OpTic Gaming defeats The Guard in VCT Masters playoffs

OpTic Gaming has defeated its rival The Guard in a three map match. With this win, the team advances and will have to play DRX next. Here is a recap of the match.

The Guard starts dominant

OpTic started the match with the first wins on Icebox, while OpTic won the bonus round. The Guard then went on the offensive in the fifth round, winning two rounds in a row. The Guard did only win one more round.

In the second half, The Guard put up a much stronger fight and won four rounds in a row, reducing the deficit by quite a bit. Ha “Sayaplayer” Jung-woo of The Guard killed three enemies in the 15th round , but his team could only win one more round before OpTic won the first map of the series with a winning streak of four rounds.

The second map started with victories by The Guard, but OpTic quickly put a stop to that. OpTic then won rounds six through eight, but The Guard won three of the four remaining rounds in the first half. That gave them a two-round lead heading into the second half. The Guard started strong again in the second half, but OpTic won a Thrifty round on lap 16, blocking The Guard. Nevertheless, The Guard continued to fight valiantly and took an 11-6 lead. OpTic managed to win another round, but The Guard finished the 2nd map with 13:7 and took the series to Fracture.

Narrow victory for OpTic

Both teams had one last chance to avoid relegation to the lower bracket, and The Guard proved they wouldn’t give up without a fight by winning the first three rounds. Pujan “FNS” Mehta almost won the third round for OpTic, but he couldn’t get the final kill, allowing The Guard to win their bonus round.

OpTic managed to take Site A in the fifth round and the teams went head-to-head and OpTic almost evened the match until The Guard won a Thrifty round in Round 10 to take the lead. They also won the last two rounds of the first half and entered the second half with an 8-4 score. The Guard won the second round of the half without much trouble, but OpTic didn’t let it get them down and won in four rounds. After that OpTic had a real hot streak and won three more rounds.

Briefly technical problems occurred and the match was paused but The Guard made a comeback and won round 20. OpTic was determined to make a comeback and with several wins finally managed to equalize the score 11:11. Round 24 was back and forth, with both teams delivering plenty of kills until OpTic finally killed NeT and disarmed the spike, bringing the game to match point.