WinOut

The West Edmonton Mall, North America's largest mall, hosted this weekend the Intel Extreme Masters American Finals, featuring eight (8) of North America's top Counter-Strike teams fighting over 30,000$ and the two IEM Global Finals spots awarded to the winners and finalists. Along the CS tournament, the event showcased some top tier QuakeLive and World of Warcraft players also competing in their respective games. With names like EG, compLexity and Sway in attendance, IEM Edmonton promised to deliver an entertaining week-end.

In Group A, Evil Geniuses and the former DINC.ca squad, now playing under the Blight organization, were the strong favorites. As expected, both teams finished first and second in the group respectively. EG went undefeated, boasting an impressive 53 round differential, their closest game being a 21-9 win over Blight on de_inferno. The other two Canadian teams in the group, Kindred and Berserk, both long shots in this tournament, did not stand a chance in their matches against the favorites, enjoying their only close game when playing each other in a 16-14 nail-biter on dust2.

If on one hand Group A seemed to be a lock for EG, group B looked like it could potentially offer a challenge to compLexity, the early favorites. With strong teams in both of Sway and Exigent, coL would have to keep on their toes and make sure they finished on top, in order not to face EG in the semi-finals, as the second place finisher in this group was to play the first place from group A.

While coL stomped over NERDSMASHERS, who were added into the tournament as a late replacement, Sway and Exigent fought it out on de_tuscan, with the Canadians taking a considerable lead in the first half, but almost crumbling in the second and barely managing to seal off what should have been an easy win at that point. In the next set of matches, coL would play Sway on de_nuke, a map on which the Americans have seemed to struggle this week-end. As they did on tuscan, Sway took an early lead and by half, with Sway up 11-4, it looked like an uphill climb for Drew and the coL boys. Again, just as they did in their first match, the Canadian side was unimpressive in their second half and compLexity managed to mount a comeback and take the lead back during the 28th round. With this game in their favor, coL went on to play Exigent, securing a 18-12 victory on de_train and therefore managing to stay clear of any confrontation against EG prior to the finals.

Both paired against a Canadian team in their semi-final best of three series, EG and compLexity looked good and avoided major blunders, quickly advancing in dominating fashion, two maps to nothing. A match-up that was predicted by most, prior to the event, the American favorites would face each other in the grand finals, having both already secured a trip to the Global Finals, held next March in Hannover, Germany, during CeBIT. They would however be fighting over the title of ESL IEM American Champions and a $15,000 first place prize.

Heading into the finals, most predicted a close match-up between the top two teams in North America.
Much to everyone's surprise, EG came out in spectacular fashion, winning in two quick maps and giving only 12 rounds to their opponents in the process. The first game, played on de_nuke, looked pretty even going into half time, with coL picking up 5 rounds on their T side. Suddenly, everything seemingly fell apart for them, with EG outplaying coL all over the map and swiftly closing the first map by 16-8. On de_train, the second map, we got to see more of the same EG domination, starting with them taking a solid 11-4 lead on their ct side, which they quickly converted in the following half, winning the first five of their offense rounds, securing a convincing 16-4 win and confirming them as the 2009 Intel Extreme Masters American Champions. Storm, n0thing, fRoD, lurppis and gfn walk away with a berth to the Global Finals, fifteen thousand dollars and a serious argument for their claim as North America's number one team.

1. Evil Geniuses - $15,000 + spot in World Finals
2. compLexity - $7,000 + spot in World Finals
3. Blight - $3,000
4. Sway - $1,500