score very quickly at 10-10 without get into any trouble. They continued in the same manner as fnatic was unable to find a solution, and with an 11-1 comeback, ESC closed out the first map 16-11.

Next up was de_dust2 where fnatic once against started on the map's favored side, as Terrorists. That didn't do them any good it seems, as ESC Gaming put up a 6-0 lead and looked on their way to win the whole match. But fnatic didn't give up and slowly but surely started taking round by round, until the scoreboard said 9-6 in their favor at the end of first half.

The Swedish-Danish team continued riding their newly found momentum as they took the pistol round and went on to lead 14-6, expressing their joy quite loudly. At the score 15-9, Jarosław "pasha" Jarząbkowski had another noteworthy clutch, winning a 1vs3 with the AWP, and giving his team some final hope. However, in the next round when fnatic was forced to eco, they pushed B tunnels quickly and found all ESC members there. Rasmus "Gux" Ståhl picked up three kills in the ruckus, leaving Finn "karrigan" Andersen in a 1vs1 against Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas. The Pole had only 4hp and still managed to plant the c4, but Andersen was right there to take him down and clinch the map for his team, 16-10.

karrigan clinched de_dust2 win during an eco round

The deciding map would be de_mirage, and again fnatic started on the slightly favored CT-side. This time they did take advantage of that and went up 7-1 early on. The Poles managed to get something going then, but fnatic finished strong with an 11-4 lead, bringing themselves very close to the overall victory.

Although ESC Gaming took the following pistol round, fnatic didn't allow them to mount a comeback, stopping them in the third round and adding another two to make the score 14-6. The Swedish-Danish combination proved to be the better team on this occasion as they steadily closed out the match 16-9, 2-1 in maps.

Copenhagen Games 2012Best of 0 fnaticMatchpage 2 1 7th April 2012 ESC Gaming 11Train 16 16Dust2 10 16Mirage 9

Match statistics:

fnatic	K - D	+/-	ADR	-

ESC Gaming	K - D	+/-	ADR	-

fnatic pass first big test since the arrival of karrigan

Third place finishers from IEM6 World Championship, now named Lemondogs, fell victim to surprisingly good play by Alternate, as the Swedes were sent to the lower-bracket after two maps.

Lemondogs started off quite well on de_nuke, picking up an 8-3 lead as Counter-Terrorists, before Alternate replied and brought the half to end 9-6. The Germans' CT-side was far more convincing, as they went into the lead quickly at 11-9 and then went on to win the map 16-12.

In the second map de_inferno, Swedes started well again, leading 5-0 and 6-2, but Alternate once again provided strong T-rounds to get back into the game and even lead at the half 8-7. Second-half pistol went to Lemondogs, but then the key moment happened as Alternate won the second round, which propelled them to climb up to 14-8. It didn't take them long to finish off the match, with the final score standing at 16-11.

Copenhagen Games 2012Best of 0 AlternateMatchpage 2 0 7th April 2012 Lemondogs 16Nuke 12 16Inferno 11

Match statistics:

Alternate	K - D	+/-	ADR	-

Lemondogs	K - D	+/-	ADR	-

Alternate move on with win against Lemondogs

The semi-final between fnatic and Alternate is scheduled for 13:30 , while ESC Gaming and Lemondogs await their next opponents in the lower-bracket, as they will be in action later on at 14:30 .

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