Before Sunday’s action began at UMG California, Mr X tweeted out some sage words that were not only appropriate for that event, but for this week as a whole. He said, “Championship Sunday, the day we see Friday and Saturday superstars crash and the real players show up.”
The competition is tight to fill out the eight teams who will advance to the finals at the MLG X Games Invitational next month in Austin, Texas, and we’re another day closer to finding out which teams will clutch up and join the likes of OpTic Gaming and Team eLevate to compete for the Season Two Championship. Who showed up tonight? Who’s on track to crash and burn? Read on for Wednesday night’s action.
First-Half Action
OpTic Nation and Automatic Reload met tonight; the first of many do-or-die matches as both squads need as many wins as they can get in the next three days to try and advance to the X Games. Automatic Reload opened with a huge 249-123 win on Retreat Hardpoint, and followed that up with another big 6-2 score on Drift Search and Destroy. They finished the 3-0 sweep of OpTic Nation with a 5-2 win on Bio Lab Capture the Flag.
Denial eSports and TCM Gaming squared off again tonight, with Denial looking to redeem themselves from the 3-0 sweep they suffered last night, and TCM looking to solidify their position to advance to the X Games. TCM jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the series with a 199-184 win on Retreat Hardpoint, and with a 6-3 victory on Detroit Search and Destroy they went up 2-0. Denial eSports took Bio Lab Uplink 5-3 to stay in the series, but TCM Gaming clinched the 3-1 series win with a 4-2 triumph on Bio Lab Capture the Flag.
FaZe Clan opened their series against Team Kaliber with a huge win on Bio
Lab Hardpoint, steamrolling to 250 points while holding their opponent to just 97. Even after that large of a loss, Team Kaliber was able to put the defeat behind them to take map two, Solar Search and Destroy 6-4 to even the series up at 1-1. FaZe would take the series 3-1 and continue their win streak as they took the next two maps from Team Kaliber; Retreat Capture the Flag 4-0, and Bio Lab Uplink 13-6.
Prophecy went into their series with OpTic Gaming, still utilizing
NaDeSHoT in place of Crimsix, needing a win to stay in the hunt for a spot at X Games. They would fall on the opening Bio Lab Hardpoint, as OpTic Gaming took the map 199-185. On the following map, Solar Search and Destroy, Prophecy would battle back from an early deficit to OpTic to force round eleven, but would once again fall and would go down 0-2 in the series. OpTic Gaming would secure the series sweep with a 6-0 win on Retreat Capture the Flag.
Rise Nation and JusTus Pro met to close out the first-half action of the night, where Rise found themselves with the early 2-0 lead after taking Retreat Hardpoint 223-154 and Solar Search and Destroy 6-5. JusTus Pro would fight back with an 11-7 win on Comeback Uplink to stay in the series, but couldn’t muster a rally against Rise on Ascend Capture the Flag, as Rise took the map 5-1 to take the series 3-1.
Second-Half Action
Automatic Reload went into their series with Prophecy with one win under their belt tonight, and looked to make it two as they squared off with Prophecy. Automatic Reload got on the board first with a 250-149 win on
Solar Hardpoint, and went up again with a round eleven win on Detroit Search and Destroy. Prophecy would take Bio Lab Uplink 12-11 to stay in the series, and send it to game five with a 5-4 win on Retreat Capture the Flag. Prophecy would take Bio Lab Search and Destroy 6-1 to take the series 3-2. Prophecy would end their night 1-1.
OpTic Nation squared off against OpTic Gaming for their second match of the night. Nation opened with a bi 250-135 win on Detroit Hardpoint, but Scump, Karma, FormaL and NaDeSHoT evened the score at one map each with a round eleven win on Bio Lab Uplink. Comeback Uplink narrowly went to OpTic Nation by a margin of 14-12, but OpTic Gaming would send the series to game five with a 4-3 win on Bio Lab Capture the Flag. OpTic Gaming would secure their second win of the night with a 6-3 tally on Riot Search and Destroy, and hand OpTic Nation their second loss of the night.
Rise Nation went into their series against FaZe Clan hoping they’d be the team to finally stop their win streak, but with the first two maps in the series going to FaZe, it looked like it was going to be an uphill battle. FaZe took Solar Hardpoint 238-187, and Bio Lab Search and Destroy 6-3, but a huge effort from Rise on Retreat Capture the Flag won them the map by a 2-1 margin to stay in the series. Map four, Comeback Uplink, was as close as they come, but FaZe Clan would come out on top 9-8 to take the series 3-1. Rise would finish their night 1-1.
TCM Gaming looked to extend their own win streak during their series with JusTus Pro. Once again, TCM would take the opening Solar Hardpoint by a margin of 236-141, but fall in map two as JusTus took Detroit Search and Destroy 6-3. Thanks to a huge last second interception by MadCat, TCM Gaming would narrowly take Bio Lab Uplink 7-6 to go up 2-1 in the series. Great defensive plays from JusTus would send the series to game five after they took Retreat Capture the Flag 3-2, but on Drift Search and Destroy, TCM would close the 3-2 series victory with a huge 6-1 win. TCM Gaming would finish their night 2-0.
Team Kaliber’s Hardpoint woes continued as they squared off against Denial eSports, as Denial took Bio Lab Hardpoint 250-99. The world champions would also take map two, Detroit Search and Destroy by a margin of 6-1, and Ascend Capture the Flag 4-2 to sweep Team Kaliber. Denial eSports would finish their night 1-1, while Team Kaliber would finish the night 0-2.
OpTic Gaming had a slow start on Solar Hardpoint as they faced off against Automatic Reload, narrowly dropping the map 211-199. They would also falter on Drift Search and Destroy, as Automatic Reload took the map in round eleven. Automatic Reload would score ten uplinks in just under four minutes on Comeback and wouldn’t look back, taking the map with a final score of 18-6 to finish the 3-0 sweep. Both OpTic Gaming and Automatic Reload would finish the night 2-1.
Wednesday’s last match featured JusTus Pro and FaZe Clan. FaZe would secure their spot in the X Games with a 3-0 sweep, taking Detroit Hardpoint 221-208, Bio Lab Search and Destroy 6-4, and Ascend Capture the Flag 4-2. FaZe finished the night 3-0, and JusTus finished the night 0-3.
Going into Thursday’s matches, we’ve got four of the eight teams locked in for the X Games; those being OpTic Gaming, Team eLevate, Denial eSports and FaZe Clan.
Per Major League Gaming’s schedule, we’ve got a whopping fifteen matches scheduled for tomorrow. Be sure to follow OpTic Intel on twitter for match updates, and keep your eyes peeled here tomorrow night for a recap of all the action!