The kick-off of Flashpoint Season 1 meant that we’ll finally see the new Dignitas lineup in offline action for the first time. While they didn’t shine necessarily, the veterans got the job done against Orgless.
Made in Brazil keep on struggling
Before we get to DIG and their coveted LAN debut, let’s take a look at the first ever Flashpoint games. MAD Lions and HAVU received the honor of participating in the inaugural fixture of the league. HAVU continued their recent ascent by taking down the favored Danes 2-1 in three fairly even maps.
The second Group A match was a bit more one-sided as c0ntact Gaming followed an overtime win on Nuke with a 16-5 spanking on Mirage for a 2-0 overall score vs. Copenhagen Flames.
If HAVU are among the ascending teams, then Made in Brazil are on the opposite side of the spectrum. The core that once upon a time won two Major titles suffered yet another defeat in their Los Angeles debut. Joshua “steel” Nissan’s Chaos Esports Club took both maps in their matchup against the South Americans, leaving many questions on the board for Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo to answer.
In this group’s derby Gen.G Esports took down Team Envy two maps to one. Envy could have even won this 2-0 if they held ground on their own map Train but an OT loss robbed them of that chance. Mirage, the third map, was by far the most unbalanced of the game, at Envy’s expense.
Dignitas prove their offline worth
We arrive to Group C at last, where we find Dignitas and their stand-in Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovács. The Slovakian bottom-fragged against Orgless, which could be expected with a stand-in, even one of his caliber. The good news came courtesy of Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund who showed glimpses of his former self by finishing top of the board for his team.
Orgless, who are currently looking for a coach, were no pushovers in this game. They jumped to a map advantage thanks to a convincing Train outing but were outplayed on both Nuke and Inferno and really should have recorded worse results than the 16-10; 16-12 they got.
The final game of Flashpoint’s first weekend placed Cloud9 and FunPlus Phoenix on the opposite sides of the server. The latter announced their official CS:GO lineup hours before the game and while the move was anticipated for days, the Danish roster played like they had just been assembled in the crucial third map, which cost them the game.
Nuke and Train were split and C9 needed double OT to take the match to Inferno, which made it seem like FPP are in the stronger position going into map three. Well, that was a false weather report if there’s ever been one. The NA team mopped the floor with Casper “cadiaN” Möller and co. 16-3 and robbed an otherwise quality clash of a fitting ending.
Flashpoint Season 1 resumes play tomorrow, March 17 with the second round of Group A games. HAVU will face c0ntact Gaming in the winners’ match, MAD Lions and Copenhagen Flames will have their Danish derby on the losers’ side.
