Wildcard upset M80 en route to CCT victory
Wildcard have emerged victorious in the CCT Season 2 North America Series #2 after taking some of the heavyweights M80, Nouns, and NRG. They easily had one of the hardest runs through to the Grand Final as they faced three of the top teams in the region.
The entire tournament finished without too many surprises until the playoffs, where M80 were upset in the Semi-Finals by the eventual winners Wildcard. South African rifler Aran "Sonic" Groesbeek had some fun after the victory, pointing out that without malbsMd, M80 might have lost a step.
The Grand Final was set between Wildcard and Nouns, the latter of whom had found their way to the final round after defeating Detonate, BOSS, and Elevate.
The two played a close series as Wildcard secured their own pick of Ancient 13-11. The international squad only managed to find four rounds on their T-side and were in danger of being dominated by Nouns after losing the second half pistol. However, they were able to string seven rounds together to gain some momentum before closing it out.
Nouns responded in kind by dominating on their pick of Nuke. Christopher "cJ dA K1nG" Jones led the way on Cedar Creek as he put up 14 kills and a 1.59 HLTV Rating. He helped Nouns even up the series as they won their own map pick 13-5.
Finally, Wildcard settled it all as they comfortable secured Dust2 with a 13-5 victory after Sonic provided 18 kills and phzy helped overall, giving a standout 1.89 HLTV Rating performance.
WildcardNouns| Wildcard |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Love 'phzy' Smidebrant |
47 - 40 | +7 | 93.0 | 80.0% | 1.32 |
 Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek |
50 - 40 | +10 | 79.8 | 71.7% | 1.20 |
 Josh 'JBa' Barutt |
47 - 40 | +7 | 74.7 | 71.7% | 1.13 |
| Tim 'susp' Ångström |
35 - 39 | -4 | 64.7 | 81.7% | 1.02 |
 Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguz |
28 - 40 | -12 | 58.7 | 70.0% | 0.83 |
| Nouns |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jeorge 'Jeorge' Endicott |
44 - 42 | +2 | 84.6 | 76.7% | 1.16 |
| Paytyn 'junior' Johnson |
47 - 40 | +7 | 77.4 | 70.0% | 1.06 |
| Christopher 'cJ dA K1nG' Jones |
35 - 38 | -3 | 62.1 | 73.3% | 1.03 |
| William 'RUSH' Wierzba |
37 - 43 | -6 | 74.5 | 73.3% | 1.02 |
| Carson 'nosraC' O'Reilly |
34 - 44 | -10 | 66.6 | 66.7% | 0.91 |
Elsewhere, NRG also saw their campaign in the tournament end in the quarterfinals as they were blanked 2-0 by Wildcard. Timothy "autimatic" Ta had an uncharacteristically poor series as his 0.61 HLTV Rating was one of his performances since playing against Elevate back in May.
Wildcard's Love "phzy" Smidebrant stood out as one of the team's best players in the playoff portion of the event. He recorded a 1.26 HLTV Rating, 1.37 Impact Rating, and a 81.4 ADR across eight maps. The aforementioned Sonic was right behind him with a 1.23 HLTV Rating. American prodigy Josh "JBa" Barutt was further down the list as he recorded a 1.16 HLTV Rating.
