The debut game for the new season of the Gfinity elite series was between two of the top British teams, Team Infused and Endpoint. Both teams needed to take the first round win in order to put them in good standing before their second week match-ups, seeing Endpoint face off against last season’s best of British team exceL and Infused taking on the dominant Team EnVyUs.
| Team Endpoint | vs | Team Infused |
| Ian “Immi” Harding | Aaron “AaroN” Hemmings | |
| Max “MiGHTYMAX” Heath | Michael “MCK” McDonald | |
| Tramaine “stan1ey” Stanley | Aaron “fre1” Frei | |
| Dion “FASHR” Derksen | George “ZED” Bear | |
| Yannick “yNc” Van Boven | Zaki “Danceyz” Dance |
The map pick saw the two teams face off on Cobblestone, with Infused taking the CT side, which arguably can be called the advantageous side pick. With that in mind however, the pistol round saw the Terrorist Endpoint side head towards B for what would not be the first time in the first half of the game. On this occasion, it was successful with Endpoint taking an almost clean sweep on the pistol and giving themselves a steady foundation for the following couple of rounds.
Another fast B take from Endpoint saw them take the bombsite against a force-bought Infused side, however casualties on both sides saw Endpoint with a man disadvantage two players to three. The exchanges from there did not go in Endpoint’s favour, with Aaron “AaroN” Hemmings taking the remaining players and resetting the economy of the terrorist side. With that, Infused also managed to secure themselves round three and four with Endpoint forcing up after being put on the back foot.
The two teams did not both meet on a full buy round until the fifth. At this point in the game, despite the reset in round two, it became clear that Endpoint’s executes were mainly focused around the B bombsite. The execute to take the site was successful, seeing them planting the bomb in a four versus four situation. However, they were caught short by AaroN making an unexpected play, running through a tactical smoke on the bomb site and catching all four of the Endpoint players off guard. At this point, with Infused 4-1 up, the game was already looking to slip away from their opposition.
Fast forward to ten rounds in, and the terrorist side had managed to equalise the score at five rounds a piece. Their approach had not been altered, with B still being the primary target for the attacking side. Infused had clearly become wise to this, and despite being on an eco, placed the majority of their arsenal towards the B site in the eleventh round. Endpoint walked straight into the stacked out site and succumbed to the pistols of the Infused side. The first half closed out with the closest possible score line, 8 – 7, with Team Infused narrowly taking the advantage.
Following the swapping of sides for the second half, the game unfolded in almost the exact same way as the first half. The CT team, now Team Endpoint, lost the pistol buy after being overrun by the rapid push of the Infused side, but this did not stop Endpoint from resetting them in round two again much like Infused had to them in the first half. This saw three of the first four rounds go to the Endpoint side, putting them on a 10 – 9 scoreline and giving them the lead for the first time since the end of the first round of the game.
The first full but for Infused saw them take control of the A bombsite with one player holding back in drop and causing some trouble for the rotators from B. Dion “FASHR” Derksen and Tramaine “stan1ey” Stanley found themselves in a 2 versus 5 situation with the bomb heading over to the A bombsite. However, after dispatching with Aaron “Fre1” Freii in the connector, FASHR went on to equalise the round with two clean shots onto the advancing Infused side, preventing them from getting the bomb planted on the A platform. One of the two remaining T players George “ZED” Bear managed to take the bomb to be planted, but no longer after placing it down Stan took matters in to his own hands and took down both ZED and his remaining team mate.
It looked almost over by this stage, with numerous pushes from the Infused side seeing them successfully take bomb sites only to lose out when the Endpoint retake took hold. A 15 – 9 scoreline saw the game almost closed out, however some resurgence from the Infused side made it appear as though they could manage to take the game to overtime. At 15 – 12, it would take just one round from Infused to force Endpoint on to and eco and bring the crunch down to the final round. However, they were not given that opportunity, and a spread out approach to the A bombsite allowed the CTs take some advantageous positions, stopping the execute as it came late on into the round. In a 1v5 situation with just 15 seconds remaining, Zaki “Danceyz” Dance managed to take down three but left no time to get the bomb planted. Final score, 16 – 12 in favour of Endpoint.
Team Endpoint 16 – 12 Team Infused
Week 1 stats for Endpoint’s stan1ey (Gfinity Elite Series S2 Stream)
Difference maker: Tramaine “stan1ey” Stanley for Team Endpoint. Sheer fragging power and co-ordination, 32 kills.
Turning point: Round 20 – Endpoint re-take A bombsite 2v5 after Infused take control of the A bombsite
Play of the game: Round 20 – Endpoint (CT) re-take A bombsite 2v5 after Infused take control of the A bombsite & Round 5 – AaroN (CT) takes down all four of Endpoint post-plant on bombsite B
Potential score: 16-12 to Infused. Holding down bombsites after taking numerical advantages would have seen Endpoint on the back foot on their CT side.
