Chicago’s new lineup did not phase them at CDL Seattle. The Huntsmen did not drop a Hardpoint map. Some victories were single-digits, but others encroached upon triple-digits. Chicago were much improved on Hackney Yard as well as Ramazza. Chicago played some of the best Hardpoint teams in the game and still refused to lose. Down the stretch, it was Ramazza in the semifinals and finals which helped propel Chicago to early leads. The early rotations and impenetrable setups made it extremely difficult for opposing teams to execute their gameplan. The Huntsmen are making the veto process for Hardpoint a crapshoot.
Chicago Goes Shopping for Electronics
Against the New York Subliners it was Electronics Shop that made a huge difference. The Huntsmen squeezed nearly every second out of both sets of rotations. Chicago earned an astounding 112 points out of a total 120 points available. Their domination on this hill allowed the Huntsmen to be average and even below average on other hills to still win by a margin of 41 points.
On the first set of rotations, the Huntsmen played their hands correctly. They started with the favorable spawns and did not let go of this advantage. Most teams set up around the front door and the center of the hill, but not Chicago. The Huntsmen stacked three players in the back to mitigate New York’s push from the first hill and up the middle. As time progressed, Chicago managed to push far enough up the map, it was disadvantageous for New York to continue to push the hill.
The second time around, Chicago made an incredibly intelligent play. With 30 seconds to go the Huntsmen were spawning out. FormaL and Envoy spawned up on the bottom half of the map. Instead of pushing P1, Envoy went straight up the bottom half of the map and ran to the back of Electronics Shop spawns. Mack was caught out of position and spawned up on the complete opposite side of the map at Barber Shop. Again, Chicago set up an extremely sound setup and yielded no time to their opponents.
The Huntsmen Dish out Haircuts
In the finals, Chicago’s differentiator was on Barber Shop. The Huntsmen accumulated 91 points out of the 120 possible. Towards the end of the game, the Barber Shop hill is ultimately what won Chicago the first map. Heading into this hill, Chicago possessed a narrow 11 point lead. The Huntsmen blew the lead wide open to 58 points.
London had a dominant hold on P2 which the Huntsmen used to their advantage. With about 25-30 seconds left on the second hill, Chicago fell back to rotate to Barber Shop. Chicago kept one person in the hill and pushed up far enough on the map to ensure London could not get close to the hill. The Royal Ravens’ first chance to contest the hill came with just 20 seconds left. With Scump on a killing rampage posting a record of 12-5, London could not break Chicago’s set up.
Heading into the second rotation the Royal Ravens out rotated Chicago. With 30 seconds left Skrapz and Seany were first to Barber Shop. Unfortunately for them, Chicago simply sent more resources seconds later. The Huntsmen gave themselves the numbers advantage and as a result, earned the spawns for Barber Shop. Chicago simply had more gun skill and won the majority of all gunfights blocking the Royal Ravens from entering once again.
Fight for Every Last Scrap
While Chicago is one of the most skilled teams in the game. but sometimes things do not go according to the plan. When this happens it is time to think on the fly. Chicago did a great job on Ramazza of playing scrappy Call of Duty. When Chicago were blocked out of a hill or did not have men on-site, they managed to disrupt the flow of the game. Players went big and picked up multi-kills or simply dove into the hill to contest time. The Huntsmen did a great job of minimizing the amount of time New York and London were able to pick up on hills. Combine this with their stellar holds on Electronics Shop and Barber Shop and the Huntsmen broke apart from the pack to win both maps.
Featured image courtesy of NRG Esports
You can ‘Like’ The Game Haus on Facebook and ‘Follow’ us on Twitter for more sports and esports articles from other great TGH writers along with Daniel!