Elisa Masters Espoo 2023 was a Blast! – A devoted FURIA fan’s perspective

During the first weekend of December, Elisa Masters Espoo 2023 took place. This competitive Counter-Strike is the largest e-sports event in Finland. This year, there were eight teams from all around the world, including Finland’s own all Finnish team HAVU. The prize pool was a respectable $200,000, with the winning team taking home half of the whole prize. I followed the event closely, since my all-time favourite team, the full Brazilian FURIA was competing in it. I also wanted to see how HAVU’s team would manage, since it is at the moment the only somewhat successful all Finnish team. I had decided that if FURIA got to the finals, I would definitely be going.

 

When the fateful Saturday, the 2nd of December, rolled around I sat on the edge of my sofa, since the semifinal match was between FURIA and HAVU. I was a bit stressed since HAVU, the crowd favourite underdog, had already surprised everyone with their success in the tournament. The semifinal was a best of three. That means that the teams go against each other in three different maps, unless the other team wins the first two in a row. The results of the match were a relief, with FURIA stomping HAVU 2-0 (Mirage 13-7 and Nuke 13-1). HAVU still had an extremely impressive run in the tournament. Their success granted them a place in HLTV’s, the esteemed CS2 ranking and news site’s, top twenty teams, 19th to be exact.

 

Immediately after FURIA’s semifinal win, I went to buy tickets to the grand finale, when else am I going to see them play live. The final was going to be against the European team Apeks, which has two North Macedonians, two Norwegians and one Swedish player in their roster. FURIA had lost 2-0 to Apeks in an earlier round so I was worried how this final was going to go. I still had some magical belief, as did FURIA, because the last big international LAN tournament they had won was the Arctic Invitational way back in 2019, which was also conveniently played in Finland.

When arriving to Metro Arena in Espoo, the atmosphere was extremely welcoming, and everyone was having a real good time although there weren’t any crowd favourites left in the tournament. There were multiple booths where fans could play CS2 and compete against each other, I’m really bad at the game so I steered far away from them. I found seats nearly in the front row, right in front of the stage where FURIA would be playing soon.

The final was a best of five, which meant that the first team with three maps won wins the whole tournament. This is the first best of five final in the short history of CS2. FURIA won the first map, Inferno, 13-9 and already I was head over heels ready for their big win. The next map crushed my spirits a bit because Apeks won Ancient with the score 13-7. The next map was Vertigo, in which FURIA had lost to Apeks earlier in the tournament with a devastating score of 13-3. This time around FURIA smashed it with a nice 13-9.

 

Now FURIA at match point, the atmosphere in the arena was tense. The crowd seemed to lean towards FURIA the whole match, with around sixty percent rooting for them and the rest towards Apeks. The next map was Mirage, and the first half of the map ended 6-6, but it was in FURIA’s favor because they were on the terrorist side, where it is usually much harder to win rounds. When the sides changed, I was nervous yet hopeful. The Brazilians played very good on the counter-terrorist side and in no time the game was at a spine-tingling 12-9 to FURIA. They only needed to win one round to win the whole thing. At this point my heartrate was a solid 150 and I couldn’t stay still. The crowd was roaring and standing. FURIA won the round. The arena filled with cheers and clapping. Soon FURIA went on the pedestal and lifted the trophy.

 

Elisa Masters Espoo 2023 was an extremely fun event, and the production and equipment was very high quality, almost the kind you would see in the biggest LAN events of CS. Years after being a dedicated fan of FURIA, it was gratifying to see them finally win an event of this size. Since this tournament was a success, I’m hoping to see Finland host the Majors in the future.

 

Basic information of Counter-Strike 2:
Publisher: Valve
Developer: Valve
Platforms: PC
Release Date: September 27th, 2023
Genres: Tactical first-person shooter, multiplayer
PEGI: 18

Sources:
HLTV: https://www.hltv.org/news/37667/furia-beat-apeks-to-win-elisa-masters-espoo-2023
Pictures: Taken by author

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