Week one set the tone for the Esports Minor League, and this week made sure to make the league a bit more interesting.
With a few upsets and unexpected turns, it was a solid night of Halo for four teams, including two teams that had rough weeks.
Match One: Dynasty vs. Abusement Park
Dynasty had a nice walk in the Abusement Park, getting a steak dinner and then some with a 3-0 sweep.
Leading the pack was Robert “ROB THE TURTLE” O’Connor, who shot lights out in the first game with a 11.67 KDA, a double-double (10 kills, 12 assists) in a steaktacular game two, and hit top billing again with 21 kills in game three.
Game One: CTF – Fathom
Game Final: DYN 3 – 0 ABP
Match Score: DYN 1 – 0 ABP
Game Two: Coliseum – Slayer
Game Final: DYN 50 – 29 ABP
Match Score: DYN 2 – 0 ABP
Game Three: Strongholds – Plaza
Game Final: DYN 100 – 81 ABP
Match Score: DYN 3 – 0 ABP
Match Two: Most Wanted vs. Fly Society
First, the teams had substitutions to report ahead of the match:
Substitutions for tonight only:
Most Wanted
Out – SwiftKill
In – Munoz
Fly Society
Out – Arkanum
In – Sypher— HCS Live Tweets (@Halo_ESWLive) December 6, 2016
With that said, the result was as predicted, as Fly Society did take away a close game of Slayer, but could not get the job done in games three and four.
Most Wanted were held at 99 for an interesting moment, but an all-out brawl on the Catwalk gave the game, and momentum, to MW.
Game One: CTF – Fathom
Game Final: MW 3 – 0 FLYS
Match Score: MW 1 – 0 FLYS
Game Two: Slayer – Coliseum
Game Final: FLYS 50 – 42 MW
Match Score: FLYS 1 – 1 MW
Game Three: Strongholds – Plaza
Game Final: MW 100 – 43 FLYS
Match Score: MW 2 – 1 FLYS
Game Four: CTF – Truth
Game Final: MW 3 – 1 FLYS
Match Final: MW 3 – 1 FLYS
Match Three: Scion vs. Solstice
Well, Solstice wasn’t too happy about losing its first two games.
Completely turning the Minor League on its head, the team that got beaten down in week one shut out a team that had some impressive victories, thanks to a quick five minute CTF game that saw them outpace the competition.
They then went on for the steaktacular, with Amorist “Firebird” Johnson having a ridiculous 17-2-5 clip, where they also showed some impressive Battle Rifle play (18 kills in total).
Firebird would then go on to have a 2.0 K/D on Strongholds with 16 kills, which put the dagger in the heart of the upstart Scion for this series.
Game One: CTF – Fathom
Game Final: SOL 3 – 1 SCI
Match Score: SOL 1 – 0 SCI
Game Two: Slayer – Regret
Game Final: SOL 50 – 26 SCI
Match Score: SOL 2 – 0 SCI
Game Three: Strongholds – The Rig
Game Final: SOL 100 – 40 SCI
Match Final: SOL 3 – 0 SCI
Match Four: 3sUp vs. PNDA Gaming
So… I’ll apologize now to Abel “Rammyy” Garcia for not putting him on the 3sUp roster for the Pro League relegation preview, because I am absolutely afraid of him after he hit back-to-back killing frenzies with a sniper in the first game of this series.
This basically set the pace for the game, as he went off for 37 kills, 14 of which came from the sniper. It also was the tone for the series, as 3sUp went on to sweep away PNDA Gaming by the help of Rammyy again in game two (17 kills) and in game three (16 kills, 5 captures).
Long story short: Never forget to put Rammyy’s name in anything for now on.
On top of getting swept in this series, PNDA Gaming had one of its players, Josbe “Tapping Buttons” Valadez, miss this game, and while it was just speculated that he was just out for the night, the league shared this with the stream via the bottom ticker on stream:
BREAKING NEWS:
Tapping Buttons is OUT of the @ESMLeague after he left PNDA Gaming during the roster lock period.— James Mattone (@TheJamesMattone) December 6, 2016
“v t3ct9,” a solid Open Circuit player, will be their substitute until the transfer period during the middle of week four.
Game One: CTF – Coliseum
Game Final: 3sUp 2 – 1 PNDA
Match Score: 3sUp 1 – 0 PNDA
Game Two: Slayer – Coliseum
Game Final: 3sUp 50 – 48 PNDA
Match Score: 3sUp 2 – 0 PNDA
Game Three: Strongholds – The Rig
Game Final: 3sUp 100 – 38 PNDA
Match Final: 3sUp 3 – 0 PNDA
For all your Halo and esports updates, make sure you are following us on Twitter, @GAMURScom.
James Mattone is a journalist for GAMURS and can be contacted on Twitter –@TheJamesMattone.