HCS Pro League: Week 2, Day 2 Recap

After two weeks of play, it seems like the usual suspects in OpTic Gaming and Team EnVyUs have risen to the top of the standings, but it came after an exciting series of matches Thursday night.

Here is a recap of what went down in a day of upsets and close matches:

Match 1: Luminosity Gaming vs. Team EnVyUs

Game 1: CTF – Coliseum

nV may have kicked things off by grabbing power weapons, however, that did not stop Kevin “Eco” Smith from juking out fire to get the first cap of the game.

Both flags were out just three minutes into the contest, and that allowed nV to pull off a double flag cap. Eric “Snip3down” Wrona went through the backdoor to Luminosity Gaming’s base, got a flag return, and fended off LG long enough to make it 2-1 nV.

All it took for nV was a team effort to bring the entire LG side down, and Cuyler “Huke” Garland brought it home with the final cap of the game.

This one was over in under six minutes.

Game Final: nV 3 – 1 LG

Match Score: nV 1 – 0 LG

Game 2: Slayer – Truth

After a solid effort by Justin “iGotUrPistola” Deese in game one, in which he had a K/D over a 2.0, he showed up in Slayer with some ridiculous fuel rod and sword play. He earned six kills with the cannon, had a double kill with the energy sword, and ended game two with a 20-6-8 clip.

It was pretty much a game to lose for the boys in blue, as they did not give up the lead at all, and basically locked up the game after the second fuel rod spawn came along.

And finally, the HCS community found the “God Squad” that they were looking for this season.

Game Final: nV 50 – 37 LG

Match Score: nV 2 – 0 LG

Game 3: Strongholds – Empire

Whenever you face Huke, do whatever you can to get the SAW as far away from him as possible.

Huke earned a killing spree to start the game off, which lead to total control for nV and set up an early lead over Luminosity. He would finish the game with a 21-10-9 stat line, along with three captures.

LG tried to swap bases and take over the pit, but nV was just too good at rotating around the map and wound up getting two more total controls in this one to seal the sweep.

A team that started off the season perfect has now fallen back down to earth at .500, and it came at the hands of a team who most thought was overrated.

Game Final: nV 100 – 47 LG

Match Final: nV 3 – 0 LG

Match 2: Team Liquid vs. Allegiance

Game 1: CTF – Coliseum

With three men down for Team Liquid, it was Zane “Penguin“ Hearon who once again showed off his objective play, running coast-to-coast for the first flag cap of the game. 

Allegiance answered back quickly, despite some nifty sniper and scattershot play by Hamza “Commonly“ Abaalli, and brought the score to 2-1 with 7:45 left in regulation.

Commonly would later chuck a game winning flag for ALG off the map, but Devon “PreDevoNatoR” Layton made a solid return of thier own flag, which allowed Michael “Falcated“ Garcia to finish off the game. Falcated ended the game with a game high 22 kills.

And finally, ALG has won a CTF game this season.

Game Final: ALG 3 – 2 TL

Match Score: ALG 1 – 0 TL

Game 2: Slayer – Eden

The scoreline didn’t tell the full story of this game, as TL fought heavily for power weapons throughout the entire match.

However, their efforts weren’t enough to close the deficit, and ALG had a comfortable enough lead to trade kills for the win.

Cody “ContrA” Szczodrowski lead all players with 14 kills, eight of which coming from his play with the pistol.

Game Final: ALG 50 – 36 TL

Match Score: ALG 2 – 0 TL

Game 3: Strongholds – The Rig

There is a first time for everything tonight, because ALG would drop its first Strongholds of the season to Team Liquid in this one.

ALG had the early lead off of a Falcated killing spree and objective play from Penguin, but TL was able to bring it back thanks to Tyler “Spartan“ Ganza getting railgun control and some total control.

This gave TL enough momentum to take away a game from ALG, and bring things to game four.

Game Final: TL 100 – 66 ALG

Match Score: ALG 2 – 1 TL

Game 4: CTF – Truth

Well, ALG still has some work to do on CTF.

In 3:20, TL was able to bull rush ALG, working off of a no shield stealth capture from Penguin, and two captures by Timothy “Rayne“ Tinkler to dominate this one.

This sucked the life out of ALG, which put the series to game five.

Game Final: TL 3 – 0 ALG

Match Score: TL 2 – 2 ALG

Game 5: Slayer – Regret

ALG had this series after the second game, all they had to do was close out Strongholds, but TL came surging back.

The same could be said in this Slayer game, as they led by as much as 34-26 at one point… But TL launched a comeback.

It came down to the final kill at 49-49, when Rayne, holding the Carbine, pulled off a long distance headshot to save a teammate at low health to win the series. He finished the game with 16 kills total.

ALG has now lost its third game five in four matches, and the players looked like they did back in week one: good, but not good enough to close out games.

Game Final: TL 50 – 49 ALG

Match Final: TL 3 – 2 ALG

Match 3: OpTic Gaming vs. Ex-OpTic Gaming (LOL)

Game 1: CTF – Truth

While LOL got off close to the first cap of the game in the first minutes, it had to take an almost complete sweep by Bradley “Frosty” Bergstrom to get the first score on the board. OG’s TJ “Lethul” Campbell got the first cap of the game after having a base duel, and that brought up a quick second cap by Matthew “Royal2” Fiorante.

LOL got one back through Bradley “APG” Laws, but Frosty was able to grab the energy sword, rush the flag back to his base, and close out game one for the #GreenWall.

Game Final: OG 3 – 1 LOL

Match Score: OG 1 – 0 LOL

Game 2: Slayer – The Rig

LOL once again got out to a close start, but OG wound up pulling away late in the game by securing both snipers on the map.

Royal2 lead all players with 17 kills, but APG was not too far behind on the other side with 16, looking to carry his team to a bounce-back game. It just wasn’t enough though to beat the best slaying team in the business.

Game Final: OG 50 – 40 LOL

Match Score: OG 2 – 0 LOL

Game 3: Strongholds – Empire

OG got off to a slow start quite a few times in this series, but the team still pulled off a decisive victory over the squad they replaced.

LOL was stingy in terms of taking over the pit, however, OG was able to fend off LOL’s advances to complete the 3-0 sweep.

Well, OG wanted to show its new team off against its old talent., and a complete sweep was definitely the way to do it.

Game Final: OG 100 – 40 LOL

Match Final: OG 3 – 0 LOL

Match 4: Evil Geniuses vs. Enigma6

Game 1: CTF – Fathom

Still in the bathroom when this game started? Welp, you missed EG get a 29 second flag cap after taking down three, with Cameron “Victory X“ Thorlakson bringing it in for the 1-0 lead.

Another almost sweep of E6 brought in the second cap of the game for EG… But E6 answered right back with two flag caps within 26 seconds of each other.

It took a while for both teams to catch their breath after an exciting three minutes of action, but Jesse “bubu dubu” Moeller was able to bring the victory to E6 after juking out a railgun shot to get the final cap of the game.

Game Final: E6 3 – 2 EG

Match Score: E6 1 – 0 EG

Game 2: Slayer – Plaza

E6 was able to capatalize on momentum coming out of game one, starting with a 15-9 lead.

Not ready to back down, EG would respond with a 19-7 run, led by Justin “<a style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; color: #df2940; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" href="http://halo.esportswikis.com/wiki/Roy" target="blank”>Roy” Brown getting a double kill with a magnum and another with the battle rifle.