"Champions are not men who never fail, but men who never quit".

If you look at what  MYM.cs did in this weeks ESWC Grand Finals in San Jose, those words hold more truth than anyone would expect. Going out of an initial group stage with a defeat against Virtus.Pro, the Polish side looked far from a team that could win the event.

In fact, the team looked like they had to dodge more than one bullet to proceed from the 2nd groupstage. And so they did. After an initial victory against x3o, MYM faced longtime rivals from mTw. The Danes were yet to win against the Polish side in an International top-event, and as NEo and his companions took 5 straight rounds, mTw looked like they could be heading home early.

kuben worried about the team's performance in day 1

The Danish team is not the KODE5 and ESWC Masters champions for nothing though, and swung back into the game, eventually winning 16-10. As mTw was had been defeated by x3o earlier in the groupstage, there was a 3-way tie. The American team got the shortest straw, busting out of the tournament due to round-differences, while MYM dodged their first bullet.

As MYM had less rounds than mTw, the Polish team placed 2nd in the group, thus they had to meet emuLate in their Quarter-final. Meanwhile, mTw had drawn fnatic in their match, getting the hardest possible way to a Grand Final.

"I can dodge (more) bullets baby"
Pitted against  emuLate, MYM fell completely apart on the first map. According to team-captain TaZ, the team's performance on de_dust2 was caused by to little warmup and problems getting used to the 6ms-screens after playing on the stage. On the 2nd map, emuLate had the game in their hands, but missed the chance to close the match as MYM dodged their second bullet.

Due to illegal pauses and unpauses / flashbug, the ground-admin gave MYM the map-victory, sending the game to a third and deciding map. The controversy that evolved around the episode was very alike to the "duckjump"-episode at WCG, only this time the admins cut through and stood by the rules. Going into the third map, MYM had been boosted by their miracle revival, giving them a big advantage.

The Polish side simply destroyed the Frenchmen on the third map, clinching a berth into the Semi-final against  Mousesports. At this point, anyone who looked at the MYM-squad would reckognize the attitude they had when they won in 2007. The energetic and confident positure, the evergoing shouts between the team and the signature KURWA-chants - everything was back. For the first time since their ESWC 2007-triumph, MYM seemed to be back in shape.

And the Mice got to experience that first hand. For the first time in ESWC-history, a team was shut out in the playoffs. Simply shut out. Mousesports didn't get any rounds on the scoreboard on the first map against MYM. The de_train defense set up by the Poles was a prime example of how to shut your opponent down - and remove their confidence. Mousesports looked like a bunch of drowned cats, as they proceeded to the 2nd map, seemingly asking themselves the question "why was it exactly us who had to witness the revitalization of that team?". On the second map, Mouz didn't have much to bring to the table and MYM could proceed to the Grand Final without much problems.

Going into the Grand Final, MYM looked reliefed. As if the pressure they had been enduring with since MYM picked them up had suddenly worn off. The Grand Final proved to be one of the most exciting ever as the three-map system gave the audience all the drama they would have wanted. 88 out of 90 rounds had to be used before MYM could be crowned as ESWC champion - for the second time in a row.

Here at myMYM.com we would like to congratulate our CounterStrike-boys with their fantastic performance and their historical victory! For all the fans of the team we are going to have a very special event in the next few days to celebrate the victory for the team! So keep an eye out myMYM.com for more stuff with the Polish guys.

MYM celebrates the ESWC victory

To find a complete overview over ESWC go to the official myMYM ESWC coverage.

myMYM.com ESWC Grand Finals Coverage