ESFI World

After a fairly straightforward first day in which none of the top teams were defeated, Sunday’s play at the Battle of Amsterdam brought plenty of excitement with the upset of apeX and inspired play from Infused who ultimately choked in the final against Epsylon.

Poor finish for apeX, Infused find form

The Team Infused squad of XLNC, Vapez, Gunshy and Swanny were in brilliant form this weekend, displaying the full extent of their skill on Sunday morning. They began by sweeping their first two opponents, 3DMAX and Epsylon, 3-0 to advance to the winner’s bracket final against Who Are We, again taking the match with a convincing 3-0. Their momentum was undeniable, but as they waited approximately seven hours for the grand final, something was clearly lost. After the 3-0 win over Epsylon in the winner’s bracket they had a two map lead going into the grand final. Epsylon, however, with their spirits high after running though apeX.Pro, Brutality, and Who Are We in the loser’s bracket, proved too strong. Their squad consisting of Diablo, Prodigy, Karnage and their pick-up player from WesternWolves, DareDevil, managed to take four straight maps in the grand final to win 4-2 in an intense series.

Event winners, Epsyon (Photo: Decerto)

apeX.Pro vs. Who Are We (Fariko.Yin) was the first big match of the day, with the mighty apeX receiving a shocking 3-1 loss against the Dutch side. apeX managed to cruise through the loser’s bracket though, sweeping their sister team, apeX.Divinely (apeX Germany) 3-0. They then knocked out Pain Gaming with another 3-0 victory. Their tournament came to an end however as they faced their rivals from the recent Reflex GT7 tournament, Epsylon (formerly mythiX). Epsylon, who loaned Agonie to apeX for the event, proved too strong with their pickup of the WesternWolves player DareDevil, and defeated apeX 3-2, knocking them out with a fifth/sixth place finish.

 EGS Battle of Amsterdam Top 8

1. Epsylon	€1,250
2. Infused	€750
3. Who Are We (Fariko.Yin)	€500
4. Brutality
5. apeX eSports Pro
5. 3DMAX
7. Pain Gaming
7. Visual Pro

Pain gaming, the Spanish team with massive support on the live stream, had a solid run through the loser’s bracket on Sunday morning. They swept Arctic Empire 3-0, then had an extremely close series against the mixed European team VYE, winning 3-2. They then continued their streak, keeping up momentum against the Dutch side “Wij Schijven dit op” to reach top eight. Their next match, however, was against apeX.Pro, who unsurprisingly swept Pain 3-0.

This event was a good finish for Who Are We (Fariko.Yin), who finished poorly at Reflex GT7 a few weeks ago, and have recovered their status as one of Europe’s best with some good results in the winner’s bracket including 3-1 victories over both apeX.Pro and Brutality. The tournament was also good for the British squad, Brutality, who only managed ninth at Reflex, taking a close win over 3DMAX and eventually taking fourth as they were unable to overcome Epsylon.

Check out the bracket here, and the video on demand here.

Top Eu MW3 player and ESFI contributor, Jack "Crookz" Anderson offers his take on why apeX struggled to make top four, whilst Brutality and Epsylon succeeded.

SMG pickup unsettles apeX

apeX had some tough games quite early on in the bracket, so I think the final placement doesn't really reflect how they played considering Brutality didn't have to beat any top teams in order to place in the top four whilst apeX played against several top teams and took sixth. It was obvious, however, that without Riddlez they lacked a strong defense and had poor structure on some maps. People often look at lineups in terms of raw skill and presume that the team with the biggest names will win, but a lineup including Agonie, Gotaga and Tommey is always going to be too aggressive.

Epsylon simply had to pick up an SMG player in place of Agonie, which they found in DareDevil, resulting in fewer alterations to their style of play. On the contrary, apeX picked up an SMG player to replace an AR player. This meant that apeX had to switch things around and weren't as prepared. Krityk subbed for them on the first day due to Gotaga arriving late, and this probably meant another re-shuffle was needed. On top of all this, I have teamed with Agonie in the past and know his English isn't a strong point, so communication might have suffered with two French players in the team.

Infused strong, but not strong enough

Infused had an early slip-up, but in all fairness picked it up from then on despite a rocky second game. When you look at the top six teams, technically all of them are pick-up rosters or teams with a sub apart from 3DMAX. Infused have been scrimming a lot since November and if they can't win at a BoA event with twenty-four teams, most of whom are pick-up rosters, something is obviously going wrong.

As I have said in the past, I don't believe that this lineup will ever win an event (at least not a highly competitive one) unless XLNC is replaced or starts to play more objectively. In the words of many, they play TDM. Tournaments are only going to get tougher from now on with Western Wolves and Flame Retardant, amongst others, yet to attend any LANs for MW3. I think they have the ability to turn it around, especially because it's obvious what they need to do, but they've not made the necessary changes thus far.