Philippines’ CrossFire Teams in the International Scene: How Deep Will They Go?
Two of the best CrossFire teams in the Philippines in the form of Pacific.Wara and Pacific.Macta qualified and was invited to three high-profile tournaments this year.
Firstly, Wara qualified for the World Cyber Arena 2015 CrossFire Tournament. Secondly, both teams were invited to the CrossFire Stars (CFS) 2015 to be held in Vietnam. Finally, Macta was able to book their tickets to the CFS 2015 Grand Finals to be held in Guangzhou, China on December 4-6 this year.
In this piece, we will discuss their chances as a team in general terms, instead of the traditional “tournament preview” article so that we can focus on their lineups and the strategies that they have at hand.
Pacific.Macta: Aggression and Aim
Anyone can argue that the Pacific.Macta lineup is one of the most talented rosters in CrossFire at the moment. Each of its players contribute a huge role to the smooth operation of the Macta juggernaut and every move that they make on a certain server bears the aggressive plays that the team is renowned for.
With a skilled lineup, they can comfortably take aim duels any time of the day and still mostly come out on top. This is why they have always favored a “buddy strategy” on the Global Risk side and a pick-off based style on the Black List side, regardless on which map they are playing on.
The buddy system allows them to lock down sites through creating larges fields of fire that will force the enemy to either spend their grenades quickly or find a quick entry, while the pick tactic allows them to quickly exploit any opening on the map in order to gain an extreme advantage.
They are also well-known for their timed flanks, which catch most enemies off-guard and turn the round into their favor. With heavy aimers such as Christian “IAmRevenge” Amores and Aldrin Paul “ALDRIN” Borabon on their team, they can usually turn 3v5 or even 2v5 situations into shocking wins, provided that at least one of these
The role of the team should not be underestimated: Without their information-gathering pushes, early entries or almost-godlike mid-round calls, IAmRevenge and ALDRIN will neither have the space nor the timing to do those game-breaking plays that they are famous for.
With that being said, Pacific.Macta should be able to get into the Top 4 at the CFS Invitational as well as the CFS 2015 Grand Finals.
Pacific.Wara: Methodology and Adjustment
While Pacific.Macta represents the ideal of “unholy aim and raging aggression”, the older and more experienced Wara side banks on strategies and set plays in order to surprise their opponents. Given that CrossFire has a very fast-paced metagame, the very fact that their methodical map control tactics have worked both in the local and international scene in previous years show why they are still one of the Philippines’ best teams despite their age.
Instead of relying on aim duels as their younger Pacific counterparts do, Pacific.Wara uses their grenades efficiently in order to execute on a site and once they are able to seal off a site, the offensive trio of Aries “RAMSEVIENNE” Alde, Victor “mpoyisonfire” Pulache Jr. and King “TheKING” Punzalan are usually more than enough to blast off their opponents to the ends of the Earth.
Their quick in-game reactions and tactical adjustments are also admired by their friends and feared by their enemies: Many in the local CrossFire community say that without these two aces in their sleeve, they would never have the tools to go toe-to-toe against Pacific.Macta, let alone the rest of the world.
For the record, they are the only team that is able to take championships off Pacific.Macta and they have the head-to-head results to show well.
Unsurprisingly, their tactics-based style of play brought them results outside the country in the past and there’s no reason why they should not be able to do it again.
Pacific.Wara should be able to get into the Top 4 in Vietnam, while they should be able to get to the WCA 2015 CrossFire tournament playoffs, regardless of the group that they are drawn in.
Conclusions
It takes a lot of skill, grit and luck in order to become a top CrossFire team and these two teams have proved that they are at the pinnacle of their field in their respective ways. It is now time for them to prove once again that they can also go head-to-head against teams from all over the world and finally get a gold medal for the Philippines!
Obviously, they need to take into account the quality of the opposition that they are going to face in these tournaments, but one thing is for sure:
We will see lots of action in the upcoming days as these teams embark on their respective journeys to the top of the international CrossFire scene!
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