Gambit Sweep OG To Win IEM Summer

Gambit have added another trophy to their cabinet with an IEM Summer grand final victory over OG in three maps, Mirage (16-14), Dust2 (16-11) and Overpass, (16-7), while ending the European combine’s dream run in the tournament as Casper “⁠ruggah⁠” Due’s men had previously tallied victories over NIP, Virtus.pro, Evil Geniuses and Vitality without a loss.

This victory marks Gambit’s second Intel Grand Slam Season 3 point and third big title this year following IEM Katowice and their first RMR event of 2021, EPIC League CIS, and is their fifth grand final appearance when including ESL Pro League Season 13 and DreamHack Masters Spring, without taking into account several smaller accolades.

Sergey “⁠Ax1Le⁠” Rykhtorov carried his great form into the grand final, posting the highest ratings on all three of the maps played and averaging a 1.49 rating in the series. The 19-year-old finished the tournament as the third highest player with an average rating of 1.33 across the 15 maps Gambit played.

Ax1Le topped the grand final’s scoreboard with a 1.49 rating

The final IEM Summer series kicked off on Mirage, the first of Gambit’s two picks, and from the start it was a close affair as an early lead by OG on the CT side was turned around by the CIS squad in a tight 8-7 half. Aleksi “⁠Aleksib⁠” Virolainen and company started their offensive getting back ahead, with Mateusz “⁠mantuu⁠” Wilczewski and Valdemar “⁠valde⁠” Bjørn Vangså leading the way, but in the end it was Gambit who were able to win back-to-back rounds, building up an economy and reaching match point, 15-12, before closing the map out in the last round of regulation.

OG came out in full force on Dust2 after barely falling short in the opening map, and took control of proceedings early on with an 8-2 lead, but Gambit hit hard late in the half and brought it as close as could be with a five-round streak to throw the map wide open at the switch. The Russian squad then put up a wall on the defense as OG struggled to break through time and time again, allowing just three rounds on the way to a 16-11 victory and getting one map away from victory after the first two.

The third map in the series, Overpass, started off as did the two previous ones, a close affair between the two sides, this time with Gambit on the offense and OG as CTs. Although it was valde and company who were able to get an early lead, their economy depleted after losing several rounds in a row and it was Gambit, with a brilliant Abay “⁠Hobbit⁠” Khasenov, who took the half 9-6. OG took a very necessary T-side pistol round, but crumbled against the forcebuy after which the emboldened CIS squad sprinted towards the finish line to secure the IEM Summer trophy, 16-7.

The final IEM Summer standings are:

1. Gambit – $100,000
2. OG – $42,000
3-4. G2 – $20,000
3-4. Vitality – $20,000
5-6. Evil Geniuses – $10,000
5-6. Virtus.pro – $10,000
7-8. NIP – $6,000
7-8. Complexity – $6,000
9-12. Spirit – $5,000
9-12. Heroic – $5,000
9-12. Astralis – $5,000
9-12. FunPlus Phoenix – $5,000
13-16. fnatic – $4,000
13-16. Imperial – $4,000
13-16. Extra Salt – $4,000
13-16. Sprout – $4,000