3rd Intel Core Challenge by Inferno Online has started in Stockholm with first two teams being knocked out of the competition by eSrael and fnatic who advance to semi-finals.

The most awaited match of the day was between WinFakt and Danish eSrael who recently added Martin "trace" Heldt to their lineup before being temporarily picked up by the Israeli organization for this event.

eSrael started the best-of-three series on de_tuscan by winning the opening pistol round, only to trade rounds until 3-3. The Danes took off then though, as strong performances by star players Heldt and Morten "coloN" Johansen secured them eight of the remaining nine rounds for a 11-4 lead.

After a lengthy mTw style break at half, the Finns came out with a pistol round win. eSrael were on the verge of winning their glock save round, but Janne "Metaphor" Halinen and Aleksi "allu" Jalli came out with a two-on-four win.

ArcadioN instructing his troops before the second half

For a long time it looked like eSrael was going to win easily but the Finns kept winning one-on-twos, three-on-fives and other after plant situations. In the end, Christian "turkizh" Bindslev led the Danes to a 16-13 win with a 22-9 score as terrorists.

Second map was de_train where WinFakt jumped up to a 2-0 lead. After losing three, it looked like they were going to regain control but two great AWP shots by Johansen in a two-on-four situation with bomb planted saw the Danes defuse at the very last second. Next round saw Bindslev wiff on a free kill in a two-on-one, but Johansen hit yet another amazing AWP shot to clutch the round. Rest of the half was traded with eSrael coming out ahead 9-6.

Henriksen's team came out strong in the second half and a knife kill by Heldt secured them the pistol round. Johansen's two AWP entries won them round four, and the Danes never looked back as the cruised to a comfortable 16-6 win, 2-0 overall.

3rd Generation Intel Core Challenge by IOBest of 0 WinFakt.fiMatchpage 0 2 12th May 2012 eSrael.dk 13Tuscan 16 6Train 16

eSrael.dk	K - D	+/-	ADR	-

WinFakt.fi	K - D	+/-	ADR	-

In the second match, heavy favorites fnatic took on icsu whose best player from the qualifier, Hugo "huggan" Lopez was missing and was replaced by Dennis "walle" Wallenberg.

Unfortunately the former NiP and SK star's presence didn't do too much to help icsu who fell behind 4-11 after their terrorist side on de_tuscan. Second half continued in a similar fashion as the Copenhagen Games winners scored five straight rounds to win the first map 16-4.

Potti playing for icsu 

Second map proved to be no different as fnatic led by Rasmus "Gux" Ståhl at the top of the scoreboard racked up 14 rounds in the first half. Tommy "Potti" Ingemarsson's squad got three rounds on the scoreboard in the next half, but lost with the same scoreline of 4-16. 3rd Generation Intel Core Challenge by IOBest of 0 fnaticMatchpage 2 0 12th May 2012 ICSU 16Tuscan 4 16Nuke 4

fnatic	K - D	+/-	ADR	-

ICSU	K - D	+/-	ADR	-

fnatic	K - D	+/-	ADR	-

ICSU	K - D	+/-	ADR	-

The next round of matches at 3rd Intel Core Challenge by Inferno Online begins at 13:30 with ESC Gaming facing Hellslayers and SK Gaming taking on Finnish mixteam eestralis.