It was The Neighbours who pulled through in the EPIC.LAN 39 grand final, after a comfortable first and third map showing. Despite being lauded as the favourite coming into the tournament, the individuals were most certainly required to pull them over the line, as Owen “smooya” Butterfield and James “bevve” Slinn both ended the final with 1.29 ratings. In their first EPIC.LAN under the org, 7AM could not pull together enough firepower to take down the stacked mix team.
After 7AM’s nail-biting upper bracket final encounter with acclaimed mix team, The Neighbours, spectators were certainly hoping to see a match of similar calibre when the two teams lined up for a rematch in the grand final of EPIC.LAN 39. It wasn’t too much of a surprise to see The Neighbours overpower Next in Line in the consolidation final to set up the clash with 7AM. Narrow 16-12 and 16-14 scorelines were the difference in 7AM’s leapfrog straight into the Grand Final over smooya and company, it certainly felt like either side still had a point to prove going into this final.
Coming into the map veto, The Neighbours were quick to take Ancient off the cards (as they did against Next in Line), having come up short on it against 7AM in the upper bracket final. Oliver “husky” Gollings and his troops opted for Nuke instead, presumably in the hopes of replicating their impressive performance on it against Singularity earlier this month. Prior to the map, Adam “Adam9130” Ahmad was certainly feeling the pressure, as he was seen gaining some extra insight into the aforementioned game, pulling up 7AM’s GOTV demo against Singularity on Nuke. This was done despite telling UKCSGO a few days ago he was merely trolling this tournament, which shows the switch in gear his team needed in order to hopefully take down 7AM.
Bringing 7AM back to Overpass after a close 16-14 loss against them in the upper bracket final looked to be a questionable decision, as Adam9130 was left alone in a 1v5 in what seemed like a flash, in the pistol round. Fortunately, he was able to rally the troops as they built up some crucial momentum, bouncing back with three rounds on the trot on the T-side putting them 3-2 up. Battling against the tide on the heavily CT-sided Overpass, The Neighbours forked together an impressive 10 rounds on the attacking side, with nothing to show by 7AM.
After a pistol round and a conversion, The Neighbours slammed the door shut on their map pick, 16-5, in convincing fashion. Perhaps overly reliant on individual hero plays, 7AM maybe hoped to see more out of some of their star performers in clutch situations, as the zero rounds claimed on the T-side of Overpass left much to be desired.
Moving into 7AM’s pick of Nuke on the unfavourable attacking side, Zy “yz0” Esponilla immediately made his presence known, perhaps proving a point after an underwhelming individual performance on Overpass, with a thunderous entrance onto the B bombsite, leaving his team in a 2v3 situation, which husky and Leo “Silence” Ingvarsson cleaned up in the clutch. We knew The Neighbours weren’t going to be easy to silence, especially with the CT-side in their favour, as they claimed the first gun round, leading to a back and forth between the two teams. 7AM stretched in front to an 8-4 lead, when all of a sudden bevve seemed to tap into an untamed beast within, pulling off an ace from a 3v5 situation with upgraded pistols, lining up a string of four frags with the Five-Seven, all headshots, rounded off with an aesthtic AWP flick, stunning everyone on the server including husky, who called an immediate tactical pause. The momentum continued to the end of the half as they closed the gap to 7-8.
Silence and Mason “Vacancy” Haines stepped up to keep a lid on The Neighhours’ antics, pushing their way to a 13-8 scoreline and weathering the seemingly never-ending storm from the attacking side. It took Oscar ‘LVN‘ Levin, who kept his cool in the 1v1 with smooya, to secure 15 for 7AM, who eventually sealed Nuke with reasonable comfort, 16-11.
It took Vertigo to separate the two tournament favourites, to the delight of the spectators. 7AM continued to show signs of revitalisation as they set the pace with a pistol round conversion, leading 4-1 on the attacking side. As soon as 7AM showed signs of potentially completing the reverse-sweep, which was surged forward by an impressive 1v2 courtesy of LVN and multiple entries by Vacancy, they crumbled. Unfortunately, the tides shifted after smooya pulled of a ninja defuse to bring his team 6-4 ahead. 7AM seemed to let the pressure topple them completely, mustering 1 more round in the half and heading into the second half at a 10-5 deficit.
The second half didn’t bode well for 7AM either, who showed signs of life in the pistol round initially. Unfortunately for them, Matas “Extinct” Strumila had other ideas when he piled on the misery with a swift 1v3 turnaround with nothing but headshots on the Glock. The following round, once again, saw some decent utility usage out of 7AM on the defending side, which was immediately shut down with prowess shown by The Neighbours on rifles. One round was all 7AM could put together in the second half, as The Neighbours completed an impressive EPIC39 campaign by finishing off Vertigo with a 16-6 scoreline, claiming the lion’s share of the £3,471 prize pool.
Be sure to join us next time for EPIC.LAN 40, which returns to Kettering on October 26, 2023.
