6. 3D over SK.swe – (8-13) (13-8) (13-7) - WCG 2004 – October 7th-11th, 2004

“One round changes it all”

HLTV Demos

3D Roster

Rambo
Boms
KSharp
Moto
Volcano

Sk.swe Roster

Hyper
ahl
Fisker
Potti
HeatoN

When everyone entered the event, people looked at a possible showdown between 3D and SK.swe. It seemed logical the only top notch teams that could stand in the way where The Titans, mibr and astralis, with MaveN still an unknown from Korea. 3D dispatched astralis in the first game of the single elimination in a very close match. At the same time EG was upset by Singapore team, GBR Grudg3. This left 3D with SK.swe on the same side of the bracket and mibr and The Titans on the other side of the bracket.

With a map draw of Train, Inferno and Dust2, 3D’s only chance seem to be if they could come out strong on Train and hope to grab one of the next two maps. SK.swe is notoriously a terrible team on Train having played extremely poorly and often barely scrapping out wins. Their offensive strats normally left a lot to be desired and they didn’t have the AWP players to hold off strong American and European AWP heavy teams.

To the surprise of everyone the opposite happened. 3D came out flat, while SK.swe looked perfect on offensive. With three plants in the outer bomb site and four plants in the inner bomb site, SK.swe worked both bomb sites perfectly and split the upper bomb site from ladder and alley with great timing for a 10-2 first half lead. 3D on the other hand couldn’t penetrate inner site effectively allowing SK.swe to come on with quick flanks and over rotate help from the inner bomb site. Faced with a huge hole to climb out of, 3D was doomed and looked on the ropes heading into the next two maps with SK only needing one win.

3D fought through the first map loss and dominated the offensive play of the first half of Inferno. Jumping on SK.swe early, 3D earned a 6-0 lead before two very slow pushes in the banana bomb site allowed SK.swe again to over rotate and flank. Using that momentum to build up four rounds for a 4-6 score, 3D almost squandered an early advantage to allow SK back in the game. Then, three huge plays in three rounds happened.

The first was a three versus one win by Dave “moto” Geffon after 3D smartly faked the banana bomb site, which they had over attacked and planted. Even with that smart play Geffon saved the round, just like Sal “volcano” Garozzo did in the second round. Garozzo followed up Geffon’s play with his own three versus one win after a banana bomb site rush was decimated by SK.swe. That play-making move made it 8-4.

3D didn’t look good in gaining that lead needing those two huge plays to keep it from a 6-6 score. Still, fate appeared to be on their side after the opening round win of the second half. SK rushed middle and decimated 3D’s defense that was sitting there waiting for a hallway rush. All that was left was Geffon who had been boosted on the box in the back of the bomb site. He fell back behind the box and was stuck.

SK went to plant the bomb in the usual spot, exposed to Geffon behind the box. He fragged the planter and another guy who was watching. SK.swe’s remaining two members were confused and didn’t know where Geffon was. Eliminating the remaining two, he won the round and gave 3D the match. 3D ran it out to a 4-0 second half score, 12-4 overall, before SK.swe responded winning two good gun rounds and two saves before 3D closed it out.

The final map was upon us and SK looked completely without momentum after Geffon’s huge round. Still, they came out and won the pistol round before 3D did an ordinary catwalk rush on its second round save. They manage to win as SK didn’t throw grenades and was overrun. After that SK.swe never seems to believe they were going to win. 3D continued to attack bomb site A from catwalk and long A until SK.swe finally stacked it to win its second round of the first half.

That round would be it as 3D put up a 10-2 score playing perfect offensive attacks and exposing a very weak bomb site A defense by SK.swe. Still, SK.swe wasn’t out of it rebounding from an opening round second half loss to win its own save round. They rushed long A and caught 3D off guard who didn’t rotate at all, expecting a fake in bomb site B that never came.

SK would push it to a 5-1 score in the second half before 3D finally put the stake in by grabbing two rounds on failed rushes by the Swedes. 3D would then watch as The Titans beat MaveN. 3D followed up the SK.swe victory with a championship victory over The Titans, 13-4 and 22-20 double overtime. While the championship win was an impressive match, this match really decided everything and had a huge impact on the future.

Players and fans may disagree with me, but I think this loss and the MaveN loss had to account for some of the turmoil inside of SK later in the year. That caused them to break up and become NiP. 3D also saw huge changes winning the next WCG and entering the Hall of Fame of WCG for their performances.