Image via Ubisoft/@kirill_vision
Oxygen took down DWG KIA, the lovable, exciting Koreans, in a 2-1 victory punctuated by a dominant attacking half on Clubhouse.
DWG KIA were undefeated during the group stage of the event, it took a final day matchup with NAVI for a team in their group to even peel a map off them. Unfortunately, their fortunes were reversed in the playoffs – they only won one map as opposed to losing it.
Yesterday’s loss to Soniqs dropped the fan-favorite roster to the lower bracket. They would have to fight for their lives against some of the best in the world, with no wiggle room for mistakes. Before the playoffs began, DWG KIA were pegged as a team that could, theoretically, lift the hammer.
DWG started off with a bang on Villa with an 8-6 victory, followed by a 5-7 loss to Oxygen on Coastline, despite Park “Woogiman” Jin-wook’s best efforts. “They’re a really good team at adapting, and their unpredictability is very strong,” Gabriel “LaXInG” Mirelez said. He went on to state that their first matchup had given them a great idea of what DWG do: they like to swing, they like the late-round, they like to hit the flanks on occasion. Oxygen doubled down on the process that led up to their execution, and it paid off in spades.
The scene was set for an explosive third map filled with drama and intrigue. Oxygen obliterated all APAC hopes and dreams with a blistering 5-1 attacking half, with an exclamation point set by a Davide “FoxA” Bucci 4k in round six.
“We actually scrimm[age]d them [on Clubhouse] the other day, not knowing we’d be playing against them, LaXInG said. “In the scrim[mage], we actually went up 8-4 on them, so we were very confident going in.”
Essentially, the two teams had a very good sense of how each other would play on the map, the best knowledge you could have outside of actually playing each other in the server. The scrimmage knowledge played a key role, LaXInG said. He also credits their coordination.
Statistically, Léo “Kyno” Figueiredo played a key role. He had a server-leading 36 kills over the duration of the three maps, and led the field in SiegeGG Rating with a 1.27. The youngster is playing at his second Six Invitational ever, and has helped secure another day of life for this roster.
Oxygen aren’t out of the weeds in the lower bracket yet. They play a red-hot MiBR roster tomorrow to see who will stay alive heading into the day break on Feb. 17. MiBR sent two teams home today as well: Spacestation Gaming and NiP.