The Recap - EP02

by OnlyJoshinTV

Welcome to The Recap, a new weekly content series covering Counter-Strike in the ANZ region with a touch of global action here and there. We aim to provide a regular series covering our region, from ESEA Open, ECL, and global events, to local LAN and online tournaments hosted here at home.

Grand Finals of ESEA Open

After an extremely exciting playoff series in the ESL Challenger League with FlyQuest claiming another ECL crown, we turn to the Grand Finals of ESEA Open where ViridianCity’s Art of War takes on newcomers, LE-LUX Esports. The winner will join last season’s winners, Mantra, in ECL.

Maps and Match Overview

The maps for the Grand Final were Mirage, Ancient, Inferno, and Vertigo. Anubis was selected as the default 1-0 pick to Art of War. Art of War had some concerns going into this as they had been randomly dropping maps to Blitz and EasyRiders. Fortunately, Anubis was one of those maps, and they banned the other in Nuke.

Art of War, despite their randomness, had a comfortable 13-10 win on Mirage and a 13-10 win on Ancient to set themselves up to be ESEA Open Champions. Viridian, Bebest, B4nana, Neo, and Sunshinez have made it once again to the ECL. Meanwhile, LE-LUX would have to qualify via relegations instead.

ECL Relegations

The ECL Relegations would be split into two stages. Stage 1 where the 8th team in ECL, and the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th teams based on ESEA League Points, would join them. Two teams would advance from this stage to Stage 2.

Stage 2 would have the 7th ranked ECL team and the 1st ranked team in ESEA League points joined by the two teams who make it out of Stage 1. ESEA League points were accumulated based on their placings in the last 2 seasons of ESEA Open.

Relegations Stage 1

For Stage 1, the teams were DXA, LE-LUX, Blitz, and Gods Weird. Gods Weird accepted an invite due to the withdrawal of EasyRiders, who declined due to personal reasons.

DXA skated through by taking down Gods Weird and Blitz with quick 2-0s. DXA were essentially on cruise control through both matches, with Lucas222 amassing 40 kills across both maps against Gods Weird. Rocky starred against Blitz with 40 kills across both maps.

LE-LUX lost to Blitz (2-0) and then withdrew from the competition as they were unable to field a valid roster. This led to Gods Weird taking on Blitz for the final Stage 2 spot.

Gods Weird and Blitz was an arm wrestle. Blitz came out on top with a beautiful reverse sweep, which included a T-side stomping on Nuke. They won 11 T-side rounds on a normally CT-sided map. Blitz would advance 2-1.

Relegations Stage 2

Stage 2 started off with some fireworks, with KZG and Blitz locked into one of the most intense Best of 3s that the caster, Flam, had ever witnessed. The series had 2 maps that went to OT and the 3rd map went the full 24 rounds.

DXA and Deadweight started off as a stomp, but Deadweight fought back and lost to the Cursed Tec-9 Half Buy. DXA took control and won Dust 2 (13-9).

Deadweight started strong on Nuke but was unable to close it out. DXA converted a 7-11 to a 13-11 to win a date with KZG. Roflko led the comeback with about 12 kills in those 6 rounds, exposing a massive weakness in the B site defense.

Kiyo said, “he was impressed with the comeback and let Roflko/Cray call during this match as he had the worst headache and was playing awfully.”

Lower Bracket Final

Deadweight would meet Blitz in the Lower Bracket Final. The loser would be eliminated. Deadweight and Blitz went into Double OT with Mr_Sharky and Harbor firing on all cylinders. Both players ended up with 38 kills each. Deadweight held the line to secure a 19-17 victory on Dust 2.

Blitz had nothing left in the tank after Overtime. They were absolutely pulled apart on Nuke, where Deadweight scored 9 T-side rounds. They put them to pasture with a 13-5 victory.

Upper Bracket Final

The Upper Bracket Final was just as close, with the two ECL teams, KZG and DXA, fighting for the first ECL spot. KZG slaughtered DXA on Inferno (13-2), and it looked incredibly dire as it was also DXA’s map pick.

Hassie and Jinxzie were both confused about why DXA picked Inferno given KZG’s great record on it.

DXA were able to reverse the course with a 13-8 win on KZG’s map pick of Anubis with a scintillating 10-2 first half. They headed to Map 3, which was the first Oceania Official on the New Vertigo. Both teams mentioned that A site was much harder to defend and hold.

It would be KZG who emerged as victors with an absolute ironclad hold to take the series (13-11 on Vertigo).

Final ECL Spot

DXA would face Deadweight for the final spot in ECL. DXA required all 24 rounds to take down Deadweight on Dust 2 (13-11). It was a tense struggle for DXA. Winnie was the lone star for Deadweight with 28 kills.

Deadweight struck back with an incredible CT side on Anubis (8-4) and did a hop, skip, and jump to secure Map 2 (13-8).

It would come down to an Australian favorite, Mirage. DXA are well known for dragging Mirages into Overtime. They coined the name Overtime Esports because of this map (and casters still dread casting them on Mirage to this day).

DXA started the stomp and led 8-4 at the half. The misery continued with DXA leading 11-4. DXA had 3 ECL points, and they only needed 2 of them to lock up the final ECL spot with a 13-10 victory on Mirage.