Round 1 Recap
Group A kicked off the MavWar tournament with an absolutely cracking match! Although it appeared that Hate Culture had superior team chemistry for the majority of the game, Lemon Party mounted a very unlikely comeback on the enduring 4th map of Parish thanks to team captain Dusty’s heroics, which continued all the way through the bridge finale and was just sufficient enough to seal a spectacular comeback victory with a differential of just 70 points!
Pink Slip vs Optimistic Prime couldn’t quite match the same dizzying heights as their Group A cousins. However, the latter team did technically outscore the former on 3 out of 5 maps. The most decisive swing came in map 3 where Pink Slip made safe room with bonus and then secured a wipe with their early tank. Even though some probably don’t see it the same way, Game 5 in its totality was actually closer than the 812-point differential in the final scores would seem to suggest. Both Hate Culture and Optimistic Prime now have to beat their opponents in Round 2 or they will not be making it to the knockout stage!
Group B is arguably the most fascinating group of the tournament so far! Although the momentum for both teams dipped and rised along the way, Warriors of Heaven survived both tanks on the Dark Carnival finale to make it to the chopper and come from behind to steal a victory from Infected Minds.
Yaeger Bagels vs Coach Dave’s Academy was probably my personal favourite match of Round 1 – it was so close that there was no real way of telling who was going to win until both teams started playing their survivor halves in the finale. Asian and his team sealed a superb and potentially critical match victory against strong opponents in their group, and they will be playing against Bravo’s bunch to fight for Group B supremacy this week. Yaeger Bagels and Infected Minds will both be fighting for their continued survival and to cling onto any hopes they have of reaching the knockout stage.
Group C was the most troublesome group of the tournament in Round 1, not going to lie! It seems accurate that both :thinking: and Natus Vincere secured landslide victories against their respective opponents who had major difficulties with their team rosters. They are due to play each other in a highly anticipated match on Carried Off in the week after this.
Lethal Assault Organization appeared to be completely out of practice as a team, while Hib had to juggle both his duties as a team captain and playing host for a family celebration. It looked almost certain that Royal Flush were going to forfeit their match had it not been for some serious restructuring before match time! In either case, both losing teams are not yet out of the woods in terms of their team compositions, and they both have to play each other this week to be in with a remote chance of seeing more of the tournament beyond just the group phase.
Group D kind of surprised a little. Lovebone, who are seen as an underdog team in this tournament, were showing that their practice was paying off by being in command of their game for the whole duration. However, a few too many errors meant that they fell victim to a comeback victory for Beach Please on the Death Toll finale.
The Gang got off to a great start against Bravo Sucks at Tetris by looking like the more commanding team. But Purple’s Hail Mary dumpster floored substitute Yams in map 4 which triggered a comeback, culminating in the anti-Bravo crew forcing their way past the infinite hordes of the event to reach the safe room with bonus. Even though Yams and his support delivered with the finale intro tank, Purple then displayed his precision-driving skills like a getaway driver knocking over innocent pedestrians. Just like in Group A, both Lovebone and The Gang must win their next matches against the Round 1 victors, with their continued survival beyond the group phase right on the line!
Article written by Dragon