WCG ’09: Left 4 Dead match summaries

Last Sunday’s WCG Open Category finals for Left 4 Dead was a repeat of the Cyber Games Festival’s Left 4 Dead finals, with Wallhackers (wH) and Team MolotoX (mTx) facing off against each other again.

Wallhackers were seeded directly into the semi-finals of the WCG Open Category, after winning an earlier L4D competition at the WCG Safra Champions League. They defeated Avant Garde (AG) in their semi-final match to reach the final round.

Wallhackers vs Avant Garde (Semi-final scores)

MolotoX had to battle their way from the starting brackets, defeating M4D in the first round and Vertex Girls in the second round before meeting the second seeded team of the competition – Team Vertex (Vertex were seeded into the semi-finals after winning the WCG Funan League). MolotoX’s semi-final match against Vertex was undoubtedly the highlight of their tournament: they managed to come from behind at the last moment to steal the win from Vertex at the Death Toll finale.

Vertex vs MolotoX (Semi-final scores)

Here is a quick map-by-map summary of what happened during the Wallhackers vs MolotoX finals, played on the Blood Harvest campaign:

Blood Harvest 1: 976 (mtX) to 1016 (wH)

Wallhackers started first as the Infected. As soon as MolotoX left the starting area, one of the Hunters from wH managed to land a high-damage pounce by leaping from one of the tall tree branches in the map. This caught MolotoX by surprise, as their survivors were expecting the Hunters to come from the cliffs instead. It was clear that wH had been deligently practicing their Blood Harvest skills by experimenting with new tactics and avenues of attack as the Infected.

After the initial wH attack, MolotoX recovered quickly and managed to cross the bridge, activating the Tank in the process. mTx were unable to set the Tank on fire due to some smart molotov-dodging by wH. The Survivors had no choice but to camp in the small shack and wait out the Tank. At this point, the wH Tank started throwing rocks from behind a tree as cover. One rock actually managed to fly through one of the windows in the shack, hitting a Survivor who was standing behind the window (!). This outrageous display of rock-throwing skills, again, suggests the amount of effort and preparation Wallhackers had devoted to the Blood Harvest campaign.

mTx caught on to what the Tank was trying to do, and wisely stayed clear from the windows and doorway of the shack to avoid getting hit by the rocks. With about 50 percent of the Tank control meter remaining (before control would be lost to the AI), the wH Tank rushed into the shack together with the rest of the team’s Boss Infected. The Tank managed to incapacitate 3 of the Survivors before being taken down. All mTx members managed to reach the saferoom, but could only score 976 points as they had taken massive damage earlier from wH’s Tank.

MolotoX had access to an early 3+1 when it was their turn to play as Infected, but it was repelled by the quick reactions of the wH Survivors. The mTx Tank was set on fire very quickly thanks to a highly accurate Molotov throw by Wallhackers, forcing the Tank to rush at the Survivors. The Tank was taken down very quickly with minimal damage to the Survivors. Fortunately, MolotoX recovered quickly from their wasted Tank and managed to deal significant damage to the Survivors just outside the saferoom with a well-coordinated attack, reducing the advantage that wH’s Survivors had in terms of score. 1016 points to Wallhackers.

Blood Harvest 2: 20 (mTx) to 1181 (wH)

Wallhackers started first as the Survivors, and were greeted by a Tank just before the crescendo-event room, which wH took down easily. mTx did their best to wear down wH’s Survivors after the crescendo event, but all four of them still made it to the saferoom with a decent 1181 score.

MolotoX’s Survivors were quite unlucky when it was their turn to battle the Tank. One of their survivors was pushed off the second-storey walkway by the knockback-effect of a Hunter that had pounced a teammate beside him. The fall damage he took from the fall was enough to incapacitate him. With one Survivor down, and the Tank still alive, wH had no problems bringing down the remaining mTx Survivors in the disarray that followed. 20 points to MolotoX.

Blood Harvest 3: 38 (mTx) to 77 (wH)

Yet another early Tank spawn, the mTx Survivors decided to retreat to the hallways just outside the saferoom to wait out the Tank. Smart play from Wallhackers: while one of their Smokers was pulling the Survivors in the hallway, the Tank charged in and used his body to shield the Smoker from being killed by his victim’s rescuers. With one Survivor disabled by the Smoker, the Tank and the remaining Boss Infected had little difficulty in finishing off the remaining Survivors.

When it was Wallhackers’ turn to play as the Survivors, MolotoX’s Tank somehow spawned at a much later position than the wH Tank. Wallhackers were unlucky when their leader, Maddcap, accidentally detonated a gas canister with a pipebomb throw, incapacitating one of his teammates in the process. This allowed the mTx Tank to take down the remaining wH Survivors easily.

Blood Harvest 4: 1734 (mTx) to 1728 (wH)

It is quite difficult to incapacitate the Survivors on BH4, and both teams of Survivors took advantage of this fact by racking up big points for their team. MolotoX scored slightly better with a 1734 score compared to Wallhackers’ 1728.

The winner of the WCG Open Category finals would be decided on Blood Harvest 5. With MolotoX trailing by 1300 points, they would need all four of their Survivors to escape on the rescue vehicle, and prevent at least two Wallhackers from escaping in order to cancel out wH’s advantage and take the lead.

Blood Harvest 5: 200 (mTx) to 1350 (wH)

MolotoX start out first as the Survivors, and suffer an early scare when the pre-finale Tank deals massive damage to them with some excellent rock-throwing. Fortunately, with access to tier-2 weapons from the start, mTx manages to take down the Tank quickly before it has a chance to incapacitate them.

Things do not go well for mTx after they activated the rescue vehicle. Once again, Wallhackers utilized their rock-throwing skills to the maximum when the first finale Tank arrived. Despite making use of a group of tree branches to shield themselves from the Tank’s rocks, the wH Tank still somehow managed to score hit after hit on mTx’s Survivors. Eventually, one of the Survivors was incapacitated by the Tank’s immaculate rock throws. With no possible way of reviving their fallen teammate without leaving themselves vulnerable to more rock-throws, the remaining Survivors were forced to leave their friend lying on the ground. This was the cue for the rest of the Boss Infected to rush in at the Survivors together with the Tank. All of mTx’s Survivors were incapacitated.

Wallhackers were the champions, whatever that happened during wH’s turn to play as the Survivors was inconsequential.

Wallhackers vs MolotoX (Final scores)

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