HAVU breeze past Chaos to Flashpoint 1 upper bracket semi-final

HAVU won a one-sided series against Chaos to secure a place in the semi-finals, sending the North American side to the lower bracket.

HAVU, one of the last teams brought on to compete at Flashpoint 1 that became a stand-out in the group stage with 125 points across the two first phases made quick work of Chaos in the upper bracket semi-finals, sending the North American team to the lower bracket where they will play the loser of the Orgless vs. MIBR match.

Three opening kills on the offense gave Chaos a 5vs2 bomb plant on Overpass that they were able to win, before further extending their lead to 3-0 before the first gun round. HAVU came out in full force and showed their defensive prowess on the map with Eetu "⁠sAw⁠" Saha and Lasse "⁠ZOREE⁠" Uronen shining as they took their team to a 9-3 lead before a technical pause.

When the game restarted Chaos found themselves in a 2vs1 afterplant situation on a save round, but were denied by Olli "⁠sLowi⁠" Pitkänen as HAVU hit double digits before going 12-3 at half-time.

The second half started with a double by Anthony "⁠vanity⁠" Malaspina, but his two opening frags ultimately meant nothing as HAVU planted in a 3vs3 and won the afterplant. Up 13-3 and with the economic advantage, the Finns closed the first map of their series to take the lead into their pick, Train.

Train started off erratically as HAVU won the first pistol round on the attacking side but lost to the forcebuy. Winning a forcebuy of their own, the Finnish side destabilized Chaos’ economy and were the ones to set the pace early on in the map, going up 6-1 before the CTs could retaliate. Chaos managed to get back into the half and take a few rounds, but they were never able to regain control as they ended up behind 6-9.

Joonas "⁠doto⁠" Forss opened up the second half with a double in popdog that Aaro "⁠hoody⁠" Peltokangas and ZOREE were able to finish off to get their team up 10-6. sLowi and ZOREE cleared the board against an eco before the Finns obliterated Chaos in the first gun round to set themselves up for a 2-0 series win which they were able to get after another one-sided half, ending the map 16-8.