One match away from elimination and from finishing dead last in the largest CrossFire tournament of the year: That’s how close Pacific.Macta came when they faced Colombia’s Groovy Gaming.

It was not an easy loss against China’s HG.LongZhu on Ankara and Macta needed to win their matchup in order to continue into the tournament.

As a result of the map veto phase, Macta and Groovy were to play on Mexico, a map known for its notoriously small size and quick rotations between sites A and B.

Will Macta continue their journey? Or will Groovy make history by eliminating a Filipino team at the start of the tournament?

One Simple Strategy: All-Out Aggression

This was the matchup where Macta exploded as an unit: Whether it is the unreal picks of designated sniper Christian “REVENGE” Amores on the sniper rifle, the steady kills of team captain Dennis “BAYO” Ramos or the otherworldly lurks of Aldrin “ALDRIN” Borabon on the entry, Pacific.Macta made sure that their Colombian opponents never had the time to catch a breath as they went on a very aggressive strategy, either rushing through the site of their choice or doing well-time executes on a certain site supported by their flashes and smokes.

As a result, the Colombians were only able to get three rounds on the board as the defending side and when the game went into the second half, Macta just locked down the sites, took the last four rounds and made it 10-3 in one of the fastest games in CrossFire Stars history: By 18 minutes (and as a result of losing two maps), Colombia bowed out of the largest CrossFire tournament for the year 2015.

What Could They Have Done?

Since it was very early in the tournament, there was no way the Colombians would have known about Pacific.Macta’s latest offensive setups and/or defensive strategies; however, it was already a well-established fact among the global CrossFire community that Macta’s players like to take aim duels and trade their players blow-for-blow if that meant that they could win the round.

The Colombians could have either established stronger setups or played aggressively every once in a while in order to prevent the fast assaults on the sites. On the Black List side of the map, they should have just tried to smoke off and execute, especially into the A site, as Macta is known for occassionally pushing into either mid or the sewers, especially if it is known that their enemies are nowhere to be found.

All in all, Macta played a better and smarter game than their Latin American counterparts, allowing them to survive and continue their journey in the Crossfire Stars 2015 tournament.