M1:3 CS:S - 15 > 3 victory over Core

Tonight, the new lineup of Optx.CSS takes on Carolina in CGS Training Camp action.

Tonight marks the debut night for the brand-new Optx Counter-Strike: Source team, against one of their chief rivals, the defending CGS World Finals Runners-up, the Carolina Core. The last time the Core saw action was during the XLR8 Series, where they defeated fellow CGS team Dallas Venom to take home the grand prize. San Francisco has been relatively quiet since the addition of Garett "Grt" Bambrough and Mike "paradox" Stanowski, as the team has been hard at work to mesh their individual playstyles into a finely woven team mentality.

Time: 8:30 EST/5:30 PST
relay.nextgenservers.com:27024

Match Recap (Optx win!)

San Francisco took a big step towards staking their claim as the top CSS team in Region 1 by dominating Carolina Core on both sides of a 15-3 drubbing. While San Francisco fielded their usual starting five, Carolina elected to sub in taxi player Corey “kaM” Hanes for starter Hoang “s0nny” Tran. Carolina really could have used s0nny's solid play, as from round one, Carolina looked unfocused. Laurent “Warmach1ne” Keoula was able to win a 1v1 on Optx's first CT Round with a stealthy defuse on Cyrus “org” Habibi, followed by the frag. And so it went, as Carolina was really unable to muster any sort of offense against Carolina, even fighting through an accidental teamfrag of Keoula by Mike “paradox” Stanowski. Carolina picked up Round 5 when Habibi was able to return the favor on Keoula in another 1v1, and a second on the final round, when Chad “DAFF” White and Core Captain Mark “masternook” Torrez picked up a pair of frags.

Switching sides, it was apparent Carolina needed to get something going, and the easier CT side on de_inferno would be just the place to do it. San Francisco immediately put that idea to rest, however, when Keoula and new Optx player Garett “Grt” Bambrough picked up a pair each to take the opening round of the second half and make the overall score 8-2 Optx. Core helped them get the second round when Sam “devour” Chamma accidentally teamfragged White, putting Carolina at an immediate 4v5 disadvantage, and San Francisco clinched the match on points in the third when when Bambrough and Moe “moE” Assad picked up a pair each as well. CGS rules mandate that all matches be played out, since every point counts. San Francisco proceeded to take four out of the last five rounds, and it took a 3-man and a 2-man from Hanes and Torrez, respectively, to clinch the final round of the second half to close out the match, giving San Franciso the 15-3 win.

While it is silly to formally give out MVPs for these preseason matches, Yazan “clowN” Ammari and Moe "moE" Assad get singled out, as each put up a top-fragging half, Ammari with 11 during the first half, and Assad with 12 during the second. After Optx's new Forza 2 duo does their thing on Sunday, Optx.CSS will face the team that beat them in the CEVO-P Season 5 Finals, the Dallas Venom. Stay tuned to #optx on the Gamesurge IRC network, as well as the official San Francisco Optx website, Optx on Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace, for all the latest in Optx news!