While Halo 5 released its game-changing patch this week, the Esports Minor League continued action and wound down just in time for everyone to get some rest for the HCS Finals tomorrow.
Here’s what happened while the pros were packing their suitcases and heading to Burbank.
Match One:
3sUp vs. Abusement Park
Because 3sUp had to catch a flight to Los Angeles on Friday, the first match of the Minor League for this string of games was held Wednesday.
At the time, if you were not aware of this change, you probably missed the first game of the series, which was a two minute stomp by 3sUp on Coliseum.
This pretty much set the tone for the entire series, where 3sUp was absolutely dialed in mere days before they have their toughest test at relegation.
Jonathan “Renegade” Willette played out of his mind in this series, never dying in game one, having 20 kills and 11 headshots on Slayer, and tying his teammate Abel “Rammyy” Garcia with 17 kills on Empire.
Game One: CTF – Coliseum
Game Final: 3sUp 3 – 0 AbP
Match Score: 3sUp 1 – 0 AbP
Game Two: Slayer – Plaza
Game Final: 3sUp 50 – 36 AbP
Match Score: 3sUp 2 – 0 AbP
Game Three: Strongholds – Empire
Game Final: 3sUp 100 – 44 AbP
Match Final: 3sUp 3 – 0 AbP
Match Two:
Fly Society vs. Dynasty
The big news before this series started was that Jacob “Arkanum” Santos would be replaced on this team by Patrick “Sypher” Hynes, who is a veteran of the game since Halo 3 and competed with several of today’s coaches and pros.
ESML Halo News:
Sypher will be replacing Arkanum for the rest of the season on Fly Society.— HCS Live Tweets (@Halo_ESWLive) December 8, 2016
However, for this match, Cody “JuicyFruit” Brock, another well known semi-pro around the Halo scene, hopped on to fight for Fly Society.
That was the apparent difference maker in this shocking series, as Fly Society swag surfed over Dynasty, despite being outslayed in game one (where mind you, there were 367 kills combined between both sides).
Dynasty ran out of slaying power for the actual slaying game type, and they were just out of it in the third game for another 3-0 sweep this week.
Game One: CTF – Coliseum
Game Final: DYN 2 – 2 FLYS; FLYS 3 – 2 DYN (Restart)
Match Score: FLYS 1 – 0 DYN
Game Two: Slayer – Plaza
Game Final: FLYS 50 – 39 DYN
Match Score: FLYS 2 – 0 DYN
Game Three: Strongholds – Eden
Game Final: FLYS 100 – 5 DYN
Match Final: FLYS 3 – 0 DYN
Match Three:
Most Wanted vs. Solstice
Ponza over at Halo_ESWLive (give them a follow by the way) seems to take the words out of my mouth sometimes:
When you’re out-Railgunned 13 kills to 1, you’re going to have a bad time. #ESMLHalo pic.twitter.com/iZZjAK06q2
— HCS Live Tweets (@Halo_ESWLive) December 10, 2016
That is a good indicator of how the first game went, and while Dominic “BotchyHawk” Demillo had a solid second game, he couldn’t continue to carry his team against Most Wanted in Slayer, where at one point, they were doubled up 30-15.
From that point on, Most Wanted found their stride and took home a close Strongholds before dominating a game four to hold a top-three spot in the league coming out of week two.
Game One: CTF – Fathom
Game Final: SOL 3 – 1 MW
Match Score: SOL 1 – 0 MW
Game Two: Slayer – Truth
Game Final: MW 50 – 38 SOL
Match Score: MW 1 – 1 SOL
Game Three: Strongholds – Eden
Game Final: MW 100 – 83 SOL
Match Score: MW 2 – 1 SOL
Game Four: CTF – Coliseum
Game Final: MW 3 – 0 SOL
Match Final: MW 3 – 1 SOL
Match Four:
PNDA Gaming vs. Scion
Because Scott “Cloud“ Holste Jr. was too busy deciding between pink and grey Victoria’s Secret sweatpants in Burbank, PNDA Gaming played Scion with a substitute.
With that said, PNDA took home its very first win of the season over a Scion team that dealt with a tough loss to Solstice four days earlier.
Scion did take home a tight slayer game, with Eli “Eli Elite” Ruiz stepping up to the plate with 18 kills, but their opponents proved to be the better team on objectives, following up that close loss with a solid Strongholds win and a tight CTF decider match.
Game One: CTF – Fathom
Game Final: PNDA 3 – 0 SCION
Match Score: PNDA 1 – 0 SCION
Game Two: Slayer – Eden
Game Final: SCION 50 – 48 PNDA
Match Score: PNDA 1 – 1 SCION
Game Three: Strongholds – Eden
Game Final: PNDA 100 – 41 SCION
Match Score: PNDA 2 – 1 SCION
Game Four: CTF – Coliseum
Game Final: PNDA 2 – 1 SCION
Match Final: PNDA 3 – 1 SCION
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James Mattone is a journalist for GAMURS and can be contacted on Twitter –@TheJamesMattone.
