Swole Patrol and INTZ advance to WINNERS League Season 3 Invite Finals
The semifinals of WINNERS League Season 3 Invite have concluded, seeing Swole Patrol and INTZ advance to meet each other in the grand finals tonight.
On Wednesday, Swole Patrol managed to best Singularity over the course of a three-map series on Inferno, Overpass, and Mirage.
On Swole Patrol's map pick of Inferno, the season two champions immediately found themselves on the backfoot as Singularity rallied around Hunter "SicK" Mims, with the former Complexity player leading the server as Singularity won their CT-side 11-4. After switching sides, Singularity capitalized on their lead to quickly win the map 16-6.
Moving onto Overpass, an early AWP ace from Matthew "WARDELL" Yu seemingly empowered Swole Patrol as they played a strong CT-side, ending the half up 9-6. In the second half Singularity briefly claimed the lead before Swole Patrol overpowered them to win the map 16-11.
With the series tied up, Swole Patrol and Singularity played a close opening half on Mirage with Swole Patrol narrowly pulling ahead at the end to take it 8-7. Once the two teams switched sides, Singularity claimed the first two rounds to take the lead before a strong performance from Yassine "Subroza" Taoufik powered Swole Patrol to a 16-12 victory.
Moving onto last night's series, Riot Squad fell to INTZ after close loses on Mirage and Inferno, notably with Erick "Xeppaa" Bach standing-in for Riot Squad following the sudden departure of IGL Pujan "FNS" Mehta.
On Mirage, INTZ began their offensive effort up 4-0 before some individual heroics from Mitch "mitch" Semago and Austin "crashies" Roberts paved the way for Riot Squad to take the take the lead 7-5. However, a final T-side push from INTZ saw the Brazilians slip ahead and take the half 8-7.
On their T-side, Riot Squad looked to have an answer for INTZ as they won the first six rounds in a row to retake the lead and climb up to 13-8. With their map pick on the line INTZ pulled off a major rally, only allowing Riot Squad to win one more round to claim Mirage 16-14.
After a nail-biter of a map on Mirage, Inferno proved to be more one-sided for INTZ as Alexandre "xand" Zizi and co. powered ahead on their CT-side to win the half 10-5. After this, INTZ further entrenched their lead, winning the first four rounds in a row. Riot Squad tried to answer back with two rounds of their own however, they were unable to take the lead before INTZ closed out Inferno 16-11.
Tonight at 8PM EST, Swole and INTZ will face off in the grand finals to claim the $7,000 prize. Additionally, Braxton "swag" Pierce and Subroza look to claim their second WINNERS League title while INTZ will attempt to find their first win as a team since moving to North America back in September 2018.