EU’s “Super Week” wrapped up its second and final day with a couple of close and exciting matches but few overall surprises.
Game 1: "i don't know" 6 - 2 Mock-it Esports
Map: Coastline
IDK: meepeY, Lacky, LeonGids, Elemzje, sTiZze
Mock-it: Alive, Panix, RevaN, ENEMY, Voy
Despite winning Le Coupe de France last weekend, Mock-it Esports has yet to translate their recent regional tournament success into Pro League victories, losing decisively against the predominantly British squad “i don’t know” (IDK). Exuding confidence before the match even began, the team’s captain Matthew “Meepey” Sharples reportedly believes IDK has never lost a map ban phase, according to ESL caster Parker “Interrobang” Mackay.
Not only did “i don’t know” emerge as the team with the edge after map vetoes with Coastline, they also opted to ban Ash, the comfort pick of Mock-it’s formidable entry fragger, Alive, as well as Jager. Mock-it in turn banned Glaz and Mira.Starting out on defense, IDK successfully held all three bomb sites using dynamic strats, suggesting adequate preparation on a map known to be popular amongst French teams. Mock-it, on the other hand, tried to trick their opponents by rotating to or from Ying nearly every attacking round.
In each of the first two rounds on Penthouse and Kitchen, respectively, Lacky earned double kills, cripping Mock-it’s utility and fighting power to push objective. IDK’s aggression resulted in a more timid attack from Mock-it on the Hookah bomb site; however, the slow push and simple inability to win gunfights resulted in the Frenchmen losing a third straight attacking round. Seemingly learning lessons from their mistakes, Mock-it rallied and won the next two rounds due to a smarter execution of the Hibana and Ying combo on Penthouse and heroic individual efforts from Panix, ending the half 3-2 in favor of IDK.
As the teams switched sides, it quickly became clear that Mock-it’s momentum would not continue into defense. In Round 6, “i don’t know” rushed the Blue Bar in attempt to quickly plant the defuser. While their attempt was not successful, excellent use of Lion’s EE-1D gadget stranded Voy and allowed Meepey to clean things up. IDK went on to continue their clinical attacks on Penthouse and Sunrise Bar successfully, winning 6-2. While still early in the season, this victory propelled “i don’t know”, a team without representation from an esports organization, to the top of the EU standings.
Game 2: Millenium 6 - 3 Supremacy
Map: Coastline
Millenium: Joghurtzz, Renshiro, Liven, Hicks, risze
Supremacy: Alphama, Djuz, Krisko, Anthrax, Ksiix
Millenium and Supremacy squared off again after meeting in the Loser’s bracket in the Coupe de France tournament. Millenium, after an underwhelming performance during last weekend’s regional tournament and a draw against Orgless yesterday, would want to show the European Union that their strong showing in Atlantic City and their Dreamhack Austin 2018 championship was not a fluke.
Also playing on Coastline, Supremacy started off on attack first, with the teams collectively banning Glaz, Mira, Blackbeard, and Maestro. While they tried to rush upstairs take map control on the first round, Millenium quickly disposed of their opponents’ entry fraggers. The teams traded kills until Risze cleaned up the last two enemies, providing him a total of four frags after a single round. Supremacy responded strongly with an effective hookah beginning a careful roam clear from the east side of the map before planting the defuser with a 4 to 1 player advantage and taking the round.
The next few rounds were a tug-of-war with the two teams essentially trading rounds with the half ending 3 - 2 in Millenium’s favor. Millenium seemed to win rounds through impressive shotgun play, with Hicks gunning down three Supremacy members in Sunrise in the third round and Liven taking on two foes before stopping the defuser as two prime examples. On the other hand, Supremacy was able to capitalize on Millennium's mistakes to eke out a couple more round wins, particularly with a few opening kills onto Joghurtzz. However, once Millenium switched to attack they only let one round slip from their grasp and went on to secure three points with the 6-3 victory.
Game 3: Penta 6 - 4 OrgLess
Map: Coastline
PENTA: Goga, Kantoraketti, Fabian, J00nas, Pengu
OrgLess: KS, Paraa, Ripz, Hungry, AceeZ
The preference for Coastline continued with the third match between PENTA and “Orgless” with bans of Ying, Mira, Zofia and Valkyrie. Without esports representation, the appropriately named Orgless is under pressure to impress each game day. Orgless perhaps received the shortest end of the stick with regards to the condensed schedule - they were required to play Millenium in a hard-fought draw yesterday, leaving less time to study and prepare for one of the best teams in the world.
PENTA raced to a three-round lead in no time on attack, albeit helped along by a masterfully played 1 vs 2 clutch by Goga. Uncharacteristically, Pengu struggled on his entries with Buck racking three opening deaths, typically during the animation when switching to and from his gun’s skeleton key, dying first on PENTA’s side for three straight rounds
OrgLess managed to claw one round back before halftime as a result of Pengu’s sudden opening death curse, and were looking to repeat that feat in the next round. However, Goga once again rose to the occasion for PENTA Sports and demonstrated his otherwise not-obvious fragging ability by clutching out yet another 1 vs 2 scenario to extend his team’s lead to 4-1. Pengu, then, was the hero for the motley European side in the next round as he denied former teammate KS a 1 vs 2 clutch after winning a tense 1 vs 1 situation on his customary Smoke.
Despite the win looking all but achieved for PENTA, the pattern of strong attacks on Coastline continued as OrgLess were able to bounce back, winning three incredibly dominant rounds in a row. Almost all of these rounds could be attributed to KS’s individual contributions, which drove a large enough wedge in PENTA’s defense for the rest of OrgLess to rip it open with ease. Still up 5-4, but seemingly having lost all momentum, PENTA finally secured the opening kill to fill them with confidence to take home all three points. Despite the good start, the round came down to an incredibly tense final site-push from the Germans, with Goga once again coming in clutch for his team. PENTA's overall performance, while shaky, was enough to share the number one position in the EU table, tied with IDK.
Game 4: Vitality 5 - 5 Chaos
Map: Border
Vitality: RaFaLe, BiBoo, ZephiR, Spark, BriD
Supremacy: Renuilz, Secretly, sno0ken, Kripps, Redgroove
The final match of the day broke up the Coastline pattern in favor of Border. Similar to PENTA, Vitality opted to ban Ying and Mira, while Lion and Valkyrie were removed from the operator pool by Chaos.
Chaos started out on attack and managed to plant with their entire squad still alive and 4 Vitality defenders remaining, suggesting a breakdown in communication.They won the next attack on workshop as well.
By halftime the score was 3-2 in favor of Chaos and it looked like anybody’s matches. Vitality employed their trademark slow and methodical push on their first attack round, which saw no deaths through the 30 second mark. However, Chaos was ready and collapsed on the attackers, gunning them down in quick succession within a span of just ten seconds. Down by two rounds, Vitality’s Biboo, who had already performed well for his team up until this point, got two early kills roaming in CCTV then rotated back towards objective to frag the rest of his opponents nad complete an impressive ace. He followed up with a 3K in the very next round, where his team planted relatively quickly with 1:30 remaining on the clock and with all defenders still alive. Winning that round, the score was now even at 4-4.
With a series of successful attacks, the next push was more in line with Vitality’s tendency to push late. With ten seconds left, while in decent position to take the objective, Redgroove’s excellent Yokai play with Echo successfully denied the plant, earning Chaos match point with 5-4.
In a tense showdown on the final round, Rafale from Supremacy and Chaos’s Snooken battled over the objective in a 1 vs. 1 situation. With the bomb planted and the clock ticking, Snooken aimed to retake the objective; however, Rafale was able to take him out roughly halfway through the bomb’s timer, granting a draw to both teams.