3 challengers pushed to de-throne Negative Synergy today in the ANZ Summer Championships yet they held on strong to have a flawless run to the retain the title.
Negative Synergy were first challenged by Fusion and comfortably took a 2-0 victory with Robodobah pulling out some great Rexxar play in game 2. At the same time Tutsis were able to cruise to a 2-0 win over Gust in 5 (formerly Linda’s Little Angels) leading them into a head-to-head matchup with NS in the winners bracket final.
Tutsis game out of the gate firing with a strong early-game lead thanks to some top-tier Muradin play but were unable to hold off NS who pushed to a 2 level lead by 13 showing off some great Falstad gusts. The game was not over yet with Tutsis keeping it close thanks to some great Poison Nova’s by Xul helping to win a great trade 3-1 after catching Johanna off guard. NS proved too good once again, able to comfortably withhold a strong Tutsis offensive to take the win. Game 2 took us to Dragon Shire where Tutsis struggled to break the hold NS had over the shrines and Sashin managed to steal the DK during a Team-fight, dropping Tutsis’ core to 30% in the 15th minute, leading to a Team wipe for NS who were able to recover and take the win 2 minutes later and seal the set 2-0.
Round 1 of the loser’s bracket set Gust in 5 against Fusion in a BO3 to decide who will move on to face Tutsis in the losers bracket final. Gust in 5 managed to clutch the win in game 3 after the first 3-game set of the series.
Tutsis come into the LB final set hot favourites against Gust in 5 yet Gust managed to grasp a strong lead in game 1 grabbing their ultimates 2 levels earlier than their opponents whilst Arcaner’s Illidan proved to be too much for Tutsis, whose Lili pick didn’t pay off aiding Gust in 5 to seal a comfortable win in game 1. Next round set us up for a bout on Dragon Shire, where Tutsis came out swinging from the red corner to grab the first 3 dragon knights whilst gaining a strong level lead to take game 2. Game 3 had us on Battlefield of Eternity where the draft appeared heavily in the favour of Tutsis with a strong boss fighting composition in Sonya/Tassadar, but also excellent control in Diablo/Tyrande shining through to give them the series as they head in to face Negative Synergy once again in the final.
Game 1 of the Grand Final was looking set to be a big one from the draft, with Tutsis being able to pick the first Kael’thas of the day after Zagara and Falstad bans on Blackheart’s Bay. The Abathur/Illidan combo of Negative Synergy appeared to be too much for Tutsis with NS able to hold a strong lead and were able to grab an uncontested 15th minute boss which blew up Tutsis’ core during a team fight. For Cursed Hollow we saw Tutsis lock in KT again alongside Dehaka with Tyrande solo-support against the staple heroes of NS in Thrall, Li-ming and Uther. Tutsis were able to start well with some solid Dehaka play and grab level 10 first alongside the first 3 curses. Unfortunately it was not enough and an impressive team wipe by Negative Synergy sealed the win in a hard fought battle, handing them the crown of ANZ champions.
Congratulations to Negative Synergy on their second consecutive Regional title and best of luck in Sweden. If you would like to review the games from the ANZ regional they can be found at the BlizzHeroes Twitch page.
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