FD2L Open Category Recap

FD2L Open Category Recap

A familiar sight it was, the Alienware Arena packed to the door for the opening hours of the Flash Dota 2 League, Season 2, 2013. Albeit a slightly smaller turn out than last season’s, the Open Category got under way to a rousing attendance of 33 teams which included the newly established Flash.DotA team. True to the rumors surrounding their first appearance, the recently unveiled quintet, captained by Zhi Ren “Bouncy” Lin, were made to play through the Open rounds of day one and unsurprisingly they never disappointed.

Making their way up Group A, Flash.DotA counted themselves one of the two lucky teams that made it to the round of 16 without having to play an opponent—the other team being team Closegame. Both though quickly ascended into the round of 8 after dispatching Mirage and Front Road Men respectively.

Elsewhere, Group B played host to team Asterisks* who were unceremoniously handed their tickets out of the round of 32 after defeat to Siao Ginas. iSg.Vindicate joined Flash.DotA and Closegame as the other team to walkover into the round of 16 following a lack of opposition. Away in a booth by the spectator’s corner, the lively commentator LysanderXonora, the winner of Season 1’s casting competition, returned to his casting throne for the day’s round of bouts.

Shoutcaster LysanderXonora

Contestants played out a best of 1 series all the way into the latter stages where finalists were made to duke it out over a best of 2 round in a robin format. By 3 pm the final four were cast and they were, (in no particular order) Sun, We are On The Way (WOTW), Flash.DotA and DM2, also known as Neolic.SG. WOTW, who dumped out surprise package, MyonMyon, in the round of 8 following the latter’s rout of Shark and DKC en route to that stage, found their play lacking some serious game in the final stages.

After falling twice to DM2 in the first set, WOTW found defeat to be a recurring theme—crashing and burning against Flast.DotA and Sun in all remaining games. It was all fair game for the rest though, with sets going all square in tightly contested match ups featuring the trio; the Sun vs. Flash.DotA games in particular were entertainingly close with kill counters figures going neck to neck for almost the whole game.   

At 6 pm, with Flash.DotA sitting pretty at the top alongside DM2 who had a game in hand, it was left to the guys from Neolic.SG to write their own history. Playing Sun for the second time they knew that victory would put them a win more than the home boy’s tally of four wins in six games, thus moving them up the league board. And with true to form an upset was indeed on the cards for team Flash after DM2 put another over a ragged Sun to make it five wins in six games; earning themselves the honor of walking out of the competition as winners of the Open Category, SGD$300 richer and with Steam and Steelseries goodies in hand.

DM2 weren’t the only winners yesterday though. Picking up swag of their own during the intermissions between live games were lucky spectators and competitors at the onsite giveaways. Expect more such giveaways today though as Flash ramps up the festivities for the final day of the FD2L Season 2.

All eyes will be on the teams participating in the Professional Category at the Alienware Arena, Chinatown, Singapore today. If you’re planning to head on down or perhaps catch the livestream, head on over to the official FD2L Season 2 site at http://www.flash-esports.com/dotaleagueseason2/registration for more on brackets, game times and location.