#HSH Week 8: Group D Preview
The last group of #HomeSweetHomes final week is upon us and as always we preview the teams. AGF Esport, Complexity Gaming, Hard Legion ...
Late last night #HomeSweetHome and its first week came to an end as a champion was determined, which also meant they brought home $30,000! During the day the two semifinals were also played and it's time for us to have a look at how the battle between BIG, Sprout, North and Team Spirit played out. For more information about #HomeSweetHome and upcoming weeks of competition you can head over to our event page! This is as close to a high tier German derby as one can get nowadays, but this one sure didn't live up to the expectations. BIG managed to win Sprouts map pick with a dominant score line of 16-8 and it was never even close. The battering would get even worse on the next map, Vertigo, as BIG won round after round to close it out with a brutal 16-4. Florian “syrsoN” Rische and Ismailcan “XANTARES” Dörtkardeş has both been clinical this far in #HomeSweetHome, but in this game they made Sprout look like amateurs on both maps. An easy 2-0 brought BIG to the Grand Final and a shot at winning all of week 1. Sprouts performance in this semifinal was nothing short of disappointing and especially Tomáš “oskar” Šťastný and Paweł “dycha” Dycha had a tough time reaching their normal performance, and as such their team fell short, way too short. North came to this semifinal as the clear favorite, but Spirit had a breathtaking comeback win against forZe in their bag coming into this one. The danes had the first map pick and not all too surprisingly the game ended up on Dust2, but it wouldn't play out as anyone would expect. After winning their respective CT sides with 9-6 the game went to overtime and Spirit showed that the pressure doesn’t get to them, as they went on to win all three CT rounds and then close it out instantly. A disappointing showing from North who couldn’t get their game going and especially Markus “Kjaerbye” Kjærbye struggled hard as he only managed 14 kills in 34 rounds of play. The pressure was now on the Danes to pick up a win on Spirits map pick of Inferno, but they wouldn’t get anywhere close. Boris “magixx” Vorobiev had an amazing performance as he helped his team get a 16-10 win to secure a spot in the finals. #HomeSweetHome might have started slow for the CIS team, but things picked up and at this point they looked like an unstoppable train. BIG came to this final of week one in #HomeSweetHome as a decently sized favorite, but Spirits new found momentum, which helped them beat both forZe and North would scare anybody. Things would keep on going Spirits way on Dust2, which was the first map of the finals. At a 14-7 lead playing the favoured T side it looked like things couldn’t be any better, but the German wall would appear as if from nowhere. BIG managed to win nine straight rounds after a crazy amount of retakes and dire looking situations to clinch a win and therefore get the 1-0 lead. BIG had picked Inferno as their map, which was a surprise looking at past results. As much as the game was close until half time, as one sided was it when Spirit got to play the CT side and show BIG who’s the boss. There was not much of a discussion to be had - Spirit was simply the stronger team and brought home a 16-10 win to push the game to its full three maps. Next up was Mirage - a map where both teams had impressive results behind them. Just like in the semifinal and the two previous maps of the final it would be syrsoN and XANTARES who showed the way for BIG, but this time around it would be in an even more dominating fashion. An 11-4 lead in half time would turn into a 16-4 win and as much as BIG played an impressive game, Spirit didn’t even put up a fight. The momentum and flow Spirit has been on finally disappeared and died completely as they were without a chance on Mirage. This means BIG is your #HomeSweetHome week one champion, and it couldn’t be more well deserved. The team has won all of their games and they have mostly been quite one sided. There is also no doubt BIG will be a favorite to repeat their feat in the upcoming weeks, as there realistically is only a handful of teams who could challenge them. Next up is week 2 and BIG will play in group C, meaning they play out their group stage on Thursday. The group consists of AGO, SMASH Esports and Team Singularity. If BIG ends that in any other placing than number 1 it would be an upset of great magnitudes. There is no doubt in our minds that this honor belongs to XANTARES. The Turkish 24 year old has carried his German teammates in multiple games and ends the week with a 1.41 rating, which already should say enough. XANTARES dominated the playoffs and stepped up when BIG needed him to do so the most and there is really no other player who had an impact as big. It would be no surprise to see XANTARES repeat something similar in upcoming weeks, but maybe someone can challenge him, and BIG, in a better way in the future. However - this week was a clinical showing from BIG, but even more so from XANTARES. If you wish to read about the latest news from us and from the esports world make sure to check out our Twitter! If you wish to read about betting tips, we deliver them through our esports betting Twitter! Janne Kouva
#HomeSweetHome has crowned a champion for week 1!
Semifinals
Grand Final
#HomeSweetHome Week 1 MVP
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