Moose on MLG Atlanta: ‘Hopefully We Do Some Damage’

While all of Team Infused contributed to their 3-1 victory over Team Epsilon, Tom "Moose" Handley's play had the London crowd on its feet, and he looks to bring that stateside for MLG Atlanta.

James Mattone

Published: Jan 28, 2017 10:39 am

This article is over 7 years old and may contain outdated information

The Moose was let loose against Epsilon, and it was enough to help Team Infused qualify for MLG Atlanta pool play. While all of Team Infused contributed to their 3-1 victory over Team Epsilon, Tom “Moose” Handley’s play had the London crowd on its feet for one of the favorites out of the European region. In game one, Moose had a 16 killstreak and immediately followed it up on the next life with a 12 killstreak, ending up with 36 kills and 10 deaths. That impressive statline was not planned, and definitely not noticed by Moose by after the game. He knows, however, that his performance would not have been possible without his team. “It was teamwork really,” Moose said. “Like I didn’t really know that I was on those killstreaks until after the map. Like my teammates afterwards were like, ‘You didn’t die on Cave hill to P4’ and I didn’t even realize it.” This was especially convenient for Infused, as Moose was candid about how Infused are on that map and their ability to play through it despite it being a set map pool. “That’s one of our weakest maps, but we just played really well as a team,” Moose said. “Breakout is all about rotation, playing as a team and breaking setups. And we played it perfectly.” Moose would later follow up that performance by leading in kills in both the third and fourth matches, and finished as the top slayer in the series. Next on Infused’s schedule is Orbit, who took down a “God Squad” in Splyce and are on a wave of confidence. Moose is looking forward to a great game on Sunday, and despite the team in the other booth, his side is ready to compete and make it to the Winner’s Finals. “I’m always confident going into every series no matter what the team is,” Moose said. “I think we were expecting Splyce, but Orbit are a really good team as well and since they beat Splyce, they’ll be on an all-time high. We play them tomorrow, so hopefully we catch them on an off day. But it’ll be a really good game.” With the current pro point standings and with Infused guaranteed a top-six finish at the event, they will qualify for a spot at MLG Atlanta. Even though there is still another day of games to play, Moose is excited for his team to play against some of the best teams from both the EU and NA regions, especially after a disappointing Vegas trip where they had to compete through the grueling open bracket. “Vegas was a bit of a disappointment to us, as we fell early into the loser’s bracket for an EU team,” Moose said. “We did a pretty good job of a little run, but obviously we want to go to Atlanta and it’s a pool system, so there is no excuse of an open bracket. Hopefully we do some damage.”