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HuK and MC Take the Battle Grounds Archon Title
Old friends vanquish old rivals in the Red Bull Battle Grounds Grand Finals.
HuK and MC are exultant after their finals victory
© Cameron Baird / Red Bull Content Pool
That would have been impressive enough on its own, but they showcased this dominance in a tournament where they were surrounded by crack Archon teams, each of whom looked like they were championship material.
Bomber and MMA figure out what went wrong
© Cameron Baird / Red Bull Content Pool
Flipping the script
The day started with HuK and MC taking on Bomber and MMA, who were the great unknowns heading into the tournament. With no track record as Archon teammates, it was a mystery whether the 2014 winner and his new teammate would be able to mount a convincing title defense against teams that that had already run a gauntlet to take part in this tournament.
However, Bomber and MMA proved that they were easily worth their outsized reputations as they slammed the door shut on HuK and MC's early attempt some proxy Pylon cheese. It told the Protoss pair in no uncertain terms that the Terran legends were not to be trifled with, and that perhaps Archon experience would not trump MMA's and Bomber's years of excellence.
They got off to a strong start in the next game as well as they tortured the Protoss with Marine drops, but in what would turn out to be great theme of the day, HuK and MC salvaged the situation from the brink of disaster by applying Adept counterpressure. That reset the game to even and led to a make-or-break Adept-Marine battle in which HuK and MC used the Psionic Transfer ability to sandwich the Terran army and smash it.
That marked the decisive turning point as HuK and MC bulldozed the Terrans into the losers' bracket, and set up HuK and MC for a duel with MaSa and ViOLet.
MaSa and viOLet had won the day's most hotly contested duel by putting away DRG and TRUE in five games. MaSa and viOLet were at their best as a Terran Archon, but seemed a little uncertain of their race's strength and played the second game using Zerg, which led to a defeat from the vastly more experienced Zerg team of DRG and TRUE. But they bounced back and managed to win the series in five games, however, and move on to the winners' final.
The finalists duel at Battle Grounds 2015
© Cameron Baird / Red Bull Content Pool
Elimination games
MC and HuK dismantled MaSa and viOLet and sent them down to the losers' final. Bomber and MMA, on the other hand, seemed almost energized by their defeat and promptly went on a tear through the lower bracket. Their series against DRG-TRUE and viOLet-MaSa seemed hardly to have started before Bomber and MMA won. They played with the kind of fire and ruthlessness their fans had been waiting for, and it seemed HuK and MC might have something to worry about.
It looked that way at first, as HuK and MC dropped their first game to the Terrans, who savaged the Protoss worker count and overpowered them shortly thereafter. But as HuK had pointed out before the match, they were a good team and good friends, and they absorbed the defeat easily. Meanwhile, Bomber and MMA seemed hesitant, tapping out of a game three that still seemed very much in doubt and putting themselves on match point.
Although they started strong once again in the fourth and final game, Bomber and MMA didn't have an answer for the Protoss Adept and Warp Prism harassment. As they had so often, HuK and MC pushed back against the Terrans with relentless Adept harassment, kiting the Terran defenders around with Warp Prisms and steadily inflicting economic damage on a Terran army that desperately needed money.
That harassment won HuK and MC the Red Bull Grand Finals and secured the first tournament win for the duo in quite some time. It was fitting, for an Archon tournament, to have the victory go to the two players who weren't just the best team at Battle Grounds but also the best teammates.
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