Drove Here from Cali take NCS Denver Major over Dignitas fe
The second Major in the NCS circuit took place in Denver this past weekend, offering the lion's share of the $15,000 prize pool to the champion. Unfortunately, a dismal turnout for the event saw just six teams participate, leading to a tweak of the format in the group stages.
An initial round of matches was used to establish seeds for the group stage, with Shawn "witmer" Taylor's Hooked mix and the Dignitas fe ladies securing byes in the first round of play following wins in their first matchups. The group stage itself only saw the elimination of two teams, ForbiddeN and EXPOSED, while four teams secured spots in the semifinals.
Dignitas fe were first up in a match that saw them face off against Kinship, a team that contained a handful of names from ESEA Advanced and Main including Max "SolGoat" Wallace, Eric "Ryze" Brown, and Alex "AJP" Pekish. Despite starting the opening map of the series, Nuke, down 0-5, Kiara "milk" Makua helped her side rally back for a ten round spree to end their defensive half in the lead. A valiant comeback effort helmed by SolGoat helped Kinship mirror the results of the Dignitas fe roster to push the map to overtime, but their efforts were halted there as the ladies dropped just one round on the round to a 19-16 finish.
A similar start to Dust2 saw Kinship take four uncontested rounds to open up the map, with Dignitas fe once again remaining resilient to edge out an 8-7 lead at halftime. Six rounds off the back of a pistol win in the second half allowed for AJP and company to pull ahead 13-8, although Dignitas fe did manage to tie up the match with five rounds of their own. The comeback effort was cut short however, with Kinship narrowly taking a 16-14 victory on map two to force a deciding map.
Train proved to be just as close as the two previous maps, with the two teams trading blow for blow for an 8-7 scoreline at the half. Dignitas fe remained ahead with two rounds off the back of a pistol victory following the side swap, with Kinship attempting to steal away the win as they won six of the ensuing seven rounds for a 13-11 lead. Dignitas fe refused to cave however, taking five straight rounds to edge out a 16-13 victory and claim a spot in the grand finals.
Dignitas feKinship| Dignitas fe |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Melisa 'Theia' Mundorff |
74 - 59 | +15 | 79.7 | 73.4% | 1.17 |
| Emmalee 'EMUHLEET' Garrido |
67 - 58 | +9 | 72.0 | 70.2% | 1.11 |
| Kiara 'm1lky' Makua |
68 - 63 | +5 | 74.5 | 70.2% | 1.11 |
| Carolyn 'artStar' Noquez |
59 - 62 | -3 | 70.0 | 66.0% | 0.96 |
 Amanda 'rain' Smith |
52 - 66 | -14 | 68.4 | 72.3% | 0.93 |
| Kinship |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alex 'AJP' Pekish |
80 - 59 | +21 | 87.7 | 69.1% | 1.23 |
| Max 'SolGoat' Wallace |
66 - 70 | -4 | 83.1 | 69.1% | 1.13 |
| Eric 'Ryze' Brown |
71 - 66 | +5 | 80.6 | 68.1% | 1.12 |
| Gavin 'Fruitcupx' Norman |
50 - 57 | -7 | 56.8 | 62.8% | 0.86 |
| Alex 'Alexdb' Benavides |
41 - 68 | -27 | 45.9 | 61.7% | 0.68 |
Two-time NCS Denver Minor champions, Hooked, had similar scorelines against Drove Here From Cali in their own semifinal matchup, although this time they would end up on the losing side of the bout. Despite trailing 6-9 in the opening half of Inferno, witmer's side managed to force overtime, where the two teams continued to trade rounds before Hooked emerged victorious 22-19.
A 6-0 lead on Overpass by Drove Here from Cali gave way to an 8-7 scoreline at the half, but this time the team managed to capitalize off of their lead as they gave up just four rounds following the side swap to take a 16-11 victory. The third map, Train, saw Nicholas "prex" Cheung power his team to another 9-6 scoreline, with Hooked managing a trio of rounds at the start of the second half to tie up the match. A six round streak in reply put Drove Here From Cali on series point, and Hooked were only able to forstall their own execution for three final rounds before the map was closed out 16-12.
HookedDrove Here From Cali| Hooked |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Evan 'Zequate' Ives |
80 - 65 | +15 | 79.9 | 72.9% | 1.14 |
 Khalid 'MEs' Almathkor |
72 - 73 | -1 | 86.6 | 75.0% | 1.10 |
| Kevin 'kev' Fangmeier |
66 - 62 | +4 | 75.7 | 64.6% | 1.04 |
| Shawn 'witmer' Taylor |
62 - 80 | -18 | 71.7 | 72.9% | 0.88 |
| Micah 'miq' Bell |
47 - 68 | -21 | 64.1 | 66.7% | 0.79 |
| Drove Here From Cali |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nicholas 'prex' Cheung |
81 - 68 | +13 | 86.0 | 77.1% | 1.30 |
| Brandon 'BRANTED' Ballard |
71 - 65 | +6 | 91.2 | 69.8% | 1.22 |
| Riley 'violent' Levenson |
65 - 63 | +2 | 69.3 | 67.7% | 1.08 |
| Alvin 'xcege' Hu |
66 - 62 | +4 | 73.1 | 77.1% | 1.06 |
| Brandon 'envy' Tovmassian |
63 - 69 | -6 | 70.2 | 80.2% | 1.05 |
The grand final showdown saw Dignitas fe up against Drove Here From Cali, with prex's side starting the series on their own pick of Mirage. A 7-0 start on the defense saw Dignitas fe struggling to get on the board, with the team finally posting a string of four rounds for a 7-4 scoreline. Drove Here From Cali answered back with four rounds of their own to take a dominant 11-4 lead as the sides swapped over.
Dignitas fe began to slowly claw back as a six round spree put them in touching distance of a tie game. A back-and-forth trade of rounds between the sides saw Drove Here From Cali string together their first set of rounds on the offense, taking a trio to attain match point at 15-11. milk and company fought to force overtime as they pulled back two rounds in their favor, but prex sealed the deal for his side as he ended the map with 30 kills and 120 ADR to take a 16-13 win.
prex continued to perform as Drove Here From Cali took the opening rounds of Overpass, but Dignitas fe were keen to make up for losing the first map of the series. Emmalee "EMUHLEET" Garrido's side gave up just two additional rounds in the first half as they mirrored their opponent's scoreline in the first half, ending their offensive side with an 11-4 lead.
The teams traded sets of rounds once the sides swapped over, with Dignitas fe pulling ahead 13-6. Drove Here From Cali showed resilience however, emulating Dignitas fe's T-side by giving up just two rounds as they won nine of their own to force overtime. There, prex continued to find frags for his side, helping to narrowly edge out a 19-17 victory with 35 kills to his name to take the series 2-0.
Dignitas feDrove Here From Cali| Dignitas fe |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amanda 'rain' Smith |
48 - 48 | +0 | 75.1 | 66.2% | 1.05 |
| Emmalee 'EMUHLEET' Garrido |
47 - 45 | +2 | 66.1 | 66.2% | 1.02 |
| Carolyn 'artStar' Noquez |
45 - 51 | -6 | 82.4 | 61.5% | 1.00 |
| Melisa 'Theia' Mundorff |
42 - 50 | -8 | 78.1 | 67.7% | 0.98 |
| Kiara 'm1lky' Makua |
35 - 46 | -11 | 66.4 | 64.6% | 0.86 |
| Drove Here From Cali |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nicholas 'prex' Cheung |
65 - 46 | +19 | 107.4 | 80.0% | 1.45 |
| Brandon 'envy' Tovmassian |
47 - 40 | +7 | 79.1 | 73.8% | 1.17 |
| Riley 'violent' Levenson |
43 - 39 | +4 | 62.4 | 80.0% | 1.06 |
| Alvin 'xcege' Hu |
44 - 48 | -4 | 81.3 | 75.4% | 1.05 |
| Brandon 'BRANTED' Ballard |
41 - 44 | -3 | 73.7 | 70.8% | 0.96 |
The final standings of the NCS Denver Major are as follows:
1. Drove Here From Cali (prex, EXIGE, envy, violent, BRANTED) - $8,000
2. Dignitas fe (milk, EMUHLEET, rain, artStar, Theia) - $5,000
3-4. Hooked (witmer, Zequate, miq, kev, MEs) - $1,000
3-4. Kinship (AJP, Ryze, SolGoat, Alexdb, ItsYaBoiGavin) - $1,000
5-6. EXPOSED (Chonny, ^Jack, Darke9000, maniac, LemonPledge)
5-6. ForbiddeN (allbrook, messiaH, exceed, YangFuShang, k1ng)
The next Major in the National Championship Series circuit will take place in Chicago, Illinois, and is set to run from August 9-11 at the Ignite Gaming Lounge. There are currently nine teams signed up for the event, with signups remaining discounted by $15 on the Lobby.gg page until July 28th.
