The Recap - EP15

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.

Our podcast, Just the Tip has recorded another episode, and you can watch it here!

Talon continues to impress despite CCT Europe shortcomings

Talon have been testing their mettle against the European tier two scene in CCT this past week. Their star recruit in mhL has been putting up amazing performances especially in their victory against WW and their loss to Quazar; his rating was 1.23 and 1.46 respectively and was able to complete many unfavourable clutches.

However, their qualifying chances came down to a Bo3 against Rhyno to book a spot in the Play-in. Nettik’s impact was massive across the three-map series as Talon continued to make inroads, posting a 1.34 rating while his Polish teammate mhL trailed right behind. One thing that showed with all the results was that Talon were able to close out games and really dig deep when they needed to.

Talon would take on The Suspect in the Play-In where the victor would attend CCT Europe Series 12. The Suspect are an incredibly strong team as they took out Alliance in the winner’s match of CCT. Their rifling core of HYPERI1 and cerber- with the AWPer, BledarD could pile on the pain.

The Suspect and Talon clashed with many incredible rounds and clutches from both teams. The nerve from The Suspect held firm in overtime for Ancient and Talon’s pick of Anubis. The Suspect had to overcome map point against Talon in both maps. It is very unlike Talon that they were unable to close either Ancient or Anubis out.

On Anubis, Talon made multiple mistakes in relation to managing their time for executes and bomb plants which must have frustrated them greatly. It is a disappointing for end Talon, but I believe that this is the best sort of practice for them before the Perfect World Asia RMR—a great mixture of scrims and officials.

Rooster – What could have been!?

Rooster’s ESL Pro League Journey was a wild ride for a team that many expected to be over very quickly. Nobody had Rooster winning a map at the tournament at all; they had lost nettik to Talon, and they had a debutant in Sliimey who had some good signs in the ESL Atlanta Challenger Qualifier—but EPL is a step above.

Rooster had a mammoth task in taking on reigning champions MOUZ in the first round. The maps were Mirage, Vertigo and Inferno, and the desk questioned Rooster’s Mirage pick given how good MOUZ has been on it.

Rooster started off well with winning the opening rounds, and everyone was having a bit of fun saying that this is all they get. As expected, MOUZ started turning the screws and turned the score from 5-2. Everybody thought it was all over at this stage: MOUZ would take this 2-0 and Rooster would merely be an entertaining side show.

Fate took a different route with sliimey and chelleos starting to create opportunities for asap and TjP. One round turned to five rounds and Rooster were leading 7-5. The pain continued as Rooster converted pistols once again and lost the resulting gun round. Rooster fired back, getting to 11 when MOUZ found their groove again.

It was shortlived, however, as Rooster slid two rounds past MOUZ to deliver a statement to ESL Pro League that the MOUZ Mirage was just an illusion. Rooster won 13-8 thanks to an incredible game from sliimey (1.48 rating) on debut and Chelleos (1.50) with the AWP.

The next map was Vertigo which was MOUZ’s pick and we begun to find out why when they were 12-3 up after converting the gun round. I don’t even know what to say on what occurred, but Rooster did something completely unbelievable.

Rooster made an astonishingly massive comeback to take Vertigo to overtime with the thanks to asap, TjP and danger. To make matters worse for MOUZ, Rooster had one map point and a 5v2 to make this the biggest upset in ESL Pro League history.

But it was squandered; xertioN held the line with a massive 3k and converted the resulting 2v2 to guide it to a second overtime. Rooster was out of puff and MOUZ skated through a massive scare on Vertigo (19-15).

Rooster raised an impressive effort on Inferno but MOUZ were winning rounds by sheer willpower at this point. The European squad took the deciding map 13-6. Rooster would ultimately lose 2-1 in the series.

It was such an incredible series from Rooster and it is an absolute shame to report that their following Bo3s were just not at the same standard.

Their Bo3s against BIG and Astralis are just nothing good to write about. They were picked apart and unable to adapt to what was in front of them. There was plenty of scenarios against Astralis where they were walking into crossfires without any utility being used. It was a far cry from what they showed against MOUZ. Both series ended 2-0.

Stamina and consistency are the key issues for Rooster, and they need it so we can see more of that performance they put up against MOUZ and less of the BIG and Astralis series. 

ESL Challenger League – Season 48 Matches

There were two matches on this week with Art of War taking on Vantage and KZG.

11^th September

-          Vantage v Art of War (10-13, 8-13)

15^th September

-          KZG v Art of War  (13-11, 8-13)

With this loss, Vantage would need an absolute miracle if they wanted to escape relegation especially with key matches against Arcade and Housebets coming up. A series loss against Arcade will likely confirm their relegation. Art of War and KZG strengthening their playoffs chances by sharing the series.

That’s all for the Recap this week!