This season of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive‘s Mountain Dew League has had a bit of a late start. However, following the ESL’s reformatting and some qualifier scheduling conflicts, teams are finally starting to get their matches in. Last night brought Mythic and Monstar’s first match of the season, with the two squads meeting on Inferno. After a total of 53 rounds, Mythic defeated Shawn ‘Witmer’ Taylor and crew 28-25 in quadruple overtime.
Heading into the match, Mythic was highly unfavored to win, and for good reason. The last time they met in September 2019, Monstars demolished Mythic 16-3 on Mirage. Besides that, Monstars’ roster is stacked with players known for their competitive drive and passion for grinding. On the other hand, Mythic hasn’t been scrimming lately, and their gang rarely plays high-level ESEA pugs.
Both teams undertook small roster changes this season. Monstars swapped out Alex ‘aproto’ Protopapas and Nick ‘alter’ Jackson for sixteen-year-old Ethan ‘ReckMONSTER’ Serrano and Michael ‘Swisher’ Schmid. Likewise, Adam ‘Polen’ Polen returned to Mythic’s roster alongside Donovan ‘zNf’ Froid, who is standing in for David ‘DAVEY’ Stafford.
Quadruple OT and a dead server
Mythic started the first half on the CT side with a 5-0 lead. However, Monstars fought back and swiftly secured five rounds in a row. Mythic struggled to regain their momentum and ended the first half with a 1 round deficit 7-8. The second half was extremely close, with the teams trading rounds back and forth. Corbin “C0M” Lee and Polen each had nerve-wracking clutches that were crucial to tying the game.
After three OT’s, Mythic was on CT side leading 24-23. In the middle of an intense 2v2 with zNf walking up lane side and C0m ready to battle in the pit, every CSGO player’s worst nightmare happened. Suddenly, in the top right of their screen, a message appeared: “WARNING: CONNECTION PROBLEM.” The server began resetting due to a “scheduled server restart.”
All players were kicked from the server, and admins enforced a round restart.
well @ESEA TY FOR FUCKING RESTARTING OUR MDL MATCH IN OUR 4TH OT MID ROUND ON THE POTENTIAL LAST ROUND OF THE MATCH. THIS IS THE SHIT THAT GOES TO "PRO".
— fl0m (@fl0mtv) February 11, 2020
What could have been the final round for Mythic ended up going to the Monstars, who managed to tie 24-24 after the server restart. Mythic, however, was ready to take the game and finished strong. They won three and lost one more round to Monstars, ending the game at 28-25.
Heading in the right direction
Mythic’s roster with zNf has shown strong performances recently. They’ve defeated eUnited, secured a position in ESL’s One Rio 2020 Closed Qualifier, and are an invited competitor to FLASHPOINT’s North America Closed Qualifier. Their next match is tonight, February 11, versus eUnited at 5:00 p.m. PT/ 8:00 p.m. ET.
