Day one at European Championship has come to an end with team France securing a spot in the grand final over Poland, while Finland have to settle with fourth place after losses to Poland and Sweden.
Day one at BelExpoCentar in Belgrade, Serbia started off with Poland taking on Finland in the upper bracket semi-finals. Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas's side stormed through de_dust2 after a comfortable 10-5 Counter-Terrorists side, finishing map one at 16-8.
de_cache then followed, six rounds as Terrorists from the Poles before switching over were enough to send Finland down to the lower bracket after a 16-11 score on map two.
European Championship 2014 LAN FinalsBest of 3 PolandMatchpage 2 0 14th December 2014 Finland 16Dust2 8 16Cache 11
Poland
K - D
+/-
ADR
Rating 1.0
Jacek 'MINISE' JeziakMINISE
42 - 29
+13
-
1.24
Paweł 'innocent' Mocekinnocent
38 - 25
+13
-
1.21
Filip 'NEO' KubskiNEO
39 - 31
+8
-
1.18
Paweł 'byali' Bielińskibyali
37 - 30
+7
-
1.09
Wiktor 'TaZ' WojtasTaZ
36 - 32
+4
-
1.01
Finland
K - D
+/-
ADR
Rating 1.0
Miikka 'suNny' KemppisuNny
42 - 40
+2
-
1.16
Jesse 'KHRN' GrandellKHRN
33 - 38
-5
-
0.89
Timo 'REFLEX' RintalaREFLEX
30 - 37
-7
-
0.83
Joona 'natu' Leppänennatu
22 - 39
-17
-
0.62
Toni 'STOVVE' LiukkonenSTOVVE
20 - 39
-19
-
0.57
Even though Sweden arrived to Belgrade with clearly a far-from-ideal lineup, the second half of the semi-finals with the Frenchmen was much closer.
The teams began on de_inferno, where the Swedes battled as Terrorists for some much-needed rounds. One of them came right at the beginning in the first pistol, but Dan "apEX" Madesclaire stopped them with a Five-SeveN quad-kill in the anti-eco, helping his team finish 12-3 as CTs.
Despite Mathias "pauf" Köhler's heroics on both sides (28-18 K-D with a whopping 75% headshot ratio), the clear underdogs ended up losing map one at 16-11.
Map two, de_dust2, went down to the wire, even though Vincent "Happy" Schopenhauer's team was able to pick up good 11 rounds as Counter-Terrorists, Markus "pronax" Wallsten fought back alongside pauf and managed to end it at 14-16 in favour of the Swedes.
The deciding map was de_nuke, but it was the Frenchmen this time who had a very comfortable seven-round T side, which made it easier for them to finish it at 16-10, 2-1.
European Championship 2014 LAN FinalsBest of 3 FranceMatchpage 2 1 14th December 2014 Sweden 16Inferno 11 14Dust2 16 16Nuke 10
France
K - D
+/-
ADR
Rating 1.0
Kenny 'kennyS' SchrubkennyS
63 - 57
+6
-
1.15
Dan 'apEX' MadesclaireapEX
61 - 55
+6
-
1.12
Fabien 'kioShiMa' FieykioShiMa
59 - 54
+5
-
1.08
Vincent 'Happy' SchopenhauerHappy
59 - 55
+4
-
1.04
Richard 'shox' Papillonshox
61 - 54
+7
-
1.03
Sweden
K - D
+/-
ADR
Rating 1.0
Mathias 'pauf' Köhlerpauf
77 - 56
+21
-
1.35
Jacob 'pyth' Mourujärvipyth
55 - 61
-6
-
0.92
Markus 'pronax' Wallstenpronax
53 - 62
-9
-
0.90
Simon 'twist' Eliassontwist
47 - 64
-17
-
0.79
Andreas 'znajder' Lindbergznajder
43 - 62
-19
-
0.77
The Swedes had very little trouble sending Finland home after two quick maps despite Andreas "znajder" Lindberg's struggles, as they rallied to a 16-5 de_cache victory after a ten-round Terrorist side.
Even on de_mirage, the Swedes managed to win as Terrorists with a one-round difference, the match was soon over, as Simon "twist" Eliasson led his team to victory at 16-8.
European Championship 2014 LAN FinalsBest of 3 FinlandMatchpage 0 2 14th December 2014 Sweden 5Cache 16 8Mirage 16
Sweden
K - D
+/-
ADR
Rating 1.0
Jacob 'pyth' Mourujärvipyth
42 - 24
+18
-
1.53
Simon 'twist' Eliassontwist
43 - 25
+18
-
1.42
Markus 'pronax' Wallstenpronax
37 - 26
+11
-
1.30
Mathias 'pauf' Köhlerpauf
38 - 26
+12
-
1.24
Andreas 'znajder' Lindbergznajder
20 - 32
-12
-
0.66
Finland
K - D
+/-
ADR
Rating 1.0
Jesse 'KHRN' GrandellKHRN
28 - 33
-5
-
0.93
Timo 'REFLEX' RintalaREFLEX
33 - 37
-4
-
0.93
Miikka 'suNny' KemppisuNny
26 - 37
-11
-
0.77
Toni 'STOVVE' LiukkonenSTOVVE
24 - 38
-14
-
0.65
Joona 'natu' Leppänennatu
21 - 35
-14
-
0.64
The last match of the day saw Poland taking on France in the upper bracket final, interestlingy enough on two newest additions to the Valve map pool, de_overpass and de_cobblestone.
de_overpass ended up being fairly one-sided, as Kenny "kennyS" Schrub led his team to a 16-8 victory, although de_cobblestone went into overtime after Richard "shox" Papillon helped France come back from a 7-14 deficit. 19-17 was the final score with the nineteen-year-old AWPer top fragging once again.
European Championship 2014 LAN FinalsBest of 3 PolandMatchpage 0 2 14th December 2014 France 8Overpass 16 17Cobblestone 19
France
K - D
+/-
ADR
Rating 1.0
Kenny 'kennyS' SchrubkennyS
65 - 32
+33
-
1.60
Dan 'apEX' MadesclaireapEX
46 - 39
+7
-
1.10
Richard 'shox' Papillonshox
41 - 43
-2
-
1.01
Vincent 'Happy' SchopenhauerHappy
41 - 41
0
-
0.96
Fabien 'kioShiMa' FieykioShiMa
32 - 36
-4
-
0.85
Poland
K - D
+/-
ADR
Rating 1.0
Paweł 'byali' Bielińskibyali
41 - 40
+1
-
0.97
Wiktor 'TaZ' WojtasTaZ
44 - 46
-2
-
0.93
Jacek 'MINISE' JeziakMINISE
39 - 45
-6
-
0.89
Filip 'NEO' KubskiNEO
38 - 48
-10
-
0.82
Paweł 'innocent' Mocekinnocent
29 - 46
-17
-
0.71
Tomorrow the action continues with a showmatch at 12:00 . Then, Sweden and Poland will fight for a grand final spot at 14:00 , followed up by the grand final itself at 17:00 .