A look back on the Domination Series Final - Elite

[St.Guardian 514]

 

The Domination Series Final

 

It's been a long wait, but the Domination Series is... over. The two top teams, Vavilon and Chicago, proved themselves worthy to be at the pinnacle of such a tournament after smashing their way through the preliminary rounds. Ultimately, they clashed in an all-out battle seen below. In this article, I shall be exploring how the battle progressed and how Vavilon emerged victorious.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoAM1U7YiNM

 

First Round:

     

Both teams were observed to be adequately equipped for the battle in terms of defense. Vavilon, who started the battle on the blue side, selected a diverse and powerful lineup of weapons for defense. A Mammoth/Twins was seen on the flag, supported by an Isida/Viking who very often stayed close to his allies, as well as a Vulcan/Titan for long range and a Viking/Freeze to slow enemies down. This array for defense allowed Vavilon to damage enemy attackers before they entered the Blue base and to break attackers' momentum with impact force and ice shards.

 

On the opposite side of the map, Chicago was seen to be equally well equipped with a slightly different arrangement. Everything was the same except that instead of a Vulcan/Titan, they used a Titan/Smoky. This allowed the Isida/Viking (CEKRETHbIu) to serve as a midfielder and focus more on healing the Mammoth/Twins. This also allowed Chicago to deal a constant supply of damage to the attackers of Vavilon instead of waiting for a Vulcan/Titan to cool or reload.

     

For the main part of the first round, Chicago's attack was comprised of 2 Viking/Ricochets, a Viking/Thunder, as well as a Viking/Hammer. This arrangement made their attack slightly weak over long range (due to Vavilon's two Railguns) but potentially very deadly when they surrounded Vavilon's Blue base which was open from 4 angles. On a few occasions, Chicago's I.HolyGun used his Thunder to splash damage within the Blue base as well as to heavily harm Vavilon's attackers. Unfortunately, no flags were captured in the first round for Chicago, possibly because their attackers rarely attacked simultaneously.

 

On Vavilon's attacking squad there were 2 Viking/Railguns, a Viking Hammer and a Viking/Thunder. Their decision to make use of two Railguns was a slight shock for Hard Format but was no impairment nonetheless. Mrs.Queen and Fame quite often managed to take out Chicago's Isida which served well for potential attacks - though when this occurred, the rest of Vavilon's attackers did not have enough health to carry the flag to the Blue base before being intercepted by Chicago. Based on all this, no flags were captured during this round which ended 0:0. Additionally, map control throughout was well balanced by the teams.

 

Top pictures from the match:

 

 

 

 

 

Second Round:

     

Chicago seemed to have switched to mirror Vavilon's layout for defense and in this round, both teams had basically the same defense of a Mammoth/Twins, Titan/Vulcan, an Isida/Viking and a Viking/Freeze for support of controlling entrances to the base. So, it was really the attacks that made the difference. In the first two minutes of the round, Vavilon's Born.To.Love managed to grab the blue flag and carry it a good distance before he died and Mrs.Queen continued, strenuously trying to escape the grasp of Chicago's defending Mammoth/Twins (AFK) and Viking Freeze (ZHALO). It paid off as Mrs.Queen's fellow defender Face used his massive Titan/Vulcan to cover her, a skill that lead them to capture the first flag of the match, making the score 1:0 to Vavilon.

 

That is something to note about this round; both Chicago and Vavilon used their hulls to maximum ability by blocking their opponents. It was also seen that Fake was often using his Firebird to spray damage onto Vavilon's main defenders, which gradually weakened them.

 

Only a few minutes after the first capture, Born.To.Love managed to escape with the blue flag again. This time, he decided to attempt to use the tunnels. This decision would later lead to regret as ZHALO was waiting at the other end of the tunnel and destroyed him, returning the flag. A further attack was made by Vavilon, forcing Chicago into mainly 'flag recovery mode' when Fake with his Firebird melted their defense and, supported by his two team mates dealing excellent damage with Railgun, escaped through the center. Unfortunately for Vavilon, ZHALO continued proving his worth by assisting in returning the blue flag.

     

Seven minutes into the game, after being severely damaged by two Railguns (Easy and Mrs.Queen) and a Firebird, Chicago's defense fell momentarily again. This provided enough time for Fake to speed off with their flag, heavily followed by I.HolyGun's Twins' orbs that unfortunately could not stop him. Fiercely guarded by Born.To.Love's deadly Hammer/Viking, Fake captured, leading to a score of 2:0 in Vavilon's favour. A further attack of similar form lead to a third capture that made the score 3:0, which was closely followed one minute later by Fake capturing again, this time using Viking/Freeze. It seemed that for this second round, Vavilon had a serious upper hand in map control (most of the time there was at least one red player in the blue base) due to the continual destruction of Chicago's defenders. However, Chicago would come back to start the third round slightly battered, but with strong, tense hopes of coming back.

 

Top pictures from the match:

 

 

 

 

Third Round:

     

The third round began with little or no equipment changes on the part of each team. It began very fiercely with Chicago launching various attempts to steal the blue flag in order to try and level the playing field. In the first two minutes of this battle, Chicago's HEMATERUCb_KAK_BCE managed to skilfully slip through Vavilon's main defense. Unfortunately, he was caught and surrounded by the unrelenting defenders Golden_Koi and Face. Only a few moments later, Chicago's brute force, Hammer-equipped D.E.V.I.L666 managed to pound his way through Vavilon's defence and carry the flag about a third of the way across the map. However, he was quickly engaged by Vavilon's Freeze/Viking despite his fellow attackers distracting the rest of their defenders. 

 

In a counter-attack, Vavilon's Fake, equipped with Viking/Freeze and supported by his teammates, managed to bash his way through Chicago's defense and make it to his base, only to find that his blue flag was missing! At last, Chicago's unwavering attacking squad had managed to escape with their opponents flag: a standoff was at play.

 

Face stood valiantly with Chicago's flag while Shame_on_You watched carefully in Mammoth/Twins with Vavilon's flag. Great team play was to be seen. At one instance, all five of Chicago's attackers had surrounded the blue base, HEMATERUCb_KAK_BCE dealing huge damage with Railgun and D.E.V.I.L666 assisting with Hammer. Subsequently, You_always_love, ZHALO and Free had encompassed Face, who was only kept alive by his trusty Isida/Viking support. On the opposite side of the map, however, Shame_on_You was surrounded by five of Vavilon's attackers who cleared him out easily to return the flag. This made the score 1:0.

 

From here, it was seemingly downhill for Chicago, as major distraction allowed Born.To.Love to capture a flag by a clear route, increasing the flag count to 2:0. Chicago tried to level the score twice in similar circumstances, but Vavilon's Golden_Koi in defense proved too resilient. A further attack by Vavilon lead to a capture due to great coordination and this was continued for further flags to be captured. Inevitably, Chicago's defense was destabilised by these constant attacks and sadly for them the overall score ended as 11:0. It was a gallant attempt on their half, but Vavilon proved themselves as highly exemplary champions.

 

Top pictures from the match:

 

 

 

     

Conclusion

 

Weighing the evidence, Vavilon certainly deserved their win over their worthy competitors. Their players got what they deserved: 3,000,000 crystals, the Acid paint and the Spectrum M-B Module. Chicago meanwhile, despite having their motivation battered, showed excellent sportsmanship and skill throughout the match. So congratulations to them for making it this far, and it is certain that they will enjoy their 2,000,000 crystals and the Gladiator paint. 

 

[St.Guardian 514]

Match Opinions (courtesy of @Regency)

 

What do you think about the final game for the 1st edition of the 'Domination Series'?

 

(Vavilon): I think this final was especially good and we were better prepared than our opponents for 'Hard Format'. Chicago is a great clan with lots of potential. It was a very good game!

 

(Vavilon Captain): Chicago is a great clan, and having seen that we made the decision to play them on 'Iran'. It was a good final.

 

(Chicago Captain): We enjoyed playing this final, and Vavilon is a great clan.

[St.Guardian 514]

Extra (courtesy of @Regency)

 

Why did you take part in this tournament?

 

(Vavilon Captain): We took part in the tournament purely for pleasure, especially to allow our new players the chance to get the paint Acid since half of our players already had it.

 

(Chicago Captain): We took part in this tournament for fun!

 

@Free (Chicago): After CC9 ends, I've decided that I'll leave Russian eSports, because I do not like their way of working, to join the English community and participate in EN-only tournaments. This is why I participated in the tournament Domination Series - DS.

 

Thank you to the players of both clans for answering our questions!

 

 

Congratulations to all the teams for participating in the 1st edition of this tournament and revealing the abilities of EN clans in front of the clans of other communities.

[GoldRock 6,165]

Just to add - we now have proper English reports for both the Elite and the Junior finals in the works, too   ^_^

As promised :ph34r:

[Kurt_KurtDGreat 2,259]

Finally :D

[faroseh 442]

:o

[Regency 2,099]

me too soon i'll finish Junior

Edited December 16, 2016 by Regency

[Fragrance 1,294]

great :)

[Cyborg 3,189]

Nicely done there!

[Obelix79Warrior 126]

Great Work!

[Al-Za7eF 33]

Greater job bro