ESEA Main playoff match breaks NA overtime and map length record

Everybody has had games that last a bit longer than expected. Maybe there's a pizza in the oven or you have plans for the evening and it goes to overtime, perhaps even double overtime. A real pain. Well for PreGaming and All Gas No Brakes that is precisely what happened in an ESEA Main elimination playoff game, but it was not just a couple of overtimes, but nine. Nine whole overtimes in the very first map. For All Gas No Brakes that meant playing 83 rounds of grueling Counter-Strike on Overpass only to lose the game.

The greatest part of this story is that this two-and-a-half-hour game didn't start as competitive as it turned out to be. All Gas No Brakes started the game with incredible momentum, as they ran away at the start and took the lead up to 13-3, and continued to put their foot on the pedal with a 15-8 scoreline. It was an incredible personal performance from Jonathan "woajar" Fruncek that pulled them back into the game, as he ended the map with a whopping 69 kills. The game not only an incredible comeback but it also ended in a heartbreaking way, two of the final three rounds were 1v1s. One or two kills differently and we could have been looking at yet another overtime.

After this marathon of a match, All Gas No Brakes forced the third map by absolutely destroying their opponents on Dust2, only to lose again on the final map in dramatic fashion once again. After losing 40-43 in the first map they lost the series with a 16-14 loss.

This is not the longest verifiable game that we have seen played, as XENEX played exceL in an ESL UK Premiership S1 match that went 88 rounds on Inferno with XENEX pulling away the win 46-42. It is only fitting that NA has allowed the British to retain the crown of longest match, hopefully, this region can bounce back and do better next time.

For PreGaming this tough win means they make it through to the lower-bracket final where they play Wiffys Thursday at 09:30PM.

UPDATE: While this match was considerably long, we found out after publication that there was a longer match played out in North America. During an ESEA Open Match between Trigger-Happy and Coordinated Disrespect, the match went an astonishing 102 Rounds before it finally finished 52-50 in favor of Coordinated Disrespect.