ESC beat myDGB to win IEM Katowice

ESC Gaming have been crowned champions of Your road to Katowice after defeating myDGB.net 2-0 in the Grand Final (16-9 de_nuke_ve, 16-11 de_train_se).

The Polish giants had finished 2012 on a high, winning the SLTV StarSeries finals, and they were able to pick up where they had left off, building on their success in Ukraine with another title, this time on home soil.

The first map of the final was de_nuke_ve, ESC Gaming's choice, and here myDGB got off the brighter, taking the first two rounds of the first half, in which they were playing as CT. A buying option from ESC saw the Poles win the next two rounds to turn the score around, but then Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács showed why he was considered one of CS:Source's greatest AWPers and got two impressive kills, as the Slovakian team levelled the game on three rounds.

Another round then went myDGB's way, forcing ESC to go on eco, but Filip "Neo" Kubski pulled off four kills to put his side back in the race. In the remainder of the first half, neither side could stamp their authority on the game as the scoreboard showed 8-7 in favour of ESC at the break.

ESC further enlarged their lead at the start of the second half as Jarosław "pasha" Jarząbkowski picked up four frags in the pistol round, with myDGB's players looking completely lost on the map. The Poles continued on a roll, taking the score to 12-7, and even though myDGB managed to reduce the deficit to three rounds, ESC remained in the driving seat as they won the map 16-9.

pasha had some amazing rounds throughout the match

de_train_se was the map that followed, and myDGB, who were playing on the CT side, got off to a great start, strolling to a 5-0 lead. Jarosław "pasha" Jarząbkowski then spectacularly won a 1-on-4 situation to give ESC their first round of the map. Such a round inspired the Poles to mount a comeback, taking the score to 5-6, but the Slovakian team gave a great account of themselves in the latter stages of the half, going into the break up 10-5.

Now on the Terrorist side, the former BEASTS side came out very aggressively in the second half, winning the pistol round, but then ESC stunned their opponents by pulling one back with an impressive eco strategy. From that point on, it was a one-way street, with ESC taking completely control of proceedings to walk out 16-11 winners, with Jarosław "pasha" Jarząbkowski's producing more highlight material as he pulled off another four-kill round.

Your road to Katowice 2013Best of 2 ESCMatchpage 2 0 20th January 2013 myDGB.net 16Nuke_se 9 16Train_se 11

ESC	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Jakub 'kuben' Gurczyńskikuben	45 - 26	+19	-	1.43
Filip 'NEO' KubskiNEO	46 - 30	+16	-	1.39
Jarosław 'pashaBiceps' JarząbkowskipashaBiceps	44 - 34	+10	-	1.30
Wiktor 'TaZ' WojtasTaZ	42 - 32	+10	-	1.21
Mariusz 'Loord' CybulskiLoord	31 - 32	-1	-	0.92

myDGB.net	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Ladislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsGuardiaN	40 - 41	-1	-	0.99
Jakub 'kap1' Haláskap1	31 - 39	-8	-	0.82
Marek '.PhP' Kadek.PhP	35 - 45	-10	-	0.81
Karel 'sneix' Pavlicasneix	29 - 42	-13	-	0.73
Peter 'uno' Lipowskiuno	19 - 41	-22	-	0.52

Your road to Katowice final standings:

1. ESC Gaming - $4,000
2. myDGB.net - $2,000
3. MaxFloPlay  - $1,000
4. ALSEN