SauerDuels #31 effic 1v1 – Recap

Habemus papam my friends! Now, you might wonder: “What the fuck brecht? What the hell are you talking about?” Well my friends, let me explain to you what that means first. For those who don’t know, this expression means “We have a pope” and basically it’s used when a new pope is announced to the Catholic church. Now, you might also think that suddenly, I have become a religious person but don’t worry I am far away from being one. So, I started like this because this is what came to my mind when the previous tournament ended. For those who haven’t realized it yet, starch was the big winner and he stopped raffael’s streak as an effic champion.

So first things first, last weekend we had an amazing tournament which had a bit of everything. It had some really good fights, it had a lot of participation, it had new players and it had a different winner. I was a bit surprised seeing new players and honestly I am really happy when I see people try new modes and they try to get better and I believe tournaments help in this regard. Because they push people for their better self. Personally I prepare before each tournament. Not as much as I would like to but I try to improve bit by bit which is really important. So enough of my big talks. Firstly I would like to welcome  Kotzikachi, mintyCMS and darkwolf in our effic family. The only advice I could give is to practice more and ask for help. Secondly this tournament had a few absences such as notas and frosty and a very trustworthy source of mine ensured me that they wanted to take a break. And finally I was happy to see friend lokio, friend fatality and friend DarkFire playing some effic games.

Round 1
The main characteristic of this tournament was the unexpected pace of the games in the first couple of rounds. The first game which stands out to me was the one between fatality and fixxxera on turbine. This game ended with a really high score. Fixxera won by 3 frags and the final score was 98-95. I saw bits of that game on notas’s stream and I highly recommend you to (re)watch it. The next big game was between lexar and DarkFire. A very interesting pair as I would never imagine seeing those two players for 2 reasons, both related to DarkFire. First he doesn’t play a lot of duels and secondly I thought he was more of an insta duel person. Anyway I was super happy to see him playing and winning on memento by 57-55. The results of the rest of the games were the expected ones. On the first round of loser bracket, I had my first win against fatality on frozen. A slow pace game where I managed to win and mod had his victory against darkWolf on simplicity.

Round 2
In the longest tournament round, DarkFire, who at that point seemed a bit frustrated from his previous game, had to play against raffael on turbine. A bad map choice as I do believe this map gives an advantage to the more experienced player. Next Fixxera had to face Hachi and for the most part of the game Fixxera managed to keep the score really close. Hachi, who found his usual self at the last part of the game won the match-up. The next big game was between tamino and hadis. An interesting pair as I do believe that tamino has been improving a lot and I wanted to see his gap to the elite players. Even though he lost the game on ot, he showed that he’s up to some interesting stuff in the future. My friend Khornettoh, who had a big of a sauer break, had to fight Lokio on memento. I think Lokio knows that map better than Khornettoh but my prediction was a bit off. Lokio won the game but I wouldn’t say it was a completely easy fight. On the loser bracket Zcrone was a bit unlucky as he had to play against Lexar. A very difficult opponent. Both players had a high score but Lexar was the one who had an easy fight on turbine. Personally I was also a bit unlucky as my opponent was secrets (aka sparta). I played some duels against him and I knew already that I couldn’t win the game. I tried my best but sparta got an easy victory on turbine. The biggest fight in that round was between Knornettoh and plata who also has improved a lot lately and I wanted to see if he can win against his opponent. The map was aard3c, a map which doesn’t help players show their best aim skills but it helps to show their strategic ones. Long story short, Knornettoh was the one who won the game by 3 points difference.

Round 3
raffael had another easy victory against hachi on frozen. I believe it’s a big success for hachi reaching the round 3 winner bracket. The next game was between lokio and hadis on academy. A very promising game but lokio wasn’t at his top level and he couldn’t give us a more thrilling result. Starch won against Satoshi on turbine. I also think it was a big success for satoshi reaching this round. Finally on the winner bracket Rexus played against Galaxy on academy. Another interesting pair as I wanted to see how Galaxy would perform. Unfortunately he couldn’t compete at this point against Rexus and lost the game. On the loser bracket we had some really awesome games. First Lexar against Secrets on ot, a fair map which suits both of those players’ styles. The final score was 74-72, a very stressful game where Secrets managed to get out victoriously. Secondly tamino played against Khornettoh on turbine, both players performed very well and tamino was the winner of this game. The third game was between Hamon and TheLove on aard3c. A map which suits TheLove’s style. He is a very strategic person and I had the honor to play against him once on this map and I know how well he can play on it. Nevertheless, he beat hamon but I wouldn’t say that he had an easy victory.

Round 4
The big games of this tournament had started at this point. Raffael had his first difficult opponent and that was hadis. On the other server starch had to play against rexus. Unfortunately both games were close enough as I excepted. Raffael who had control for most of the game against hadis managed to win and move on to the semi final. On the other side rexus and starch had high scores on turbine but rexus didn’t perform as I would have expected and he lost the game. On the loser bracket the most exciting game and the closest one was that between DarkFire and Satoshi. I had to watch the demo for this match and see what happened. Darky won by 1 point difference on turbine. Personally I would have expected a higher score between those two good players.

Semi final and etc.
On the small final aka semifinal Raffael played against starch on frozen. A smart map choice as it turned out to be an easy victory for raffael against his opponent and at that point I think it sent a really strong message. In the loser bracket process rexus and starch were the big winners as they beat every opponent in their path and thus had the chance to move to the final. The battle map was memento and honestly this type of game was the one I expected for most of tournament games but it turned out only a few of them were as close as this one. Starch had a good start and for the first minutes he was continuously having 1 frag difference. Not a relaxed difference by any means though. On the other side Rexus managed to surpass his opponent in the middle of the game and take a 2 frag lead. Unfortunately for him his opponent managed to take back this difference and with a very strategic play in the last 20 seconds of the game starch pulled ahead and moved on to the finals.

Finals
I think if I had to write what I wanted to write about this final I would need a new article but I will try to make it short. The first match between raffael and starch was on memento. Raffael started very strong in the first minute of the game. He managed bit by bit to build a 2-3 frag difference. starch on the other side was trying to find solutions and reduce the difference but unfortunately for him at some point raffael increased the difference to 5 frags. At this point starch started playing more aggressive. The result of this effort was to reduce the difference down to even 1 frag but every time starch came close raffael pulled out his rifle and increased the difference again. All of that until starch started losing his patience. I believe the time put pressure on him and raffael took advantage of this situation and furthered the score to a final 67-56.

The map choice of the second game was aard3c which I found very odd because it is not a very popular map. On the other side frosty who is a more experienced player made a good point that the reason behind this choice might have been to reduce the rifle use of raffael. I agree with that statement and it turned out to be a winning choice. This map requires a different play style which raffael couldn’t follow. From the very start of the game starch built a good score difference and that was enough. Raffael couldn’t keep up and the final score was 58-49. This score difference played an important role in this final, because in my opinion, it made raffael lose his confidence and focus.

The third and final game was on ot. Before the game we had a patience battle. Both players went afk and waiting for the other to be ‘ready’. Not sure if it was on purpose in order to break the opponent’s will. Anyway, that game was what everyone had wished for. Both players were absolutely amazing. They both performed in their peak. They both had amazing combos and amazing flick rifle shots. I tried to analyze this game while I was writing this article but I couldn’t. Simply because for the vast majority of the game no one had a clear lead. The score was mostly on 1 frag difference. Exceptions to that was in the middle of the game where raffael just got 2 frags lead but in the last minutes where starch was the one who had the same score difference but that was enough to give him the title and ruin raffael’s streak. Personally I think that the big factor of this result was that starch was able to keep up with raffael’s rifle.

Anyway guys, I would like you to share your thoughts about this amazing final in the comment section below. What do you think about this awesome tournament and this final?

For me I would like to thank everyone who played and I would like to remind you that there is an iCTF event coming up. That’s it friends. I hope you have a great day. See you next time!

Twitch VOD by notas
sauerduels results + screens + demos