A tale as old as time, The Empire vs The Mutineers. I don’t know about you, but I was getting some real Pirates of the Caribbean vibes here. BIG WAKE was going to be our very own Captain Jack Sparrow, I was convinced.
Coming off a hot 3 – 0 on the slumping OpTic Chicago and back to back sweeps I am feeling confident we can pull this out. We have the momentum, team play has been on point, everyone has been improving and showing signs of that top 4 team I know they can become. This match is MASSIVE for our trajectory as a team, a win here makes a true statement.
However, it didn’t go that way. Let’s get into it.
BUT FIRST
Seeing this brings me much sadness. We need this map gone. I hate it. If I didn’t care so much I would not watch the search on it, maybe not the control.
Checkmate Hardpoint | 213 – 250
Here – we – go. This game ended up close but watching it never felt like we had a grasp on it. We consistently got broken by Dallas throughout the map. Winning rotations and having your setup broken in the first 10 to 25 seconds the majority of the time is a crushing feeling. I think it is because you feel like you are playing ‘the right way’ and you could be, but if you are getting pieced in the important moments it just doesn’t matter.
We start the map on the week side and make an interesting call in going three subs, with Owakening pulling out a 74u and hitting a sneaky route under the plane. He finds the timing on the flank, we get 4 down and win spawns for P2. Unfortunately, as I said we immediately fall into our pattern of getting broken on setups and the game starts to inch away from us. We get treated to a listen in which is always a great time. I felt the comms (In my once again amateur opinion) were low energy and lacked the metagame call out I feel they need. I understand that could work for some teams, but I feel this team needs a general, someone making calls and really directing the game. Skyz and Slacked do a decent job at it but it just isn’t there all the time as far as I can tell. If you listen closely you can hear Skyz call out iLLey and then say shit on, quite entertaining.
If you look at the scoreboard (courtesy breakingpoint.gg) you will notice that our ARs outperformed their counterparts while the sub-line underperformed. Skyz went massive and is a big reason the game stayed so close dropping 38 with a 1.27 k/d and 6668 damage. Despite this Crim and iLLey kept it close and Huke and Shotzzy were able to find themselves plenty of space to take control and severely impact the map. Tough start to the match but up next we got search, anyone’s game right?
Checkmate Search & Destroy | L 4 – 6
I will reiterate I dislike this map immensely as a search and destroy experience for both viewer and player alike. Now to the game.
Round 1 we start on defense, Skyz gets two from the Tetris power position and the subs clean up the rest. Good round.
Round 2 offense iLLey is able to get a two-piece from A lane and bomb and Empire is able to clean it up. 1 – 1.
Round 3 BIG WAKE gets three as we sit back slow and win the round. 2 – 1.
Round 4 we lose the 2 for 1 trade in the plane. Crim puts Skyz in a 1 v 3 and he can’t find the kills. Tied up.
Round 5 Dallas is able to win the individual gunfights and put Skyz in another 1 v 3 with the same result. 2 – 3.
Round 6 Neptune opens up with a nice 2 piece and finds a third to close out the round. Tied again 3 – 3.
Round 7 Neptune finds one and gets traded out. Shotzzy hits a route and puts Slacked in a 1 v 2 and he is only able to find one. 3 – 4.
Round 8 Dallas makes the call to counter Skyz and hits A lane isolating and killing him off the break. We take free plane control but Crim and iLLey are able to mop us up. 3 – 5/
Round 9 We trade out Skyz death and Shotzzy hits a route. Wake gets a two piece to put iLLey in a 1 v 2. We are able to close it out. 4 – 5.
Round 10 iLLey and Huke both get two and close out the game.
Overall just a standard game of bad search and destroy because of a bad map. You gotta be able to keep track of these Dallas subs here they find the timings and exploit them really well. Onto another map of Checkmate – yay.
Checkmate Control | L 2 – 3
“Oh Jack you just complained about Checkmate”
WELL IT’S STILL AWFUL
Round 1 we start off on defense and Dallas gets a concerning 4 down to start us off. They play it slowly taking mid and A side control leaving us the opportunity to break and clean up the kills. Neptune goes on a three streak then gets a 3 piece this round to take back mid-control and then to put the spawn trap on. Once that is in, it’s over. Solid defensive round.
Round 2 offense we interestingly repeat the strat from against OpTic full pushing the B site off spawn. We get two ticks and I think to myself, “Silly me, how could I have doubted our boys” and then we get broken, cleaned up, put in the spawn trap, and the round ends 23 to 5 life count. We got put in the blender.
Round 3 back on the safety of defense we keep mid contested and control the 50-yard line but are never able to get a clear 4 down and lock in the spawn trap. Dallas is able to consistently play life and keep mid contested which is unfortunate because after round 2 we had a significant life disadvantage to try and knockdown. At this point, it’s looking like a round 5 offensive loss for the 0 – 3 sweep. Not good but we do secure the round.
Round 4 is very similar to the previous one. We are able to contest mid but never take control and we also avoid the spawn trap. With thirty seconds left we get 4 down and decide to try and hold a split cap which I disagree with. I think a single stack and control would of been smarter especially with how the Dallas subs had been gunning and breaking setups so easy all match. Both sites get cleaned up and we are never able to get back on the points.
Round 5 with no surprise places the boys in blue on offense and the fans start leaving the gallery. We again go for the fast B hit and Shotzzy reads it and gets a 3 piece to shut it down and engage a spawn trap. Somehow Slacked finds his way past the defensive line and is able to wait for a timing of a couple of kills to come through and give a little hope for an A capture. Dallas however is quick to clean it up and the match ends where it began. Checkmate.
THE GOOD:
- Skyz looked really good today, had a good flow around the map and a lot of impact. Still think he is the x-factor and that if he finds form truly this team will be different.
- Everyone had moments and made plays against the defending champs. Tough matchup and they can learn a lot from it (about Checkmate).
THE BAD:
- Subs had a bad day. I don’t necessarily like comparing sub line to sub line and saying oh these subs beat these subs because the interactions play out much differently. Checkmate can be a tough map for subs to make that crazy impact and in this match, Dallas’ guys did it better.
- I expect a better Checkmate Control out of these guys, they played it a lot and have shown flashes, I question some of the calls.
All in all tough loss, great competition. We sail on across the Atlantic to Paris tomorrow.
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