ROG Academy takes down worn out Marcos Gaming

The first semifinal of the Upthrust Esports Gaming Fest Season 4 saw Marcos Gaming face ROG Academy in a best-of-three match. With Marcos Gaming playing the ASUS ROG Showdown Series semifinal against Revenant Esports, a delayed start meant Marcos conceded Inferno to ROG as they weren't available, for the opening map

The series got underway on ROG Academy's pick of Vertigo with Marcos starting on the CT side. Marcos picked up the opening pistol and converted against the pistols before ROG got their first round. Gh0sTTTT's AWP was all over ROG as Marcos secured the half at 8-2. BrOCK's 1v2 helped ROG put up their third but it was Marcos who ran away with the half at 10-5.

DiceDealer kicked off the second half with a quad kill to see Marcos secure their 11th round and DEFAULTER's shotgun clutch on the B site saw Marcos see off ROG's force buy. The clutches kept on coming as DiceDealer's 1v2 against an eco from ROG which could've gone either way saw Marcos go 13-5 up. Rossi's PP Bizon multi-kill on the B site saw Marcos get map point and Mcg1LLzZz winning out a 1v1 to time which helped them close the map at 16-5 with DiceDealer ending the map with 23 kills, on top of the board.

The series decider was Ancient with ROG taking the opening round starting on the CT side thanks to a Smoakkk triple. It was a 6-0 start from ROG before a B execute helped Marcos get their first T round. KillSwiTcH's triple on the B site saw ROG secure their ninth and ROG ended the opening half with a 11-4 lead.

A well-oiled B execute saw ROG Academy take the second pistol as well, picking up both pistols on Ancient but Marcos answered back with upgraded pistols to convert the force buy. After four back-to-back rounds from Marcos ROG's B hit saw them put up their 13th. SeeK and KillSwiTcH denied Marcos a smoke defuse to put ROG on map point and ROG booked their grand finals spot after winning Ancient 16-9 and securing the series 2-1.