It has been a long and strenous day in Northern Sweden for the Counter-Strike team, with six matches and eight maps in total spanning over 11 hours. The day started at 12:00 with a nightmare start against Ninjas in Pyjamas’ Academy team, Young Ninjas. Down 0-7, nawwk, Dragon and vinS’s debut tournament looked horribly grim, but all of a sudden there seemed to be a spark and the team found enough groove to make a full comeback on the map of Ancient, eventually running away with a 13-11 scoreline.
vinS’s LAN debut as Metizport’s Head Coach looked grim at first, but quickly turned around
With a running schedule of the matches, there was little rest before the next match would commence – fellow Swedish roster Johnny Speeds were the opponents. This match followed the same horribly close standard, but Metizport was the team to run away with a lead in the first half. Johnny Speeds managed to mount a comeback, however, and eventually the match slipped away and became an overtime story, which went back and forth for several rounds before the opponents were able to clinch two rounds to claim the victory.
Metizport didn’t let the defeat bring them down – at least not if you look at the end result. On the next match versus Bulgarian squad Acend on Overpass, Vincent “vinS” Jozefiak saw his men down 3-9 in the first half, but when it was Metizport’s turn to play around on the defender side, everything turned around – literally. With masterclass performances from In-game leader Jackinho on both bombsites, Acend were only given one single round on the attacking side, which rolled out the red carpet for Metizport to walk home with a 13-10 victory.
Jackinho was a menace versus Acend
Up 2-1 now, it was time for the fourth match of the day versus group favorites Inner Circle, a full-Ukranian squad. The clash took place on Ancient and for Metizport, it was another uphill battle in the first half – 8-4 was the halftime score for the Ukranians, and Metizport switched over to the attacking side. This, however, is where they found a better groove which helped them tighten the holes in the boat and start breathing Inner Circle in the neck. In the end, however, the opponents found enough courage to close out the game with a 13-11 scoreline. Close, but no cigar.
The final game of the day, then, was a do-or-die for us. We had been left the “easiest” team for the end, at least so we thought. Swedish mix-team “Minkens finest” was down 0-4 and therefore had no chance of qualifying, but that didn’t mean they weren’t going to put up a real fight. It started off strong from Metizport in the first half on Ancient, but as the Swedes started rolling on the attacking side they slowly but surely inched closer and closer to Jackinho’s safe haven of 10 rounds. In the end, it came down to only a few rounds, but the 26-year-old In-game leader kept calm and took the last, oh-so-important match of the Round-Robin group stage.
It may sound silly, but the day wasn’t over there. The squad had about an hour to eat and prepare for the next “Knockout” game, which would decide who proceeded to the Quarterfinals. Our opponents were the all-Danish squad MASONIC, a rather unknown team in these environments, but apparently not a team to underestimate – they had finished second in their group. On the first map of Inferno, there was no question of who were the best. Isak “isak” Fahlén was a constant nuisance on the attacking side, so much so that the Danes were only able to collect three rounds in total as defenders. The massive lead was enough room for Metizport to easily close out the game once they switched sides – 13-5 was the final score.
isak was a major stick in the wheel for the opponents on Inferno
On map 2, a revenge-hungry MASONIC left no scraps whatsoever for us to feed on. There is not much to say about this match – literally. We never even got a chance, and the Danes had equalized the match score to 1-1 after a whopping 13-2 result.
On the third and final map, which happened to be Ancient, it was time for another slow start. After a long day full of tight matches, maybe the energy had ran out for the newly formed Metizport roster? Well, it seemed so at first, as MASONIC ended the first half 7-5 and then immediately won the pistol and the first buy round, resulting in a 10-5 scoreline. Thankfully Metizport was on the defending side, which statistically seems to be the easier side to comeback on. And at the sixteen round mark it all started. With combined efforts the team carefully dismounted the strategies of the attackers, with Liam “MaiL09” Tügel making a risky play by wrapping around the entire map but getting his just rewards and getting served two free-frags to completely throw MASONIC off.
At match point, when Metizport had made a full comeback to 12-11, the defenses fell on the A site leaving MASONIC in a favorable four versus three situation. But Tim “nawwk” Jonasson had had enough – he landed two incredible shots with the AWP from CT spawn and instantly turned the steak around, then sneaking around the remaining opponents and finishing the round off with a pistol kill to secure the match and top 8 for his men.
nawwk said “enough is enough” and single-handedly saved the last round versus MASONIC
In the end, after a gameday that lasted over 11 hours, six matches and eight maps in total, Metizport is through to the Quarterfinals in Åre. Good stuff!
Catch us tomorrow at 10:00 AM CET for our next match.