ZINCTHAI have pulled off an impressive surprise today by putting a stop to TyLoo's dominance in China, defeating them in the final of Gunnar Challenge Cup 2-0 (16-13 on de_nuke and 16-5 on de_inferno), winning their first title ever and securing 10,000RMB (around $1,500).

After last weekend's quarter-final matches, online tournament Gunnar Challenge Cup continued earlier today with its semi-finals. The first match saw ETeng meet ZINCTHAI and it was here that the latter showed their candidacy for the very top spot. Despite of being down 4-11 on de_train, ZINCTHAI came back and won the first map 16-14. After that they lost de_inferno 7-16, but they clinched their first surprise win by winning 16-10 on de_tuscan.

TyLoo's semi-final match went by much smoother, as they made light work of Violent with 16-4 and 16-5 victories on de_inferno and de_dust2.

That set us up with an unexpected matchup in the final between TyLoo and ZINCTHAI, as ETeng were the only ones challenging TyLoo in recent times.

ZINCTHAI after their 3rd place finish at ECL 2012 Season 3

The match kicked off on de_nuke with TyLoo being in control having a 10-2 lead on their CT side. However, ZINCTHAI started their comeback already then in the first half, as they drew back to 10-5 before further reducing the deficit to 10-9. TyLoo still didn't seem to be in trouble when they led 13-11, but they were unable to muster up any more successful attacks after that, and ZINCTHAI took the first map 16-13.

On de_inferno ZINCTHAI continued their spirited performance and went up 10-5 as CTs at the end of first half. The next pistol round also went to them, and TyLoo faced serious trouble after being unable to take the first buy round either. ZINCTHAI's star player Hui "qhz" Wu aced in the next round for a 15-5 lead, and then their in-game leader, former eFuture player, Ning "Richie" Wan won a 1vs2 situation to clinch the last round of the match and bring his team the title by defeating the heavy favorites TyLoo.

Gunnar Challege CupBest of 0 ZINCTHAIMatchpage 2 0 25th August 2012 TyLoo 16Nuke 13 16Inferno 5

Match statistics:

ZINCTHAI	K - D	+/-	ADR	-

TyLoo	K - D	+/-	ADR	-

In the third place decider ETeng expectedly overcame Violent 2-0, but had some trouble in the second map (16-8 on de_nuke, 19-17 on de_dust2).

Gunnar Challenge Cup standings

1. ZINCTHAI - 10,000RMB (~$1,569)
2. TyLoo - 5,000RMB ($784)
3. ETeng - 3,000RMB ($470)
4. Violent - 1,000RMB ($157)

If you didn't keep track of the way ZINCTHAI won their first title, you can find HLTV demos here. We also uploaded some POV demos, while statistics from all the matches can be found here. Keep your browser on HLTV.org as we are currently covering another Chinese online tournament, 5Eplay E-Sports Invitational.