EPG Family, the recent ESEA Premier champions, were on the road to adding another notch to their belt with a clean run at Spring Sweet Spring. Dmitry "hooch" Bogdanov’s men were going into the grand final with a 6-0 record in the tournament and a broader 11-match winning streak, but FORZE spoiled their countrymen’s plans by taking the final three-map thriller, which ended in the 30th round of the decider map, to win the title. This grand final victory puts the squad led by Andrey "Jerry" Mekhryakov through to the LAN Sweet LAN tournament, where a plethora of winners from the same tournament series will face off in Belgrade, including Snow Sweet Snow frontrunners MOUZ, HAVU and FunPlus Phoenix, with the initial tentative dates aiming at it taking place next February. A 1vs2 by FL1T in the decider map's last round gave forZe the victory The grand final series started on Overpass, EPG Family's pick, although it was FORZE who got ahead on the CT side. EPG Family quickly tied it up before a back-and-forth series of rounds ensued, although they finally took the three last rounds before the half. FORZE brought the map back to a 12-12 tie with decisive offensives, but Aleksei "El1an" Gusev swung momentum in his team's favor with a four-kill round after which EPG Family went on to close out the map to take the lead in the series. EPG Family and FORZE brawled in the opening rounds of Mirage, with clutches by Aleksei "NickelBack" Trofimov and Almaz "almazer" Asadullin swinging momentum back-and-forth like a pendulum, although it was the squad under the orders of hooch who were able to run away initially, leading 7-3. An impressive comeback put FORZE on top at the half, however, as they chained five rounds in a row before switching sides. On the CT side FORZE continued to throw their weight around and ran away with their pick, 16-10, to force a third map. It appeared as though FORZE were going to be able to bring their CT-side momentum to Dust2, going up 3-0, but EPG Family turned the tables in the early rounds, winning five in a row, although they again ran out of steam as Aleksandr "zorte" Zagodyrenko and co. took the remaining rounds in a 10-5 half. A quick five in a row by EPG Family tied things up going into the last 10 rounds of the series, but they failed to keep the pace and fell behind, 11-15. EPG Family made a last stand heroic attempt at sending the map to overtime, but a 1vs2 clutch by Evgenii "FL1T" Lebedev with seconds left in the final round of regulation sealed the deal for his team to win the title. Spring Sweet Spring 1Best of 3 EPG Family Matchpage 1 2 5th May 2021  FORZE 16Overpass 13 10Mirage 16 14Dust2 16 Igor 'Forester' BezotecheskiyForester | 61 - 55 | +6 | 82.7 | 1.15 | Vladislav 'Krad' KravchenkoKrad | 67 - 64 | +3 | 84.9 | 1.09 | Aleksei 'El1an' GusevEl1an | 58 - 53 | +5 | 72.1 | 1.06 | Aleksei 'NickelBack' TrofimovNickelBack | 48 - 58 | -10 | 67.3 | 0.96 | Viktor 'Lack1' BoldyrevLack1 | 44 - 57 | -13 | 58.8 | 0.85 |
Evgenii 'FL1T' LebedevFL1T | 70 - 59 | +11 | 84.5 | 1.18 | Almaz 'almazer' Asadullinalmazer | 62 - 56 | +6 | 75.2 | 1.14 | Andrey 'Jerry' MekhryakovJerry | 58 - 54 | +4 | 80.5 | 1.10 | Aleksandr 'zorte' Zagodyrenkozorte | 56 - 54 | +2 | 70.0 | 1.10 | Aleksandr 'KENSI' GurkinKENSI | 41 - 56 | -15 | 55.0 | 0.79 |
The Spring Sweet Spring 1 final standings are: 1. FORZE - $44,000 + LAN Sweet LAN 2. EPG Family - $4,000 3-4. fnatic 3-4. FURIA 5-8. ENCE 5-8. EXTREMUM - $4,000 5-8. Spirit 5-8. SINNERS - $4,000 9-12. SKADE - $6,000 9-12. AGO - $3,000 9-12. K23 - $6,000 9-12. Lyngby Vikings - $6,000 13-15. Extra Salt 13-15. Apeks 13-15. Fiend - $3,000 16-18. MAD Lions - $3,000 16-18. Copenhagen Flames 16-18. Case - $3,000 19-20. Izako Boars - $3,000 19-20. Young Ninjas - $3,000 21-23. AGF - $1,000 21-23. LDLC - $1,000 21-23. Galaxy Racer - $1,000 24-26. EC Brugge - $1,000 24-26. Nordavind - $1,000 24-26. M1 - $1,000 27-28. EC Kyiv - $1,000 27-28. Ambush - $1,000
The LAN Sweet LAN team list so far is: FunPlus Phoenix
HAVU
MOUZ
FORZE
Spring Sweet Spring #2
Spring Sweet Spring #3
Invite #1
Invite #2 Sun Sweet Sun #1
Sun Sweet Sun #2
Sun Sweet Sun #3
Fall Sweet Fall #1
Fall Sweet Fall #2
Fall Sweet Fall #3
Invite #3
Invite #4  HAVU #17  Jani 'Aerial' Jussila Sami 'xseveN' Laasanen Lasse 'ZOREE' Uronen Olli 'sLowi' Pitkänen Jemi 'jemi' Mäkinen   Case #67   Paulo 'land1n' Felipe Denis 'dzt' Fischer Felipe 'delboNi' Delboni Yan 'yepz' Pedretti Vinicius 'n1ssim' Pereira  Almaz 'almazer' Asadullin Age: 22 Team: FORZE Rating 1.0: 1.00 Maps played: 1152 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.65  ENCE #24  Aleksi 'allu' Jalli Marco 'Snappi' Pfeiffer Joonas 'doto' Forss Paweł 'dycha' Dycha Lotan 'Spinx' Giladi  MOUZ #14  Christopher 'dexter' Nong David 'frozen' Čerňanský Frederik 'acoR' Gyldstrand Robin 'ropz' Kool Aurimas 'Bymas' Pipiras  Extra Salt #19  Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou Josh 'oSee' Ohm Justin 'FaNg' Coakley  FORZE #25  Almaz 'almazer' Asadullin Evgenii 'FL1T' Lebedev Andrey 'Jerry' Mekhryakov Aleksandr 'zorte' Zagodyrenko Aleksandr 'KENSI' Gurkin  Fiend #58  Kamen 'bubble' Kostadinov Viktor 'v1c7oR' Dyankov Simeon 'dream3r' Ganev Martin 'mar' Kuyumdjiev Hristiyan 'REDSTAR' Pironkov   Apeks #51   Dennis 'dennis' Edman Fredrik 'FREDDyFROG' Gustafsson Joakim 'Relaxa' Gustafsson Rasmus 'kreaz' Johansson Sander 'Grus' Iversen  FunPlus Phoenix #15  Jesse 'zehN' Linjala Luka 'emi' Vuković Martin 'STYKO' Styk Pavle 'Maden' Bošković Asger 'Farlig' Jensen  M1 #128  Michał 'Czapel' Czapla Dominik 'fanatyk' Barkiet Brajan 'DGL' Lemecha Olaf 'Olfii' Tyszkiewicz Maciej 'b1elany' Biliński   Young Ninjas #47   Anton 'Sapec' Palmgren Love 'phzy' Smidebrant Linus 'LNZ' Holtäng Linus 'nilo' Bergman Tim 'Mann3n' Isak  Nordavind #39  Jesper 'TENZKI' Plougmann Kevin 'HS' Tarn Daniel 'mertz' Mertz Sabit 'mirbit' Coktasar Anton 'supra' Tšernobai  SKADE #20  Georgi 'SHiPZ' Grigorov Denislav 'dennyslaw' Dimitrov Viktor 'Duplicate' Mitev Aleks 'Rainwaker' Petrov Blagoi 'oxygeN' Dimitrov  Copenhagen Flames #46  Asger 'AcilioN' Larsen Magnus 'Nodios' Olsen Nico 'nicoodoz' Tamjidi Jakob 'jabbi' Nygaard  Aleksei 'El1an' Gusev Age: 21 Team: EPG Family Rating 1.0: 1.13 Maps played: 892 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.62  Izako Boars #54  Michał 'mono' Gabszewicz Mateusz 'TOAO' Zawistowski Daniel 'STOMP' Płomiński Kamil 'siuhy' Szkaradek Hubert 'szejn' Światły  EXTREMUM #34  Hansel 'BnTeT' Ferdinand Aaron 'AZR' Ward Joakim 'jkaem' Myrbostad Sean 'Gratisfaction' Kaiwai Jay 'Liazz' Tregillgas  Andrey 'Jerry' Mekhryakov Age: 22 Team: FORZE Rating 1.0: 1.00 Maps played: 1237 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.67  EPG Family #21  Aleksei 'NickelBack' Trofimov Vladislav 'Krad' Kravchenko Viktor 'Lack1' Boldyrev Aleksei 'El1an' Gusev Igor 'Forester' Bezotecheskiy  FunPlus Phoenix #15  Jesse 'zehN' Linjala Martin 'STYKO' Styk Pavle 'Maden' Bošković Asger 'Farlig' Jensen  Galaxy Racer #60  Joakim 'disco doplan' Gidetun Niclas 'PlesseN' Plessen Adam 'dezon' Wahlqvist Hugo 'chawzyyy' Günther Joel 'joel' Holmlund  AGF #74  Martin 'PERCY' Wessel Thomas 'Ryxxo' Nielsen Lucas 'Lukki' Pilheden Magnus 'Frøslev' Frøslev Casper 'Cabbi' Jensen  Aleksei 'NickelBack' Trofimov Age: 23 Team: EPG Family Rating 1.0: 0.99 Maps played: 980 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.67  SINNERS #29  Tomáš 'oskar' Šťastný Jindřich 'ZEDKO' Chyba Sebastian 'beastik' Daňo Max 'SHOCK' Kvapil Adam 'NEOFRAG' Zouhar  Aleksandr 'zorte' Zagodyrenko Age: 22 Team: FORZE Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 403 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.63   Spirit #11   Leonid 'chopper' Vishnyakov Nikolay 'mir' Bityukov Viktor 'sdy' Orudzhev Abdul 'degster' Gasanov Boris 'magixx' Vorobiev   EC Brugge #72   Mateusz 'matty' Kołodziejczyk Steven 'Stev0se' Rombaut Robin 'simix' Bynens Richard 'ritchiEE' Mestdagh Mateusz 'n0tice' Wolniak   LDLC #48   Christophe 'SIXER' Xia Lambert 'Lambert' Prigent Ali 'hAdji' Haïnouss Bryan 'Maka' Canda Nicolas 'Keoz' Dgus  MAD Lions #68  Thomas 'TMB' Bundsbæk Filip 'tudsoN' Tudev Volodymyr 'Woro2k' Veletniuk Pere 'sausol' Solsona Saumell Justinas 'jL' Lekavicius  Dmitry 'hooch' Bogdanov Age: 34 Team: EPG FamilyC  EC Kyiv #90  Oleksandr 'Smash' Turchyn Yaroslav 'byr9' Buryak Kyrylo 's4ltovsk1yy' Lytvynov Denys 'amster' Liashenko   K23 #38   Dauren 'AdreN' Kystaubayev Rustem 'mou' Telepov Sanzhar 'neaLaN' Iskhakov David 'n0rb3r7' Danielyan Petr 'fame' Bolyshev  AGO #33  Karol 'rallen' Rodowicz Paweł 'reatz' Jańczak Damian 'Furlan' Kislowski Michał 'snatchie' Rudzki Maciej 'F1KU' Miklas  Lyngby Vikings #52  Rasmus 'raalz' Steensborg Guy 'anarkez' Trachtman Dion 'FASHR' Derksen Thomas 'birdfromsky' Due-Frederiksen Hannes 'hns' Johansson  FURIA #7  Andrei 'arT' Piovezan Yuri 'yuurih' Santos Vinicius 'VINI' Figueiredo Paytyn 'junior' Johnson Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato  Evgenii 'FL1T' Lebedev Age: 20 Team: FORZE Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 1005 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.65  fnatic #26  Jesper 'JW' Wecksell Freddy 'KRIMZ' Johansson Maikil 'Golden' Selim Ludvig 'Brollan' Brolin Jack 'Jackinho' Ström Mattsson  Ambush #139  Sébastien 'SBT' Sabbadin Damien 'wasiNk' Dufour Kilian 'Gringo' Garcia Aymeric 'SoneSb' Petit Emre 'EMZ' Eryoruk |