High Rollers Gaming has defeated previous champions Classic Mixup and won the Championship title for ESEA's Season 13 LAN in Dallas, Texas. The b4nny-led team will take home some impressive records and perks that not every season gives us: an undefeated season shared with CheckSix and Classic Mixup, an undefeated season with an undefeated LAN that Mixup accomplished last season, and now the grand opportunity to compete at this summer's i49 in England with the biggest Euro teams. In additional records, this LAN not only started on time, but was ahead of schedule and finished right when expected, giving us nonstop games and keeping thousands of viewers glued to the stream.
- High Rollers Gaming
- Classic Mixup
- Fully Torqued
- The Chess Club
Fully Torqued and The Chess Club had a slow start against the top two seeds in the first Upper Rounds, but finally woke up and flexed their muscles as they battled in the first Lower Round brackets. A creative use of double-Gunboats Soldiers by Chess Club helped overpower Snakewater-mid, but Zbryan throwing his Escape Plan everywhere and seanbud showing insane survivability with constant kill streaks on Badlands pushed Chess Club to a fourth place finish. HRG and Mixup later took it to Snakewater for what is by far Saturday's best game, with the first half finishing at a wild 1-1 tie and the second half nearly stalling out at a 3-3 tie as the two superteams butted heads back and forth. Mixup stumbled on their pushes to last in overeager scrambles but used Ruwin's phenomenal cleanup and enigma's quick bombs to continue forward. With the usual cookie-cutter setup giving neither side any progress, the teams branched out: b4nny getting a mile-long Kritz sticky on harbleu at last, harbleu needling down cyzer at 7 hp, cyzer hiding in forward spawn as Heavy and mowing down the combo at mid, and enigma getting a double backstab soon after on the same spot. With barely minutes to go, HRG's patience sealed them the final cap and seemed to have exhausted Mixup, who were unable to recreate the same momentum for their second game on Badlands.
Fully Torqued and Mixup moved to the final Lower Brackets for their last chance to stay in the LAN race, with Zbryan and A_Seagull displaying insane aggression and damage to catch harbleu off guard and swing advantages to Torqued's favor on Granary. It wasn't enough to counter Mixup's powerful positioning at mids, eventually causing Justin to spend much of his time on Sniper and a little bit of Spy towards the end of Gullywash. Torqued snatched away two points in style with backcapping and bombing onto last, but Mixup's midfights with Yz50's kill streaks were still too strong to overcome, giving Fully Torqued the third place spot.
HRG and Mixup started the Grand Finals with another match on Badlands, with Mixup undoubtedly eager to make up for their performance the day before. Ruwin led the charge with a backstab on Shade and a casual stroll to last to take the first round, followed by harbleu needling down everything to cap last as the final man standing and Platinum scoring a single Kritz sticky to wreck Shade and b4nny. HRG continued with their patient plays and sailed along with Tagg's mind-boggling 42-27 record on roamer to claim the game as theirs. With the map choice in their hands, Classic Mixup picked Viaduct and tightened up their pushes to claim hectic battles over mid. TLR and enigma did great work chasing after Shade but were unable to manage their own team's Uber and cleanup as efficiently, with harbleu dropping to an unseen b4nny sticky trap as the game came to a close - though, in one last hurrah, harbleu did what is probably the wildest Medic surf across the entire map to stay alive and keep Mixup's advantage. With the Shrugger+cyzer combo dominating the ground, lansky's relentless pocketing over the smallest of opportunities, and b4nny's agressive positioning to lock Mixup inside, High Rollers Gaming took away LAN with a perfect season and no maps ever dropped.
Congratulations to all the teams who played and big shoutouts to everyone who helped stream these incredible games!
ESEA coverage articles
HRG Takes First Win over Torqued
Mixup Shows Strong Opening Match Against Chess Club
Fully Torqued Knocks Chess Club Out Of Finals
HRG Advanced to Grand Finals With Win Over Mixup
Mixup Moves To Grand Finals With Win Over Fully Torqued
HRG Wins ESEA TF2 S13 LAN