Given a different seeding structure, this match would have taken place far later in the tournament. Both g3x and EG cruised through their single elimination matches and had high expectations coming into upper round one. I'm sure neither team was particularly happy to receive such a tough first round draw, yet both teams were equally confident in their ability to advance to upper round two.

The match began with EG taking the opening pistol round. g3x was able to plant the bomb and secure enough frags to surprise buy next round. Round two saw g3x's surprise buy come down to a 1v1. With less then 8 seconds left in the round, and a g3x player in proximity of the bomb, EG's Lari was placed in a tough position. He could run away and opt to let the g3x player try and plant before time, or he could gamble and try to frag the g3x player while he planted. Lari took the latter option and came up empty handed as the g3x player elected to wait for Lari to peek rather then plant.

EG saved the next round, bringing the score to 2-1 in favor of g3x. Round four saw EG save again but this time managed to win their eco round following a series of favorable frags. As the match progressed the teams traded rounds and hit a crucial turning point in round 8. The round boiled down to a 2v2 with the bomb planted in the lower bombsite. EG's da bears and blackpanther rotated through vents and down the rafters’ ladder respectively and prepared to retake the site. The two coordinated their attack effectively, each picking up a frag and winning the round bringing the match score to 6-3 in favor of EG.

EG was able to use this round as a catalyst and took control of the game tempo by shutting a series of different g3x attacks. The Brazilians were able to turn the tide at the end of the half and take a pair of rounds from EG to make the score 10-5 in favor of EG.

The second half started off with g3x taking the opening pistol round definitively as g3x's ali picked up 4 frags. g3x won the following anti-eco round and managed to shut down EG's 3rd round buy. g3x was firmly in control of the second half.

EG had a spectacular save on round 4 as they managed to get the bomb down in the upper bombsite, and force g3x into a 2v1. gau rotated from ramp room up the rafters ladder quickly and managed to frag an EG player just as he finished planting the bomb. gau picked up the second frag with a headshot and jumped down from the rafters to defuse the bomb and win the round.

The fifth round featured EG's second gun round of the half. The team started off the round by looking for pickoffs. EG's Lin placed an AWP towards ramp room and aimed to the left of the cluster of boxes. g3x's pava spotted Lin, smoked his line of fire, and then spammed with an M4A1 into the general area of Lin. pava scored a headshot against Lin who was baffled by the unlucky situation. The half would continue unfavorably for Lin as neither he nor da bears picked up a frag until after round 7.

This trend of being picked off by g3x while searching for pickoffs continued throughout the entire half. g3x's ability to shut down EG's inside rush forced the team to try other tactics. Yet each time EG tried to slow play an area g3x would get the opening frag and force EG to turn towards the opposite direction and attack another chokepoint with weaker numbers. EG failed to pickup on the fallacy of their pickoff strategies and I believe it cost them the half, if not the match.

g3x continued their streak of winning rounds until round 11 where they got restless. With the match on the line for EG, the Canadians elected to do something they hadn't tried the entire half: spam and slow down. The strategy worked brilliantly as g3x got antsy and pushed their spots into a waiting EG. EG picked up their much needed first round of the half and hoped to win out forcing overtime.

Overtime did not come. EG tried a similar strategy on round 12 looking for g3x to once again push up or show a hole in their defense. The Brazilians showed a great deal of patience and eventually forced the team into a tough situation with no more then 30 seconds left in the round. g3x closed off the match by fragging EG's Stevenson.