Blog Posts from "phys1kz live from Toronto" - Gameriot.com

Toxjq busts through Cooller

no.spam@gameriot.com (phys1kz_) — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 16:41:10 -0400

Upper Bracket Semifinals: Johan "toxjq" Quick vs Anton "Cooller" Singov

The upper bracket semi-finals came down to two players who are very familiar with each other from past encounters - Toxic and cooller. Monsoon was the first map to be played, and Cooller took an early control of the mega health from Toxjq, forcing him to settle for the Yellow Armor. This early advantage for cooller would lead to the opening frag of the match at 12:30 with a Lightning Gun fight for the Mega spawn. The next MH spawn would prove costly for cooller however as Toxic would rocket jump up to steal it and open a 8 kill streak over the next 5 minutes, leading Cooller by the score 8-2. With his six frag margain, toxjq opted to control the Lightning Gun away from cooller for the most part, ultimately stopping Cooller from mounting a full attack against his superior healthstack and increasing his lead. Cooller would not be able to break the control of toxjq until the twelve minute mark, leaving too large of a lead to overcome in the final three minutes of Monsoon. Toxjq would win the 1st map 25-8.

The second map came down to coollers map choice, Phrantic. An early red armor spawn for cooller would prove to be quite an advantage for the Russian in grabbing an early 4-0 lead. Cooller's agressive pursuit of spawn frags would lose him control however, as Toxjq would drop down from the mid-level infront of cooller to score his first frag of the match, and ultimately a lead of 8-4. Cooller, similar to Avek, was not able to mount a strong attack on Toxjq's control of the Upper Yellow Armor until the 5 minute mark. Cooller would surprise Toxic with a Lightning Gun attack at the upper level and climb his way back into the match to tie the game at 13.

The match seemed to be a back and forth trade off of control between the two players until a very crucial fight at the 4 minute mark. Cooller stayed aggressive off his spawn with the MG taking toxjq down to 8 health, but he was unable to finish him before Toxjq could replenish his health and armor pools. This would allow Toxjq to spread his lead to 20-13 leaving cooller a giant uphill battle for the last 3 minutes of the map. Even with a very strong aggressive push towards the end of the map this would be a lead that Cooller would not be able to fight back from Toxjq would retreat for the remainder of the match and pull out a narrow victory of 22-19. This would leave toxjq in the Upper Bracket Finals to face the winner of Cypher and DaHanG.

"It was easy to beat Cooller on Monsoon but much harder on Phrantic" said toxjq his victory. "He has the same kind of playing style as av3k except Cooller makes less mistakes. Av3k keeps on rusing hoping to hit something." On his upcoming upper bracket finals match vs DaHanG, "I know he likes the new maps, and those are tough to play for me. I won't underestimate him, but I expect to win."

Battle of the Giants: Toxjq vs av3k

no.spam@gameriot.com (phys1kz_) — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 16:34:25 -0400

Upper Bracket Round 3: Johan "toxjq" Quick vs Maciej "av3k" Krzykowski.

The first match of this upper bracket quarter final was Monsoon. Av3k scored the first kill of the match after winning an LG fight for the Yellow Armor. Toxjq would quickly recover though with a quick kill off of his Rocket spawn and an early 3-1 lead. Toxjq would play a very passive defensive game with his lead, but it would catch up with him as avek caught him on the jump pad to LG where he would finish toxjq off with the shotgun. Av3k would follow up the the jump pad kill with a string of quick spawn kills and put himself right back into the game with a 1 frag deficit and 6 minutes to go. Toxjq's patient game would pay off in the long run though. His distant control of the rail spawn would stop Av3k from attacking with full force, allowing Toxjq to slowly pick away at Av3k's health and soon turn into a comfortable 12-6 lead with 3 mins remaining. Av3k would mount a small comeback late in the match, but the defensive rocket play of toxjq would secure him the 1st map victory 14-10.

Next was Av3k's map choice, Placebo Effect. Toxjq took advantage of an early RL spawn and surprised Av3k at the Red Armor to gain the 1st kill of the match. Shortly after, a well timed aggressive lightning gun attack from Av3k would catch Toxjq off guard and Av3k would jump out to an early 5-2 lead. Av3k's strong mix between defensive rail play and aggressive lg and plasma attacks seemed to catch Toxjq off guard. With five minutes left Toxjq was able to score and MG frag at the plasma spawn and score a few spawn kills with the LG, narrowing Av3k's lead to 23-10 but thats as close as he would get. Av3k finished off strong with his mixed aggressive playstyle and took the map 30-12 tying it up and leaving it to a deciding third map.

The third match came down to Phrantic. The match begun with a long rocket fight in the lower area of the map, which would result in a kill for toxjq and an early 2-0 lead. Toxjq started off the map with an effective passive control of the Upper Yellow Armor while keeping steady pressure on Red Armor with grenade spam. For the first ten minutes of the match, Av3k put on steady pressure to try to steal control of the upper Yellow Armor, but had no success giving up another 6 kills to toxjq. Av3k was finally able to break the upper control of Toxjq after getting Red Armor and attacking at a slower pace then usual, and trade off frags with him for the foll3wing two minutes. Toxjq's incredible rocket placement seemed to stun Av3k for the most part though, stopping Av3k's aggressive Lightning Gun play repeatedly. His impeccable rocket prediction allowed him to play the run-away game for the final two minutes to close out the map, and secure his place in the Upper Bracket Semifinals vs. Cooller.

Cypher too much for PURRI

no.spam@gameriot.com (phys1kz_) — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 13:10:15 -0400

Upper Bracket Round 2:

Mikael "PURRI" Tarvainen vs Alexey "Cypher" Yushanevsky

The first map of the match started off on Phrantic, with Cypher quickly gaining control off the upper Yellow Armor spawn taking a quick 3-0 lead in the first minute of the map. Quickly after Purri was able to grab lower yellow and the Shotgun and gain his first kill of the match, but Cypher's strong positioning in the middle portion of the map allowed him to quickly regain control. Cypher continued to play strong using effective rocket spam to force Purri to the Red Armor or Grenade Launcher slowly picking away at Purri's health building a strong 8-1 lead in the 1st six minutes of the map.

Cypher's superior positioning in the upper portion of Phrantic allowed him to control Purri away from both Yellow Armors and the 50 health bubble. Purri was never able in any portion of the map to force position away from the lower teleporter and Red Armor room, allowing Cypher to comfortably gain a strong lead of 12 frags. Desperation started to show in Purri around the five minute mark to battle his way back into the game, but Cypher used his large lead as padding for a very passive defensive control of Upper Yellow Armor for the remainder of the map, ultimately winning 22-5. It seemed as if Purri was unconfident in his ability to move out of the lower tier of the map, letting Cypher comfortable gain a 1-0 lead going into Placebo Effect.

Placebo Effect was much of the same problem for Purri. Cypher was able to put quick use to his beginning rail spawn killing Purri in 1st battle for Mega. Cypher was strictly out aiming Purri on Placebo, winning all the long distance rail fights gaining a 5 to -1 lead in the first 5 minutes. Purri seemed very uncomfortable gaining any position on Cypher again as he let opportunities to narrow the lead slip away.

Purri finally gained control, stealing a Red Armor and landing a Rail shot on Cypher as he retreated through the portal and quickly scoring 5 spawn kills to narrow Cypher's lead to 11-6. Purri seemed to finally settle in and find some positioning on Cypher in the later portions of the map, but the aim dominance of Cypher was too much to handle as he seemd to win every single fight for the Mega Health when Purri was trying to fight his way back into the game. The last 5 minutes were an aggressive chase from Purri allowing Cypher to broaden what seemed to be a close lead, with a final score of 24-6, and Cypher winning the upper bracket 2nd round match-up 2-0.