MAD Lions Are the Champions of The Inaugural Flashpoint Season
MAD Lions are your inaugural Flashpoint Champions, having beaten MIBR 2-1 after a gruelling, insane final map that had four ninja defuses and a 12-3 comeback. It was a huge win for the inexperienced squad, and the final prize money of $500,000 could be literally life-changing for them. For MIBR, not just the loss, but the manner of it, will be so, so disappointing for them and their fans.
Map 1 - Mirage
It kicked off on Mirage, with MAD Lions splitting A into a three-man stack and somehow slicing through the defence regardless, and immediate conversions got them to three. Bubzkji won a miracle fight to seal a fourth, until a ping issue killed all momentum.
After a 45 minute break, MiBR came in with all guns blazing, and their Deagles ripped through MAD Lions, and the swing in economy and momentum kicked in. kNgV- got the AWP and immediately was able to hold B, and FalleN’s AWP helped then retake A for 4-4.
MAD Lions got one back immediately, and a Bubzkji 1v2 on the B site got them a two-round cushion, but the half continued to swing, ending 8-7 in MIBR’s favour. kNgV- took middle with his AWP, knocking down three, and FalleN took one and a half with his sniper before fer got two.
MAD took the pistol, and a last second defuse got them the lead. MiBR took an early lead in the round and converted, but a crucial miss from FalleN allowed ML to retake B. MIBR hit back with an A rush and converted for a 13-11 lead.
fer ran face-first into a meat grinder, and his team followed him into their demise on A, but the adjustment came in for the Brazilians. One flash blinded two and fer brought both down, and a B hit took MIBR to match-point. FalleN hopped out of Palace to AWP a player in Dark, as MIBR won the map in style.
Map 2 - Inferno
MAD Lions flew into an early lead on Inferno, cleaning up the anti-eco retake after a simple pistol round. sjuush took three in the first gun round, and it wasn’t ‘til round five that MiBR got on the scoreboard, with TACO closing out a 1v2.
AcilioN and acoR crossfired for three next round, before kNgV- and fer get rush B and open the site up. MIBR won four fights top mid to crush the A stack, but MAD Lions struck back with the USPs on B.
FalleN was 0-9 at 7-3 to ML, and relied on TACO to get three for MIBR’s fourth round. TACO won the next round as well, killing the rotate with some clean positioning and flipping the 2v2 to their favour. At 7-7, acoR took down two at B, but the two A players were powerless to resist a rampaging MIBR attack.
A crazy pistol round started at B and ended at B, but via the A site, as MAD Lions took their fourth pistol in a row, but were broken back by some Deagle heroics from meyern. fer held the line with four on the anti-eco, but Bubzkji took over from there.
He opened up B on his own three times in the next four rounds, and despite MIBR retaking once, he spotted the weakness. MIBR lost one on A with three players on short, somehow, and continued to lose B, most egregiously in a 3v2 situation, losing both without a kill on B.
MIBR stacked A with the game on the line, and somehow still all died with barely a kill, and though they looked to get one back after Bubzkji got found out, they lost the next round with a man advantage to lose 16-12.
Map 3 - Train
MIBR finally got a pistol round on Train, with kNgV- getting two with the CZ, and a clean conversion put them in control. fer took three down on the first fun round, and kNgV- once again got the opening with an AWP pick in Ivy, with FalleN quickscoping one at close range.
fer went 11-1 in the first six rounds, and he got two more with FalleN tripling up on the A site for 7-0. MAD got one back thanks to sjuush, but all their momentum was killed when kNgV- won a round defusing in front of AcilioN who had a grenade out.
TACO got three on the B site, but when he died on B, MAD Lions still couldn’t hold the site. A nonsensical FalleN noscope saw them back into the round, and though MAD got the final two rounds, their T side looked awful, and MIBR went into the half 12-3 up.
MAD got the pistol round again, and meyern killed a teammate in the eco round for five. MIBR lost a 4v1 after planting the bomb for none of their remaining players and getting ninja’d, as their T side started as awfully as MAD Lions’.
kNgV- and fer opened up A and MIBR got 13, but 13 is where they stayed. sjuush won a 1v2 by defusing under FalleN’s nose as he refused to commit to the peek, and FalleN then died to a Molotov in a post plant after making it 4v3 with a deadly collateral.
But MIBR collapsed, entirely, getting swept time after time. When MAD made the 3v3 work for 14-13, it was over. They came out on top in a smoke dance, and in the closing 2v2, MIBR planted open and lost both players, leaving MAD Lions as your FLASHPOINT champions.
MAD Lions winning moment
Image courtesy of Flashpoint