It started out as business as usual for Cloud9 heading into bracket play at the Halo World Championship, but what looked to be a quick victory slowly morphed into their worst nightmare.
Native Red, the roster formerly known as Kansas City Pioneers, flipped the script on the tournament favorites and brought themselves back from the brink to take a stunning 3-2 series win that sent C9 to the losers bracket in the very first round.
Convincing wins on both Recharge Oddball and Streets Slayer for the Orlando Major runner-ups left Native Red on a cliff’s edge going into game three on Bazaar Capture The Flag. Facing an early trip to losers, a crucial early lead in kills that saw Manny bring home a quick flag capture for Native Red was the difference maker. For the first time in the series, it was the underdog team pressing the advantage.
Despite C9 slowly clawing back flag captures of their own, the lead that Native Red held in the stats screen never wavered, and control of the sandbox was crucial for that. The match went all the way down to an overtime round with both teams tied up at three flags each—Native Red’s slaying power against Cloud9’s objective efficiency—but Manny’s successful acquisition of the Rocket Launcher and a subsequent double kill at the beginning of overtime gave Native Red the opening needed to steal away a 4-3 win and stay alive in the series.
The team pressed an equally aggressive assault in the early game of map four as well, building a sizeable lead in Strongholds on Live Fire that forced C9 onto the back foot. Control of multiple early Overshield, Heatwave and Sniper Rifle spawns meant that Native Red’s momentum from the previous game could manifest into yet another impressive showcase against one of the best in the world.
In a mirror of game three, C9’s veteran teamwork gradually chipped away at Native Red’s lead, a late triple cap tying things up just under the 200 point mark. The lead danced back and forth between the two teams multiple times, but it was the Sniper Rifle and Heatwave in the hands of Native Red that allowed them to build a stronger advantage and take a 250-223 win. Taulek and Soul Snipe both concluded the game with 20 kills each, sitting comfortably at the top of the leaderboard.
Whatever steam C9 had at the beginning of the series seemed to have been all but snuffed out by the time that game five rolled around. A 14-6 showcase from Taulek and a lackluster 3-14 one from C9’s Pznguin were performances to highlight in what was otherwise a dominant deconstruction of C9 by Native Red. A 50-34 Slayer Aquarius win for Native Red sealed C9’s fate, but it was Native Red’s outslaying of the Anaheim and Raleigh champions that ultimately came back to bite them over the course of the incredible reverse sweep.
Cloud9, a team that has never placed lower than second at any LAN tournament since the beginning of Halo Infinite‘s competitive season, now faces a brutal gauntlet in the lower bracket to have a chance at a similar result in the World Championship. A defeat in round one like this means there’s no more room for error, and whether that pressure will help or hinder them remains to be seen.
