France have secured a place in the World Championships grand final after a 2-0 victory over Russia (de_cbble 19-16, de_mirage 16-11).
Same as in the first semi-final of Sweden and Poland, the first map of the French-Russian series was de_cbble with Russia picking up three rounds on the back of a pistol round as Counter-Terrorists.
France quickly got back and equalized the map at 3-3 before Russia secured two more coupled with a forcebuy. Nathan "NBK-" Schmitt's triple in an eco round surprised their opponents and it started a string of rounds for the Frenchmen.
That was alive for four rounds straight, as France continued to rack up economy, but Egor "flamie" Vasilyev's four-kill round stopped it for a 8-7 scoreline in favor of NBK- and company.
Out of the first four rounds of the second half, France managed to secure three for 11-8, but Russia replied with three of their own, much thanks to surviving a scary forcebuy in a 2-on-2.
France got back on the horse in the following three rounds after stacking B a couple of times, but the back-and-forth trend continued. Denis "seized" Kostin's 1-on-1 clutch and a 2-on-4 victory tied the game up at 14-14 again before the teams split the last two rounds for overtime.
SmithZz had a good showing on de_mirage
There, France picked up all three rounds as Counter-Terrorists and had little to no problems closing de_cbble out at 19-16 before the map switched to de_mirage.
Russia once again was the one to pick up a quick 3-0 lead after securing the initial pistol, this time as Terrorists, and kept on going even after a lost first gunround up until 6-1.
France did pick up one more in between, but it was at a cost of three on the side of Russia, in one of which Dmitry "hooch" Bogdanov was able to clutch a late 1-on-1. France started to climb back at 9-2, as Edouard "SmithZz" Dubourdeaux started stepping up and helped his team secure all four remaining rounds to keep hope alive.
The second pistol allowed them to tie the game at 9-9, and they pretty much repeated Russia's feat towards the beginning after surviving a scary 1-on-3 attempt by Georgi "WorldEdit" Yaskin.
This time around though they weren't stopped for longer than on the first side, also thanks to Vincent "Happy" Schopenhauer's 1-on-2 save against ego for 14-10 in his team's favor. Richard "shox" Papillon's double in a 2-on-3 afterplant from link put one of the last nails in Russia's coffin and France could celebrate advancing to the grand final only two rounds afterwards at 16-11.
World Championships 2015Best of 3 RussiaMatchpage 0 2 11th October 2015 France 16Cobblestone 19 11Mirage 16
Russia
K - D
+/-
ADR
Rating 1.0
Egor 'flamie' Vasilyevflamie
51 - 49
+2
-
1.04
Denis 'seized' Kostinseized
44 - 46
-2
-
0.97
Georgi 'WorldEdit' YaskinWorldEdit
43 - 43
0
-
0.91
Dmitry 'hooch' Bogdanovhooch
39 - 48
-9
-
0.83
Mihail 'Dosia' StolyarovDosia
38 - 47
-9
-
0.82
France
K - D
+/-
ADR
Rating 1.0
Vincent 'Happy' SchopenhauerHappy
58 - 40
+18
-
1.29
Edouard 'SmithZz' DubourdeauxSmithZz
50 - 39
+11
-
1.15
Nathan 'NBK-' SchmittNBK-
39 - 40
-1
-
0.96
Richard 'shox' Papillonshox
44 - 46
-2
-
0.95
Dan 'apEX' MadesclaireapEX
41 - 51
-10
-
0.80
France will now meet Poland in the best-of-five World Championships grand final, keep in mind that the third place decider will not take place as the teams agreed to split prizemoney.