As Week 4 of the European Halo Championship Series: Pro League kicked off, there were a lot of potentially interesting matchups. Dinosaurs and U4X eSports faced off and Team Infused battled X Men in what was one of the most intense European HCS Pro League weeks yet.
Week 4 kicked off with a recap of Week 3, including all of the team changes that went down during the transfer period. Four of the six teams in the Pro League shook up their rosters. Here’s a list of the roster swaps:
Vibe
- Ramirez out
- Snakey in
XMen
- TuFoxy out
- Ramirez in
Pulse Gaming
- Krystalix out
- Punisher in
U4X eSports
- Snakey out
- TuFoxy in
While eyes were drawn to both Dinosaurs and Team Infused during the transfer period, ultimately no team changes were made on either squad.
DAY 1
The first series of Day 1 between Dinosaurs and U4X eSports was intense, with Game 1 of Capture the Flag on Fathom ending 3-2 in U4X’s favor. Dinosaurs showed a lot of heart during this matchup and certainly found whatever made them do so well against XMen a couple of weeks ago. As the series went on, it was back and forth as each team took a game from each other until we landed at Game 5 of Truth Slayer. Here are the stats from that match, courtesy of Halo5Arena.com:
In the end, U4X eSports came out on top, winning the series 3-2 against Dinosaurs. While U4X eSports came away defeated, this certainly proves that they are beatable on multiple gametypes and maybe in the future, an entire series. Was U4X eSports’ team change the right thing to do? Will this squad be beaten before online play ends or will we need to wait until the finals on LAN to see?
Vibe started off strong this week with newly picked up player Snakey, formerly of U4X eSports, taking Game 1 from Team Infused. The last time these two teams faced during Week 1 Team Infused swiftly 3-0’d Vibe, but it was a different story this time around.
This week was Team Infused’s time to shine, coming out on top and defeating Vibe 3-2 after taking it to Game 5 during their second matchup in the Pro League. WarLord managed to shine, getting a triple kill during Game 4.
A cheeky Triple Kill from @Infused_warlord! https://t.co/Eq7Lr38O2B #HCS pic.twitter.com/3ncllHx5YL
— ESL Halo (@ESLHalo) June 23, 2016
Vibe’s Lunny also made some smart plays. As he knew he was going to die from Batchford pushing him, he did the damage he could and quickly stuck Batchford before his body was sent flying across the map:
As @VibeLunny falls, he takes @Infused_Batch with him.https://t.co/Eq7Lr38O2B #HCS pic.twitter.com/OOo7UUal6U
— ESL Halo (@ESLHalo) June 23, 2016
Speaking of Batchford, we couldn’t recap this series without mentioning his insane play against the Overshield player during Game 1 of Capture the Flag on Stasis.
Oh my! @Infused_Batch makes quick work of that Overshield player. https://t.co/Eq7Lr38O2B #HCS pic.twitter.com/lJEoBeqdnJ
— ESL Halo (@ESLHalo) June 23, 2016
Our final matchup for the day offered us a glimpse of Pulse Gaming in a truly dominant form. While their start in the Pro League wasn’t exactly ideal, as we mention week in, week out, they’ve certainly stepped up and are in a much better position than they were during Week 1. While XMen ended up winning 3-1, each match was close.
- Game 1: 2 - 1
- Game 2: 50 - 46
- Game 3: 96 - 100
- Game 4: 3 - 2
The absolute highlight of this series was Pulse Gaming’s insane comeback during Game 3 of Strongholds on Plaza. At one point during the match, Pulse Gaming had 46 points while XMen had 81. Pulse Gaming managed to fight their way back into the match, winning with 100 points.
The ending from Game 3 @PulseFrench vs XMen. Holy moly.https://t.co/Eq7Lr38O2B #HCS pic.twitter.com/GbmmDxGaes
— ESL Halo (@ESLHalo) June 23, 2016
And of course, we have to show you a triple kill from Ramirez who sadly just fell short of stopping the flag reset, but an impressive feat nonetheless.
A triple kill from @viberamirez, just failing to stop the reset. https://t.co/Eq7Lr38O2B #HCS pic.twitter.com/2iczdUXqmf
— ESL Halo (@ESLHalo) June 23, 2016
After the series was over and XMen came out on top, Pulse Gaming entered the European HCS Pro League Relegation.
DAY 2
The second day took place entirely on player and community cast streams. Before we go any further, I need to thank Mark “Onset” Hatcher (and his guests) for his constant casting of the Pro League matches over the first four weeks. In the event that a player wasn’t streaming their games, Onset has caught most of them.
Hot off their losses during Day 1, both Pulse Gaming and Dinosaurs had everything to prove, especially after Pulse’s recent introduction to Relegation. Pulse held nothing back, quicking defeating Dinosaurs 3-0 in Capture the Flag on Fathom, beating them 50 - 39 in Slayer on Truth, and shutting them out 100 - 59 in Strongholds on Empire.
The team change that Pulse Gaming made during the transfer period was clearly the right answer and while they had a rough start in the Pro League, I ultimately look forward to see how they perform in the future, including the Fall 2016 season.
Before we get carried away with the result of Team Infused vs. XMen, it is absolutely worth mentioning that XMen was not playing with their original roster of Jimbo, Snipedrone, Ramirez and Chalkie. Snipedrone was absent for this series and team coach Xavi stepped up to the challenge!
Being a man down, Team Infused obviously had the upper hand and managed to win three games without much issue, giving XMen their fourth loss in the Pro League. Hopefully in the future, we can see these two teams compete against each other again, with both rosters intact as it could have been a close match.
U4X eSports continued their dominance, as they have for the past four weeks and this was no different when they were pitted against Vibe on Day 2. While Dinosaurs certainly gave them a run for their money the day before, Vibe sadly weren’t able to keep up.
As you’ve come to expect, U4X won their games with relative ease and defeated Vibe 3-0 to bring an end to Week 4 of the European Halo Championship Series: Pro League.
COMING UP
Tune in next week for these exciting Week 5 matches!
Week 5, Day 1 - June 30 on the Halo Twitch channel
- Pulse Gaming vs. Vibe
- XMen vs. Dinosaurs
- Team Infused vs. U4X eSports
Week 5, Day 2 - July 1 on player and community caster streams
- Vibe vs. XMen
- Pulse Gaming vs. U4X eSports
- Dinosaurs vs. Team Infused
As always, be sure to follow us on Twitter and like our Facebook page. We’ve also been uploading the VODs of all the Pro League matches for both the European and North American HCS Pro League onto our YouTube channel.