by CR4ZY avenged their defeat against North on July 21 and claimed the second direct promotion to StarLadder Berlin Major 2019 alongside mousesports, with both qualifiers suffering only a single defeat at the Europe Minor Championship.
CR4ZY established themselves as a real contender for a Berlin Major spot following their perfect run in the group stage, where they took down Sprout 16-13 and then beat NoChance 2-0 in the winners’ game. They met their match in the semi-finals, however, falling to North on both Inferno (12-16) and Train (9-16).
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That defeat put CR4ZY into the losers’ bracket, where they faced Fnatic in the first round. The Serbs came out with all guns blazing and dismantled their North American opponents with a 16-13 score on both Train and Dust II to advance to the losers’ final.
There, they renewed hostilities with North, who had suffered a 2-0 defeat to mousesports in the winners’ final the day before. Tensions were high, as the match would not only decide which team joined mousesports in the Berlin Major, it would also give CR4ZY a chance to make North taste their own medicine.
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The losers’ finals took off on Mirage, where North jumped out to a 3-0 lead due to their seemingly impenetrable defence on the CT side. However, it did not take long for CR4ZY to break the Danish defence with a streak of great individual skill from Nemanja “nexa” Isakovic and Otto “ottoNd” Sihvo, who propelled their team into a dominant 10-5 lead before the teams switched sides.
The second half did not produce any surprises. CR4ZY maintained their momentum and proved they can defend just as well as they can attack, securing a 16-7 win only eight rounds after the break.
The second map of the series, Dust II, produced a back-and-forth fight between the two sides for the opening few rounds, but it was CR4ZY grabbed a 9-6 lead before the teams switched sides. Much of their success was due to the impressive performance of Nemanja “huNter” Kovac, who made sure he joined nexa and ottoNd as one of the key players that helped CR4ZY through the Berlin Major qualifiers.
With a smaller lead compared to that on Mirage, CR4ZY produced just as dominant a display as they did in the second half of the first map. Taking advantage of any mistake North made, CR4ZY won seven straight rounds to seal a 16-7 win and take the series 2-0.
With that, CR4ZY got not only a spot at the Berlin Major and $15,000 in prize money, they also got to avenge their defeat to North in the first round of playoffs. It’s also worth noting that nexa ended the finals as MVP with 46 kills, 20 deaths and 1.74 rating, which is well over his 1.14 rating average for 2019.
