3rd Place Finish at Amazon Mobile Masters
Last weekend Nova's Critical Ops team went to Seattle, Washington to compete in the first ever global tournament for Critical Ops. Nova COps gave a strong showing, finishing in 3rd place and breaking the individual record for kills in a game at a LAN. The top teams from each region and 2 other top teams were invited to compete in this event, with $40,000 at stake. Nova Esports qualified as the top team in the European region. Let's recap how our performance.
Group Stage
For Group Stage, the pools were drawn randomly and we were place in Pool A with CSPG and Vision Gaming. Group play took place on Saturday the 23rd, and we started off first, vs Vision Gaming. Nova COps quickly rushed out to a big lead, winning the first 8 rounds in the match. The streak ended there, but it was over almost as quickly as it started, with a 13-3 victory. You can watch our matches vs Vision Gaming here. Next up, we faced CSPG. This match had a similar start, with Nova COps winning the first 6 rounds! While the final score was a little closer at 13-6, this match wasn't very close either. You can watch our matches vs CSPG here. This left us a perfect 2-0 in Group play and set us up as the #1 seed from our Group going into the Bracket Stage.
Bracket Stage
Bracket play consisted on the top 2 teams from each pool facing off, leaving Nova COps vs Hammer Esports, and Gankstars vs CSPG. Again, we were up first. Hammers Esports proved to be a very tough opponent for Nova COps, as a crazy back and forth battle took place, with Nova's Kxm breaking the record for kills in a match at a LAN, with 42 kills. After taking a lead late to make it 11 - 10, we lost the next 3 rounds to lose the first best of three 11-13. Nova COps ended up losing the next set in the best of 3 as well, this time 8 - 13. You can watch all of our matches vs Hammers Esports here.
After that, Gankstars beat CSPG to set up a finals match between Hammers Esports and Gankstars, where Gankstars won the best of three 2-0. While the 3rd place match between Nova Esports and CSPG didn't take place, they had already played vs each other in Group play the day prior, with Nova handily winning 13-6, giving Nova COps the 3rd place tie breaker. Both 3rd and 4th place walked away with $5,000 at the Amazon Mobile Masters. Congrats to Nova COps for their strong performance at Critical Op's first Global tournament! #NovaStrong
