The newly acquired Outset Esports squad registered their first win in TEC Gauntlet Season 2, winning the best-of-three series against Cohesion in straight maps (13-5 Ascent, 13-10 Haven) in a Group B encounter.
OS went for the Sage pick, sacrificing a duelist while Cohesion opted for the classic Jett-Raze combination on Ascent. OS were quick off the gates on Attack, opting for quick executes, with Sudesh ‘forkeN’ Gambhira crafting out a triple kill on the pistol. OS converted the bonus round as well, opting for an A short burst, with Harsh ‘AlexT’ Arora providing the entry. OS soon raced to an 8-0 lead on Attack, with another triple kill from forkeN delaying Cohesion enough for them to have no time to defuse. A hero push from Omkar ‘Omkar09’ Thube saw Cohesion pull off the thrifty on the retake, with the team getting in another round before OS saw Shibaditya ‘Infinity’ Purkayastha pull off a quad-kill to ensure his team goes into the second half with a 10-2 lead. forkeN got a quad-kill for his efforts in the 5v5 A retake on the pistol but Cohesion held on to deny the defuse and lap up the round in their favour. Cohesion even converted the bonus on the back of a quick and decisive B split through the market area, with Harsh ‘f1redup’ Jain getting the entry at B site. OS decided to force with 4 Sheriffs and AlexT on the Marshall. However, Cohesion got picked off one by one, with OS completing the B retake with ease. A triple from forkeN at A site saw his team complete the A retake and put themselves up on map point, which they converted in their first attempt, with AlexT getting a triple kill to allow the defuse to come in at A.
Cohesion went with a traditional composition once again, with Astra the only variation. OS stuck ot their guns and their Sage lineup, with AlexT donning the solo duelist role on Jett. OS won the pistol on the back of a clean retake but were soon nullified by Cohesion’s force buy on the very next round, with f1redup leading the charge with two kills in the round to level the scores. With Cohesion leading 4-2, OS sprung into action, thanks in part to AlexT’s opening pickoffs with the Operator as they reversed the lead to make it 6-4 in their favour. AlexT almost pulled off the 1v3 with the Blade Storm but was brought down by his adversary f1redup, who got two important kills on the C postplant in the next round to make it 6-6 at the end of the half. AlexT’s double with the Sheriff was the highlight as OS won the second-half pistol. They even came close to winning their bonus round but Sachin Suresh ‘Con3’ Golhar got the defuse in from under their noses to break their momentum. The break was shortlived though, as OS continued their onslaught on Attack to extend their lead to 12-7. Facing defeat, Cohesion survived three rounds in a row, taking the sites back from OS’s control and getting the defuse in on time. After a brief pause due to network issues, OS finished it off in style by punishing Cohesion’s aggression and information plays, with Infinity copping a triple kill to end it 13-10.
AlexT was the WD Black MVP of the series, accumulating 39 kills over two maps and garnering an ADR of 196.8.
