Beastcoast has a knack for falling behind early before storming back to win their games, which is exactly what happened against NoPing Esports in the grand finals of the ESL One Los Angeles Online South American bracket.
After a messy group stage, beastcoast returned to their normal form, using unusual team compositions and relying on their ability to farm consistently to dominate the team fight of every series they competed in.
That strategy is always unpredictable, and will occasionally lead to Héctor “K1” Rodríguez and his team getting blown out, but against NoPing, both sides were ready to clash at any given moment. Three of the four games played in the SA Finals had 50 or more kills, with no game dipping below 40 kills or lasting longer than 40 minutes.
The battle started early, with both teams immediately gunning for each other in the opening minutes of game one, racking up double-digit kills within 10 minutes. Beastcoast has proven they can thrive in that situation time and time again, which is how Chris Luck dominated the game with his Necrophos.
Adriano “4dr” Machado continued to be a stand-out player, going 12/1/14 on Puck to try and will his team to victory, but beastcoast was just too much and Hector’s Alchemist was dealing too much damage in the late-game to effectively counter.
Down 1-0, NoPing battled back with a massive game two behind 4dr’s Templar Assassin and Matheus “KJ” Diniz’s Phoenix, as the pair melted any opposition that beastcoast tried to mount. Hector’s usually dominant Bloodseeker was shut down and Chris Luck couldn’t get the Mirana that helped his team beat Furia going at all.
That 23-minute route led to arguably the most insane game of the entire tournament, with NoPing leading for more than 30 minutes, only to crumble against beastcoast’s insane team fight in the final four minutes.
Hector is one of the best players in the world at farming despite being in disadvantageous situations, always being able to keep pace with his opposition, which is a saving grace for the usually reckless beastcoast squad. His Terrorblade being ready to go in the final minutes turned a dominant 4dr Void Spirit game into an epic collapse after Hector helped his team secure a complete team wipe and immediately push the high ground.
With no buyback on Guilherme “Costabile” Costábile’s Troll Warlord, NoPing did not enough bodies to stop beastcoast from simply ransacking their base and walking to a wide-open victory.
Both sides were heated heading into game four, with a combined 40 kills being secured just over 20 minutes in and neither side slowing down from there. NoPing was able to open things up and carried an average lead of 3,000 gold through the mid-game thanks to 4dr’s Kunkka and Costabile’s Phantom Lancer, but that wouldn’t last.
Beastcoast was able to dominate a big team fight at the 13-minute mark, which opened up the map for Hector to farm his Spectre, Adrián “Wisper” Dobles to take a tower with Bristleback, and Chris Luck to continue building up his Slark. Those three heroes would eventually spell the end for NoPing’s tournament run, as a late-game Slark was impossible to stop due to only the Phantom Lancer having a big build.
Beastcoast’s win showed that they are still the top dog in SA despite some shaky performances over the last several months, and also put an end to the final four-team bracket of the event. Now only China and the combined Europe/CIS brackets remain, with the group stage for EU/CIS kicking off on April 4 at 4am CT with Gambit Esports taking on Vikin.gg.
