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HGC North America Playoffs :: B-Step (#5) vs Team Freedom (#6) :: Discussion Thread

Previous match thread: HGC Europe Playoffs :: Team expert (#4) vs Playing Ducks/Tricked eSport (#5/6) :: Discussion Thread - can be useful if this thread is posted too early.

B-Step will face off against Team Freedom to kick off the HGC North America Playoffs at 2:00 p.m. PDT / 10:00 p.m. CET on Friday, May 19. When these two teams met in Week 3, B-Step walked away with a 3-1 victory. However, when they faced off again in Week 7 that score was reversed. B-Step is currently on a two-game losing streak after getting shutout by both Gale Force eSports and Tempo Storm in Weeks 9 and 10. According to B-Step captain John Paul ‘KingCaffeine’ Lopez, the loss against Tempo wasn’t a huge setback.

GGs, Tempo Boys, didn't want to show anything. Still focused on playoffs
— KingCaffeine (@CallmeCaff) May 13, 2017

Team Freedom lost 3-0 to Gale Force to close out the first phase of HGC, but managed a win the week prior against No Tomorrow. While mixed results are to be expected from the fifth and sixth place teams, inconsistent performances will make a successful run through the stepladder playoff format challenging. The winner of this opening playoff match will go on to play Superstars, who finished the season above both Freedom and B-Step at 7-7. Superstars is currently 2-0 with Team Freedom, and 1-1 with B-Step.

When?

The match was planned to start at 14:00 PT / 23:00 CET, 45 minutes before this post was posted, so it should be starting very soon.

Streams

Community challenges

Teams

B-Step vs Team Freedom
aPm support - flex daneski
iDream ranged - flex Insomnia
k1pro flex - support KilluZiioN
KingCaffeine warrior - flex Nazmas
McIntyre flex - warrior zugrug

HGC Playoffs

The second- through sixth-place teams from the regular season compete in a stepladder format - in each round, lower-seeded teams battle each other for the chance to play a higher-seeded team. The playoff winner joins the first-place team from the regular season at the Mid-Season Brawl.

Match format

Matches in the playoffs are best-of-5.

Each team bans one battleground. Then, the "home" team chooses a battleground for the first game. In the following games of a match, the losing team of the previous game will have the choice for battleground selection or first hero pick in the draft.

Initial map bans

B-Step Team Freedom
Braxis Holdout Battlefield of Eternity

Game version

HGC Playoffs are played on the May 10 balance patch - before D.Va patch.

Match reports, VODs

Website Link
Master League https://masterleague.net/match/2979/
Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/videos/145147330?t=03h48m41s

For feedback about the match thread, please contact /u/lerhond.

  • Matt MacNeil
    Posted 7 years, 4 months ago (Source)

    Hey /u/esportsmatt the winner of this match was listed as the participant in the next round's match on the HGC site. So when I went to watch the VODs (living in Australia will do that to you), I immediately saw that Team Freedom had won which spoiled the first round match.

    Any chance you can just put "Round 1 Winner" or something similar in front of the team name for subsequent rounds unless you click "Show Scores"?

    I'd love not having to carefully and slowly scroll down just enough to click the round I want without having future ones spoiled.

    Just a suggestion.

    Keep up the great work - loving this playoff format so far.

    It's being worked on. Oversight on our part as we implemented new tech for the bracket. No fix for these playoffs on this front but should be ok for the next ones.

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