The Recap - EP09

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.

It finally happened!

It happened! Our very own Mac is on the B Stream at IEM Cologne. Mac has been working hard between Counter-Strike, League of Legends and other different games and It’s been on his wishlist to be at this event, but he didn’t expect it to be this year.

It is a massive achievement for the overall Australian Esports scene to see talent go abroad and international.

Oh, were you guys thinking that I was going to write about something else first!?!?!

The other thing that finally happened!

Talon Esports has finally announced their CS2 team—the worst kept secret since HenryG was going to be at IEM Sydney 2023, mind you. You can read more about it here!

Talon’s team consists of HaZR, AZR, ADDICT, nettik and mhL with djL as the coach.

HaZR, ADDICT and nettik were top riflers in both Rooster and Bad News Kangaroos. AZR was an in-game leader with the famous Renegades roster that made a miracle run in the 2019 Starladder Berlin Major, among other accomplishments.

MhL has been on many rosters with his most notable time was spent on AGO and Team Falcons. He has always been touted as a potential superstar in the Polish region but just hasn’t reached it yet. 

With another organisation jumping into the fray, the Perfect World Asia RMR Oceania Qualifiers are going to be heating up. However, I don’t think either Talon or Semper Fi will make any meaningful impact at this stage in the Perfect World Asia RMR.

Talon’s debut in the Hellcase Cup 10 went as expected with TSM putting on a clinic to win 2-0 with a 13-5 on TSM’s pick of Inferno and 13-7 on Talon’s pick of Ancient..

A stellar performance from acoR who recorded 113 ADR as an AWPer across both maps. Zyphon is a notable mention on 90 ADR. 

There are definitely teething issues for Talon but with a few more officials especially against Tier 2 and Tier 3 European sides. The experience will help them immensely.

ESL Challenger Atlanta 2024 Qualifiers

The invites have been announced for the Atlanta qualifiers with FlyQuest earning the World Ranking spot in the event. Rooster and BNK received the closed qualifier invites.

This means that one lucky Australian team will join FlyQuest and fly out to Atlanta! This is massive for some of the unknown teams to get some meaningful international experience. That usually means that they get put into a group with BIG and M80 doesn’t it?

The open qualifiers were pretty much business as usual with most of the ECL teams making it to the quarter-finals other than Arcade, who were eliminated by Art of War earlier.

The big upset of the open qualifiers came from Above the Rest who beat KZG (13-11 on ANC). The only notable player on Above the Rest is Rhyu who has been with various open and ECL teams as well as their coach pain from Mindfreak. A tough loss for KZG but they will bounce back!

The semi-finals were quick 2-0’s with Art of War disposing of Above the Rest and Mindfreak demolishing DXA.

Summary of Results

Quarter-Finals (BO1) – July 30th

• Above the Rest v KZG (13-11 ANC)
• The Art of War v Vantage (13-3 ANC)
• Mindfreak v Mantra Flow (13-11 NUKE)
• DXA v Fresh Food People (16-13 INF)

Semi-Finals (BO3) – July 31^st

• The Art of War v Above the Rest (13-6 ANC, 13-6 D2)
• Mindfreak v DXA (13-4 ANB, 13-4 MRG)

The closed qualifiers have been finalised with Rooster, Bad News Kangaroos, Mindfreak and Art of War making it through!

This will be such a massive experience for one of these four lucky teams! I don’t even know who’ll grab it either—I reckon it’ll be Mindfreak due to the experience!

ESL Challenger League

ESL Challenger League returns on the Wednesday 7^th August at 7pm AEST with the following matches

• DXA v Mindfreak
• Vantage Esports v Rooster
• Arcade Esports v The Art of War

DXA v Mindfreak will be on the main stream while our lovely community casters will bring the action on the other two games!

XSE Pro League

The XSE Pro League kicked into action over the weekend with our own Bad News Kangaroos being in the mix. A single elimination Bo3 tournament in Asia which would provide crucial experience to BNK.

BNK’s AWPer, Apocdud was unable to make the trip as Pz announced that he would be subbing in for the event. It was the perfect sub for BNK as it would essentially be an AWPer for an AWPer and an added bonus is that Pz played for BNK previously. This would also be Omichella’s first international event of his career.

Their first matchup was against Lynn Vision who shared a similar storyline to BNK. TYLOO picked up Jee and Starry from Lynn Vision and Talon picked up ADDICT and HaZR from BNK. Both teams have lost their two star players to a much bigger rival in their region.

Lynn Vision eliminated BNK in a tense and close Bo3 with EmiliaQAQ being the true difference maker in this Bo3. Lynn Vision took Dust 2 (13-8) and Inferno (13-9).

EmiliaQAQ recorded a 129 ADR across both maps and was immense in pistols and his impact was felt in every round.. BNK were able to stymie EmiliaQAQ somewhat to mount a comeback but his presence was just immense. Pz complimented EmiliaQAQ’s series after the game.

It may be said that TYLOO might have picked up the wrong player as EmiliaQAQ was the true difference maker in this Bo3

I felt BNK put up a very good fight considering that Lynn Vision will be one of those teams competing in the Perfect World Asia RMR.

ANZC Locals at Sydney Fortress

And lastly, ANZC Locals starts this weekend on August 10th 2024! If you’re a Sydneysider or just in Sydney for this weekend, slide on down—yours truly will be at the event to do interviews, write articles and just hang out with the ANZ CS family again.

This will be an absolute banger of an event with some ECL teams such as Arcade, Vantage, The Art of War, the DXA/Mindfreak mix and a BNK mix as well! Hope to see you all there!

And that is all I can jam into this Recap. Otherwise, it’ll be just like my suitcase which is overflowing with all my esports jerseys…