With so much at stake, xqR.AG pulled out all stops and defied all odds to defeat Lunatic-hai.Razer 2-1 in the best of three KODE5 Southeast Asia Counter-Strike 1.6 finals.
Lunatic-hai was the favourite to win the tournament after spectators here witnessed their first real match in the group stages, where they destroyed xqR with a 16-6 margin on de_train. Lunatic-hai kept up their great aim and skill into the playoffs, smashing both MoW and FeelThePain 16-3 to proceed to the finals
On the other hand, xqR.AG wiped the floor with RageFaction 16-2 in the quarter-finals, but struggled to pull off a 16-13 win against Indonesian team XCN in the semi-finals. It looked as if xqR.AG would not be able to stand much chance against Lunatic-hai.
Things were looking bad for xqR.AG as they went down to Lunatic-hai 16-8 on de_nuke. However, they were given a reprieve as Lunatic-hai made a careless mistake, doing a silent C4 plant, costing them the map. At this point both teams were even, each having 1 round to their team.
It was in the final map on de_inferno that xqR.AG finally pulled things together and gave Lunatic-hai (on CT) a serious run for their money. Coming in strongly, xqR.AG left Lunatic-hai trailing by 4-1, before Lunatic-hai managed a comeback to pull scores even. However, Lunatic-hai never managed to widen the gap and the first half ended 8-7 in Lunatic-hai’s favour.
The second half of de_inferno started out well for Lunatic-hai, and they found themselves in the lead by 4-1 at one point. However, xqR.AG pulled into their reserves, making a roaring comeback to finally even with Lunatic-hai at 6-6. Lunatic-hai never quite recovered from xqR.AG’s shock comeback and after several impressive clutch rounds from xqR.AG, the half, and the KODE5 SEA crown went to xqR.AG 6-9, with a final score of 16-14.
xqR.AG were left shocked and surprised at their shock upset of Lunatic-hai and were at a loss for words to describe their elation.
“We were lucky and it was a close match,” said xqR.AG team captain Alvin “Matrix” Tan. “Lunatic-hai was quite good.”
Matrix revealed however that xqR.AG was confident going into de_inferno. xqR.AG played defensively on Terrorists and aggressively on Counter-Terrorists, the complete opposite of their usual strategy and credited this partially to their win. Matrix also said that even without the round 2 disqualification on de_dust2, xqR.AG was confident to win as they had chosen that map. Matrix thanked the immense support from friends and former team mates from xqR in the spectators for their win.
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