By: Kevin “Phenom” Joyce

            Cyberevolution (CEVO)-P Playoffs were in full swing Monday, September 21st, with Round 3 action heating up between Team Loaded and Pure Esports on the map Backlot. Both teams came off wins over good Round 2 match-ups, with Loaded beating Team Vision.Valor.Victory in a 16-14 win, and Pure winning over Team Pandemic 16-11. In addition to this match being a showdown between two very talented CEVO-P teams, it was a match between two consistently great players, 47 from Pure, and Kpwnage from Loaded.

            The match was underway with quite possibly one of the most crucial and all around abnormal knife rounds I have ever seen in any match I have played in or watched. Both teams appeared to have similar ideas as to their respective strategies, with Pure seemingly intent on holding the basement floor of the A bomb house, and Loaded moving to the upper and mid floors from their spawn via the side door and ladder. This strategy seemed to favor Loaded, who were able to isolate 47 from Pure in the bottom floor of A in a 2v1 clutch situation. Loaded assumingly played to their strengths and took Defense.

            Both teams played a great first half to their strengths. As any player would assume, there were good set-grenades thrown by both teams, and more often than not, both teams found themselves starting the round with a man down. Loaded seemed to angle their defense more towards bombsite A, with Kpwnage taking an AK-47 and playing B by himself. For attack, Pure mainly assaulted A, with 47 watching flank at B. These strategies set up Kpwnage and 47 for facing each other in a good 1v1 match-up, but there was no definitive winner in this personal showdown. Neither teams used a sniper in their strategies during the match. After a slow 0-3 start, Loaded picked up the pace and finished the half strong, with an 8-7 score on arguably the harder side on this map. However, with a score difference of one round, Pure definitely could not be counted out.

            The second half of the match was also extremely close until the end of the half, when Loaded pulled ahead by 3 rounds for a win. Loaded used a similar strategy on their offensive as Pure, mostly going to plant at bombsite A, with B being reserved for a backup or shift, should the A push fail. Set-grenades during this half were also excellent, with both teams taking frags early on in the round. However, Loaded seemed to out-frag Pure in the later rounds, deciding the match.

            This was one of the best playoff or CEVO matches I have ever observed, shout casted, or seen. There was no dominant team during the match, and both teams played extremely well. Competition was well-balanced, and the match was well-played in general. Congratulations to both teams for making it this far in CEVO, and congratulations to Juv3niLe from Pure and Kpwnage from Loaded for top fragging for their respective teams.