posted by Abelle,
Single-game series are always intense and the opener of the EPICENTER XL playoffs was no different. This was a showdown between underdogs fighting for their tournament lives.


Before the game even started, the panel were firmly on paiN Gaming*'s side. They couldn't imagine how paiN's draft could lose to Winstrike's, but FTM set out to show them exactly how.



They key to FTM's draft was Alexander 'Nofear' Churochkin's Bounty Hunter, who gave his team an edge every step of the way. In the early game, he was sniping paiN's couriers to help slow down their early game. The panel had predicted that paiN would quickly roll over FTM, but with their ability to deliver items impaired, they weren't able to get the start they needed.

Later on, as William 'hFnk3' Medeiros's Luna struggled to catch up in farm, Bogdan 'Iceberg' Vasilenko's Tinker took over the map. With Bounty to scout, he had all the vision he needed to both stay safe and hunt down kills.

By the 25-minute mark, FTM held an almost 15k net worth lead, thanks in part to plenty of Track kills giving them a healthy boost. They assaulted the high ground with Track allowing Iceberg to spam rockets. He forced paiN to practically hide in their fountain as their barracks fell.



This win puts Fly to Moon through to the next round of the lower bracket, but they aren't out of the woods yet. The next round will also be a single-game series, where they'll face one of the losing teams from the upper bracket openers. If they can make it past that team, they'll have made top four and will earn their first DPC points.



Header image source: EPICENTER

  • Abelle
    Abelle

    Abelle

    Annabelle Fischer
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