Actually it was a perfect evening for the boys around Danny "zonic" Sørensen. The problems they had in their prior weeks with their game-play and the understanding of the game should have been fixed by that time and how bad everything seemed at this point is described by our team captain in his statement of 17.04.2010 clearly. By now they are clearly back on track as they managed to beat both teams SK-Gaming and fnatic. For this purpose we had a closer look at their clever strategies which they used in the match vs. fnatic.

At the beginning of the war there is a knife round as usual. Even that it has been done for a long time it is still nice to watch. Sadly this round was lost by our team and so we had to start on the terrorist side on de_inferno.




Playing this map will make you feel like you are in a Spanish city and all the small balconies support this southern setting. You should not try to camp too much on this map as there actually aren’t any real dark corners to hide in. This map is also very popular in clan wars as it is from the tactical point of view just perfect to play. When you are on the counter terrorist side it is often played in a very defensive style because the areas around the bomb spots are quite open and so it’s easy to have a good overview. From my point of view the map is evenly balanced as both sides have many possibilities to act.



After we lost the knife round and fnatic decided to start on the counter terrorist side our team instantly had to show what they are made of and how well they are prepared. In case you win the first round it is usually common also to win the following two rounds so you find yourself with a final score of 3:0. But sadly it shouldn’t happen this way. Indeed they could win the first round and also the second round using a push through the middle towards the B-spot which easily worked because fnatic secured the small A-spot with 4 players. The third round was surprisingly taken by fnatic as our team didn’t manage to plant the bomb after doing an even better mid-push then the previous round.
After this they were forced to save their money for further rounds and the round was quickly over after DSN of team fnatic killed three players who attempted to rush the mid alley. In the following fifth round they tried a mid-split.

Using this mid-split, moving through the house and the following push over the CT-arch, the guys around Danny were able to increase the lead to a score of tree to two. The defenders stopped risking anything as they already knew it would be impossible to retake the spot when it just got planted. For this reason they decided to camp in the mid area and the CT-spawn to try to take some of the opposing weapons out of the game. Luckily they were only able to take one player out of the game so it was only important to the statistic of kills and not the score board itself.



In the following two rounds they could even over take the fnatic team by easily attacking the middle also making use of the hut. Even there fnatic could only spectate by not trying to do any retake and just camping in the banana. After this fnatic instantly changed their tactics so their player defending bombplace A easily and quickly could switch to the middle. This way they won the eighth round as planned by defeating the mid-attack of our team which was stopped at the CT-arch. The current score at the point of game was 5:3. The reaction to this change was made by zonic fast as he didn’t let his team push through the middle but separately through the hut and the hallways. Of course this was defiantly successful after they killed the defense player hiding in the pit and by moving in the action zone. Unluckily the forgot to keep their eyes open for the players in the middle and this way Get Right and DSN were able to come from behind. Still minet was capable of defending this round out shooting out of the house so mTw was able to win another round and the score grew to 6:3.  
Also in the following round, which was another attack through the mid-alley, the round was lost quite fast as they lost control over CT-arch. The retake was dominated by GeT_RiGhT who was able to kill three players and win another round for his team ending up with a score of 6:4. In reaction to this our players had to save their money and try the typical attack trough the middle to come to an early end. This way the score after eleven rounds was 6:5. Fnatic was back on track and they showed what they were made of. At this point they were trying to think of something new because repeating the same strategy for 15 rounds would be too easy for their opponents so they attacked using the banana.

This tactic should also be successful as minet and zonic had some kind of a power moment and were able to kill 4 counter-terrorists who were just moving to the A-spot trying to defuse the bomb. By now it was over with their incredible spread as the mid push was still working using the action zone but  minet showed himself too early to the opposing team so this round was already imagined as lost. caRn tried to defuse the bomb even twice but always stopped after a short time so minet got too nervous and showed himself and finally got killed in the house. Also the draw was a logical order because mTw.Mindfactoy had to save their money and were only equipped with AK-47. In the last round the often before used mid-go was stopped by DSN and caRn.



The question which was probably asked by the players of fnatic was if mTw.Mindfactory could keep up their performance and even beat them or if they are able to just take their opponents down.
Something that I can already mention: It is going to be really, really close! Let`s start with standard positioning of mTw: Classically two players are defending the B-spot, one in the middle somewhere near the CT-arch and the left over players the B-spot. Sadly this round was taken quite fast by fnatic as our team couldn’t defeat the offensive terrorist force so the score increased in the second half to a 1:0. In the following two rounds the team around caRn even improved and simply won by pushing through the middle and the CT-arch using a tactical smartness: During they waited till the counter terrorists got nervous by waiting on A-spot for a long time and finally moved to A-spot, fnatic was able to use this mistake and easily push through CT-base to B-spot and simply planted the bomb.
Even when our five players tried to retake the spot through the mid-alley they were quickly taken out of the game by their opponents. It was the fourth round when mTw was able to get their shot to show off playing on the defender side. The attackers mainly concentrated on the second middle including the hut and tried to play a comparable tactics like our guys before but our players were paying enough attention and finally could decrease the score to 3:1. In the following round the terrorist also tried to use the previous tactic but they didn’t realize that zonic was already coming from behind who killed them and also could defuse the bomb so the score change to 3:2. In the sixth round we had a show down in the middle: While the fnatic players tried to push themselves using a human ladder through the hut our player minet, who wasn’t spotted by team fnatic, was able to push the middle and easily kill some of the other players from behind. At the end there was a 3 to 2 situation which had to be managed to finally get back to a draw. This should been accomplished using a good defensive style.

By this time there should be one close round after another because none of both teams are willing to give away any round. In the seventh round logically the terrorist force had to save money and for this purpose they tried to push the CT-arch to get an even better position. This try was easily taken by our Danish fraction so they could add another round on the score board. In the following round it didn’t quite like work out as before as the fnatic team made it to the spot and accomplished to plant the bomb. As soon as our last player was killed when he was defusing the bomb the score changed to a draw. In the ninth round it was another time the aim to go for the middle. Also this time they tried to use the CT-arch area to move to the B-spot which was luckily stopped by our player minet who was waiting in the minipit for fnatic and welcomed them with lots of bullets. As soon as zonic arrived in the library the attack was defiantly stopped and mTw could gain the lead on the score board again.
In the tenth round ave tried using the AWP in the mid-alley which wasn’t as successful as he planned to be. Using this mistake the terrorists were able to rush the middle which were just equipped with deagles. Ave wasn’t able to keep this position and so he got overrun and the sand position was also taken. In reaction to this our players had to retake the spot which was even successfully! The total score at this point was 13:12. Finally the players around zonic were planning on winning this game in definitely and so the won one map after another. This was a successful evening for our guys of mTw.Mindfactory.


One thing has to be sad: We haven’t seen as many mid-rushes as in this war at any time before. The tactical orientation of both teams was mainly focused on the middle. Overall it was a positive result of our team and of course we are hoping that this trend will be constantly.

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trace versus fnatic (Ineye)	trace versus SK Gaming (Ineye)
mTw.int vs. fnatic (HLTV Demo)	mTw.int vs. SK Gaming (HLTV Demo)