Eurocup ET Play Offs

Rosters:
Cadre: chmpp, kmble, lettu, MulSu, Squall, twidi.
VAE: Sheep, Gotti, fireBall, Iron, vegi, fobje.

And what a match it was. The match started with a delay taking quite long. VAE was ready and waiting on the Finnish side to get ready. Finally both teams were able to play and the match was started. First map Goldrush. Cadre to attack first and they did it fast. I was hardly paying attention when already Cadre had stolen the tank. 00:27 was the official time. Somewhat more then 2 minutes later (02:47) they had blown the Bank Doors with almost no resistance from VAE. Though when the fight in and around the bank commenced Cadre had a bit of a hard time. Still they managed to get the gold to the truck. They took just under 5 minutes (04:53) to secure the gold and the truck fired up. The final time of Cadre was 6:01, a hard one to beat. VAE only managed to steal the tank. But it took them 4 minutes and 25 seconds (04:52) more compared to Cadre to steal it and with Cadre's defense they had no chance of blowing the Bank Doors. They never arrived...

Second map: Radar. Always difficult, for every team, to defend. VAE started their offense. They had to win this one. The first minutes looked promising. VAE had blown the Main Door at 01:51 and they were already heading for the parts. It took them somewhat less then 3 minutes to secure their first parts. After that there was a period of time where the teams were fighting on the West Parts hill. It took VAE very long to get those parts. But finally they made it. At 11:29 the West Parts were secured into the truck and VAE had set a time. But was it enough? Cadre blew the Main Door at 02:14. 23 seconds behind on schedule. They had to get some back at securing the first parts. And they did. They secured the East Parts after 04:07. They were now 17 seconds in front of VAE and they had taken the lead. But there was the West Parts hill again. With the right defense it is as deadly as can be. Time was ticking and it looked hopeful for VAE. They were heading towards a win on Radar which meant a 3rd map. But their dream was crushed. 8 seconds before 00:00 Cadre secured the parts and it was over for VAE.

A very good match with at least one tense map. I'm looking forward to the next matches in the EC.

Original Preview:

Tonight will bring us two matches to look forward to. First of all we'll have Insignia Cadre versus Vicious and Evil. My first reaction when I saw Cadre take the match versus Dignitas was: "lucky number two that has to play the number one of Group A". Which turned out to be VAE. But are they so lucky? Did Cadre take that win because they were that good or was Dignitas just that bad? Tough it is a fact that Cadre is a very strong team that shouldn't be underestimated, which is what I kind of did. After thinking a while I'll have to take back my words because VAE aren't lucky at all to meet Cadre.


Rosters:
Dignitas: Night, r3vers, Reload, Urtier, Senji, Jakazc.
Impact: Raveneye, Mystic, Tiigeri, teKoa, M1lk, Mztik.

Enjoyable from start to finish, a brilliant advert for a brilliant game. Dignitas gave a timely reminder that they can still beat anyone on their day when Frostbite came around. They were cold hearted on defence, giving nothing away, Impact set just over seven and a half minutes and perhaps even that was generous. Dignitas' offence was straight to the point, they took the first stage in little under a minute and never looked back. Senji ran the documents home with Dignitas having minutes to spares.

Goldrush however saw a different Impact, their first stage defence was good and offensive stopping dignitas getting the tank once and then finally crumbling with 2 full minutes played. They had the barrier and they had the clock on their side, for Dignitas they just didnt click the way they would have liked and the end couldnt come soon enough. Impact's offence was fast and furious right up until the gold stage, Night played a privitol role in that taking down the command post at least twice, dignitas had just about swung the game in their favour when Tiigeri rose to the occasion taking the documents home shooting anything down in his path. Dignitas werent done yet though and slowed the truck down, what was just a minute or more longer seemed like an hour as impact slowly but surely got the truck to the exit with just 4 seconds remaining.

Possibly the most exciting game of Braundorf yet decided the game, Raveneye and r3vers both enjoyed fruitful moments with the rifle and added flair to the occasion. Impact on their offence dragged their feet, particularly in the first stage and once they did have that they couldnt quite get the side open quick enough to set a lightning fast time. Even whilst they didnt have the side entrance their dutch players were able to enjoy great freedom pushing into the dignitas defence, but still couldnt find the key. When they did unlock the defence it was after 7 minutes and it was going to take a resolute defence to stop Dignitas winning. Resolute was exactly what it was and dignitas got nowhere fast and it went down to the wire with 2 minutes to go. Dignitas planted twice only to have raveneye strike a double rifle to then defuse both with tiigeri. Not to be out done, Dignitas planted twice again and this time r3vers struck double to save the dynos and win the game. Dignitas win one of the most exciting games in a while!

Original Preview:

But this great match isn't all the Play Offs have to offer. There's another match tomorrow night and this one is going to be tense. It's Dignitas versus Impact. With Dignitas recently losing to Cadre nothing is sure and Impact could well take it. The poll on Crossfire.nu shows that the majority of the community thinks that Impact will take it. Though Dignitas is still a very strong side! They will have to prove they still got it against a very young side which is growing every match. Are they capable of doing so? We'll see.

You don't want to miss these two matches. Make you sure you tune in on time! GamesTv.org



With 8 teams in the Play Offs and a double elimination system this is going to be one heck of a Play Off. Now the teams that have reached the Play Offs are:

From Group A:
Insignia Cadre
Dignitas

From Group B:
ZeroPoint!
Fear Factory X-Fi

From Group C:
Polar eSports
TLR.eSports

From Group D:
Impact Gaming
Vicious and Evil