Having edged them out in the Winners Bracket Finals, Triggers Down met Str8 Rippin in the Championship Match with the advantage of a series standing at 3-2 in their favor. The intensity of the determination shown by both teams to build on their accomplishments, being the only victors of Pro Circuit events in the 2009 season thus far, was so high that it resulted in what is quite possibly the most impressive showing of competitive play this year. Str8 Rippin, looking to storm out of the Losers Bracket and pull off a comeback victory, sought to match Triggers Down with a second title for the season. Triggers Down, looking to win an unprecedented second Halo 3 title in a row, sought retribution over their 6-1 defeat by Str8 earlier in the season at MLG Columbus.
What followed was one of the closest, most highly competitive Finals in Halo 3’s history. This article, chronicling both teams as they battled it out to the best of 11, shows each game from the perspective of one of the winning team’s strongest performers, highlighting defining moments critical to the outcome of the game. To witness a series in which leads exceeding three kills in Team Slayer are rare and two teams score an equal number of flag captures, you’ll have to watch none other than the 2009 MLG Anaheim Championship Match.
Triggers Down vs. Str8 Rippin - Anaheim Finals
Game 6 - CTF Narrows – Elamite’s POV
29:23
Running flag, Legit is able to make it to Mauler before Hysteria takes him out with a clutch snipe from TD’s Right Attic. Weakening a nearby Tsquared shortly thereafter, Hysteria moves to his own Man Cannon to take out Tsquared -- mid-air -- who threatens to move TD’s flag further towards Str8’s base. In this instance, Hysteria almost single-handedly prevents Str8 from getting what otherwise might have been an easy cap to start the game.
22:34
Coming off of respawn, Elamite is able to see Legit pull flag across map. Knowing his teammates’ positions, Elamite pushes top-mid to provide cover where it is needed most, filling in Str8’s control of the map and allowing Snipedown to continue to move the flag across-map in what would amount to the first capture of the game.
19:49
As Snipedown is running Top Mid en-route to secure another cap, Heinz takes him out from behind with well placed shots and grenades. He follows up by dropping Tsquared, who attempts to finish Snipedown’s run. With a weakened Str8, Hysteria, who had pushed to Str8’s flag, is now able to both facilitate a return and pull Str8’s flag, running Sniper to Bottom Mid with virtually no opposition and executing a flawless counter-cap to tie the game at 1-1.
19:29
Upon respawning, Elamite long-jumps in Man Cannon directly into TD’s base, running through Lobby and making a flag pull of his own. In just 16 seconds, from 19:29 when he respawned, to 19:13 when he pulled TD’s flag, Elamite is able to initiate a successful flag run. Making it most of his run unscathed, Elamite secures the cap at 18:47, putting Str8 up 2-1.
18:29
Heinz scores a cross map no-scope on Snipedown from Str8’s Sniper to TD’s Man Cannon. As SK pushes to Str8’s flag to make the grab, Heinz positions himself Top Mid-Left to cover the back of SK. After Heinz scores a snipe on Legit, preventing the latter from engaging SK at Str8’s sniper, SK is free to move forward with the flag in what would eventually become the tying cap.
12:29
Alone in TD’s base, Tsquared makes an attempt at a flag run by taking TD’s flag to Power Up. This attempt proves unsuccessful and the flag is returned, but Tsquared is able to evade TD and stay alive for yet another grab. This time, Tsquared moves the flag to TD’s Sniper, where he then drops it to stay alive, turns around, again goes through TD’s Power Up without the flag only to jump back up to Sniper-level, this time from Man Cannon side, and grab the flag where he had left it. He then, as can be seen on Elamite’s screen, runs the flag L2, making an evasive jump to avoid Heinz from behind, running flag top-mid and scoring the game-winning cap.
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