Team Pandemic - News - Pandemic wins ESL EMS Group

Last Sunday, Pandemic secured top honors in the fourth group of the ESL EMS II Group Stage, sweeping the field with victories over Polish powerhouse Total Llamas and a pair of Scandinavian sensations: the blistering Swedes Kompaniet, once considered the top clan in Europe by some, and Finland's top squad, Clan United.

The 2-0 (3-2 cp_well, 6-4 cp_granary) victory over United capped Pandemic's run to secure one of the top four seeds in the upcoming ESL EMS tournament, the final stage of the competition set to begin mid-May where the top eight teams from across the world will battle until just one champion remains.

While the match against Kompaniet lasted three maps, after cp_granary the games ended quite lopsided as Pandemic showed the world that cp_gravelpit is truly an American map followed by an epic 6-1 win on cp_badlands, the only round loss coming on a lagout by Medic Mike "Dion" Powell.

With the Swedes out of the way, it was a simple matter to take on Poland's best, Total Llamas. While tl managed to grab the first score on both ctf_turbine and cp_badlands, that's all the luck they could muster as Pandemic shut them down on all fronts.

That left the big finale for control of the group and a gauranteed spot in bracket play up next agianst Finnish dynamos Clan United.

"We knew United would be a tough opponents," stated Pandemic captain Adam "Reptile" Dopko, "but as long as we weathered the early storm and adjusted to the high ping, we knew we'd be able to surprise them."

"I was expecting it to be a tough game, and that's certainly what we got," said United's own leader, Juho "Moose" Pättö, after the series. "On cp_well, it felt like we had the Pandemic guys pressed against the wall but we made a couple of bad mistakes and Pandemic wasted no time in taking the advantage from those. The second round in particular saddens me since we were attacking their last CP and still managed to lose it."

United pulled ahead 2-1 on cp_well, narrowly missing out on taking a 3-0 lead with that close second round, but in the end Pandemic pulled through thanks to a strong team effort, doing what they do best - winning matches.

That put cp_granary up next, a map Pandemic has struggled on recently as evidenced by their loss to Kompaniet on it two weeks ago.

"Since cp_well was such a tight game and Kompaniet had already beaten Pandemic on cp_granary, we thought that we'd certainly have a chance in it since we beat Kompaniet pretty big on the same map recently," said Pättö, "Not that we were expecting it to be easy or anything, just that we have a chance to win if we play well!"

That sentiment was evidenced by a pre-round comment asking about the cp_gravelpit stopwatch rules, showing perhaps United was a bit too confident for a map on which they felt strong.

Pandemic, though, would be the ones to strike first, maintaing a one-round advantage through much of the game. Some adjustments by United, though, centering more of their attack at garage side, allowed them to even the game up at 4-4 as time ran out.

"I think Pandemic adapted to our change during the small break before overtime," remembered Pättö, "since we had absolutely no chance in the two rounds that were still played. All in all I'd say that they have very solid teamplay to compensate for those high pings that they have on the Euro servers. Very enjoyable and tight match, great game!"

Box Score

ESL EMS II Group Stage

cp_well, cp_granary

Pandemic
dummy - oPlaiD - axe - dion - reptile - jmitchell

United
moose - jambo - humis - H4wk - ReVe - snifz

Demo: oPlaiD POV

While United may be down, they're certainly not out: their second place position in the group should be enough to carry them into the bracket as well, albeit into a matchup against a top seed like Fracture, Four Kings, or Excello.

For Pandemic, action will start again in two weeks on May 11th against an as of yet undetermined opponent.

Stay tuned for more updates from ESL EMS as Pandemic continues their effort for American glory in Europe, including a group stage analysis and bracket play predictions later this week.