I guess I’ve never seen a match this epic before. My back still hurts because of the leaning forward when it all got tense, and I still have to drink water to remove my sore throat, because I haven’t drunk anything for 4 hours yesterday. After the first map I thought it was going to be an easy victory for Weapons of the Rebellion, but Excello showed their mental state is excellent these days.

For all of you who missed it or the ones who want to feel the excitement of yesterday again: here is a detailed review of the three hour long game that took place yesterday!

You can find the match overview here.

Round 1: Badlands

The match started off at Badlands, with a small difference in the line-ups when you look at the classes. Weapons of the Rebellion was going to play with two Demomen and a soldier, while Excello was holding on to their system of using two soldiers and one Demoman. And at Badlands, there was no doubt whatsoever that two Demomen with the quality of Byte and TopGear are far superior to two soldiers.

In about fifteen minutes, the score was already 7-0 in favour of Weapons of the Rebellion. Everything was going smooth and easy for Wotr, since they hadn’t lost the middle point for once and never even had to use their ubercharge to cap that point. In the eighth round though, Excello got a hold onto the middle point after FeTTe managed to assassinate Albert, but Wotr showed once again they were the better team at Badlands. In less than a minute, Wotr already recapped the middle point and just rushed Excello out for the eighth time.

It was just impressive how Wotr managed to make Excello look like a division 5 team. For example, in the eleventh round on Badlands, AppZ killed lezek when they were just seventeen seconds in the round. You wouldn’t expect that from a division 1 team and runner up from the last ETF2L Season, but it happened anyway.
The Wotr machine ended after 30 minutes with a 14-0 score on the scoreboard. Excello just got overrun and it seems like this was going to be an easy match for Wotr.

Round 2: Turbine

At Turbine, the second map of the evening, Excello showed themselves right at the beginning. Glufse got a quick headshot on Albert, which caused Excello to immediately push and cap the intelligence. Wotr wasn’t using an engineer at turbine, while Excello decided that an engineer could come in handy. Excello took control of the middle point as well, and then the waiting started. Both teams had ubercharge, but wouldn’t come out of their stable position. After about eight minutes, Wotr decided they had to push out if they wanted to win this map as well. Excello countered their attack and since Wotr had no-one back in the intelligence room, FeTTe could make his second capture of the evening, giving Excello an comforting 2-0 lead.

Now Wotr had to make a move, since they were down by 2 and obviously wanted to win this map as well. After they got a hold on the middle area, they pushed into the flagroom. It looked like they were going to succeed in capping, but great defensive work from weqo prevented Stealthy from getting out with the intelligence. At the next push from Wotr though, TopGear went around the back to distract Excello, which caused not only Stealthy to get away with the intel, but also Wotr to get a hold on their opponent’s intelroom. In the next three minutes the match was decided, so I’m trying to write this as clear as I can. Wotr controlled Excello’s Intelroom, which caused three scores for Wotr in a row, making it 3-3. But since Wotr didn’t have an engineer, Excello saw a chance to cap Wotr’s intel once as well. And then Wotr lost control of the Excello intelroom. The score was then 4-3 in favour of Excello, with just three minutes on the clock. Wotr didn’t manage to cap the intel anymore, so Excello won Turbine, drawing the game 1-1.

Round 3: Granary

The “decider map” was going to be Pro Granary, which lead to mixed feelings in my head. I thought about Excello standing up at Turbine and showed they were not some division 5 clan, but on the other hand, Weapons of the Rebellion was going to use their two Demomen again at this control point map. And that caused a huge rampage the last time they did that.

What happened? Both feelings were in play this time. The first three rounds were easy, quick rounds for Wotr. Just killing everyone from Excello at the middle and rushing through worked out brilliantly for them. When it was 3-0 in favour of Wotr, Excello stood up and straightened their back. With sommie using his heavy gun, they had a lot more chances at the middle and that paid off in the fourth round. They capped the middle point, but couldn’t really push through. While Wotr countered at the middle point though, Glufse and FeTTe sneaked around at capped it all out for Excello, making the game exciting again.

The next round was pretty much the same. Excello had the upper hand, but couldn’t push through. They needed a push from Wotr to win the round, which happened rather quickly. With the score 3-2 in favour of Wotr, anything could still happen in the sixth round. Time left at that moment was three minutes and 26 seconds. It looked like Wotr was going to win when they managed to cap the middle point. But while they were going to cap the next control point, FeTTe sneaked around the back and recapped the middle point and capped the next point as well. At the end, Excello pushed out and with just three seconds on the clock, they capped the final control point, making it 3-3.

Round 4: Gravelpit

According to the rules, there was going to be a fourth map. At this point, I thought Excello was going to win the match since I saw them play Pandemic at Gravel pit not too long ago. I was impressed by that show, so I figured Excello was going to have the upper hand at Gravelpit.

But again, I was wrong. Excello’s offence wasn’t good at all. They were struggling to get past the Wotr defences and it took them a total of eight minutes and 32 seconds to cap all three control points. This time my expectations did turn out to be right, because Wotr didn’t have many problems beating that time. Excello defended control point B well, but they couldn’t hold it for the time they needed. It was 1-0 for Wotr, but still nothing was decided.

At the second round, Excello showed their Gravel pit skills. They capped A in a much slower time, but maybe because Excello was pressuring B from the start, Wotr couldn’t really get their defences set up. Excello capped B very quickly after A (time was 3:30 minutes) and C was no trouble at all. After some brilliant sniping from Glufse, the way to the top of C was clear for Excello. The time they set was 4:47 minutes.

Wotr was going like crazy at their offence though. They capped A with all six players on it, and moved quickly to B. They capped that very fast as well, because of Coinz who found his mojo at the roof of B, killing four people from Excello. Wotr then had 2:43 minutes to cap C, but on this point, Excello was holding off everyone from Wotr. If Wotr wanted to uber, they had to do it so far back, that they couldn’t make a push up the tower. Wotr never really came into a spot that they could win this round, and so Excello and Wotr also tied Gravel pit. Which means we were going to a fifth map.

Round 5: Dustbowl

I figured both teams doesn’t have any tactics at all for this map, which should be fun to watch. It was midnight already, and everyone just wanted to get this over with quickly. Weapons of the Rebellion was going to attack first.
The first stage is normally a very quick one, and it was no difference this time. Coinz made sure lezek had to uber, and Wotr just rushed over Excello at that point. It was 2-0 for Wotr in 1:19.

Excello was going to use an engineer from this stage on. Wotr just waited for their chance and after about 50 seconds they decided to push out. The first push was a success immediately, but the real test took place at the second cap. With the same problems they had at Gravel pit (the very long distance from the ubercharge-spot to the cap), they now succeeded in their offence. It took them some time, but they capped out stage two eventually with a time of 4:53 minutes.

The third stage is by far the hardest to attack, and the best to defend. But that’s not what Wotr thought of it yesterday. After a nice multi-uber from Albert, Wotr managed to cap the first control point after about two minutes. At the second cap then, Byte made a brilliant move by killing lezek. I don’t even noticed how Byte did it, but it was crucial for the match, since Albert could now pop up his ubercharge without any enemy ubercharge ready. Wotr capped it all out in a nice time of 9:25 minutes.

Excello figured that the best way to beat that time, is to use a pyro. And it worked out really well for them. With 7:38 left on the clock, Excello’s pyro-medic combo had raped the enemy’s defences.
After a quick capture on the first point on stage two, Excello struggled at taking the second control point. It took them almost five minutes total to find a solution to the two Demomen from Wotr and with just two minutes left on the clock, we were going to the final stage. And what a final stage it was. FeTTe got Albert down really quickly, which lead to 6-5 with still 1.13 on the clock. And more importantly, Excello had uber while Wotr didn’t. Excello pushed Wotr back into their resupply, but when the uber was down, Byte showed himself clearing the point with three kills. This secured Wotr’s victory over Excello, in a tense five-map-match.

Conclusion

I don’t really know what to say about it. This match was one of the most tense, weird and sensational matches I’ve ever seen in TF2 and in all other games. I enjoyed the match from the beginning and if you were going to predict who was going to win this, you’d be doubting that a map later. It was fun to see Stealthy and AppZ playing almost every class the game has in this match. And besides fun, it was also a high skilled match with a lot of midair shots and tactical actions from both sides. All I can now say is: good game to both Excello and Weapons of the Rebellion and good luck to Weapons of the Rebellion in the final of the ETF2L 3rd Cup.

Matchreport written by ThePledge

Related: Match Overview