Dallas Venom defeat San Francisco OptX 24-22

The San Francisco Optx for the second year see their World Final hopes dashed in the final game, as they fall to the Dallas Venom 24-22, in a game where, despite everyone stepping up, they couldn't catch a break. The Venom move on to play the Carolina Core in the CGS North American Finals, while San Francisco is in a tough position. But that'll be touched on later. For the moment, let's get into the action, because despite the loss, it was probably one of the most exciting matches CGS has seen.

The first match was Dead or Alive Male, and Master and NinjaCW faced off for the fourth time. The map was Temple on the Mountain, and the usual suspects were there, Ryu Hayabusa and Gen Fu. Ninja showed all that he had learned from their three previous meetings, quickly staking himself to a 2-0 lead. Master would come back with four dominating rounds, pushing Ninja to the brink 4-2. But Ninja stayed calm and played smart, and came back to win the last three rounds to give himself a well-deserved 5-4 victory, and stake the OptX to a 1-point lead.

Next up was FIFA, and Captain stermy^ looked to make it a career 4-0 against Dallas's Barmoa. Barmoa played as Brazil, and stermy^ played as his usual France. The action was kicking as Barmoa was able to basically stifle stermy^'s aggressive tactics, while getting unlucky on more than his fair share of shots. Through the first and second halves we went, and while both players had quality scoring chances, neither would be able to capitalize. So, with a 0-0 tie after regulation, to penalty kicks we went, as stermy^ blocked one, Barmoa missed another, and when all was said and done, stermy^ had won 3-1, and Optx was now out ahead 8-5.

The third game was Forza 2, and Venom's Muffinman was still looking for his first win on television as he and cha0s took on SACKAMONJARO and Miximup. Sack and Mix started 2-3 in the grid, and off the line, Sack was able to grind Muffin into the wall. Cha0s, however, knocked around both Sack and Mix, giving Muffin daylight while taking third himself. Muffin would solidify a large lead early in the race, and with Sack sitting relatively comfortable in second, cha0s and Miximup battled for third. In the end, Muffin enjoyed his first win on TV, with Sack and Mix taking second and third, resulting in a 4-3 win for Venom, and making the overall score 11-9 in favor of San Francisco.

While the Venom and OptX Source squads readied for battle, Dead or Alive Female featured the match nearly everyone was waiting for, as Vanessa took on the woman who defeated her for the first time, Phoenix. The map was Gambler's Paradise, and the character matchup was Gen Fu against Hitomi. Vanessa was aggressive and brutal in the first two rounds, manhandling Phoenix and staking herself to a 2-0 lead. Phoenix battled back with two rounds of her own, and they then traded rounds to make the score 3-3. Phoenix would win a convincing fourth round on Vanessa to push her to the brink 4-3. They fought an extremely close eighth round, but Phoenix was able to prove that the first time was no fluke, and defeated Vanessa again, by a 5-3 score. That tied the overall franchise score at 14-14, with one game to play: CSS.

San Francisco was battling the regular season's top-ranked Source squad in Dallas on Tuscan, and they would start on the Terrorist side. The round started off anticlimactically, as GRT was unable to plant the bomb or frag the Venom CTS before time ran out. Venom would win another round thanks to Sunman's three frags, but GRT would answer with three of his own the next round to make the score 2-1. And back and forth it went, with zid from Venom and Grt from Optx stepping up big time to keep their squads in it. Venom would go up 5-3, but Optx came back with a strong ninth round to make the first half score 5-4 in favor of Venom, giving them a one-point lead overall 19-18. This meant that San Francisco needed to win the second half by at least a 5-4 margin, and notch six rounds in order to take the franchise match. The second half started much like the first, with Dallas taking two early rounds before San Francisco could answer back. In the third round, clowN would TK Warmach1ne with a grenade, but Dallas would give the advantage away when zid TK'ed one of his own. GRT would pick up another two AWP frags and OptX would win the third round, making the overall CSS score 7-5. The teams would trade the next two rounds, and Grt continued to impress, helping OptX tie the CSS score up with great site retakes. Venom would win the next two rounds, however, and held match point at 9-7, with OptX needing to not only win the remaining two rounds, but the pistol overtime as well. They got one, and with the score 9-8, and Venom down to their last few seconds, GRT was hidden, trying to survive and force OT. But he was fragged by Venom's sunman, a key player for Dallas, and San Francisco could only watch as Dallas celebrated making it to the North American Final with a 10-8 CSS score, and an overall 24-22 score.

San Francisco needs to put this loss behind them, because today they play 3DNY for the #3 placing in North America, as well as the chance to play the London Mint for the Wild Card. 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! Happy fragging, and GO OPTX!