SK Gaming achieves ESL One Cologne title for the second time with win over Cloud9
Curtains closed on the most exciting week of Counter-Strike in 2017 with SK Gaming emerging as champions of ESL Cologne 2017. A 3-0 victory over Cloud9 is the team’s third straight major title in the past two months and fifth overall grand final win of 2017.
SK showed a great finale starting with Cobblestone, where they proved why they’re the best Terrorist side team in the world with a strong 10-5 start to the series over C9. Despite a great ace from Cloud9‘s Stewie2k , the North Americans were unable to create a comeback, giving SK an easy route to a 16-9 scoreline. Marcelo “coldzera” David played completely lights out with a top frag score of 28 kills and a 111.8 average damage per round stat.
Train was a bit different, as Cloud9 pulled away on the Terrorist side for a 10-5 halftime lead. A motivated SK absolutely disrespected their lead with nine consecutive Terrorist round wins before ending the second map 16-12. SK’s all-star AWPer Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo dropped 34 kills with a massive 129.9 ADR in the team’s second map win.
Despite being two maps down, Cloud9 aggressively stunned SK early on with a 9-1 lead, but 10-5 was the scoreline at halftime. Fortified defenses from the Brazilians allowed them to effortlessly come back and gain a slight lead, but C9 answered back with several coordinated executes. SK reached map point after a close 14-14 round, and they finally closed out the series with a solid defense on B site, ending the map 16-14.
SK Gaming now has the momentum looking forward to Krakow Major July 16. Their second consecutive win in Cologne mirrors their 2016 performance where they showed a great Grand Final earning the title.
Watch the highlights from SK vs C9 below:
