Lineup ixus r1k zwaardvis solz rapzajjj Purno

Lineup ephix snail vioqor castiel head fooZar

First level: mp_matmata
Group B is the first group of this marvelous EuroCup season where everything was set to be decided on the outcome of this match. After ephix so grossly underestimated the Hungarians of EASYQUEST, throwing away their first match, they had found themselves in an extremely tough position in the group. They eased the situation after convincingly beating the French team of the lot they had to play, and were further elated when ixus fell to them on mp_carentan, thus putting the fate of ephix in their own hands once again. A 13-11 win would be enough for them, while a draw would see them lose out.

ixus on the other hand, enjoyed a great opening to the groups, defeating iNFINITE in the first matchweek, before completely destroying EASYQUEST on mp_toujane. Admittedly, the Hungarians were weakened by their landodger vitya forcing a replacement in the lineup, stepping up was DARO. EQ did finish on a high note, thrashing the French team in the final matchweek, with DARO being replaced by Shogun Rua.

Things took a turn to the disasterous for ixus after losing their 4th matchweek match, however the strength and experience of their lineup and the fact matmata was to be the decider filled them with some confidence, especially as they practiced the map bountifully for weeks before the game. ephix knew they couldn't put in such a spirited effort, with having all the lineup problems imaginable, so they resorted to the only fool proof way of preparing for the match - anti-stratting. A long underused tool, reeking of the old days of CoD2, ephix brought it out in force for this match, with the sneaky fox fooZar procuring demos of the CB matches ixus played in preparation, from the teams they played against. I provided one of the anti-strat maps for the reader's enjoyment below.







But tragedy struck before the game, as zwaardvis informs ephix AID3N cannot make the game. While ephix are slightly concerned about the validity of the tactics they have prepared, ixus have been struck a major blow, as their most in form player is absent, replaced by Purno, who is not nearly as experienced.

Therefore the team lines up as Purno, r1k, solz, rapzajjj and zwaardvis. On the other side, the international mix lines up as snail, vioqor, rubenswaa, fooZar and our Glorious Cupsupervisor AdmiralGeneral head. Disclaimer : match report written through fooZar's and zwaardvis' demos and after an analysis of the match between them.

Thus the stage is set for the lottery of the pistolbash. snail and fooZar down two players each, and an interesting decision is ahead for their team. After more than a minute of exchanging opinions, vioqor enforces his authority as team captain and decides to start on defense, so the players of ixus may lose some extra rounds adapting to their provisional 5th on their stronger side.

As the first round unfolds, a few things are certain. ixus smoke is destined to be lacking for the rest of the game, with their shotgun missing, thus ephix can push through to the A bomb much more easily, with rubenswaa set to duel zwaardvis there in all rounds to follow. Regarding the outcome of the first round, the blonde warrior vioqor downs two at the start, securing the round through a massive 5v3 advantage. r1k has a vision of things to come, as he falls to vioqor's tacnade.







r1k grabs a triple in the second round, tying up the score at 1. With ixus smoke failing, rubenswaa is encouraged to push, grabbing two for his effort. This, however, is all undone by another marvelous round from r1k, getting another triple, including the round winning 1v2 clutch. As the outfit formerly known as serious gaming commits to another in the long line of A pushes, they unlock the confused defense of their opponents, to bring the match to 3-1. Rounds quickly following one another, snail with the scope gets a triple to bring it to 3-2, negating the good effort of rapzajjj, who had brought it to a 2v2 from a 4v2 disadvantage.

The legendary solz opens up the fragging in the next round, with zwaardvis winning his duel against ruben, bringing the score to 4-2, even with their team's smoke failing again. ephix find themselves in a pretty bad situation, and it only gets worse through the next round. As three ixus players silent climb the mid roof, the round seems all but over, until fooZar instinctively pops out of his prone to check the ladder climb from the B side, grabbing two. This allows his team to win the round, bringing it to a tolerable 4-3 disadvantage.

In the next two rounds, fooZar gets the opening nade kill, with head contributing three kills to the tally. The Slovenian completes a triple in the 9th round, bringing ephix their first lead of the game at 5-4. With ruben winning his A duel against zwaardvis, head punishes the opposing team with another frag from mid roof, ixus really being completely annulled by his teaming up with fooZar, preying upon everyone with the map control provided by mid roof. fooZar himself gets another triple from mid roof in the very same round, bringing it to 6-4.

ixus know a change is needed urgently, and solz is withdrawn from his losing battles against vioqor and snail on B and commited to an A push. This works flawlessly making it 6-5. The same is attempted in the next round with some initial success, but ephix had adapted extremely fast in the 10-15 seconds of time they had to think over the new position of solz, and snail is suddenly at axis spawn, taking down his designated nemesis yet again, with fooZar contributing a frag from mid roof and head on a triple. Thus the half ends 7-5, after very fast non stop action. The second half can only get better from here on out.







The second half begins with a shock for ephix, as their opponent's smoke is nowhere near where they had predicted, being deployed at the first mid road truck, instead of the second. This allows zwaardvis, acting on direct instructions from solz to pick up an easy double from 2nd mid roof pillar and r1k closing the round up with a double of his own. In the meantime, head, vioqor and fooZar discuss the plan for the next round realizing the round is lost. It is eventually agreed that their own smoke will be thrown to the place where they had expected the ixus smoke to be, with more players going through A alley to take advantage of a double smoke on mid road.







Suddenly, a miracle occurs as ixus switch their smoke to the standard spot, allowing the original ephix tactics to come into full effect. Still, the confusion arrising from the sudden change in smoke almost loses them a round, with zwaardvis getting another double from a back push. All left on fooZar in a 1v3 situation, he nevertheless gets the clutch done, a truly fitting end to a round as important to the outcome of the match as it proved to be. Score 8-6 to ephix. In the next round, the full tactic of ephix is finally available to them, with head getting a triple, vioqor taking care of the back push.

As fooZar gets an opening nade kill in the next round, he runs towards rapzajjj standing in front of A alley with a 44, getting a pistol headshot, truly symbolic of speed being the essence to the ephix attack [screenshot]. The score is now 10-6 and it is indeed looking like a rainbow after the storm for snail and vioqor, who had lost the NationsCup final against Czech Republic the day before.







Knowing they need a round, ixus opt for a quite aggressive back push but snail drops both of them from a hidden position. Even then, with r1k bringing the round to a 3v2 advantage in favour of ixus, it does not look good for the team in the lead. As snail and fooZar maneuver slowly, they manage to get a plant down at B, crucial factor here being Purno as the shotgun not having a long range weapon to stop the plant. fooZar withdraws to the B plant hut, while his teammate desperately tries to stay alive. Upon finally succumbing to his wounds, fooZar stands up and takes down all three ixus players with three garand clips, completing another 1v3 clutch.

zwaardvis gets a small opening of hope with his early nadekill, but vioqor and head finish it off for 12-6 with two frags each. fooZar gets a double nadekill and a frag, with rubenswaa contributing two, making the final score 13-6.









ephix  win by 13 to 6

With this crucial win, ephix will qualify for the quarterfinals as second in their group, EQ coming out on top by round difference.

Ixus will be looking on to future endeavours, with hopes of attending the Alienware LAN in Hungary during the summer, while ephix will prepare for their quarterfinal opponents.