Recap The Court

Jacob Smith

The New York Subliners took a while to get back to the form they were in during the first stage, but they’re back. Completing the losers bracket run that Optic tried during Major 3, they go from losers round one all the way to the grand finals and a 4-3 victory over the Atlanta FaZe.

Until New York took the championship, the biggest storyline of the weekend was Optic and the collapse that the sold out crowd at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto, Canada witnessed.

You go undefeated during the split in back to back stages, you get to the grand finals twice finishing second both times, and you follow that up with a 0-6 map count and a bounce out on day 2. I don’t know what happened or if they just never locked in, but they have some issues that I think are just getting exposed as champs gets closer.

As Zoomaa said in his watch party, Optic has a problem of just sending their star SMGs into hills and not following it up. They rely on the skill of Shotzzy and Huke, and leave Ghosty stranded once they die trying to break the hill. There seems to be zero teamwork and complete reliance on gun skill, and that isn’t going to work during the bigger games on LAN.

They got bounced by the Thieves after getting sent to the losers bracket by the Florida Mutineers, and shoutout Vikul and Brack. Florida didn’t have much to play for aside from the cheque of making a run during the major, they were out of Champs and with rumours of the Miami Heretics taking over, they were mainly playing for a contract next year, and they showed out. Capsidal looked great running around the map and Brack held things down when it got close, and though they got eliminated in winners round 2, they made a statement that we may see Brack, Vikul and Capsidal again next year.

Another statement that was made was the London Royal Ravens, maybe not making a statement for their team, but a statement for their opponent, the Boston Breach who lost 3-1 to the Royal Ravens who got their first LAN win of the season. In Asim’s hometown, London came out on fire and they made a Breach team that had questions surrounding them regarding their team and what theyre good at, go home to boos from the crowd. Sound EQ merchants, meaningless team changes, breakdowns, Boston’s issues got aired for the world to see at Major Five, and they have to figure it out if they want to get past top 6 when Champs comes in a few weeks.

In a major that saw twelve 3-0 victories, there wasn’t a whole lot that was close, aside from the two matchups between the Toronto Ultra and the New York Subliners. This matchup at the major was confusing to watch, as you can argue that the team that lost should’ve won. In the first matchup that Toronto took 3-2, New York tossed away a almost guaranteed control victory with a significant life advantage, and went on to lose game 5. In their second matchup on championship Sunday, a even series saw Toronto throw away SnD rounds in the game 5 and lose getting eliminated in fourth in their home major.

The Ultra had a up and down major with Scrap rebounding from his rough first series to handle Thieves 3-0 and have a decent series against New York on Sunday. Hydra on the other side, dominated, and won the Major MVP. That brings me to our champions, the Subliners.

They ran through losers, and their pace looked like it did at the start of the season, and nobody could keep up. Hydra was a demon getting first bloods in Search and Destroy, and squaring up on Hotel against Toronto, they showed everyone that Hotel Search and Destroy may be their best map, followed closely by Mercado. Their ability to make decisions quickly and capitalize on even the smallest mistake came up big for New York with Kismet finding opportune double kills and Skyz watching over the map.

They pushed FaZe to a final map in the grand finals, after FaZe threw away a Asilo Search and Destroy which they probably should’ve won being up 5-2, and going into Champs, they have to be one of the favourites. It will be difficult to do what Thieves did in Vanguard taking the final two championships, but if they play, more specifically if Hydra plays how he did in Toronto, it’s going to be hard to say anyone will beat them.

The Subliners were a step above everyone and made quick work of most of their losers run, and they are the only team so far to win more than one major this season. They’re back, Hydra jumped to a top 2-3 candidate for MVP at the end of the season, and when Champs comes in June, they will be a team everyone must watch. One more tournament left in MW2, the energy is pumping.