Okay let's get this out of the way first and foremorst. Yes, Infused.Tt had an easier bracket into the Grand Final. No, it's not their fault. The reason the brackets were what they were is because of Redbyte.nl's win over Team WinFakt! and Infused.Tt's loss to Phantasmagoria.eu and Redbyte.it's surprising Group B win, if all teams play their groups according to their seeds, the Bracket would have been one without complaints.

Regardless of that little tidbit, it was a match between two British (or mostly British) teams, which is something that usually only happens at i-series or perhaps a long time ago with the Reason-Gaming versus Team-Dignitas matches. In any case, LowLandLions arrived and did what everyone expected them to do: play well, talk a lot and get the frags on the board and make it to the Grand Final. Infused.Tt on the other hand might have gotten an easier bracket, but still managed to win their matches against Redbyte.nl and Redbyte.it, two teams that definitely caused an upset or two.

And as few of you can witness, in these Grand Finals, the deck basically gets reshuffled and teams are given the opportunity to supersede themselves and find an entirely new and better rhythm to your usual self and get to the best you've ever been. This situation could have had the same pressure applied to it, but unfortunately, LowLandLions were out of Infused.Tt's league from start to finish.

The match started on Infused.Tt's map, mp_citystreets, where they'd be hoping to use their B rushes as effectively as during their Group Stage games. While it did in fact work out during the second round, in general, you could say that these pushes were too obvious for the likes of LowLandLions and when Thomas "cHoObiE" Mead headed to B to help cover it, he'd make sure B alley was locked off from the B bomb and he'd often rack up multiple kills in the first 20 seconds of the game. Being put in such a big disadvantage that early in the round, you could never really count Infused.Tt in this game, with David "ono" McConnell making sure that the middle was his. You could see him prefire, smokefire and everything else to their catwalk and Chris "kexSTAR" Tuck never really ventured in there to seek the direct confrontation.

What else is there to be said about Infused.Tt's attacking side, they only managed to secure two rounds and with mp_citystreets no longer being the frantically unbalanced map it used to be in 2008, you were damn sure that LowLandLions would be able to get enough rounds without making the comeback a viable option. Being one of the few teams to regularly opt for the A side, LowLandLions used their spawns to good effect and dodged all block nades and managed to get the A bomb planted within moments of spawning. Even though Infused.Tt had some strong nades to block the plant, they were basically always too slow to get near the A site while LowLandLions had already called home there. Carpark would be covered, you'd see people on the platform to cover A archway and Thomas "cHoObiE" Mead made sure he did enough damage at flower to secure the bomb spot for his team.

Eventually Infused.Tt secured a few more rounds but in the end, they had to give up the first map when Thomas "cHoObiE" Mead rushed middle / A archway to get himself three easy kills. 13 - 05 was the score of the first map and after a short break, mp_crash was loaded up and the next leg of this Grand Final was up.

Did Infused.Tt still have something left to show? It definitely seemed to be the case in the opening 10 rounds of mp_crash, even though Daniel "tidde" Asp and Ted "KoWa" Hansson were writing in chat that they were terrible on the map and would have no shot at winning. I beg to differ, as they managed to get some close rounds and if they had talked more amongst them, communicated more clearly and especially listened, they could have seen a 06 - 06 halftime or even a 07 - 05 in favour of them.

Some of the silly stuff they did was having overly advantageous rounds, ont being handled seriously. Chris "nreo" Mead became the man of the map when he was left in a 1on4 and managed to get three, planted a bomb and nearly got the final one. The round afterwards, he finishes off a 1on3 and picks up six frags in merely two rounds. Infused.Tt should know by now that you cannot give players of teams such as LowLandLions that much wiggle room in these situations, they should by all rights be over and done, just talk to each other and gradually close in on the player as a team, not run around doing as you please.

Again, if these situations had been handled differently, the 07 - 05 halftime score for LowLandLions nearly seemed like a present from Infused.Tt, as the game could have been a lot more close than it was. This was also the key difference between both teams, that LowLandLions were treating this game with the utmost respect and were talking a lot amonst themselves, discussing what to do next and how they could adapt to the opposing tactics, whereas Infused.Tt seemed to have never really believed they could win the thing.

Another 8 rounds later and the match was decided. LowLandLions had switched between going A and B and were generally in better control of middle than Infused.Tt were. 13 - 07 was the final score and this Grand Final was over a lot more quickly than you could have hoped for. Nonetheless it was an exciting game at times, with the players having some interesting moments to possibly pop up in replays or highlights.

Congratulations to LowLandLions for proving that they are the same if not better than their online performance and showing they can handle the pressure of the Playoff stages, after a Gamersject Winter Challenge after which that was in dubio. Infused.Tt should also be congratulated for the hard work they showed and how they handled their Group Stage and two Playoff games. Thanks to all of you for having followed TEK9 and the Adroits CoD Masters.

02		00
Maps: mp_citystreets: 13 - 05 mp_crash: 13 - 07
LowLandLions Declan "germaine" Elcocks Thomas "cHoObiE" Mead David "ono" McConnell Jasko "cozje" Berbic Chris "nreo" Mead		Infused.Tt Tom "tomzki" Churchman Chris "alpha" Bald Chris "KexSTAR" Tuck Ted "KoWa" Hansson Daniel "tidde" Asp

 

 

 

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