ESC Gaming have reached their first international final in CS:GO tournaments by defeating fm.TOXiC 2-0 (16-7 on de_inferno_se & 16-12 on de_train_se) in NorthCon semi-final. They will now try to be the first team to beat NiP on LAN, with a trophy and 5,000€ also being at stake in the grand final.

fm.TOXiC battled throughout the day, displaying hot and cold performances to somehow make it out of the second group stage with a victory in the last match, and then to defeat MaxFloPlay for a chance to play in the semi-final, already reaching their greatest heights in CS:GO. Same could be said for ESC, who awaited there after a very convincing showing so far, undefeated in six maps, only having trouble in their last group stage match against CPLAY that ended in a draw.

Whindanski & co. with a second chance to beat ESC

This would not be the first meeting between fm.TOXiC and ESC at this tournament, as they already played in the second group stage when the Poles came out as winners 16-5 on de_train_se.

Now playing the NorthCon 2012 semi-final, the teams selected de_inferno_se as the first map, with ESC Gaming starting on the CT side. The Polish giants opened up the scoring by going up 2-0, but then they surprisingly fell to a glock eco, which put an interesting twist to the start of the match.

fm.TOXiC pulled off another couple of good attacks and the score stood at 3-3, but ESC controlled their economy perfectly, saving three weapons in their other two lost rounds, so they still had enough equipment going into the seventh round.

Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas' 4 kills inside the A bombsite brought his team back into the lead and forced the Brits on a save, making the score 5-3.

A moment of inspiration by Phil "Whindanski" Nicholas, who took out three opponents while attacking the banana bombsite, gave fm.TOXiC another round, but that was all they managed in the first half. ESC, led by Jaroslaw "pasha" Jarzabkowski and Mariusz "Loord" Cybulski on the scoreboard, won the remaining rounds and went into the side-change with an 11-4 lead.

The second pistol round also went to them and the lead quickly became double-digit, 14-4. Another heroic round from Nicholas brought his team some hope, when his four M4A4 headshots inside the A bombsite made the score 14-5, but even though fm.TOXiC managed a couple of more rounds after that, the Poles were clearly the better team on this map and they ended up winning 16-7.

pasha starred in this match

With de_train_se as the second map, same one they met on earlier in the tournament, ESC and fm.TOXiC kicked it off on reversed sides this time - ESC defending first.

The first pistol round went to the terrorists who went up 2-0, but a half-buy from ESC caught their opponents off guard and brought the Poles their first round for 1-2. That forced fm.TOXiC on a double save, after which they started playing much better and they notched up 5 straight rounds for a 7-3 lead.

But that wasn't enough to beat ESC in the first half, as now the Golden Five made a five-round streak and went up 8-7, with Jarzabkowski again leading the charts with 16 kills.

They continued that streak in the second half, taking the pistol round and the following anti-eco rounds for an 11-7 advantage. fm.TOXiC then finally bought the expensive guns and were helped particularly by Andre "BARBARR" Möller's AWP, so they quickly reduced the deficit to 11-10.

However, ESC wouldn't let them get ahead of themselves and they replied with two rounds, after which the server crashed and a 20 minute long break ensued. With the score standing at 13-10, the match was restored and the teams continued with fm.TOXiC on an eco, so the result quickly became 14-10.

The British squad did manage to defend successfully in the next two rounds, but it wasn't enough as ESC brought the match to a close with a 16-12 victory, 2-0 overall.

ESC to lift their first big cheque in CS:GO?

NorthCon 2012Best of 2 FMESPORTSMatchpage 0 2 15th December 2012 ESC 7Inferno_se 16 12Train_se 16

ESC	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Jarosław 'pashaBiceps' JarząbkowskipashaBiceps	59 - 32	+27	-	1.60
Wiktor 'TaZ' WojtasTaZ	48 - 25	+23	-	1.49
Mariusz 'Loord' CybulskiLoord	31 - 24	+7	-	1.04
Jakub 'kuben' Gurczyńskikuben	30 - 29	+1	-	0.95
Filip 'NEO' KubskiNEO	30 - 33	-3	-	0.88

FMESPORTS	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Phil 'Whindanski' NicholasWhindanski	33 - 40	-7	-	0.87
Brandon 'weber' Weberweber	32 - 41	-9	-	0.81
George 'ZED' BearZED	29 - 39	-10	-	0.75
André 'BARBARR' MöllerBARBARR	25 - 37	-12	-	0.68
Neil 'nEiLZiNHo' FinlaynEiLZiNHo	24 - 41	-17	-	0.64

ESC Gaming will now meet the undefeated Ninjas in Pyjamas in the grand final of NorthCon for a chance to get the 5,000€ first place prize, as well as the trophy. That match should start after the Poles set up on the stage. fm.TOXiC will play against CPLAY in the 3rd place decider, which will award the winner with 1,000€.