froyotech obliterate Ascent in the Grand Finals, taking home three maps in a row and crowning themselves World Champions once again, defending their Esports Arena Rewind title. (5-3 Gullywash, 5-3 Snakewater, 5-0 Process)

The final series of Esports Arena’s Rewind II has finally come: the two most dominant teams in North America meet each other once again in the all-American Grand Finals of an intercontinential TF2 tournament, the first one in nearly six years since Classic Mixup defeated Leviathan Gaming in the finals of Insomnia46.

Gullywash

froyotech started off strong on the first round of Gullywash, winning the mid fight and taking Ascent’s second point with ease. A Kritz push into last initially gave froyotech the advantage pushing into Ascent’s last, but Ascent were able to keep habib and froyotech from capping their final point. Ascent pushed out, contesting the second point, but a backcap from arekk wins froyotech their first point of the series.

Ascent struck back, winning the mid fight with strong plays from paddie and capturing froyotech’s second point. A bomb from blaze however would pick off Nursey, an equalizer after the loss of shade at mid previously. After close holds at choke, a force onto shade gave Ascent the opportunity to push forward with uber, eventually making their way to froyotech’s last and, with the help of marmaloo’s pain train, take the last point off of froyotech and tie up the score 1-1.

froyotech retaliated the next mid, taking it with force and pushing through Ascent’s big door with kritz to cut off the enemy team and force their uber. Ascent crumbled on second and froyotech pushed through to last, decimating the discombobulated players.

Ascent swept under froyotech’s feet at the fourth mid of the game, wiping froyotech with no casualites on the side of Ascent. Ascent pushed last with full uber advantage, dealing swiftly with froyotech’s pyro and sentry defenses and tying the score up once again 2-2.

A war of attrition on the fifth mid fight of the game eventually fell in favor of froyotech, retaining their own medic and their ubercharge. Continued aggression onto last overwhelmed Ascent’s rushed defenses, giving froyotech another point, bumping the score 3-2.

Ascent were unable to take control of mid, but a bomb into shade from sighguy gave Ascent the upper hand with heals. froyotech were still able to push forward, taking Ascent’s second point. Ascent contested the second point, nearly capping it, but yomps on the backcap gave froyotech yet another point, incrementing the score 4-2.

froyotech achieved yet another mid win, pushing forward to Ascent’s last. A push onto the last point nearly won froyotech the last map-winning point, but Ascent were just barely able to keep b4nny and crew at bay. Another push from froyotech was deflected by Ascent, who pushed up back to mid, where Ascent again negated a froyotech uber push. Ascent rolled through second and to last, with 30 uber ad, and successfully captured the last point, lower Ascent’s deficit with a 4-3 scoreline.

froyotech firmly took the mid once again, pushing forward onto Ascent’s second and last point. A dominant push forward onto Ascent’s last gave froyotech the last point and froyotech rounded out Gullywash’s final score: 5-3 in favor of froyotech and giving froyotech the first map of the best-of-five grand finals.

Snakewater

Snakewater began on the high note for Ascent, winning the mid fight and capturing the point. Reaggression immediately afterwards forced Ascent to concede the point and a drop onto Nursey gave froyotech the opportunity to push forward onto Ascent’s second point. froyotech pushed into Ascent, nearly taking down all of froyotech and almost capping the point. However, a miracle respawn from Bdonski stopped b4nny from capping the final point and gave Ascent another chance to defend last. froyotech pushed in again, taking in as much time on the point as possible, with the round eventually going to froyotech, bringing the score 1-0.

froyotech took the middle point again cleanly in the second round. Nursey, on the other hand, decided to stick around mid with froyotech, ultimately kill binding after nearly twenty seconds of being alive. With few heals and severe uber disadvantage, Ascent had little to fend off froyotech’s uber aggression. froyotech took the second and last point in a similarly simple fashion, bringing the score up 2-0.

froyotech’s aggression continued into the third round, taking the mid point and the second point subsequently. Ascent were able to hold off froyotech’s push onto last, but a backcap from b4nny gave froyotech yet another point, bumping the score to 3-0.

Ascent continued to struggle going into the fourth round, losing the mid once again to froyotech. froyotech contested second, but were held off by Ascent. Eventually froyotech were able to push through, advancing the scoreline to 4-0.

froyotech’s initial mid win seemed to indicate yet another round that would end in a roll, but Ascent were able to fight back, winning back the mid point and keeping their LAN dreams alive. Ascent pushed forward, rolling through mid and second, and finally pushing onto last. Ascent were initially disoriented by the sentry on the left side, but were able to get onto point in a 3v3 situation. The 3v3 degraded slowly into a 1v1 with both shade and Nursey, but Nursey was able was able to saw shade with the health advantage, winning Ascent their first round, contesting the map and bumping the score to 4-1, still in favor of froyotech.

Ascent finally found a glimmer of hope, working off of the round win they successfully won the mid fight, pushing forward through mid and onto froyotech’s second point. After a two man sacrifice play from Ascent, froyotech turned the favor. With neither sacrifice play working out, Ascent pushed in with two player advantage and kited the b4nny pyro, capturing the last point with marmaloo’s Pain Train and giving Ascent yet another point, reducing the point deficit to two with a 3-2 scoreline, still in favor of froyotech.

Ascent continued to roll through froyotech, winning the mid fight once again. An uber exchange at froyotech’s second fell in favor of Ascent, negating bombs and attempts to kill Nursey. Ascent rolled through onto froyotech’s last and brought the score up even more with a 4-3 scoreline, still in the favor of froyotech, but possibly not for long.

With nine minutes remaining, Ascent needed to keep going forward if they wanted to make the comeback a reality. Their next mid however, did not work out, with the loss of nearly all their players, including the late death of Nursey. Ascent needed to stay alive against the uber offense from froyotech if they wanted to stay on Snakewater and keep the comeback dreams alive. Without the health or the uber, Ascent crumbled under habib and froyotech took the second map 5-3. Ascent were close, but it just wasn’t enough. froyotech were now up 2-0 in the best-of-five grand finals. One map away from winning yet another world championship.

Process

Ascent needed to contest Process if they wanted to contest the title of World Champions at Rewind II, but a full wipe from froyotech didn’t bode well for Ascent, as froyotech quickly took Ascent’s second and last points, giving froyotech the immediate advantage with a 1-0 scoreline off the bat.

froyotech continued their aggression in the second round, rolling through the middle and second points. Their aggression continued for the third, fourth, and fifth rounds, with froyotech rounding out the score 5-0.

With a 3-0 series, froyotech win Esports Arena’s Rewind II and with them, they take home $7797.12 and the title of World Champions. Once again. For a fourth time.

Ascent take home the consolation prize of $4331.73 and the title of the second best team in the world.