Pacific.Macta and INTZ may be fighting for a third place spot, but this series showed why skill in making map picks and bans are an important arsenal for captains who want to reach the top echelons of professional CrossFire.
The Filipinos picked up Sub Base, a medium-sized map which is notorious for its quick rotations and relatively few corners, while the Brazilians picked up Mexico, a small map known for heavily favouring the Global Risk side due to its easily defensible positions. Black Widow, a classic map due to its familiar layout, was chosen as the deciding map for the series.

It just happened that Sub Base was one of Macta’s “home maps” along with Black Widow, which meant that at least on paper, the Philippine squad has the tools to win the series.
During the map veto portion, Macta banned Port due to the fact that it was their weakest map: The only times they lost a series were due to the fact that the map was able to get through the ban-pick phase. Meanwhile, INTZ was not comfortable playing on Ankara, so they were more than happy to ban that.

Here’s how the Filipinos played Sub Base in the series:

The Ultimate Lockdown

Although Macta was notorious for winning in a lopsided manner locally on this map, no one expected them to just dismantle the opposition, particularly a squad which has the capability to beat them. All of INTZ’s players can play any role proficiently, which means that the Brazilians can play a fluid offensive setup, regardless of the map.
However, Pacific.Macta did two things that allowed them to win the map outright: First, they made sure that they implemented a buddy system on the Global Risk side. No one goes alone; whether it is for picking off lurkers, holding sites or flanking the map, the Filipino squad goes by pairs to ensure a trade in case the initial entry attacker does not win the aim duel.

Second, they relied on the pickoff skills of Christian “REVENGE” Amores on the sniper rifle in order to create a man advantage, forcing the opponents to go into sites with less men and utility, thus decreasing their chances to take that portion of the map. In addition, having one man short usually means that it is harder to get map control; though Sub Base has lesser corners, it does not mean that it is not easy to create fields of fire for their setups.

The Match

INTZ started on the Black List side of the map, while Pacific.Macta gets the slightly favoured Global Risk side for Sub Base. The Brazilians go for their patented quick push towards the lower site, but Mark Kervin “Kram” Chan and Dennis “BAYO” Ramos kept on stopping them, with help of the occasional initial pickoff from REVENGE.
The Brazilian squad decided to go all-out on the fifth round and took the A site by storm. The Filipinos were sloppy on the retake and INTZ gets their first round on the board.

In the succeeding round, Macta adjusted their setups a bit, making sure that they were never rushed in that manner again. For the rest of the half, they locked down the whole map, making sure that they dominated throughout the rest of the game and allowing the team to have lots of room for anything that might happen later on.

With the first half ending up with an 8-1 scoreline in favour of the Filipino squad, INTZ knew that they have to shut down the Macta offensive on their side of the map. Their dreams were quashed when the Filipinos rushed the A site on the 10^th round, getting a perfect round, along with eight match points to close out the game.

The Brazilians seemed to find the answer to their problems as they got the next two rounds due to overextensions by the Philippine side. However, on the 13^th round, Macta slowed down and crept towards A while Aldrin Paul “Aldrin” Borabon on the lurk killed three defenders, thus closing out the map and getting much-needed momentum for Mexico.