The Party's just starting! - HCS Open - Week 2
North America HCS Pro Series
Week #2 of 4: Sun.Jan9 & Thurs.Jan13
Who's in charge, and who's fighting for their lives?
As we review our 2nd week of this Open/Pro Series, our top 9-16 are putting in the work to claim their spots to go against that coveted top 8 (Cloud9, eUnited, FaZe Clan, OpTic Gaming - replacing Sentinels this week because Frosty is out of town, Kansas City Pioneers, Built by Gamers, G2 Esports, Spacestation Gaming)
The Watch Party coverage began by tuning into an interesting bunch in Winners Round 3 - H5 Settings Plz (Demonsiu, Evolving, Perzecute and Pyrettic) vs Unintrium (Hunter JJx, Arkanum, Musa, Reliable). Hunter and team start off strong against the stubborn H5 die-hards, but eventually do fall in a 2-0 fashion.
After proving themselves in that one, these new Infinite competitors go up to face Status Quo in a heated one that they take in game 3!
Game 1 goes to H5 Settings Plz with just an insane amount of slays in their favor...
...game 2 to Status Quo with superior coordination in an equally domination outslay.
And then game 3...well..
H5 Setting steal that one. By the way, Perzecute was dropped from Status Quo right before Raleigh.. and he had to say something to say about it.
H5 Settings then end up falling to the likes of OMiT (Rated - COD pro, Warzone professional, and 100 thieves CC - ,ConspiracY, Huss, Lifee alert) after slaying a little too much..
Game 1 is a nailbiter...
...and in game 2, H5 Settings Plz look a little lost...
Despite OMiT taking it 2-0 though, H5 Settings Plz do go on to qualify in the elimination side, but OMiT, unfortunately, do not have that same fate. They end up falling 2-1 in the second to last winners round against Unsigned Talent - a previous Open Bracket Finalist - (Abature, Avenue, HotShotGhost, Tonisun) and then in the elimination bracket to Glory - now under the name Shopify Rebellion - (Chancemaux, Solurs, Explosive, Mental). Clearly, they had a challenging run down there and I am sure we'll see them again in the next open taking names.
And finally, in the last winners round match Unsigned Talent find themselves up against Gamer 1st. Last week Gamers first fell to Team WaR (now FNATIC. SuperCC, Envore, Juziro, Sceptify) but still made top 8 winning their elimination bracket opponents and this week the same will happen again. Except this time, it goes to a game 5.
This entire roster is awesome and keeps filling it with more up and comers - the last member to leave was Flazin, who got picked up by Spacestation Gaming. The next one I've had my eye on is Abature who's been consistently lighting up the highlight reel and stat lines.
In The Watch Party coverage, we then followed Shopify Rebellion stomp through their competition until they make it to Gimme My Money (Elitest Fourz, Blaze, Kubisnax, SickStory) who give them the boot who then go on to take the 3-0 loss against the infamous XSET (Cratos, Articc, Suppressed, Svepector) who I believe have now found their true fourth in the recently picked up Articc, previously on G2 Esports, (replaced by Tusk)
And lastly our fan favorites, the retirement home as Tony likes to call them, Status Quo take their elimination bracket to a game 5 win as well to qualify. These guys may be on the older side, but you cannot deny the value of their experience and endurance training!
They almost get reversed swept, but they're able to take it against EXO (employee, Fantvsy, PileZ, Posey) denying them the Pro spot they got last week.
Thursday's Pro Bracket
On Thursday, LVT was live with a special event following one of my favorites, the Dark Horses of Kansas City Pioneers (Druk, Manny, SoulSnipe, Taulek) through their run. KCP made it to Winners Round 3, losing to Built By Gamers (Nemassist, King Jay, Minds, Nebuula) who they've recently developed a rivalry with due to some cheating allegations against Minds. Nothing was proven, however, and there was no question of their integrity in the pro series. BBG beats KCP 2-1 fair and square to end KCP's run at 7th place. (same as last week)
Otherwise, the bracket runs a bit like you'd expect. Cloud9 are unstoppable. FaZe right behind them. This time OpTic opt not to stream and beat Spacestation Gaming 2-0 this time(they lost last Thursday 2-1) and take 3rd. XET are the only ones breaking out of their 9-16 slot, moving up to 4th. Built By Gamers in 5th again, showing they're here to stay. eUnited falling a bit to 6th (also losing to OpTic) and Spacestation hanging onto 8th.
I recommend if you have time checking out the KCP show. - (KCP coverage ends at 4 hours in) It's really cool to see tournament coverage exclusively from their perspective - through the ups and the downs of their experience.
The Watch Party live coverage for week # 3 continues, this afternoon. Sunday January 16th as usual. The twitter will let you know when it's time. And stay tuned for some more things in the works over here at LVT and on YouTube. I don't want to speak too soon, or get too hasty, but... we've got lots more Halo coming your way and we're working hard to bring ya'll more details, more birds eye views.. and more to get excited about! See ya there!
-- Taylor 'Snow' Feraco. LVT Productions