Day 1 of the UK masters playoffs has come to a close, 2 exciting best of three matches in the upper bracket of the playoffs.
Match one saw CAZ eSports take on Orgless with the maps set as Mirage, Cobblestone and Cache
CAZ eSports vs Orgless
Mirage
CAZ and Orgless kicked us off on our first map, Mirage. CAZ eSports took the first pistol, the anti eco… and 4 rounds after that until Orgless finally managed to pull one back in their favour to make the score 6-1. JAKEM was not going to accept another, CAZ won the next round causing a reset of the economy for the Orgless CT side, this led to another 7 rounds in the favour of CAZ eSports. Orgless managed a second win in round 15 but it was not enough, it was 13-2 at the half and CAZ had fuelled up the plow, 2 quick rounds on their CT half brought the score to 15-2. At match point Orgless managed to get the bomb plant and create a 4vs4 afterplant situation but Jake “JAKEM” McCausland and Kostas “tsack” Theodoropoulos with 2 kills each secured the map win for CAZ eSports.
Cobblestone
To say Orgless was on the backfoot coming into Cobblestone would be an understatement, a team that was poised to be the “UK super team” were just beaten 16-2 on their map pick. They were hoping to clear their heads and get back into it on CAZ map pick Cobblestone but this map started just like the last. 8 rounds off the bat for the CAZ team launched them into a very dominant CT side, Orgless finally managed to get some rounds together, 5 altogether to CAZ’s 10. Orgless’ CT side started just as bad as their T side with CAZ winning 3 rounds in a row before Orgless had an answer. The game however finished much like the first, a disappointing 16-7 score for Sam “RattlesnK” Gawn’s crew which made a 2-0 victory for JAKEM and co. This moved them to the Upper Bracket finals against the winner of the next match.
FM eSports vs Reason Gaming
Our second and last best of three for tonight saw the lineup who topped the league table, FM eSports, take on a Reason Gaming that we hadn’t seen before. Reason had added Joey “CRUC1AL” Steusel to the lineup for the duration of the playoffs which used up the last roster slot they had. Joey has played in UK lineups before in teams such as FM eSports during CEVO Season 9 and Barrage for epic.SEVENTEEN.
The Maps for this match were to be Overpass (Picked by FM eSports), Mirage (Picked by Reason Gaming) and the decider was to be Dust2.
Overpass
Overpass started strong for Reason Gaming. 7 rounds straight off the bat for them on their Terrorist half and the map seemed to be entirely in their control as CRUC1AL stepped up for his team, hitting 10 kills and 0 deaths on round 7 but FM were not out just yet, they took round 8 after a very close 2vs2 situation that could have gone either way.
2-7 in favour of Reason and the bomb was planted. a 2vs1 afterplant should have been an easy situation but that 1 was Neil “nEiLZiNHo” Finlay, he fearlessly jumped onto the B bombsite, the Reason players holding positions where they could easily peek out in the event of a defuse. Neil had no time for a fake, he also had a Kit after winning the past 2 rounds. He held the defuse and neither of the 2 remaining Reason players even moved, he pulled off the ninja and that momentum brought FM eSports to an 8-7 half.
The second half started much like the first. Reason won their second pistol round and the anti-eco rounds after it. FM responded on their gun round and they tied the score up 10-10. Reason had bought up and won the 3 following rounds. 13-10 and FM fought back picking up 4 quick rounds of their own. A quick tactical pause by the Reason side allowed them to reset and go into the round fresh, they took the round and again it was tied 14-14.
FM however were not out, they picked up round number 28, putting them onto match point and completely breaking the Reason economy. Reason bought what they could but it was not to be, FM took the map 16-14.
Mirage
Mirage was a different story alltogether in the Reason camp, this was their map pick and after taking it so close on Overpass they knew they could beat FM.
Reason had a dominating first half with another straight 7 rounds coming out of them before FM could return with four of their own. Reason force bought a few times and in round 13 they were left with 2 Desert Eagles, a CZ75, a Five-Seven and an AWP, and to the surprise of FM they took it. giving them their 9th and 10th round. FM got the final say of the half and made it 10-5
The second half saw FM take the pistol round and the anti-eco after it and Reason had no bomb plants, they went into round 18 with 3 glocks and 2 P250’s somehow managing a win against the SMG’s of FM eSports. This gave Reason Gaming the momentum they needed to finish the map 16-7 in their favour and take it to the decider Dust2
Dust2
Going into Dust2 it was anybodies game. Reason looked the stronger side over the past 2 maps after a close loss on Overpass and a dominating win on Mirage. FM however looked to be starting Dust2 strong, they took the first pistol after Aaron “fre1” Frei took off three of the Reason Gaming side’s heads but Reason were not going to let the anti-eco happen. Buying up Tec-9’s and a Scout the Reason side took the round, breaking FM after they’d purchased 2 FAMAS’ 2 UMP’s and a Scout.
Reason took 4 rounds off the back of this to make it 5-1 in their favour. FM struggled to pick up a few more rounds and the half ended 10-5 in Reason’s favour. Going into the 2nd half, Reason took the pistol round. FM however did not want a repeat of Mirage and force bought Tec-9’s and armour, they forced a bomb plant and brought it to a 1v1 which Conor “conor” McCool pulled into Reason’s favour, barely getting the defuse and giving reason their 12 round. This gave Reason a chance for victory and they were about to take it with their 13th round. However a pause was called and the stream went to a break.
When the stream came back the casters explained that Reason Gaming had been given a default loss due to Roster Discrepancies and were dropping to the lower bracket to play against Orgless later today. We do not know the details of the issue and what exactly caused the default loss but we will update this post when new information is released by Multiplay.
With this, FM eSports moves to face CAZ eSports in the Upper bracket final later today, while Orgless take on Reason Gaming and meet the loser of FM vs CAZ in the lower bracket final for a place in the grand finals at Insomnia 58. All the action can be seen on Multiplay’s twitch channel here from 2PM today!
