A surging Team Liquid faced off against the best online team in the match of the week. Two falling organizations have a chance to bail themselves out. The other four sides are fighting for position, and this week proves crucial to teams wanting to make it to the Pro League Season Finals.
Who came out on top today? Let’s take a look.
Match One: LOL vs. Luminosity Gaming
Game One: CTF – Fathom
Brett “Naded” Leonard kicked off the scoring with a sweet triple kill on his way to a killing spree, allowing him to also get the first score.
He then followed it up with another quick cap… And then a Luminosity player lagged out.
LG just had to make one more capture to win on the restart, but Bradley “aPG” Laws was able to start the scoring for LOL.
Cameron “Victory X” Thorlakson was able to silence the comeback though, and picked up the flag right outside of the Luminosity base to give LG the first game.Â
Game Final: LG 3 – 1 LOL
Match Score: LG 1 – 0 LOL
Game Two: Slayer – Regret
A tightly contested match saw both sides change leads, but Luminosity was able to pull away in the mid-game and took two straight.
With the help of the Halo gods on one of his scattershot kills, Dan “Danoxide” Terlizzi was the MVP with an 18-10-7 clip.
Game Final: LG 50 – 40Â LOL
Match Score: LG 2 – 0 LOL
Game Three: Strongholds – Empire
Another tightly contested match saw yet another mid-game push from LG to run away with this series.
With several total controls and in the face of a late comeback, LG was able to stomp down the surging LOL side, and sent them packing with a clean sweep.
In other words, Kevin “Eco” Smith’s homecoming this week went just as well as your high school homecoming dance… maybe.Â
Game Final: LG 100 – 50 LOL
Match Final: LGÂ 3 – 0 LOL
Match Two:Â Enigma6 vs. OpTic Gaming
Game One: CTF – Truth
Beginning with what can only be described as “Counter-ception,” (thanks TSquared) OG broke up the tie with a quick cap to make it 2-1 within three minutes.
After a few strong attempts from E6, which saw them take the slaying lead, Bradley “Frosty” Bergstrom was able to ground pound the flag into the base for the game one victory.
Game Final: OG 3 – 1 E6
Match Score: OG 1 – 0 E6
Game Two: Slayer – Plaza
Jumping out to half of the kills needed by four minutes, OG seemed to have a hold of the game until Enigma6 launched itself right back with a 19-5 run thanks to Ayden “Suspector” Hill having a fantastic killing spree.
OG was able to bring it back, but crucial errors in the final two minutes caused them to slow the game down to Enigma6’s pace, and it allowed E6 to tie the series up at one.
Game Final:Â E6 50 – 45 OG
Match Score:Â E6 1 – 1 OG
Game Three: Strongholds – The Rig
OpTic doesn’t like when you get a game back on them, and they showed this in Strongholds, where they jumped out to a 43-10 lead to start.
But like the last game, Enigma6 was able to get a solid run and took a mid-game lead.
This game-type is a game of runs though, and OpTic was able to get the last laugh by making solid rotations to take game three.
Game Final: OG 100 – 71 E6
Match Score: OG 2 – 1Â E6
Game Four: CTF – Fathom
OG was almost able to get a double cap with railgun and camo up, but only took one flag in the first four minutes of action.
OpTic then got their second cap after sweeping down Enigma6 a few times, and took home the series, despite a last minute cap and a final run by Suspector to try and tie things up.
With that, Enigma6 stick in the relegation zone… For now.
Game Final: OGÂ 2 – 1Â E6
Match Final: OG 3 – 1Â E6
Match Three: Allegiance vs. Evil Geniuses
Game One: CTF – Fathom
Allegiance was able to get a quick cap two minutes in, but the Geniuses were able to take one back with railgun control and a slaying advantage.
This brought the action into overtime, where EG was able to steal the game right from ALG with a quick cap and return inside ALG’s base. They were then able to hold down their own flag with seconds to spare.
Game Final: EG 2 – 1 ALG
Match Score: EG 1 – 0 ALG
Game Two: Slayer – The Rig
With power weapon and lead changes throughout, EG’s late rally was enough to get them another map win over ALG.
The Geniuses were led by Jason “Lunchbox” Brown, who went 15-8-9 and potted the final kill of the game.
Game Final: EG 50 – 47 ALG
Match Score: EG 2 – 0 ALG
Game Three: Strongholds – The Rig
Allegiance was able to shake off some rust from the last game on this map, jumping out to a 16-2 run to start the game before giving up control to EG.
However, like the other games in this series, they could not hold onto their lead and wound up giving total control to the Geniuses. Unlike those other games though, they launched a considerable comeback where they got total control and locked EG at 64 for a while.
This was done with the work of Devon “PreDevoNatoR” Layton, who locked down one side of the map with his shotgun, and Michael “Falcated” Garcia, who dropped 25 total kills in this game.
One thing to note is that this is the Geniuses’ worst game type, and this continued to show as they dropped this one to ALG.
Game Final:Â ALG 100 – 69 EG
Match Score: EG 2 – 1 ALG
Game Four: CTF – Coliseum
Cody “ContrA” Szczodrowski won the award for most annoying sniper in the early game, getting a killing spree while defending his flag from a gung-ho EG team.
This basically stalled the game until the last four minutes of regulation, when ALG was able to take advantage of a few trades and pull a flag. Their celebration was short lived, as EG got one back within seconds to level the score and ultimately send this into OT.
ALG and EG traded flags again in the late half of OT, bringing this game into a full reset.
On the reset, ALG took the first flag within the first four minutes of play, but EG again put in an equalizer just one minute later.
Contra then got the second cap of the reset, before Braedon “StelluR” Boettcher got a sweet triple and the coast-to-coast flag cap to tie things up again.
No matter what, the next flag capped at this point would end this game, and Cory “Str8 Sick” Sloss was able to exterminate the other team and bring in the final cap.
Game Final: EGÂ 2 – 2 ALG, Reset: ALG 3 – 2 EG
Match Score:Â ALG 2 – 2 EG
Game Five: Slayer – Eden
Well, both these teams are known for not finishing a series, so this game was going to be an interesting one.
Allegiance was able to get their shots up, and took an early lead on EG heading past the 10 minute mark.
ALG was able to hold onto this thanks to the help of Falcated, who went off on a 16-5-5 statline, and ALG finally got out of the one win basement with a reverse sweep.
Game Final: ALG 50 – 34 EG
Match Final:Â ALG 3 – 2 EG
Match Four:Â Team Liquid vs. EnVyUs
Game One: CTF – Truth
In the game of the week, a rematch of the week one, day one brawl between these two sides, Team Liquid’s Hamza “Commonly” Abbaali was able to make a cross-map run one minute in. He was answered from nV just 30 seconds later.
Austin “Mikwen” McCleary then had an interesting time with the fuel rod, but it still allowed his team to gain the lead. Commonly then made a trip back for the equalizer, and Zane “Penguin” Hearon was able to put the last cap in during this nailbiter.
Game Final: TL 3 – 2 nV
Match Score: TL 1 – 0 nV
Game Two: Slayer – The Rig
nVÂ outslayed Team Liquid in the last game, and despite TL getting the upper-hand on the boys in blue early, nV was stingy enough to challenge Liquid’s early lead and tie the series.
Power weapons were key for nV, as sniper rifle play, especially with Eric “Snip3down“ Wrona’s six kills, helped them close the gap, and plasma caster shots were decisive in the final kills.
Game Final:Â nV 50 – 42 TL
Match Score:Â nV 1 – 1 TL
Game Three: Strongholds – Empire
After the two teams danced around The Pit for quite some time, Team Liquid was able to get into the middle base and start the scoring off with a 17-0 run.
nV was able to come back with some solid rotations that prompted a triple cap, and got back into the game with a strong 67-28 lead.
TL attempted to fight back, but nVÂ was able to squeak out a game three win.
Game Final:Â nV 100 – 80 TL
Match Score:Â nV 2 – 1 TL
Game Four: CTF – Coliseum
These teams wasted no time to start pulling flags, much like game one, as a minute into this game, nV got the first cap.
A solid distraction by Team Liquid got the counter-cap in within a minute, followed by another capture to be within one of forcing a game five four minutes in.
nV then relayed a flag back for the game-tying capture, but TL was absolutely ridiculous in hail mary capture and return tactics, and Liquid forced a game five.
Game Final:Â TL 3 -2 nV
Match Score: TL 2 – 2 nV
Game Five: Slayer – Regret
Snip3down kicked things off with a solid killing spree and then some to get nV a 12-8 lead to start, with Team Liquid fighting back and getting power weapons to level the score.
However, it was not enough to fend off the boys in blue, who surged late to take game five with authority, and nV was able to exorcise the Liquid demons to keep only one loss on their record.
Game Final:Â nV 50 – 34 TL
Match Final:Â nV 3 – 2 TL
And that will do it for day one of week five. Are you shocked that Allegiance performed the reverse sweep against Evil Geniuses?
Let us know in the comments or on Twitter, and for all your Halo and esports updates, make sure you are following us on Twitter, @GAMURScom.
James Mattone is a journalist for GAMURS and can be contacted by email at jamestmattone@gmail.com or on Twitter –@TheJamesMattone.
Image Credit: Halo Waypoint
