The Recap - EP27

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.

Vantage NAVY seals their ECL Spot in the ESEA Open S51 Final

Vantage NAVY completed an undefeated season in their ESEA Open S51 campaign by defeating Underground in a 3-0. Vantage NAVY had a one-map advantage coming from the upper bracket which wasn’t required but made their night much quicker.

Vantage and Underground traded blows on Ancient but Drox was just too much to handle for Underground. Drox had 121 ADR but the main highlight was Jynx’s 1v3 clutch on Ancient. By melding with the smokes, he caught Underground’s retake completely unaware as he mowed them all down relentlessly.

The second Map was Nuke and it went down to the final round last time they faced in the regular season. Underground was unable to get anything going on in their first half and had to recover a 10-2 deficit their CT side. A crucial CT side pistol was needed but Drox won an impressive 1v1 to secure 11 for Vantage.

After the pistol, it was just a hop, skip and a jump for Vantage to secure the second map, their ECL spot and clean 3-0 in the grand final. Drox was the MVP for the Final Series with almost 40 kills over both maps.

Team Liquid and The MongolZ ascend to the Shanghai Major 2024 playoffs

Our lone Australian representative jks has ascended to a playoffs berth with Team Liquid with a 2-1 victory over MIBR at the Shanghai Major this past week. 

Liquid is a sleeper team going into the finals as they looked incredibly convincing in both the Opening Stages and the Elimination Stages. Jks had 74 ADR across the series and has been an essential anchor for Team Liquid to lean on.

I feel that Liquid might be a dark horse in this tournament as everything is suddenly coming together. The team has been together only for four months and the way that they play feels like they’ve been together for 4 years.

Team Liquid will take on Team Spirit on Thursday in the quarterfinals. I’ll be watching eagerly as I’m expecting Liquid to go quite deep.

Meanwhile, The MongolZ continued their undefeated run at the major with another 3-0 in the elimination stage to set them up for playoffs at the Shanghai Major.

They took down G2, MOUZ, and HEROIC which are three top 10 teams consecutively. I believe this will put The MongolZ up in the top five teams in the world and as a massive favourite to win the Major.

Senzu has been their main stalwart at the elimination stage, achieving a rating of 1.27 across all five maps they played in the Elimination Stage.

They have been nicknamed the Generation of Miracles as the MongolZ are currently the youngest team in the playoffs with an average age of 20.2.

The youngest team at the entire tournament was Passion UA with an average age of 19.8. It is insane to think that this roster could generate a long lasting era for Mongolian CS.

The Mongolz will take on MOUZ on Thursday in the quarterfinals.

I can already see The MongolZ winning the Shanghai Major 2024 and I don’t think anybody is stopping them at this point!

That’s all for this week: Don’t forget to join the DFRAG HLTV Fantasy league and take on our brightest minds!