hard-fought victories for XGR eSports, 1337HUANIA & Žalgiris
Another set of games has been played out as the third game day of week 5 has concluded with XGR eSports proving to be a better Estonian team as they overcome their countrymen of Team Redeye, 1337HUANIA kept dominating as this time around they demolished MightyWolves, and Žalgiris earned important points against last season runner-up team of SkinLordz!
Read more about these games down below!
In other news - Latvian team ESCELTIC has disbanded and they will be no longer participating in the second season of Baltic eSports League. As per our rulebook - all of their games are going to be marked as forfeit losses while players themselves won’t be receiving any prize money that they otherwise would have been entitled to if they played out the rest of the season!
Team Redeye vs XGR eSports
Gametime: 12th of September, 19:00
Result: 14:16 on de_inferno
MVP: Flunk - 17 kills, 10 assists, 19 deaths, 88 ADR
VOD: here!
Domestic Estonian duel started off with XGR eSports taking the knife round and choosing to go CT. As the game went live the same XGR eSports guys were quick to take the pistol round (0:1) stopping banana rush with a collective effort, but things didn't go as smoothly afterwards! In the 2nd round Team Redeye player mōmzel started bodying his opposition as his 4k got them right back into the game (1:1)
After Team Redeye were done cleaning up anti-eco’s, XGR eSports answered back with not only making it a tie 3:3 game, but also - even taking the lead (3:4). At that point Team Redeye decided to change their approach as they started to go towards A site where they found success three rounds in a row (6:4).
It was time for someone from XGR eSports to step up if they still wanted to win this game! And step up they did as in the 11th round zenki found two smoke kills that resulted in a round-win (6:5), while in the two following rounds a strong B site hold from aforementioned zenki and ZIILA earned them success (6:6), and KrassNer holding strong in middle gave them another round-win (6:7).
Half ended with teams trading rounds coming down to 7:8 scoreline at half-time. Upon the side switch XGR eSports showed Team Redeye how to rush B with pistols as ZIILA gets 4k (7:9). At that point XGR eSports started to gain momentum taking majority of the rounds coming to a 8:13 scoreline. In the following round they even pulled back a seemingly already lost 5v3 situation to earn their 14th round (8:14).
While situation at this points looked grim for Team Redeye, they had nothing to lose and despite XGR eSports taking matchpoint round right after (8:15), Team Redeye started mounting a comeback! Six rounds in a row went their way as their defence was unbreakable and XGR eSports just couldn’t close out (14:15)! In the 30th round however, XGR eSports finally gathered all their forces to strike the final blow to their fellow countrymen taking the game 14:16!
After the game XGR eSports captain nyte gave us the following statement about their struggles to once again close out the game:
“The game against Team Redeye went as expected! As always - we start out slow, get a solid lead aaaaand…..we choke! We were ahead 15:8 and after losing the first match point round we started changing things up unnecessarily and it felt like we were rushing into making all these things, decisions and mistakes. In the end though - I’m really happy that we could close it out, but it should have been a much more comfortable victory! GG Team Redeye!”
MightyWolves vs 
1337HUANIA
Gametime: 12th of September, 20:00
Result: 15:19 on de_dust2
MVP: Boo - 30 kills, 22 deaths, 96 ADR
VOD: here!
The game between MightyWolves and 1337HUANIA started off with Latvians taking the knife round and choosing to start on CT side. As the game went live it seemed all so familiar - 1337HUANIA guys just cruising through, winning round after round coming to that first comfort-zone of 0:5.
In the following rounds Latvians finally started answering back as they started to win the necessary duels to win rounds including shutting down 1337HUANIA’s B split attempt (2:5)! MightyWolves did not stop there and in the three following rounds kykaho managed to find two crucial kills with mid to short flank, keen did the same in the next round whilst catching three players off guard, and then kykaho once again won a round for his team getting 3k to retake A site (5:5)!
At that point 1337HUANIA guys said ‘enough is enough’ as they took over the game once again as they took all the five remaining rounds in the half (5:10) including Carcass doing his best one-man-army impression as he got and ace while rushing A long! Upon the side switch Lithuanians kept going! Second pistol round saw Latvians taking A long, but losing the ultimate stand-off as they just couldn’t cross towards the site (5:11).
As 1337HUANIA guys came across their 14th round (5:14) while not even losing a single player in the first gun round it all looked to be over, but MightyWolves still had something to say as they started to mount a come-back. Two opening kills from d3k, Emis2 finding 3k to win after-plant on A, kykaho clutching 2v2 for his team - all of these things led to Latvians securing at least 1 point in this duel as they tied the game up 15:15!
In the overtime however, 1337HUANIA stopped playing around as they took all three CT side rounds in a pretty convincing fashion (15:18), while also taking the first T side round upon the side switch to close the game out 15:19.
“Before the game I was kind of hoping that we’re gonna see dust2 between these teams, but I definitely didn’t think that it’s going to be THIS CLOSE!
1337HUANIA started the game off extremely solid on their T side, while slightly loosening up their grasp of things at 5:0 scoreline giving MightyWolves the opportunity to scoot right back in there. Afterwards 1337HUANIA guys showed extreme composure being able to bring it back a bit only to be brought down again as this actually went into overtime where the overwhelming force of 1337HUANIA could be felt to its fullest.
Slightly unlucky for MightyWolves that Emis2 did not have bigger impact in the beginning and middle of regulation time. Still, stealing off 1 point from 1337HUANIA is a small pat on the back for them! As for 1337HUANIA - congratulations to them once again as they are starting to look towards playing at the LAN finals in Tallinn fairly soon!”
Žalgiris vs SkinLordz
Gametime: 12th of September, 21:00
Result: 16:9 on de_mirage
MVP: centronz - 30 kills, 13 deaths, 103 ADR
VOD: here!
The last, final game of the evening between Lithuanians of Žalgiris and Latvians of SkinLordz started off with Lithuanians taking the knife round and choosing to go CT. As teams hopped in the first pistol round it was raw who came up big for his team securing the first round-win (0:1). On back of that play Latvian side started to roll as Žalgiris could find an answer (0:5).
In the 6h round’s freeze-time Žalgiris finally decided to call a tactical timeout in order to figure out how to stop SkinLordz and the answer was clearly double AWP setup! As soon as Lithuanians brought out two AWPs things just started to go their way. Round after round SkinLordz could not get an inch as Žalgiris took seven rounds in a row bringing things back to a 7:5 scoreline.
In the 13th round SkinLordz lastly answer back as a fast paced force buy underpass rush towards A proves to pay dividends (7:6) and while Žalgiris manage to win a round back right after (8:6), CaptaiN closes out the half with an ace (8:7).
Though, this was pretty much all she wrote for the Latvian side as once Žalgiris got to showcase their T side it was over pretty quickly! Starting from their B site execute on the pistol round to them brute forcing their way towards A in anti-eco round despite already having the information that B is clear - it looked like Lithuanians aren’t here to play around!
And play around they didn’t as even though at the scoreline of 13:7, SkinLordz managed to take two rounds of their own (13:9), it was centronz who’s clutch secured Žalgiris their 14th rounds (14:9) and broke Latvian side’s economy giving Lithuanians the chance to close the game out 16:9 in their favor!
“This was my Match of the Week pick and I was looking forward to it as to get answers to questions I had regarding both of theses teams. And well....SkinLordz losing prelideN while adding discplex in his place looks not to have an immediate gain as they still can’t compose themselves when the enemy team strikes with prepared tactics or just clean play.
As for Žalgiris - my god am I happy to see them performing like this! They are finally adjusting on the fly while not being too easily distracted by what their opponents do. I keep seeing fewer and fewer mistakes from their side and I’m really pleased to see a team that puts in a lot of work in what they do succeed against Season 1 runner-up’s!”
Additionally to the games mentioned above, there was one more game on Wednesday evening that was not broadcasted on our YouTube channel and it was played off-stream:
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Aston eSports [9:16]
WASD Sports (de_overpass)
The last, final day of week 5 is taking place tonight as the broadcast on our YouTube channel starts on 20:00 with the last Match of the Week game between Latvians of wolsung and Lithuanians of Žalgiris, while the broadcast is then going to be finished off by a duel between AUTOCLUTCH and eustonia!
Don’t miss out on the chance to participate in the Wolt raffles during our broadcasts - win 10 EUR in Wolt credits every day! Wolt connects local restaurants with hungry gamers all over the world to provide some top tier meals!
News report by: Bruno ‘Gekons’ Gailītis
