Dallas Prevails; Optx Snakebit in OT

It came down to the wire in the CEVO-P Source Finals when the Dallas Venom and San Francisco Optx played to a tie through three maps and needed one Overtime round to decide it all.

When the round was over, the Venom disconnected as the winners of CEVO-P and $5,000 richer.

The Finals was a Best-of-Three format, with the maps being Dust2, Inferno, and Nuke. Dust2 and Inferno proved to be lopsided for each team, as Dallas took a 1-0 series lead behind a 10-3 victory.

kaM starred early in the match for Dallas just as he did earlier in the night against Pandemic, picking up six kills in the first two rounds as the Venom took an early 2-0 lead and never looked back.

The Optx managed to tie it at 2-2 when they pressured Long A and delayed Top A when the defenders were forced into a bad position. It was all Dallas after that, though, with a solid effort from the whole team, and they ran out the rest of the half to finish at 7-2.

The second half didn't get any better for San Fransisco, as Eric "brawwwr" Neer and David "zid" Chin were able to pick Optx members through the double doors. It created exploitable weaknesses in the SF defense, and the Venom solidified the win with a 3-1 performance in the second half for a 10-3 victory.

The Optx repaid the favor on Inferno with a dominating performance of their own. It was especially impressive as they started off on the Terrorist side of a map which usually favors the defense.

Brawwwr was 9-3 for the Venom through four rounds (one defuse), but Trevor "p0s" Randolph was matching him point for point.

In the end, p0s beat his score and lead his team to victory.

p0s ended the half 17-7 (including three bomb plants), which was just about as dominating as the 6-3 lead for his team. They closed the match quickly when they got on defense, handing Dallas a loss by the same 10-3 score to tie the series 1-1.

It came down to the last map, Nuke, with both teams struggling to get rounds as offense on another map that heavily favors CTs. Optx's frags were evenly spread out, and clowN played an important role in the defense shifting between help outside and AWPing from the top of ladder to the upper bombsite.

The Optx took their CT half 7-2.

It didn't look good for the Venom early in the second half as their upper defense looked shaky, at best. They dropped two rounds early, but rallied back thanks to more strong play from kaM, and an infinitely better upper defense. They collapsed hard on upper, even having brawwwr, typically an AWPer, use a rifle. He handled himself well, and the Venom forced overtime.

From there it all came down to one player for Dallas: their ingame leader, zid.

He found himself in a 1v2 and picked up a quick kill as the bomb was being planted. After the plant he quickly scurried down the vents where he found the bomber, Ryan "Pham" Pham in a tough position because there wasn't enough time to retreat. He was forced to move under the railing that Zid was standing on, and both players maneuvered for position for an instant before Pham peeked an angle and zid picked up the last kill of the match.

The defuse sealed the win for the Dallas Venom, and completed their comeback from the lower bracket.