OpTic Gaming Pulled Off An Insane Comeback Against Cloud 9 In The First Competitive Halo Infinite Tournament Of The Year
You couldn't have written a better script for the kickoff of competitive Halo Infinite.
Let's take it from the top - since launch, Halo Infinite has done a phenomenal job of integrating esports into their core game. This includes a ranked mode, in-game skins representing organizations and much more. The link above is a blog I wrote a week ago about how Halo Infinite is properly supporting their esports scene.
Yesterday wrapped up the first competitive tournament for Halo Infinite. In the grand finals, we had Cloud 9 vs OpTic Gaming (two of the most recognizable and like-able orgs in the scene) battling it out for their chance to take home the trophy.
Since OpTic Gaming was coming out of the loser's bracket and Cloud 9 came through the winner's bracket, OpTic gaming would have to win (2) best of 5 series against Cloud 9 to win the tournament. All C9 had to do was win (1) best of 5 series since they didn't lose throughout the entire tournament.
In unbelievable fashion, OpTic Gaming forced a 2nd series after beating C9 by (1) point on Slayer. AKA, if OpTic Gaming lost their last gunfight, Cloud 9 would've been victorious without needing a second series. It came down to one single kill. Like traditional sports, competitive gaming is a game of inches.
The entire series was a dogfight - both teams giving it their all and trading blows back and forth.
It came down to the last map - tied 2-2 in the 2nd best of 5 series. Unfortunately for C9, OpTic Halo looked COMPLETELY UNSTOPPABLE. They dominated the game in such a fashion that the Slayer match (aka team death match) was truly over before the game was even half way through.
Whereas the first Slayer map 5 (from the previous series) was 50-49, OpTic Gaming dominated C9 and won 50-21. 50-21!!!! Madness.
This last map made the series feel extremely lopsided but that couldn't have been further from the truth. This was a massive dogfight and in the end, OpTic Gaming prevailed and took home first place out of 406 total teams.