True Rippers are now joint-leaders in terms of points accumulated in Group A after a routine win in the best-of-three series over Flame X Serenity (13-5 Icebox, 13-11 Ascent), even though they were pushed on the second map, Ascent.
Both the teams went for the standard composition on Icebox and TR started the game with the proper intent, winning the first three rounds of the map, despite FxS forcing the second round. A neat B split from FxS yielded them their first round but their run was short-lived, wth Pruthvi ‘RelliK’ Rathod taking three kills in the next round to deliver an immediate response. FxS had to wait until the 9th round of the game for their second, thanks to a crucial double kill from Abhishek ‘Waterrr’ Patil underneath the A site container. Waterrr clutched a 1v3 for FxS at A site to make it 3-8 but TR respond immediately, thanks to Varun ‘Mast3r’ Menon’s triple kill at A Defence side Rafters. RelliK’s triple kill saw TR convert a 2v3 situation in their favour to land the pistol. TR even converted the bonus on the back of two opening kills on the Sheriff from Mast3r at the under-tubes area to get to map point. FxS averted two map points but TR took over B site with Viper’s Pit, planting the spike and successfully defending it to close out Icebox 13-5.
TR opted to go with a single duelist composition, favouring the Skye-Sova combo along with Omen instead of Astra. FxS went for the Reyna pick instead, going for a standard two-duelist lineup. TR started where they left off, winning the pistol and the subsequent round to make it 2-0. FxS though, managed to win the third round of the map, thanks to two crucial kills from Waterrr on the A defence. Mast3r stepped up, recording an Ace to deliver an immediate response and make it 3-1 in TR’s favour. Biswarup ‘Reaper’ Ghosh started the 5th round brightly with two Blade Storm kills but his efforts were soon nullified by Sahil ‘1TapGoD’ Duble, who recorded a quad-kill as TR were persistent in their endeavours at A to make it 4-1. TR gave just 1 round thereafter to FxS, ending the half with a 10-2 lead. Two key frags from 1TapGoD at A saw TR clinch the pistol, with Kasif ‘Paradoxks’ Sayyed’s triple kill with the Spectre in the following round to get TR up to 12 in a flurry. Facing defeat, FxS pulled themselves together to put pressure and attempt to force overtime. Debasish ‘FalconIsher’ Panigrahi pulled off a quad-kill on the 19th round to cut the lead into half at 12-7. A good A execute from FxS saw Vasav ‘SomuLaal’ Sriram get three kills on the site and bring it within a round of forcing overtime. FxS opted for another quick A execute, with SomuLaal getting the opening kill on Paradox. However, Gaurav ‘Crosshair’ Chabukswar stepped up, with three kills on the A defence to close out Ascent 13-11.
1TapGoD was the pick of the lot for TR, with 45 kills to his name along with an ADR of 179.8 and a positive Kill/Death Differential of 20, making him our WD Black MVP of the series.
