Coming into MLG Las Vegas, Cloud9 was expected to be the top team out of Pool C, and seemed to have themselves their first series win over Team Kaliber. Despite looking shaky in the second game, C9 had tK’s back against the wall going into game three.
.@ACHES with the ACE!
♠️♠️♠️♠️https://t.co/KI6mZCqNgbhttps://t.co/JGWbZsJ879#CWLPS4 // #MLGVegas https://t.co/YAKBplqXvo
— MLG @ #MLGVegas (@MLG) December 16, 2016
However, Team Kaliber was able to fight back against Patrick “ACHES” Price and company, almost sweeping Cloud9 on Precinct Uplink, before getting a comeback win on Retaliation Hardpoint and clutching up on Round 11 on Throwback to take home their first win of the event.
Despite Jevon “Goonjar” Gooljar-Lim not being pleased with the slow start, he felt that his side had it in them all series to take home the win.
“On the first two maps, I was feeling down because the way we lost the second map, we should have won that,” Goonjar said. “But I feel like we were the better team that whole series. We started off slow, but the next few maps, we kind of just dominated. Going into map three, that was probably one of our best maps, so we just knew that we had to play our game and make the comeback.”
For game four, it was something that tK has been practicing for days before the event, and had a complete edge when it came down to that fight in the hotel hallway to secure the win.
“We’ve just gone over that situation so many times and practiced that hallway set-up, that it is unreal,” Dylan “Theory” McGee said. “With the new spawn system implimented a couple of days ago, we are one of the only teams that know how to manipulate it on that map.”
Game 5 time! Reverse sweep incoming from @TeamKaliber?https://t.co/KI6mZCqNgbhttps://t.co/JGWbZsJ879#CWLPS4 https://t.co/aduyY21Ld4
— MLG @ #MLGVegas (@MLG) December 16, 2016
As for the Round 11 win, Cloud9 used an agressive Active Camo strategy in Round 10 to try and dash tK’s reverse sweep hopes, but Team Kaliber threw the exact same strategy right back at them.
“We just saw the success they had on that strat the round before that, and they had been playing the street basically the same way we had; very passively and one guy on top of base,” said Theory.
One man who may have been more nervous than the players throughout that game five was Team Kaliber’s owner KOSDFF, however his team is doing its best to get over the “tK Curse,” or at the very least, win those game fives.
Always stressful lol
— KOSDFF tK (@KOSDFF) December 16, 2016
“We usually do start off pretty slow, but if we start off hot, I don’t think any team can really beat us,” Goonjar said. “Because we’ve been going into game five alot – y’know, the ‘tK curse’ – but ever since CoD Champs in Black Ops III, we’ve won the majority of our game fives, so I think our team is really good at game fives and we should be good.”
Theory also acknowledged the close series tK is known for, and says there will “probably” be more intense game fives for tK ahead.
“If you know the history of tK and our matches, they are always nailbiters. We love to make him stress out,” said Theory.
And as for their first ever Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare LAN event, tK was not happy to get the W, as they were finally able to experience competitive Call of Duty on LAN.
“It’s been a couple months of a break, so it feels great [to be back on LAN],” Theory said.
Goonjar acknowledged that because it was the first game on LAN, there is a big difference from online matches, and knew it would take a game or two to get their sea legs back.
“LAN definitely has a way different feeling than online, I think everyone knows that,” Goonjar said. “So after the first map, we started off super slow, but then we got into the groove of things and then it turned out good.”
The reverse sweep is real! @TeamKaliber take their series 3-2 over @Cloud9!https://t.co/XxCXBSFav9#CWLPS4 https://t.co/GSPUgYUubz
— MLG @ #MLGVegas (@MLG) December 16, 2016
After that reverse sweep, tK has a 1-0 record in Group C, while C9 falls to 0-1 at MLG Vegas.
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James Mattone is a journalist for GAMURS and can be contacted on Twitter –@TheJamesMattone.
Photo credits: Blazy
