EG extend winning streak to 10 to book ESL One Cologne NA final spot

The BLAST Premier and cs_summit 6 champions beat FURIA in convincing fashion to set up a clash with Liquid in Saturday's grand final.

Evil Geniuses have reached a third straight final after taking down FURIA 2-0 in the last-four stage of ESL One Cologne's North American division. The world No 3 put on a dominant display to extend their flawless record against the Brazilian team and stretch their winning streak to 10 matches, the last seven of which without even dropping a map.

"I think we definitely have their [FURIA's] number, maybe they need to have a different approach," Tarik "⁠tarik⁠" Celik said after the match when asked about EG's 6-0 record against the Brazilians. "We enjoy playing them, every time we go against FURIA we're very confident. It's a good match-up for us."

Without surprise, FURIA went for their comfort pick of Vertigo, one of the least played maps by Evil Geniuses - who had stepped onto the map only three times in recent history, two of them against the Brazilian team. With a team ace in the pistol round, the North Americans set themselves up for a bright start, but FURIA took the reins of the game once they had money in the bank. Andrei "⁠arT⁠" Piovezan's troops dictated the pace throughout the rest of the half and never allowed their opponents to gain a stranglehold of the game as they raced to a 9-6 lead, with Henrique "⁠HEN1⁠" Teles leading the charge with 17 frags and a 122 ADR.

EG were far too hot for FURIA to handle

The second half brought a switch in momentum as it was now Evil Geniuses who dominated proceedings. FURIA struggled to keep their opponents at bay as their defense was prised apart ruthlessly and their aggressive strats were quickly countered by the North Americans, who gave up just one round before locking up the map.

FURIA came out the brighter of the two teams on Nuke, but they loosened their grip on the game after letting EG get on the board in a 2v4 situation. The Brazilians still came back into the game with a trio of rounds, but their respite was short-lived as the North Americans dominated the rest of the half and went into the break with a 9-6 lead.

Things then went from bad to worse for FURIA as tarik pulled off a 1v2 clutch, kicking EG further into the lead. With no room for error, the Brazilians dug deep and put together a string of rounds, bringing the deficit to a minimum. It looked like FURIA had finally found their rhythm, but tarik and Ethan "⁠Ethan⁠" Arnold came to EG's rescue and helped the team to run away with the game with a series of multi-kill rounds.

Despite Evil Geniuses' red-hot form, tarik isn't taking anything for granted. His team may have defeated Liquid 2-0 earlier in the tournament, but he is wary of the threat posed by Jake "⁠Stewie2K⁠" Yip's troops. "We're not going to underestimate them. They just had a roster change, so we will make sure that we will do our best to just dominate as much as we can. We're feeling good and I think we're going to take it away."

ESL One Cologne 2020 North AmericaBest of 3 Evil GeniusesMatchpage 2 0 28th August 2020 FURIA 16Vertigo 10 16Nuke 10

Evil Geniuses	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Tarik 'tarik' Celiktarik	48 - 34	+14	97.3	1.33
Vincent 'Brehze' CayonteBrehze	42 - 27	+15	81.2	1.28
Ethan 'Ethan' ArnoldEthan	34 - 38	-4	76.2	1.06
Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguzstanislaw	27 - 33	-6	65.6	1.00
Tsvetelin 'CeRq' DimitrovCeRq	31 - 31	0	60.5	0.97

FURIA	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Henrique 'HEN1' TelesHEN1	41 - 39	+2	85.8	1.11
Kaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoKSCERATO	34 - 32	+2	73.3	1.03
Yuri 'yuurih' Santosyuurih	28 - 32	-4	68.8	0.96
Andrei 'arT' PiovezanarT	26 - 37	-11	62.2	0.88
Vinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoVINI	33 - 42	-9	64.8	0.86

Evil Geniuses #3 Peter 'stanislaw' JarguzTarik 'tarik' CelikVincent 'Brehze' CayonteEthan 'Ethan' ArnoldTsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov Henrique 'HEN1' Teles Age: 25 Team: FURIA Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 898 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.58 Liquid #8 Keith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJake 'Stewie2K' YipRussel 'Twistzz' Van DulkenMichael 'Grim' Wince Andrei 'arT' Piovezan Age: 24 Team: FURIA Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 675 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.70 Tarik 'tarik' Celik Age: 24 Team: Evil Geniuses Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 1330 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.68 FURIA #6 Henrique 'HEN1' TelesAndrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosVinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoKaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato Jake 'Stewie2K' Yip Age: 22 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 1255 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.68 Ethan 'Ethan' Arnold Age: 20 Team: Evil Geniuses Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 910 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.67