The official HCS tournaments returned on May 29th for all regions, and the ANZ Grand Finals have just been decided. Team Final Form defeated the Dire Wolves in a Game 5 tiebreaker out of 7.
Here’s the official tweet from ESL Halo, announcing the winners:
For the most part, both Final Form and Dire Wolves were evenly matched throughout the tournament, with nearly every mode providing a close match. It was a massive competition, lasting 7 hours.
The Dire Wolves were down 2-1 and managed to push a Game 5 after winning Capture the Flag, but that’s when the biggest controversy of the tourney began.
Final Match Reset and breakdown
Yet another disconnect or crash hit team Dire Wolves, resulting in a full reset for the final Slayer match that would determine the Grand Finals. The teams would restart from 0, keeping the kill gap from the disrupted match, so Final Form only needed to reach 45 kills.
Waiting for the tournament to pick back up, the hosts @KaneCaster and @Inmaniac were rightfully flustered about the interruption at such a high level of gameplay. They did their best to remain positive, mentioning the upcoming LAN tournament in hopes that DCs would be less of an issue there.
The final match was already halfway complete, and the scores were fairly close. However, after the reset, winners Final Form cranked up the heat and quickly pulled away, ultimately dominating Dire Wolves completely.
It’s unfortunate that Dire Wolves were also fighting their New Zealand time zone, as the tournament dragged on well into the night (and morning) for them.
But that doesn’t take away from the impressive skill on Final Form’s part. They increased their tower control and sniping after the reset, and the Dire Wolves took more risks by playing more aggressively.
At their level, even the slightest changes from these teams can make or break a tournament. It was an incredible competition overall, with a number of twists and turns, so be sure to keep an eye on more HCS tournaments as they unfold through June 2022.
You can read more about Halo and eSports results in our news section!
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