Chaos claim third tournament win with Mythic Invite League Season 1 victory over Triumph
Chaos have claimed their third tournament win in just over a week with a grand finals victory over Triumph, going undefeated through the entirety of Mythic Invite League Season 1 while also securing first place finishes in WINNERS League Invite Season 4 and ESEA MDL Season 34 to head into the player break on a high note.
The first round of the playoffs bracket saw two Brazilian teams in the form of Yeah and oNe advance to the quarterfinals after securing narrow victories over Swedish Canadians and AA, respectively. Meanwhile, Mythic made short work of ex-Polar Ace, and the return of Adam "mada" Pampuch to the Oceanus roster helped the team notch a victory over New England Whalers.
The teams that claimed initial victories then went up against the four group stage winners, with Chaos and Triumph on opposite sides of the bracket and RBG and Recon 5 in between.
The favoured sides reigned supreme in all four matchups, Chaos dispatching of Mythic in fast fashion while the two Brazilian teams sent the North American rosters of RBG and Recon 5 packing. Oceanus put up some contention against Triumph, opening the series with a win on Dust2 before finding themselves unable to overcome the duo of Paytyn "Junior" Johnson and Rahul "curry" Nemani on Mirage and Nuke as Triumph took the win 2-1.
Joshua "steel" Nissan's side then went up against Yeah in their semifinal bout, narrowly edging out a victory in two maps. It took a strong showing from Nathan "leaf" Orf on both Inferno and Overpass for Chaos to claim victory, with both teams remaining within one round of each other at halftime on both maps.
Although a pistol win for Yeah allowed them to lead 11-7 after halftime on Inferno, Chaos proved too strong of a force on the offense as they only conceded three additional rounds en route to a 16-14 win. On Overpass however, Chaos seemed out of sorts after the break, losing their 8-7 lead as Yeah won seven rounds in a row to pull ahead 14-8. However, steel and company tightened up their defenses as they fought back into overtime, where they proved to be the better side by claiming a 19-16 win to close out the series.
Triumph, meanwhile, took down oNe with little difficulty, curry and Michael "Grim" Wince helming a 2-0 effort that saw the team secure 16-8 and 16-6 map wins on Dust2 and Nuke.
The good form of a majority of Triumph's hard-hitters did not continue into the grand finals however, with Paytyn "Junior" Johnson's best efforts not being enough to make up for a relatively quiet performance from the rest of the roster. Chaos led 8-7 heading into the side swap on their map pick of Mirage, with Triumph being unable to capitalize off of a number of opening kills from Junior as steel's side took six straight for a 14-7 scoreline. Triumph made an effort to fight back, but the deficit was too large to overcome as Chaos sustained and took the map win, 16-12.
Chaos continued in their winning ways as they kicked off their defensive effort on Nuke in good form, posting a 9-6 lead at the break. Grim came to life alongside Junior as Triumph won five rounds in a row to pull ahead, but the team were unable to come out the better in a back-and-forth trade for control as Chaos regained their footing to close out the series with a 16-13 victory.
The top twelve teams in Mythic Invite League Season 1 are as follows:
1. Chaos - $10,000
2. Triumph - $4,000
3-4. Yeah - $2,000
3-4. oNe - $2,000
5-8. Oceanus - $500
5-8. Recon 5 - $500
5-8. RBG - $500
5-8. Mythic - $500
9-12. New England Whalers
9-12. ex-Polar Ace
9-12. Swedish Canadians
9-12. AA
The majority of teams will now take a well-deserved rest as the player break gets underway.