Matt "wargasm" Hazell reviews the thrilling Grand Final here at multiplay's i40 LAN event.

Going into the match we heard some bad news Chris "blackmane" Kinnair was being seen by medics as he was suffering from an illness. Sportingly, waL allowed Dignitas to play with a mixer. Luckily for Dignitas, Chris is now well enough to play, and so Lauren "Pansy" Scott won't be making her first appearance in an iSeries CoD final today.

Watch and learn qualified through the upperbracket. This means they only had to win one map to take home the glory. Team Dignitas knew they had to win two maps back to back to reclaim their title. The maps were decided by the teams, with Dignitas choosing the first and waL choosing the second.
We spent nearly an hour sitting around doing nothing, waiting for the final to start before anything actually happened. There seemed to be some PC problems on both sides, which were eventually resolved after multiple PC swaps, with admins and technical support staff swarming all over the stage like bees.

We finally got started on mp_citystreets. Dignitas start on defence. Blackmane starts with a 2 man. waL reply with 2 set nades onto Dignitas, leaving it on a 2v3. Robyye gets dropped, leaving Blackmane in a 1on3. 2 scope shots a and a deagle burst onto mINXZKA to complete his ace. Dignitas keep the momentum up, taking the next 2 rounds in quick succession.

Round 4 and Blackmane gets 2 frags to open the round. WaL reply, and it whittles down to a 1v1 with Lighters against nano. Lighetrs uses his head, and takes it to 4-0. Dignitas seem unstoppable, all the players are on fire. Blackmane is having a particularly good map, frequently getting one or more frags in the opening seconds of the round.

WaL push aggressively through the map to take their first round. Dignitas reply to prevent them building up any momentum. 7-1 becomes 8-1 as Dignitas play an extremely aggressive defensive side. Round 10 opens as many have before, with Blackmane getting the opening frag. Robyee rushes through mid and takes 2 frags. Lighters gets one and the dutchman mops up the round. WaL connect their nades for the second time, and push hard to mop up the Dignitas players. It’s left in a 1v5 with robyee completely surrounded by wal players. he gets 2, but gets shut down as he tries to rotate to defuse the bomb. The half finishes with another Dignitas round.

Going 10-2 into the second half, Dignitas are now on the harder side. The first round goes a lot slower than a lot of the others. Dignitas push into A site and get the bomb down. Set nades take it to 11-2 in favour of Dignitas. The nades don’t connect in the 14th round, and it’s 45 seconds before anything happens. robyee goes down, Blackmane replies with an SMG, scope and nade kill. It’s 1v2. mINZXKA has it all to do with the bomb planted and 2 defenders to kill. Raz shuts him down to take it to match point Dignitas.

Dignitas play a slow B push, but it doesn’t go quite to plan. iT’S 4V2 IN FAVOUR OF WAL AS Blackmane goes down to the waL scope. Lighters and raz team up to take down 2 wal players, bring it to 2v2. Th bomb gets planted, and lighters shuts down nano in mid. mINZXKA avenges his teammate but is dropped by raz to give Dignitas the first map.

The second map is mp_strike, chosen by waL. The knife goes Dignitas’ way, with them only losing 1 man to waL. Dignitas choose attack. They make a slow B push. Frags are exchanged until it is a 1v3 in favour of waL. Raz can’t convert it to a round, giving waL a much needed mental boost as they go into a 1-0 lead. Again they try the B push, but it doesn’t work this time either. Lighters is left in a 1v4, but it proves too much to ask.

Dignitas, sensibly, decided to switch things up and push A. A good choice, they take the round with ease. They revery to the slow push across the map, to counter waL’s keen defensive play. They go 4v3 up, only to meet two frags in quick succession by waL. They get the bomb down, and blackmane makes a sick 1v2 to level the score at 2v2. Blackmane is now using the AK47, Robyee on the scope.

3-2 waL, with Blazy pulling off an excellent +10 on blackmane and raz. Raz goes down early again in the 6th round, giving waL the advantage. They convert it into a 4-2 lead. Robyee drops a sick wallbang onto mINXZKA, following it up with a nade wolv. He’s left in a 1v2, taking it in style. The next few rounds see Dignitas settle into their rhythm. They sit in, trying to get picks with set nades and the scope. Once they thin the waL ranks, they make an aggressive push into one of the bombsites. The rounds go tit-for-tat, until it is 6-5 in Dignitas’ favour, with robyyee going huge in a 1v2. Dig make it 7-5 on the half time.

On defence, wal seem to be playing far too fast. They are continual victims of robyee’s scope and the team’s set nades. At 7-6, it’s robyee inaother 1v2. He drops a tac nade onto minx and is locked in a duel with the last waL player on A bombsite. Both players are tagged heavily, but it is nano who comes out on top. waL pick up another round back to back. Could this be a comeback?

Robyee certainly doesn’t think so, making 4 frags and singlehandedly holding off the entire waL team. Next round we see robyee as the last man standing yet again, but he can’t win yet another clutch. The tables turn as next round it is waL who find their sniper in a 1v3. The experience of the Dignitas players show their experience as they play with their heads, not allowing mINXZKA to win.

it is good to see this map becoming much more of a spectacle than the previous one. At 10-10, you can feel the tension in the crowd. Robyee hits 30 frags for only 14 deaths, showing everyone why he’s considered one of the deadliest snipers in the game.

The scoreline reaches 11-11 as mINXZKA fails in another 1v3 situation. WHoever wins this next round will get match point. It looks like it could be waL as their set nades connect. 4v2 becomes 1v2, robyee getting 2 deagle kills and blackmane dropping a nade onto the waL players’ heads.

It’s 12-11. Set nades bring it to 3vw in favour of waL. Blackmane gets 1. robyee the second. mINXZKA is left in a 1v2 situation. He hasn’t won one of these yet, will he step up at the last possible moment? He tags one with a nade, jumps round the corner and frags both them in a matter of seconds.

The crowd goes absolutely wild as it goes into overtime. The opening frag goes Dignitas’ way, a nade landing on nano’s head. Time goes by and nothing happens. Dig finally push into A, losing 1 man as they get the round.

The next round goes slowly again. Blackmane and lighters both get AK frags to give them the man advantage. Wolv is having none of it, taking robyee down to level it at 3v3. Dig get another frag, pushing in to A only to lose 2 players to mINXZKA. Dignitas’ last man is lighters, who absolutely dominates the two waL players to take it to 2-0.

3-0 would be a terrible scoreline for waL, and their gameplay shows it. Whittling down Dignitas to just robyee, they play with their heads and don’t allow him to clutch. Onto the first round of defence, and Dignitas are not able to prevent them getting the bomb down. Robyee cant clutch it and it’s 2-2. waL get the bomb down in A again, and Blackmane is left to get the 1v2. He shuts down one and left in a point blank battle with the last waL player. He clinches it! 3-2 in favour of Dignitas.

But there will be no victory for them yet. waL go huge to take it do double overtime. They score the first round of overtime, only to have the second go to Dignitas with excellent play from Blackmane and robyyee. 1-1 becomes 2-1 to waL, and as we switch over to defence waL find themselves in a 3v2 situation (to quote the most repetitive shoutcasters ever). Robyee and black go huge to make it 2-2. The penultimate round goes Dignitas’s way as mINXZKA can’t connect onto the 4 Dignitas players he is faced with. 3-2 to Dignitas, can they finally take it home?

It would seem that Dignitas have had enough of this. The final round is executed with devastating precision. waL fall before the unstoppable Dignitas force, finishing the match with deft skill.

So, that’s it then. The main CoD tournament is finally over here at insomnia40. But don’t despair, loyal fans! We still have plenty more for you yet!

 

00		02
BO3: mp_citystreets 02-13
BO3: mp_strike 17-19
watch and Learn  Allan "allan" Degnan  Amir "Blazevic" Blazevic  Adam "nano" Norman  Dominic "mINXZKA" Heal  Christopher "wolv" Bradley		Team Dignitas Chris "blackmane" Kinnair Jonathan "raz" Baker  Robin "robyYE" Swaters Chris "Lighters" Lightburn

TEK-9 i40 Coverage