11. Maven over SK.swe – (16-13)(4-13)(13-5) – WCG 2004 – October 15th – 19th, 2004

"Birth of Asian CS"

HLTV Demos

Maven Roster

mal
BeBe
oversoul
rishNarchk
filibuster

SK.swe Roster

Hyper
ahl
Fisker
Potti
HeatoN

Unlike the previous match this was the coming out of an entire region. The Asian eSports scene, known primarily for its RTS (Real Time Strategy) play, had never scored a major victory over an International Counter-Strike team or in any First Person Shooter for that matter. Maven got its chance against SK.swe following its crushing loss to Team 3D in the Semi-finals of WCG 2004.

On the back of superhuman play from Maven's star player Oh “bebe” JeongTak, the Koreans upset SK.swe. The opening map, Train, played extremely even with both sides splitting the score 6-6 before Maven controlled overtime 4-1.

Getting the lucky draw in the second map, SK.swe took the defensive on the extremely defensive sided Cbble. They won 10 of the 12 rounds and quickly cleaned up the second half before Maven could get started. This forced a decisive last map on Aztec.

The strange maps help to keep SK.swe at bay, but still Maven outplayed the Swedish team who looked tired and dejected at points after their previous day's defeat. Maven got the luck draw on this map grabbing the defensive side on another defensive favored map. They won 10 of 12 rounds before shutting down any momentum SK.swe could build up on the second half.

The key to the match, beyond how exciting JeongTak's play was, was the impact it had. This opened the door for the Asian teams proving they could play with the top teams in the World. It has taken a year to realize the full potential but a very similarly comprised team, Lunatic.Hai, placed second at the latest CPL Winter 2005. That team lost to SK.swe in the finals.

Not only have those players have benefited, Korean Project.kr (Hacker.PK) has also learned from its countrymen building into a staple of World eSports Games play. Another Asian country developing in the wake of the Koreans is China. wNv's powerful organization along with strong teams like Abitstrike have seen that country's rise to success. In a couple of years this match will be looked back as the game when the Asian teams showed they had arrived.

The crying and excitement on the faces of the Maven players at the event showed they knew it too. The extremes at that event were hard to explain in words. The pure excitement and exhilaration of Maven compared to the dejected and shunned SK.swe was amazing. The impact on the SK.swe is drastic as well. While 3D deserves some of the blame, Maven sure didn't help as the SK.swe broke up soon after the event and didn't even attend CPL Winter 2004 later that year. The team would later become NiP before official breaking into two different lineups in 2005.