AVANGAR top ECS Season 8 Europe week 1 over forZe

AVANGAR have secured the first week victory of ECS Season 8 after besting FORZE 2-1 in the grand final.

The first week of ECS Season 8 in Europe has drawn to a close as the eight-team tournament reached its conclusion following an all-CIS final which saw AVANGAR pitted against Russian side FORZE in a rematch of the recent BLAST Pro Series Moscow final.

AVANGAR had made their way to the final with victories over Virtus.pro and a fnatic side that had seen the return of Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist and Maikil "⁠Golden⁠" Selim. Meanwhile, FORZE had reached the final stage by taking down Ambush and Japaleno in the previous rounds.

Jame continued his fine run of form to end the series with a 1.68 rating

The grand final looked destined for a swift ending as AVANGAR took control of the series with a 16-9 showing on their map pick of Dust2. However, FORZE recomposed going into Inferno, where they grinded out a closely-contested 16-14 map win to force a decider.

As the series headed in the direction of Train, AVANGAR turned their game up a notch, locking down 12 rounds on the CT side in rapid fashion. Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali and his squad swiftly took the remaining four rounds on the offensive half to take a 16-3 map victory, and a 2-1 series win to top week one of ECS Season 8 Europe with $12,500 in winnings.

ECS Season 8 Europe Week 1Best of 3 AVANGARMatchpage 2 1 19th September 2019 FORZE 16Dust2 9 14Inferno 16 16Train 3

AVANGAR	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Dzhami 'Jame' AliJame	76 - 35	+41	103.3	1.68
Timur 'buster' Tulepovbuster	71 - 41	+30	93.1	1.44
Dauren 'AdreN' KystaubayevAdreN	52 - 48	+4	79.3	1.15
Sanjar 'SANJI' KulievSANJI	50 - 43	+7	71.5	1.13
Alexey 'Qikert' GolubevQikert	37 - 45	-8	60.4	0.92

FORZE	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Evgenii 'FL1T' LebedevFL1T	44 - 55	-11	71.5	0.99
Dmitriy 'facecrack' Alekseyevfacecrack	43 - 52	-9	69.8	0.91
Andrey 'Jerry' MekhryakovJerry	46 - 60	-14	74.3	0.90
Almaz 'almazer' Asadullinalmazer	43 - 64	-21	65.2	0.78
Bogdan 'xsepower' Chernikovxsepower	36 - 55	-19	51.2	0.72

AVANGAR have now taken a giant step towards securing the first European spot at the ECS Season 8 Finals, which will go to the team that accumulates the most prize money over the course of the first two $25,000 single-elimination online cups. After that, each weekly winner will automatically qualify for the main event.

Week 1 standings:

1. AVANGAR - $12,500
2. FORZE - $7,500
3-4. fnatic - $2,500
3-4. Japaleno - $2,500
5-8. Heretics
5-8. Virtus.pro
5-8. HEROIC
5-8. Ambush

Dzhami 'Jame' Ali Age: 21 Team: AVANGAR Rating 1.0: 1.14 Maps played: 642 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.56 fnatic #28 Robin 'flusha' RönnquistJesper 'JW' WecksellFreddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonMaikil 'Golden' SelimLudvig 'Brollan' Brolin FORZE #12 Dmitriy 'facecrack' AlekseyevAlmaz 'almazer' AsadullinEvgenii 'FL1T' LebedevBogdan 'xsepower' ChernikovAndrey 'Jerry' Mekhryakov Heretics #25 David 'Davidp' PrinsLogan 'LOGAN' CortiBryan 'Maka' CandaGaëtan 'JiNKZ' JaminJérémy 'jeyN' Nguyen Japaleno #76 Fredrik 'freddieb' BuöFredrik 'FREDDyFROG' GustafssonJoakim 'Relaxa' GustafssonNiclas 'PlesseN' PlessenDaniel 'djL' Narancic AVANGAR #4 Dauren 'AdreN' KystaubayevSanjar 'SANJI' KulievTimur 'buster' TulepovAlexey 'Qikert' GolubevDzhami 'Jame' Ali Maikil 'Golden' Selim Age: 25 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 0.93 Maps played: 498 KPR: 0.64 DPR: 0.70 Ambush #79 Danny 'BERRY' KrügerRasmus 'raalz' SteensborgThomas 'Ryxxo' NielsenMathias 'PR1mE' Carlsen Virtus.pro #90 Janusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiMichał 'MICHU' MüllerMichał 'snatchie' RudzkiTomasz 'phr' WójcikArek 'Vegi' Nawojski HEROIC #19 Marco 'Snappi' PfeifferPatrick 'es3tag' HansenJohannes 'b0RUP' BorupMartin 'stavn' LundBenjamin 'blameF' Bremer Robin 'flusha' Rönnquist Age: 26 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 1450 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.65