Gambit Esports won this year’s Intel Extreme Masters World Championship.
Gambit Esports won the $400,000 grand prize today at IEM Katowice by defeating Virtus.Pro (VP). This is the biggest win for the organization since their incredible victory over Immortals at PGL Krakow back in 2017. Gambit played four rounds in total at the best-of-five grand finals against VP and won with three consecutive map wins.
At first Gambit was in trouble after losing their first map Vertigo 14-16. At this time VP seemed to be positioned for a clear win but the game changed in the second round. Gambit made a comeback by dominating Dust2 with a 16-6 score.
After tying the series 1-1, Gambit picked the Train map and proceeded to gain the upper hand. Abay “Hobbit” Khassenov stepped up for Gambit and secured a solid opening to the round on the offense. Gambit swept Virtus.Pro in Train with the final score of 16-4.
Hobbit’s major numbers continued throughout this grand final, helping to secure the lead for Gambit on Overpass. Hobbit’s 19 kills in the first half setup Gambit with an 11-4 lead. This gave the impression of another one-sided triumph in their favor in the fourth round. Regardless of VP’s best attempt at making a comeback, Gambit secured victory and ended the series 16-12.
This Gambit roster appropriately dropped the Youngsters title in October when they were promoted from the academy squad. This is the biggest win for this roster and has placed them at the top of the BLAST Premier Global Leaderboard.
Gambit will be competing in the ESL Pro League Season 13 and the Pinnacle Cup next week.
Feature Image: Gambit Esports
