Try as they might, Rooster was unable to complete the DFRAG Open Series 3 lower bracket run, with Alistair "aliStair" Johnston's THUNDER dOWNUNDER taking the victory on Sunday night — their second DFRAG Open Series win in a row.
After winning Series 2 over Mindfreak back in December, THUNDER dOWUNDER put away the Chooks 2-0 (13-6, 13-10) to make it two-straight for the superteam. The upper bracket run was all but perfect from the squad, conceding double-digit rounds just once in their six maps played.
Veteran Jay "Liazz" Tregillgas (41-20, 1.61 HLTV rating, 99 ADR) was the best of the bunch on championship Sunday, with a starring cameo from Tyson "asap" Paterson (36-20, 1.42, 81% KAST) helping see the squad over the line.
Rooster had to work for their grand final appearance after falling in the playoff opener to Mindfreak, then dropping the opening map to a surging Underground ESC. Rebound they did, reverse-sweeping Underground before finding revenge in a three-mapper against Mindfreak 2-1 (13-11, 11-13, 13-9).
But TDU proved too tough a challenge on grand final day. THUNDER dOWNUNDER have now won 10 straight series in OCE dating back to November, where they were defeated in an epic five-map grand final by Ground Zero at the CCT Season 3 Oceania Series final.
They're yet to encounter OCE raid bosses SemperFi, but will likely do so later this March at the all-important DFRAG Wildcard LAN, which now has it's qualifiers via the Open Series.
TDU already secured their invite to the Wildcard LAN with their Series 2 win. They'll be joined by regional top dogs and Series 1 winners SemperFi, the ever-dangerous Ground Zero Gaming, and a resurgent Mindfreak.
Rounding out the list will be a series of invites based on the OCE VRS ranking, which will be announced shortly pending the result of existing invites. The list as it stands:
- SemperFi (Open Series 1)
- Ground Zero (Open Series 1)
- THUNDER dOWNUNDER (Open Series 2)
- Mindfreak (Open Series 2)
- Rooster (Open Series 3)
- TBD (OCE VRS)
- TBD (OCE VRS)
- TBD (OCE VRS)
