Group B: TSM advance, Titan live on

Group B of the ESL ESEA Dubai Invitational has concluded, with TSM advancing over fnatic in an 'El Classico' winners' match on de_dust2 with a score of 19-17, and Titan defeating Na`Vi in the losers' match with a score of 16-10 on de_cbble.

The winners' match of Group B pitted 2015's two biggest rivals up against each other: fnatic and TSM. With fnatic having recently trounced TSM in the Fragbite Masters Showdown in Stockholm with a score of 4-1, the Swedes came into the best-of-one on de_dust2 as favourites.

However, TSM had other plans at first, with Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen & co. going up to an imbalanced score of 8-0 on their T half. fnatic reminded the world once again of how important pauses can be in CS:GO (even if they are not tactical and due to the opponent having technical issues), and began to rally rounds after this unfortunate incident.

TSM get a small measure of revenge in a best-of-one against fnatic

TSM only managed to accrue a single round after said pause, and the half finished 9-6 in the Danes' favour. The second half was severely delayed after multiple VAC authentication errors struck during the pistol round, putting the match on hold for at least 45 minutes.

fnatic came into the second pistol once all ten players were ready again with a conclusive victory, and equalised the score at 9-9 after two anti-ecos. The game continued in tit-for-tat fashion all the way until overtime, with Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist keeping the Swedes' hopes alive with a crucial one-versus-three.

The first half of overtime saw fnatic garner two rounds on the T-side, with TSM only managing to pick up one round after Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz enacted double "KQLY-style" jumpshots with his AWP onto A site to take down a player and leg another.

TSM's T-side on overtime was a resounding success, and the Danes won all three rounds with not much reponse from fnatic, thereby winning the map 19-17 and advancing straight into the semifinals.

ESL ESEA Dubai Invitational 2015Best of 1 fnaticMatchpage 17 19 10th September 2015 TSM 17Dust2 19

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The losers' match of Group B, and the final match of the day, saw Na`Vi taking on Titan, which started fairly late at around 01:30 AM Dubai-time. With the map being de_cbble, Titan started off the game with a pistol round victory on their T side.

Somewhat strangely, Na`Vi managed to pistol-buy their way against the anti-eco, only to be eco'ed in return by Kévin "⁠Ex6TenZ⁠" Droolans' men on the third round, swinging the game back in favour of the Belgian-French-Swiss team.

Titan remained in the driver's seat for most of the half, despite multiple rounds coming down to the wire and Na`Vi calling a pause as well to try and recoup their thoughts. Ioann "⁠Edward⁠" Sukhariev managed to give Na`Vi the last round of the half with an unlikely clutch; Titan still finished the half up 10-5.

shox and the rest of Titan impressed over Na`Vi

Na`Vi managed to pick up their T-side only when the score stood at 15-5 for Titan (with the latter team claiming the second pistol round), however such a long comeback was unlikely and after fighting back to 10-15, a strong Titan hold on A-site shut down the Ukrainian-Russian-Slovak team, knocking them out of the tournament.

ESL ESEA Dubai Invitational 2015Best of 1 TitanMatchpage 16 10 10th September 2015 Natus Vincere 16Cobblestone 10

Titan	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Kévin 'Ex6TenZ' DroolansEx6TenZ	27 - 15	+12	-	1.53
Cédric 'RpK' GuipouyRpK	24 - 22	+2	-	1.03
Edouard 'SmithZz' DubourdeauxSmithZz	18 - 17	+1	-	0.97
Richard 'shox' Papillonshox	17 - 18	-1	-	0.95
Mathieu 'Maniac' QuiquerezManiac	19 - 21	-2	-	0.90

Natus Vincere	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Ioann 'Edward' SukharievEdward	23 - 17	+6	-	1.29
Egor 'flamie' Vasilyevflamie	21 - 21	0	-	1.12
Denis 'seized' Kostinseized	19 - 22	-3	-	0.91
Ladislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsGuardiaN	19 - 24	-5	-	0.81
Danylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoZeus	11 - 21	-10	-	0.53

Ioann 'Edward' Sukhariev Age: 27 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 603 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.66 Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen Age: 22 Team: TSM Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 541 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.65 Nicolai 'device' Reedtz Age: 20 Team: TSM Rating 1.0: 1.16 Maps played: 449 KPR: 0.78 DPR: 0.63 Kévin 'Ex6TenZ' Droolans Age: 25 Team: Titan Rating 1.0: 0.92 Maps played: 644 KPR: 0.60 DPR: 0.63 Robin 'flusha' Rönnquist Age: 22 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 652 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.63