It is just the first match for Group C during last year’s CrossFire Stars Grand Finals, but two top-tier teams quickly came to face each other: Philippines’ very own Pacific.Macta faced off against chinese side HG.LongZhu in the early stages.

In an outing that could have been reserved for a semifinals series, HG.LongZhu and Pacific.Macta went up against each other on Ankara, a map that heavily favored the Chinese squad as they are generally known for being strong on that map, along with Sub Base.

Order of Battle

While the Chinese side has two attackers, two backup players and one sniper on their lineup, the Philippine squad has two attackers, one lurker, one sniper and one support on their side.

This means that LongZhu favors trading frags with the opponents rather than trying to play for picks, as two dedicated supports generally mean that each site.

Meanwhile, Pacific.Macta’s lineup allows them to look actively for picks and to while at the same time allowing them to play fluidly on the defense...as long as they do not get out-aimed by their opponents.

The matchup already favored the Chinese heavily. Will Macta be able to play a close map or make an upset? Or will HG.LongZhu take the game and stomp the Filipino side to submission?

Lockdown: Mid Control versus Site Holds

With LongZhu starting on the heavily favored Global Risk side, Pacific.Macta knew that they have to take as many rounds as possible in order to prevent the Chinese side from feeling comfortable in the latter half of the map.
The Filipinos decided to do a mid-control default setup on the Black List side of the map, while the Chinese allowed them to get control of mid and focus instead on creating fields of fire on two sites. This meant that the Chinese could just sit back there and throw smokes in order to delay pushes, while Pacific.Macta needs to find a pick early on in order to be able to get a good advantage when taking sites.

Somewhat, the Filipino squad had the answers to HG.LongZhu’s setups on the Global Risk side of the map as they proceeded to get a respectable 5-4 score at the end of the first half after swarming the site with quick one-two attacks.

However, the Chinese dominated the second half where they just outaimed and out-strated their Filipino opponents on the attacking side of the map, getting six rounds on the board as opposed to Macta’s two.

Suddenly, the game was over as Macta dropped to the elimination bracket on the back of a Chinese map pick, while the Chinese went on their journey to the top of the CrossFire food chain.