Brazil’s Tempo Storm preserved a brilliant start to their 2016 season as the team won their first international Counter Strike: Global Offensive tournament after they defeated SK Gaming by 2-1 in the CEVO Gfinity Season 9 final.
Making a break for it early at de_Cache, Tempo took the lead and pummeled SK Gaming with speed and dominance. It was 14:1 before the break and after that they merely needed to hold on to close the set at 16:5.
The second set was more even in de_Dust2, as both teams mirrored each other’s to get 7:8 at both halves, and pushed the game into overtime. Tempo then shook off their doubts to take it 4:2 in overtime.
SK Gaming then started the third set with their map pick of de_Mirage, taking the terrorist side to pull ahead by a score of 9:6 in the first half, giving Tempo Storm a run for their money. After that, they continue their momentum for a 7:3 second-half win and took the game to rubber.
If anything, it seemed to embolden Tempo. The Brazillians immediately blitzed to 13:2 in the final set and appeared intent on proving who the better Terrorists team was. Like in the first set, the Danish team was completely thrown off-balance, but managed to hold on to rally a bit before Tempo sealed the deal at 16:8.
This was twice that Tempo defeated SK gaming in the same tournament, after the team defeated SK and Team Dignitas 2-0 and 2-1 respectively and advancing to a semifinal clash against one of the other tournament favorites, Virtus Pro.
Along the way to the final, Tempo had a five map thriller against Virtus Pro, while SK dismantled Hellraisers by 3-0.
But it was also not unfortunate for Tempo that the lineup of teams appear lacking.
Big timers such as Fnatic, Luminosity Gaming and Natus Vincere – the latter of which withdrew from the tournament – were glaringly absent. Still, it does not discount the effort in which Tempo displayed to overcome Virtus Pro and SK Gaming.