A dream Championship Sunday at the NA Super continues to blossom for Gamers First, with their dismantling of eUnited now followed up by a shock win against back-to-back tournament winners Cloud9 in the losers semi-finals.
In a game five Slayer that looked all but finished with 20 seconds left on the clock, a breathtaking push from the entire G1 roster pierced through C9, bunkered in the back of their spawn, and brought the lead into G1’s hands moments before the match concluded. A missed Energy Sword lunge from Pznguin, a clutch 1v2 fight win by PreDevoNatoR, and cleanup shots from Bubu Dubu and Squallaye, were all it took to see a seemingly certain 46-44 C9 victory convert into a 48-46 one for G1.
The narrow margins of game five were part of a larger pattern present throughout the series, with both teams exchanging blows back and forth as different strengths came into play on a different map and mode combinations. G1 came out the door swinging in game one’s Strongholds match on Live Fire, with Bubu Dubu keeping control of the Sniper Rifle firmly in his hands and using it to devastating effect as G1 built a larger and larger lead.
Unlike the series against eUnited however, G1’s early momentum was quickly stripped away in the games that followed, with C9 taking confident wins in both Slayer and Capture The Flag to bounce back and put themselves on the precipice of a ticket to the losers bracket finals. A massive Killing Frenzy from Squallaye and 20 kills in the hands of Bubu Dubu for game four on Recharge prevented that ticket from getting punched, and despite Pznguin going 17-9 in that fateful game five, G1’s last-minute push nullified that monumental effort.
“We had a really good series against eUnited, so we were obviously pretty hot,” Bubu Dubu said in an interview following their victory. “That was some of the funnest Halo I’ve ever played. I couldn’t be prouder of my teammates, and hopefully we can keep it going.”
C9’s players were frustrated at the unexpected result, to say the least. Players had been making comments about the online nature of the NA Super all weekend, describing poor server conditions that many believed to be the fault of the observers. C9, like many other partnered teams, had traveled for a better connection but found issues to crop up that were out of their control. “Thank god they’re making a server select,” Pznguin said. “The amount of sway observers have on the server that’s picked is crazy.”
With the top three secured, G1 now waits to face either Sentinels or OpTic Gaming in the losers bracket finals. OpTic and Sentinels are set to face off against one another in the winners bracket finals next to decide which team gets the first spot in the NA Super’s grand finals.
