cp_snakewater
The end of the week brings us one step closer to seeing who is king of ESEA’s Intermediate division, and now LASER BEAMS has a finalized spot in the Championship after squeezing out a 5-4 win against Washed Up Gaming. the dinosaurs rolled over Xensity 5-1, and Leviathan Gaming played it a bit too cool for comfort, but came out with a 5-2 lead over Beybladers. If you missed these matches, I’ve got recaps and download links for you.
Read on for the details!
Upper Bracket
LASER BEAMS vs. Washed Up Gaming
This was, literally, a back-and-forth game. These two teams seemed pretty evenly matched during the first round, with LASER BEAMS (bud) barely winning the mid battle and leaving only Ben, a scout, to cap while all other eleven players in the server waited to re-spawn. Washed Up Gaming (splash) managed to hold off LASER BEAMS for a while with a standoff for the second point through a pick on their medic, drdonut. The next four rounds moved quickly, with splash success depending largely on an early medic pick, which they accomplished repeatedly through their roamer “bombing in” behind bud’s lines. Three out of the four next rounds were straight “rolls” to last, and that brought us to a half-time score of 3-2 in favor of Washed Up Gaming.
Quick rounds continued during the first part of the second-half, though LASER BEAMS managed to squash blaze’s kamikaze pick attempts during round six and then overrun the one-man-down Washed Up Gaming using their momentum and uber advantage. In round 7 splash played more aggressively, walking onto mid while bud fell back toward the left health-pack. The height advantage worked for them as splash managed to rocket-and-sticky their way through bud’s defense. Last round, LASER BEAMS entered mid through their right door while Washed Up Gaming used the left, which gave Beams both a quicker route to mid and a surprise advantage.
Final Score: LASER BEAMS > Washed UP Gaming (5-4)
Lower Bracket:
the dinosaurs vs. Xensity
Though the overall damage done by each team was pretty even, the dinosaurs (saur) seriously out-fragged Xensity (xen), killing their medic over twice as often as xen killed theirs. Xensity’s aggressive behaviors did, however, catch the dinosaurs off guard on several occasions with “roamer bomb” medic picks. Early in the match, Xensity’s TicTac complained of ping issues, and after the match peeb reported similar problems in ESEA MatchComms. During the match, these teams reminded us how risky even an advantaged kritzkrieg or a premature uber can be, with each of them losing ground on their opponent’s final point after failed attempts at kritzing. In Round 4, Xensity ubered too early onto the last point, running out of invulnerability just as the dinosaurs ubered. the dinosaurs then DMed (death-matched) their way through Xensity and ubered onto their last with advantage, leading to a 3-1 score to the dinosaurs at half-time.
the dinosaurs followed premature uber suit in round five, ubering in left to Xensity’s final point and allowing xen to fall back to wait it out and forcing saurs to fall back and lose their advantage. Both teams lost and gained ground with uber advantage, either due to medic picks or losing an advantaged battle by allowing their opponent enough space to avoid the fight. During round six, both teams ended the mid battle with only two up: peeb (scout) and TicTac (soldier) for Xensity and kbk (medic) and virulentsprocalls (soldier) for the dinosaurs. the dinosaurs allowed Xensity’s scout to cap mid and cut him off before he could cap second. The mid-cap for the dinosaurs was significantly quicker than had they fought to keep the point prior to a Xensity cap, and they managed to roll straight through to win the match.
Final Score: the dinosaurs > Xensity (5-1)
Leviathan Gaming vs. Beybladers
During round 1’s mid-battle, Leviathan Gaming’s (LG) roamer, Taggerung, managed to separate Beybladers’ (YouMust) medic, Sigma, from his pocket. He hunted down the medic while the remaining Beybladers pushed up without him. Their audacity almost worked for them, and this battle ended with only a two-man difference, Leviathan Gaming coming out with only Taggerung and chomps (scout) left alive to cap the point and wait to regroup with the rest of their team. The rest of the round went similarly, with Beybladers playing surprisingly aggressively. While holding their second point, they pushed forward and ubered onto the middle point, forcing a defensive counter-uber rom Leviathan Gaming. Though this tactic delayed an LG offensive, YouMust’s second point appeared vulnerable to back-caps or at least to capture attempts that could lead to dividing their attention and losing the uber battle. When LG eventually ubered onto them, YouMust managed to gain a man advantage and push up to the middle point, though they were quickly out-DMed (death-matched) and rolled onto their last point. Round 2 also went to Beybladers. Though they moved up too far and lost the middle point to LG’s defensive maneuvers, much of their force pushed up to flank the doors and managed to launch a surprise offensive when Leviathan Gaming moved into their last. The teams went head-to-head in uber battle after uber battle, and eventually Beybladers gained the upper hand and pushed through to win their second, and final, round.
Though Beybladers won the mid battle in Round 3 and pushed Leviathan Gaming to their final point, between all of their back-and-forth battles LG managed to gain the uber advantage when YouMust’s medic held too close to the shack on LG’s 2nd point, and though Beybladers switched to kritzkreig, they fell back from each point Leviathan Gaming pushed and eventually lost their final point. Round 4 found Beybladers again too aggressive as they pushed past the middle point and into Leviathan Gaming territory, providing LG with a significant man advantage. LG encountered a brief hiccup when they discovered that Beybladers switched to the traditional medigun, ubering defensively when Leviathan Gaming kritzed onto their final point. The hiccup was short-lived, however, and using their medic’s fast-building advantage they kritzed onto the final point a second time and took it for a half-time score of 3-2 Leviathan Gaming. Round 6 saw uber battle upon uber battle with the outcome of a slow LG push toward Beyblader’s final point. During the last round, Beybladers pushed Leviathan Gaming to their last point, but it looks like everyone was feeling a bit impatient. Namlay (soldier) from Leviathan Gaming tried to kamikaze Beyblader’s medic a few times, and Beybladers repeatedly ubered onto the final point without the timely withdrawal that kept them in the game so long. They over-committed and lost their main force, leading to an LG comeback and the end of the game.
Final score: Leviathan Gaming > Beybladers (5-2)
