SauerDuels #27 Recap – Stressful finals

Hello friends, last Sunday we had another amazing tournament. This time the mode was insta. Definitely an all time classic mode which is loved and hated by many players. Personally i like insta and especially watching high level play and this time we had plenty of it. The participation was really good this time and i am happy seeing those tournaments get established in our game community. This time we had plenty of good players trying to beat Raffael. Honzik, Startch and Achille were some of those. At the same time we had new participants which made things more interesting. The tournament format was the usual. All the games were best of one and the tournament was divided into a winner and a loser bracket. If a player lost one game then they had one more chance to get into the finals.

Unfortunately in the first couple of rounds the stronger players matched up with the less strong ones. The most open game in my opinion was between Galaxy and Zarah where both players had high scores but Galaxy was the one who moved into the next round. The closest game of the first round was my game. I played against Shinnok, a very good player, and honestly I thought I would lose this one badly. Because of some weird connections issues Shinnok couldn’t perform well and that gave me the opportunity to be a bit more aggressive and confident with my fights. It was a very strategic and close game which unfortunately I lost by one point.

The next round was a bit more interesting. The most interesting game of this round was the civil war between Achille and hades, where both players performed very well and had high scores. The winner of this game was Achille and it was clear that he was aiming for the finals. The next most interesting game was Honzik against Shinnok. At some point Shinnok was only 1 point behind and personally I started to believe in the suprise but thankfully for Honzik he started his frag machine and won the game. Also Galaxy had a good game against Starch and it is clear to me that Galaxy will be a pain for good players in the future.

In the loser bracket Fear had a good game against 1989, Tengrichan had an easy game against me and Zarah beat razvan on complex which he didn’t veto, surprising us all. The most interesting game of this round was between FixxxerSa and daux. A very close game in which both players gave their 100% and FixxxerSa was the big winner by a 4 point margin.

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The winner bracket at the same time had started to become really hot. We had the two big civil wars, the w00p one and the sp4nk one. Honzik had to face raffael in insta this time, and Achille had to face starch. A very interesting pairs matches, in my opinion. I really wanted to see the level of starch compared to Achille and I wanted to see if Honzik would be able to close the small gap with the top. Both games started really well; very close games with multiple comebacks. At some point in both games Achille and Raffael managed to get some separation from their opponents. Unfortunately for starch he couldn’t close the gap and he ended up losing the game. He put a really good fight and he had a high score. On the other side Honzik had an amazing game. He closed the gap with his opponent and he almost got the win but in the last second Raffael managed to hit 1 shot and send it to overtime. In the extra time Raffael won with a 2 point difference, and managed to move on to the semi finals.

Meanwhile in the loser bracket we had some furious battles. Fear lost to Galaxy – Fear started very well but Galaxy with his hard training managed to win the game. Tengrichan had a very difficult opponent, hades, and even though he performed well he didn’t manage to move into the next round. FixxxerSA had a pretty good match against Shinnok but it wasn’t enough for him. I am happy to see Fixxxer‘s improvement! Finally we had the surprise of the tournament. The sQ civil war. Zarah, even though she was losing by a lot in the closing minutes, managed point by point to make a big come back and beat Redon! A good duel which is worth downloading the demo to watch (demo can found here).

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Now we have to talk about the winner bracket final. What can one write about it? It was a duel of art. It was the Mona Lisa of the tournament. This game should be definitely watched. Incredible skills from both players. Insane accuracy and crazy battles. Extremely high score and aggressive play. The score most of the time was only 1 point difference with lots of comebacks. I have to WARN you: if you have any heart problems, don’t watch it. A very stressful game even to watch it. Even though I really wanted to talk about this game in detail, I can’t. I definitely suggest watching this game for yourself.

In the loser bracket, a very interesting game was the one between Honzik and starch. They had already managed to beat hades and Shinnok. The map choice was douze. Personally, I believe that Honzik had the small advantage because he has been a bit more active than starch lately. The map choice however didn’t help with my belief. Starch, who can always perform very well managed to beat his opponent and go on to face Achille in the loser bracket final. The map was complex; this helped players to be more open and aggressive. That is Achille‘s favourite style. Even though both players performed well and scored high, Achille was the one who had the chance to face Raffael again.

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Well those finals were some the most spectacular finals we have seen recently. Effic and FFA can give us very good close games but the thrill and the hype that Raffael and Achille produce is hard to beat. The agony was high. It was painful and enjoyable to watch those crazy players fight each other. The first map was kffa. A very logical option in my opinion as it’s a more strategic map and this is a strong point for Raffael. He won the first round. I have to point out here that Achille performed a bit better on this map compared to the last tournament. The second map was turbine. Another insane game which I also recommend watching. Crazy aim throughout with Raffael winning by 1 point. Very close game! It was his time to take revenge as Achille was the one who won by 1 point on this map last time. I have to say, I was sad after this. Not because Raffael won the tournament. That was brilliant. It was because the enjoyment of watching those legends fighting was over.

It is the time where I have to thank everyone who participated. Of course Origin and Frosty, who organized another amazing tournament. Special bravo to Zarah and Galaxy. Both players performed very well. They have both improved a lot and I can’t wait to see more from them.

Personally I had great fun this time. How about you guys? Did you like the tournament? Do you want to watch more of Achille-Raffael? Do we want a best of 5 between them?