Throughout the weekend of January 2 to 4, the second Halo Championship Series LAN event was held at UGC St. Louis, with over 80 teams competing for the $20 000 prize pool and the 4 000 HCS points. As this was the first HCS Diamond event, a tournament win could definitely change a team’s standing moving forward into the season.
Let’s pick up from the Winners Bracket Finals, where Denial eSports was facing off against Counter Logic Gaming, the winners of the first Halo Championship Series LAN event at Iron Games Columbus last December. Denial, which sadly finished outside the Top 8 at Iron Games, was hoping to come out victorious of this tournament with Chig, who could not attend the previous event, returning to the roster. Despite losing the first game of the series, Warlord Neutral Bomb, Denial bounced back and won three games in a row to advance to the Grand Finals.
Suffering from the lost, CLG found itself against Evil Geniuses in the Losers Bracket Finals in what was a rematch of the Grand Finals of Iron Games Columbus, except EG had Lethul in place of Pistola, who could not attend the event due to an injury. Having shut out OpTic Gaming in the Losers Semis, EG was hoping to strive against CLG, but despite its efforts, CLG won the series 3-1 with wins on Warlord Neutral Bomb, a nail biting 50-48 Lockdown Team Slayer and a 3-2 Warlord Capture the Flag match.
And so, it was a rematch between Denial and Counter Logic Gaming in the Grand Finals of UGC St. Louis for the grand prize of $11 000 and 4 000 HCS points. CLG had a lot to come up against because it had to win two Best of Five series in order to come out victorious of the event. CLG dominated the first series, winning Game 1: Warlord Capture the Flag 5-0, Game 3 and Game 4: Shrine Capture the Flag 3-1, forcing a second Best of Five series to determine the winner. Unfortunately for the members of the team, Denial answered back and won the series 3-1, with Mikwen and Ryanoob going absolutely off throughout Game 1 and Game 4. Additionally, with his impressive performance throughout the entire event, Ryanoob earned the title of MVP, a nice treat added to his tournament victory.
Here is the list of teams who have placed in the Top 8 at UGC St. Louis:
- 1- Denial eSports ($11 000, 4 000 HCS Points)
- 2- Counter Logic Gaming ($4 750, 2 500 HCS Points)
- 3- Evil Geniuses ($2 500, 1 800 HCS Points)
- 4- OpTic Gaming ($500, 1 200 HCS Points)
- 5- Cloud 9 ($500, 600 HCS Points)
- 6- Str8 Rippin ($500, 550 HCS Points)
- 7- eLEVATE ($500, 400 HCS Points)
- 8- Noble Reality Check ($500, 350 HCS Points)
The Halo Championship Series will resume next week, as the third HCS Online Cup will kick off Sunday January 11 at 2:00pm EST. For more information on Halo: The Master Chief Collection’s dedicated eSports league, visit the official ESL website, or follow them on Twitter @ESLHalo.
The next major HCS LAN event will take place on February 22, 2015 at Gamers for Giving in Detroit, Michigan, with the Season 1 Finals being held at PAX East throughout March 7th and 8th. Gamer Headlines will be attending the latter, so be on the lookout for more Halo Championship Series content on our website. Speaking of Halo content, we are currently covering the Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta extensively, posting Impressions Log Entries every couple of days. You can check those out right here.
Did you watch the UGC 20K Halo event? If so, let us know what you thought of it in the comments below and, as always, stay tuned to Gamer Headlines for all things gaming.
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