The end of epic23 saw just two teams remaining, as fish123 came up against the Bulldog Mix in the game to claim the £1900 first prize place. With this being a weighted best-of-five, fish123 have a small advantage over their opponents thanks to their upper-bracket run.
The first map was Overpass, where fish123 claimed the pistol round and first anti-eco on their CT-side, before Bulldog secured a forcebuy in round three to get onto the board. From there the Bulldog started to claim a small lead, with robiin and jenko impressing, before fish123 started to get back into the game and even it up.
A small break occurred because of some networking issues, before the game finally resumed. On resumption, MiGHTYMAX and co. started pushing on for a 9-6 lead at the half.
The second half began with Bulldog Mix taking the pistol round and the following two anti-ecos. But fish123 prevent Bulldog from taking the lead through securing the first buy round as smooya and Sliggy kept his team in the game.
Although fish123 were looking to take the lead, Bulldog started to return fire. Two good rounds from Kryptix brought his team close to evening the game up before fish secured an eco win after smooya uses a salvaged AWP. Although Bulldog picked up the next round, smooya secured four kills to put his team on to map point whilst reaching 31 kills himself. Although Bulldog started the final round off well, fish took the map 16-12.
31 kills from smooya as he shows off his guns (Photo: Alex “Xela” Harris)
Next up was Mirage, and it was fish123 who started their T-side with the pistol round, before Bulldog opened back on the first buy round. They secured the following round before keita and co. returned back to retain the lead.
From there Bulldog were starting to come into the game once again, with Surreal and co. pushing on to keep the game close. Although fish123 took another round to secure a lead at the half, it was just a narrow one as Bulldog secured the final rounds of the half to keep it close at 8-7.
The second half began with fish123 securing the pistol round on their CT-side, but Bulldog came out to secure a force-buy win to go into the lead. But it wasn’t going to last for long as fish123 came back in the first buy round to even the match up once again.
The two teams then started to trade rounds as fish123 narrowly took the lead before Barrage lined up two to even the match up once again. The two sides then traded rounds once again as they both sat on 14 rounds before fish123 eventually claimed map, match, series and championship point on a forcebuy. From there fish123 pushed to the end and secured the final round, with smooya securing 32 kills in the map for a 16-14 win.
fish123 (3–0) Bulldog Mix
Default 1–0
Overpass 16–12
Mirage 16–14
