Day one over at ESEC LAN finals

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 .

Mathias 'pauf' Köhler Age: 17 Team: Orbit Rating 1.0: 1.00 Maps played: 46 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.72 Wiktor 'TaZ' Wojtas Age: 28 Team: Virtus.pro Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 528 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.66 Simon 'twist' Eliasson Age: 20 Team: FlipSid3 Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 204 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.70 Vincent 'Happy' Schopenhauer Age: 23 Team: LDLC Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 326 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.64 Andreas 'znajder' Lindberg Age: 21 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 299 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.67 Richard 'shox' Papillon Age: 22 Team: LDLC Rating 1.0: 1.18 Maps played: 408 KPR: 0.80 DPR: 0.64 Markus 'pronax' Wallsten Age: 23 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 0.94 Maps played: 391 KPR: 0.63 DPR: 0.65 Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire Age: 21 Team: Titan Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 354 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.71 Time is adjusted to your selected timezone Kenny 'kennyS' Schrub Age: 19 Team: Titan Rating 1.0: 1.21 Maps played: 424 KPR: 0.82 DPR: 0.62