OptX defeat LA Again, 22-20, Remain in Third Place

San Francisco is beginning to get used to the idea of big wins when the proverbial chips are down. They came back to defeat Carolina Core on Friday, and they do it again against the winless LA compLexity, overcoming an early 7-1 deficit and illness to knock Los Angeles to 0-10. Meanwhile, they make their playoff chances stronger than ever with only one game left in the cards for them. This franchise match was action-packed, so let's get to it!

The first match was FIFA '08, and OptX captain stermy^, playing as his mainstay France, was looking for his third win of the season against LA's KreeganBG, playing as Italy. The game was a defensive gem, as stermy^ was able to keep Kreegan from making any real shots on goal, while being stifled himself by Kreegan's tough defense. Late in the second half, Kreegan was finally able to create a legit scoring chance for himself, and made the most of it, scoring the only goal of the game to start LA off right with a 1-0 victory.

We then moved to Forza, where LA was coming off a big win against Dallas, and San Francisco was looking to improve on their 4-6 record. However, it was not to be on this night, as a series of finely executed knockouts put LA's chavisan and GTO in first and second early, and to stay, as they put a big 6-1 score on the board, making the overall score 7-1 heading into Dead or Alive: Female.



Going into this match up, LA's belle was a career 0-5 against Vanessa, with only 2 rounds won. However, Vanessa was not on her A game due to a high fever and illness, and belle took advantage, playing as Kokoro against Vanessa's Hitomi, by scoring three rounds and taking an early 3-1 lead. Even when Vanessa tied the score two rounds later, it was through hard work and a large amount of effort. Vanessa would come through in the end, clinching the last two round to win 5-3, and gaining some ground on the overall match total, 10-6 LA. Meanwhile, the next game would be Counter-Strike: Source.




The 2-8 record in Counter-Strike: Source reflected the inability of the team to take its new parts and seamlessly integrate them into the core of clowN, moE, and Warmach1ne. Add in the fact that the last time these two teams met on Dust2, coL rolled them 13-5 in a 25-20 franchise victory for San Fran, and you have all the makings of the final nail in San Fran's coffin. However, none of that mattered as, starting on the CT side, Optx started hot and stayed that way, stifling coL's attempts to take the A bombsite and staking themselves to an early 6-3 lead after one half, including an amazing 14-6 effort from the aforementioned Warmach1ne. And after switching sides, San Francisco one-upped LA by successfully taking the A Bombsite twice out of the first three attempts, en route to an even more dominant 7-2 second half, including a clutch 1v2 by moE via a nade kill and an AWP shot in the last round. That made the overall CSS Score 13-5, bringing San Francisco all the way back to a 19-15 lead, with one game left to play.





The final match would be Dead or Alive Male, and NinjaCW was in the driver's seat as he only needed to win two rounds to close out the franchise match for San Francisco. He would play as Gen Fu against Perfect Legend (Hayate), who needed to win by a 5-1 margin to tie, and do a perfect 5-0 to win it. The shutout was not to be from the get-go, as NinjaCW simply stomped Perfect Legend in the first round for an early 1-0. Perfect Legend would come back in the second round, and dominate the third round, giving LA a 2-1 lead, and closing the gap to 20-17. PL would win his third round to make it 3-1, and Los Angeles began hoping for a tie and 1 round playoff. But NinjaCW would bring it home in Round 5, punishing PL off a block and winning the sorely needed second round. Now, with the score 3-2, they were playing for pride and bragging rights. They traded the next two rounds, and with the score 4-3, PL finally closed it out 5-3 for a Pyrrhic victory for Los Angeles, as they end up falling to San Francisco 22-20, and remaining winless.




San Francisco has one game left, and winning the game guarantees not only a playoff spot, but a possibly third seed and yet another game against 2nd seeded Dallas Venom. They play the defending World Champion Chicago Chimera (4-6), who desperately need to win the remaining games in their schedule to make the playoff and possible deny Carolina (4-6) or San Fran the privilege. Stay tuned to #optx on the Gamesurge IRC network, as well as the official San Francisco Optx site, and the Optx groups on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, the Steam Community, and Youtube, for the latest in Optx news, features, and scores! And tune in LIVE on Monday, June 30th, as San Francisco takes on the Chicago Chimera, in the last CGS Regular Season game before the North American playoffs! Happy fragging, and GO OPTX!