HAVU Send Virtus.pro Packing; BIG Edge Past Evil Geniuses In FunSpark ULTI

Virtus.pro‘s run at the $250,000 event was cut short by HAVU, who sent the CIS side packing after just two matches played. BIG managed to avoid the same fate by taking down Evil Geniuses, pulling off comebacks on both Dust2 and Nuke.

The first round of lower-bracket matches at FunSpark ULTI 2020 Europe Final provided thrilling matches. HAVU, who have risen to new heights in 2021, secured their biggest scalp to date by overcoming the world No. 5 in a three-map series. Following the game, Virtus.pro‘s entry fragger Mareks “⁠YEKINDAR⁠” Gaļinskis admitted that “there are problems, individual and teamwise”, but stressed that they are working on them.

BIG, who have won just two of their last ten matches, survived a tough test against Evil Geniuses. The North American team that was playing its debut tournament with Michał “⁠MICHU⁠” Müller is out of competition following two comebacks from Johannes “⁠tabseN⁠” Wodarz and co. Clawing back from 12-6 and 11-4 deficits sees BIG stay alive at the tournament, setting up a match against Complexity on Friday.

HAVU march on at the expense of Virtus.pro

HAVU started the series cold, allowing Virtus.pro to run up an 11-4 lead on the Finns’ map pick, Train. An inspired Lasse “⁠ZOREE⁠” Uronen helped HAVU turn things around on the defense, though, forcing overtime which his team eventually closed out, 22-20.

The revenge on Inferno was quick and decisive from the CIS side, who took their own pick 16-8 to push the series to the decider. Once a staple for Dzhami “⁠Jame⁠” Ali‘s team, Dust2 was a disaster in this series. The final map went HAVU‘s way convincingly, 16-5, with Sami “⁠xseveN⁠” Laasanen boasting a 1.76 rating on it.

Evil Geniuses were competitive on BIG‘s pick, Dust2, showing up with a respectable Terrorist side (9-6) to start things off, but edged even closer to the map victory with the second pistol. It was 12-6 for the North American side when an unexpected BIG comeback started, led by Florian “⁠syrsoN⁠” Rische. The German squad went on a 10-1 run on the offense and claimed the map with a near-flawless offense.

Nuke followed, and a similar story repeated. Peter “⁠stanislaw⁠” Jarguz‘s troops looked good as Terrorists, this time pushing things even further in the first half and switching sides 11-4 ahead. But the defenses crumbled under BIG‘s attacks time after time, with just two sporadic rounds going their way in the whole half. tabseN led BIG by example, posting 31 kills and 115.7 ADR in the comeback to conclude the series 2-0,