Virtus.pro come out victorious at ESL ESEA Dubai Invitational after a nail-biting finish to a 3-2 series (de_overpass 13-16, de_train 16-7, de_dust2 3-16, de_cbble 16-7, de_mirage 16-14), taking $100,000 home, leaving TSM second with $60,000.
de_overpass was chosen by TSM to start the ESL ESEA Dubai Invitational grand final, and the Danes quickly got an edge with a flying 4-1 start as Counter-Terrorists, despite losing the first anti-eco.
Virtus.pro found a dent in TSM's defense at B, as in three of the following four attacks went that way with great success, and soon the score was equal at five all. As Paweł "byali" Bieliński was unable to turn a 1-on-2 into another round, TSM took the lead back and didn't stop afterwards to set the dhalftime score at a comfortable 10-5.
Another pistol round followed up by Virtus.pro's duel wins in the failed anti-eco by TSM afterwards resulted into Virtus.pro having a little room to breathe. That statement soon turned untrue, when the Danish side took three in a row after a Tec-9-powered forcebuy victory for 14-7.
Jarosław "pashaBiceps" Jarząbkowski then saved the day with a triple spraydown towards long, stopping TSM's attack, only for their opponents to take map point, and six at that, after another A attempt, that time successful.
Virtus.pro managed to delay for a few more rounds with a switch to agressive mode, as well as byali's 1-on-1 triumph, but they ended up being just short of a successful comeback at 16-13.
Everyone from TSM turned up for the first map
de_train was set to be map two of the grand final, picked by Virtus.pro naturally, who also got to the better start on the CT side, as TSM couldn't defend the Poles' retakes on the B bombsite after quickly swarming it twice in a row.
Off of Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth's and Nicolai "device" Reedtz's clutch plays, 1-on-1 and 1-on-2, their team picked up three rounds in a row. Virtus.pro started racking up bank afterwards though, thanks to clean defenses on both sites for an eventual 8-3, after Finn "karrigan" Andersen was unable to convert another clutch for a round.
Finally a quick attack towards the B bombsite got TSM back on the board for a fourth round, just for VP to take control again and finalize the half happily with a 11-4 scoreline.
A nearly copied B attack from Virtus.pro on the Terrorists side was met with a solid retake, but the following two anti-ecos/forcebuys were very costly for them, as both ended up in 1-on-1's. That meant Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski's triple on A broke his opponents' economy and soon after Filip "NEO" Kubski's 1-on-1 towards the end, we saw TSM losing de_train for the first time on LAN at 16-7.
de_dust2 followed and it was the team which picked the map, TSM on the CT side, to start off the better when VP weren't able to break into the B site from upper dark. Two anti-ecos and a solid retake passed and the Danish side was up 4-0 before VP took one in return.
From there it was back to TSM's reign over the defense, time and time again Virtus.pro's attempts everywhere on the map weren't enough to convert into a round win until it was 10-1.
There was a good reason for Snax to smile after Train, much less so during Dust2
A triple AWP attempt from Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas and company backfired horribly, but eventually two rounds got through for his side, but TSM was still happy to switch over with very comfortable 12 rounds on the defense.
A very Virtus.pro-esque attempt of agression in the second pistol was crushed to bits and pieces. Not much more than "another one bites de_dust" could've been said when duo Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen-device each passed 20 frags at 15-3, soon converted into 16-3 as none of VP's forcebuys worked.
Going over to de_cbble, the trend of map pickers winning initial pistol rounds continued. The duo of legend, TaZ and NEO combined with two doubles and a knife kill to make it 3-0 even when TSM tried to forcebuy after putting the bomb down.
A misplay on VP's side saw dupreeh and company force their way through solo defenders on the A site, and four more rounds went their way from the following five, partially thanks to device's triple in one of the crucial clutch rounds. From there on it was a Polish show up until the very last round of the half for 9-6.
TaZ's triple in the second pistol, plus a round where everyone from his team died, but still won the round, put VP up on 14-6, at which point nearly everything was decided. Snax continued with his stellar plays, and TSM failed to adapt to the Virtus plow on the B bombsite.
When they did, it was all too little too late, as they only picked up a single round throughout the entire round and that meant it went down to the wire to map five, de_mirage.
Xyp9x's miraculous turnaround wasn't enough for TSM to complete the comeback
TaZ's kitchen heroics in a B retake in the second pistol were crucial for VP to take the first pistol on the final map, and they also had little to no problems converting that to a 3-0. karrigan's Tec-9 triple then helped TSM lower the deficit to one round before VP set up for a double AWP.
That got them two entries in the following gunround, which TSM responded to with two successive B pushes, which were exchanged between the teams for a 5-3 score in favor of the Poles.
TSM couldn't deal with the AWPs in Virtus.pro's hands at all, as all of Snax, NEO and pashaBiceps, kept getting entries wherever the Danish side went, putting their side up 12-3 at halftime.
dupreeh's crucial double in the second pistol saved TSM from the otherwise inevitable, and solo kills from them in the first gunround helped them get within four rounds from Virtus.pro. Then pashaBiceps snuck from behind to widen the gap to five before TSM brought it back again.
Virtus.pro were in a similar situation to TSM when they were on the Terrorists side, nothing had worked for them up until it was all tied up at 13-13, when karrigan died in a crucial opening. Xyp9x's miraculous quad-kill saved the round for his team, but another opening in the following round tied it at 14 all again. It looked like Virtus.pro found a way through TSM's defense in the end though, as both remaining rounds went their way as in the last, dupreeh's team had no money for a chance at an overtime.
ESL ESEA Dubai Invitational 2015Best of 5 
TSM
Matchpage 2 3 12th September 2015 
Virtus.pro 16Overpass 13 7Train 16 16Dust2 3 7Cobblestone 16 14Mirage 16
| TSM | K - D | +/- | ADR | Rating 1.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nicolai 'device' Reedtzdevice | 103 - 85 | +18 | - | 1.09 |
| Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethXyp9x | 82 - 84 | -2 | - | 0.99 |
| Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussendupreeh | 76 - 86 | -10 | - | 0.91 |
| Finn 'karrigan' Andersenkarrigan | 71 - 92 | -21 | - | 0.85 |
| René 'cajunb' Borgcajunb | 73 - 85 | -12 | - | 0.84 |
| Virtus.pro | K - D | +/- | ADR | Rating 1.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Janusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiSnax | 100 - 84 | +16 | - | 1.16 |
| Jarosław 'pashaBiceps' JarząbkowskipashaBiceps | 89 - 85 | +4 | - | 1.05 |
| Wiktor 'TaZ' WojtasTaZ | 89 - 80 | +9 | - | 1.02 |
| Filip 'NEO' KubskiNEO | 80 - 77 | +3 | - | 1.01 |
| Paweł 'byali' Bielińskibyali | 74 - 79 | -5 | - | 0.90 |
ESL ESEA Dubai Invitational 2015 final standings:
1. 2. 3-4. fnatic - $25,000
3-4. 5-6. EnVyUs - $12,500
5-6. 7-8. Null element Natus Vincere - $7,500 7-8. Cloud9 - $7,500
Wiktor 'TaZ' Wojtas 
Age: 29 Team: Virtus.pro Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 808 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.66 Filip 'NEO' Kubski 
Age: 28 Team: Virtus.pro Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 808 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.65 
Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen 
Age: 22 Team: TSM Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 546 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.65 Nicolai 'device' Reedtz 
Age: 20 Team: TSM Rating 1.0: 1.16 Maps played: 454 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.63 Janusz 'Snax' Pogorzelski 
Age: 22 Team: Virtus.pro Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 621 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.63 Andreas 'Xyp9x' Højsleth 
Age: 20 Team: TSM Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 607 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.62 Paweł 'byali' Bieliński 
Age: 21 Team: Virtus.pro Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 642 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.64 Finn 'karrigan' Andersen 
Age: 25 Team: TSM Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 510 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.70 Jarosław 'pashaBiceps' Jarząbkowski 
Age: 27 Team: Virtus.pro Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 759 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.68
