Week 3 of the European Halo Championship Series: Pro League was all about unpredictability. Here are the current standings after Day 6 of the EU HCS Pro League.
The HCS also welcomes Team Vibe as the latest organization to join the Pro League, picking up the team formerly known as Realest Tins.
DAY 1
- U4X eSports vs. XMen
- Pulse Gaming vs. Team Infused
- Vibe vs. Dinosaurs
Following U4X’s matchup during Week 1, there was a lot of shock that they were able to beat XMen with such an easy 3-0 sweep. Since then U4X has managed to remain undefeated in the Pro League, while XMen haven’t been living up to their expected performance.
These two mammoth teams clashing for a second time proved to be another surprise. While U4X came out on top, once again, many people were expecting yet another 3-0 sweep. Both teams had a strong showing, with Chalkie managing to pull off a nice reversal, immediately followed by Respectful’s insane clutch to stay alive.
While @Xmen_Chalkie gets a cheeky reversal, @BrandonStones stays alive to keep the hill https://t.co/Eq7Lr38O2B #HCS pic.twitter.com/yN8HF9whHq
— ESL Halo (@ESLHalo) June 16, 2016
Right after the series ended, our casters had an interview with XMen’s Jimbo, who ensured that XMen will be able to deliver a lot more reliably on LAN than their current online performance, hinting that the players of U4X have a tendency to underperform when out of their comfort zones.
Given that two XMen players actually made it to the Top 8 at the 2016 Halo World Championships 2016, I wouldn’t doubt this team’s ability to potentially beat U4X on LAN, but currently Mose and Respectful are looking like the two best players in EU Halo and they seem unstoppable.
We’ll see what the future holds for this team and many others with the transfer period just around the corner. Give the interview a listen here and see exactly what Jimbo had to say about XMen’s performance.
Pulse Gaming had an extremely rough start in the Pro League after matching up against XMen and Dinosaurs in Week 1 and 2, but when it came to Week 3 they managed to knock themselves back on track. After Solar’s departure leaving a gap in the ranks, this was swiftly filled by a new arrival by the name of Fragxr. Pulse Gaming proclaimed they wouldn’t go through the entire season lacking a victory.
While Team Infused managed to secure one win, Pulse were ultimately able to win the series 3-1, finally adding a win to the record books for the Summer 2016 HCS Pro League. Team Infused were giving off a strong showing initially in this matchup, as the following play demonstrates, but ultimately their teamwork needed much improvement to beat Pulse. “Never underestimate the French,” is a message we hear time and time again, and ultimately this was Infused’s downfall, as the all-French roster took down the red army.
Three @Team_Infused players swarm @Pulse_Krystalix like a pack of wild dogs. https://t.co/Eq7Lr38O2B #HCS pic.twitter.com/5bZq7RQyKj
— ESL Halo (@ESLHalo) June 16, 2016
Dinosaurs’ shocking reverse sweep victory last week over XMen certainly reintroduced this team into the spotlight. Unfortunately, they were unable to keep the momentum moving into Week 3 as they lost 3-1 against Vibe, formerly known as Realest Tins. Septiq has been AFK from Halo for a short period of time and within just a few weeks of being back he's doing incredible things for this roster.
The matches themselves were very entertaining, especially their third game of Fathom Capture the Flag. Not only did Dinosaurs manage to clutch it up and force Overtime with 20 seconds left, but they were also able to capture the third flag of the game with just 16 seconds remaining.
We also can’t talk about this series without showing you the absolutely disgusting reversal from BUK 20, I personally felt bad for SeptiQ after this one…
An embarrassing reversal from @BUK20. Sit down, @RobSeptiQ.https://t.co/Eq7Lr38O2B #HCS pic.twitter.com/yiBBq6YavG
— ESL Halo (@ESLHalo) June 16, 2016
Following their overall series loss, BUK 20 of Dinosaurs jumped into an interview with our very own Simms, Gaskin, and Wonderboy, and in turn, began offering his thoughts on why the series ended up playing out like it did and what they’re going to do to improve over the last few weeks of the HCS Pro League Summer Season. Check out the interview with BUK 20 here.
DAY 2
Moving on over to Day 2, we had the following matches via player streams and community caster streams:
- Team Infused vs. Dinosaurs
- U4X eSports vs. Pulse Gaming
- XMen vs. Vibe
Starting off with the Infused vs. Dinosaurs matchup, both teams were coming in fresh off of a loss aiming to prove that they were still top-tier teams. Many expected a close matchup, especially after these two teams faced off prior to the HCS Pro League, where Infused just barely came out on top.
However, after the dust settled, Infused managed to pull out the victory with a 3-0 sweep. With these two teams set to meet again on Week 5, Day 2, it should be interesting seeing if Dinosaurs will be able to find out what they were doing so well when they beat XMen.
Up until Week 3, Day 2, U4X eSports were undefeated in two ways - series and gametypes. They hadn’t lost a single series, or dropped a single gametype, allowing them to have a 100% map win ratio. Pulse Gaming were the team to give U4X eSports their first map loss on Fathom Capture the Flag.
That been said, U4X eSports managed to pull back with ease, winning the series 3-1, continuing to be the top EU team, although also showing some fractures in their performance. If Pulse could take one map, will other teams like Infused, Dinosaurs, and XMen be able to take even more?
The final match of Week 3, Day 2 was between XMen and Vibe. Vibe showed up strong during Game 1, taking the first map off of XMen with a 70-100 victory on Empire Strongholds. XMen quickly learned their lesson, winning the next three games, the last two with ease. Vibe still needs a lot of work to be able to take on the likes of XMen, Dinosaurs, and U4X eSports and as the weeks tick on, it’ll be interesting to see if they manage to improve.
UPCOMING MATCHES
Week 4 of the Halo Championship Series: Pro League Summer 2016 kicks off on Thursday, June 23 over on the Halo Twitch channel with the following matchups:
- Dinosaurs vs U4X eSports
- Team Infused vs Vibe
- XMen vs Pulse Gaming
Day 2 will be broadcast through player and community caster streams. Be sure to follow us on Twitter to find out where to watch.
- Pulse Gaming vs Dinosaurs
- Team Infused vs XMen
- Vibe vs U4X eSports
As always, be sure to follow us on Twitter and like our Facebook page. We’ve also been uploading the video on demand of all the Pro League matches for both European and North American Halo onto our YouTube channel.
