Cloud9 vs BRK Baraka game1
What happend? This was team vrs team and minimal third party. Cloud9 was dismantled by mainly BRKBaraka. Lets ask, was this luck? Let's go back and watch the gameplay. Im doing this so we can learn, I'm not saying I'm better or that they are bad. In the top competitive scene the margin error shrinks and you can pay for the smallest of mistakes. In the heat of things it's hard to know what's right but looking back we can learn and do better in the future. For reference watch game one https://youtu.be/al6bbptk_dw 2h23min in. You can find the full day on the official pubgmobile YouTube channel. When cloud9 went to storm the compound BRK held. just northwest of ruins and north of the church. Cloud9 was shot up, most players where still close to 75 health. But what made Baraka so affective in this instance. He was able to down and finish three of the four from the shack. The angle he held from that shack was strong and let's take a look at what he did. Watch the replay and you will notice something fundamentally different from what he was doing and what cloud9 tried. BRKCaveira was hiding in the shack and if he would have waited for his team to engage he would have had a prime position to attack on C9's flank. However he started the engagement and was able to get the knock onto C9karnage, C9Rollexx was able to trade back onto BRKCaveira. Look at his position he silhouette himself in the doorway making it easy for C9Rollexx to aim at the door take an easy trade. Compare that to when Baraka moved over to the shack and took up defense. He was in and out of the shack trying to keep his teamate from getting flushed. Once he took damage from C9Cotto and noticed there position in the feild he fell back into the shack and prefired the angle. Exposing the smallest amount of his body narrowing the target box. Giving cloud9 a very small target to hit. Letting them move into his sights rather then him move out of cover and win in an aim battle. In this position he made one of the sickest plays of the game. At this point we have a one for one trade C9karnage is down and BRKCaveira is down in the shack with BRKBaraka. With the third person view BRKBaraka can see C9Cotto and C9Sam's movement in the feild. Here is where things begin to break down for Cloud9. Let's acknowledge there was a third party firing at C9Sam and C9Cotto in the feild witch might have been a reason they pushed to move in closer to the compound. C9Sam moves in for the revive, C9Cotto literally the top fragger in NA moves to attack. C9Cotto is at the top of the charts for squade kills do not sleep on this guy he is dangerous.
Here is where I will stop and look at what they could have done. Yes it is easy to see in the video they needed to eliminate the threat from the shack. But what could they have done? What do you fall back on when you know you have good gun skills? C9Cotto goes for a kill, he is a gunslinger. I have been killed by him in game and it happened so fast, I was left wondering what happened, was I just in a match? Lol But dont forget BRKBaraka is no slouch at gun skills, all these teams at the #starchallenge are close to the same level that's why they are there. What can trump gun skills? Position, Position, position, iQ, usage of cover and utility. Before the next seconds happen lets ask ourselves what they could have used. Utility count off, flash I'm sure no one had a flash. Why because I have yet to see one used in NA tournaments. However a flash could have been used for sure. Grenade? For sure, C9Rollexx must have had a grenade or incendiary, Cotto could have covered the front of the shack while C9Rollexx threw in a gernande. Smoke? Instead of smoking themselves they could smoke the shack and obscure his view making room for C9sam and C9Cotto to move in safely. That would open up the ability to strom the shack go for a trade out or use nades to kill the occupants while one covers the opening killing anyone trying to flee.
Back to reality, Baraka takes out Cotto and Rollexx runs in front of the door getting downed as well only C9Sam and C9Karnage are left up by the jeep. Let's step back and take a look at how this happens. Cotto took on the guy in cover from an open feild. Once again let us not forget about the third party from the east by the castle on the hill. Cotto would have needed to hit all his shots they both where close to similar health. Rollexx was safe behind the shack but made a push with low health as well. Once again those shots would need to be perfect because he was tucked back in the shack and not silhouetted in the door. Once again Baraka used the angle to create cover. Baraka made the advantage, they all moved into his hitbox and he did not half to track them. Now let's take note C9- Cotto, Rollexx are out flushed, karnage is being revived. It's now a three vs two and BRKCaveira is only downed. Caveira gets picked up by Baraka and goes for a push.
I dont know if this was tactic or accident or on purpose but Baraka uses Caveira as bait and as soon as Sam goes for the kill, baraka once again fires right at the angle C9Sam is peaking from. One thing to note here is Baraka is open in the doorway but he is just prefireing the angle Sam was peeking from. Sam can see this in TPP and should have realized it. Why he peaks I can only guess he thinks he can win the fight but there is a wall of 7.62 coming his way and he gets the knocked. Once Caveira went down all he needed to do is wait for the reload from Baraka. Or a well placed grenade in the shack. Baraka is doing all the work. In the mean time C9karnage makes a killer flank and takes out the other two BRK members flushing one of them. The last one v one Baraka vs Karnage is nothing to write home about. Its plain karnage was low health and Baraka landed the Ak shot. He fired at the door Karnage was unlucky. But in the end I feel all the work Baraka did he deserved the win. We learn or we win and C9 was taken to school. There is a lot of ways this could have played differently they gave it there all but my personal feeling is that Baraka took the better position. Used angles to his advantage. Used the prefire and let the enemy walking into the shot. That's not gun skill that is game iQ, using the tools he had and the cover to his advantage. He knew one was down and Rollexx was out there, he knew Sam made the move to the Jeep he saw Cotto he had a ton of information. C9 where focused in on the shack. If his teammates would have flanked after Rollexx and Cotto where downed it would have been over much sooner. Sam was mid revive the push from baraka from the shack and the other two members on the flank would have been super OP.
So what can we take away from this. First all we know getting the superior angle on your opponent is a advantage. Second the use of utility can be better then trying to out aim a opponent dug in. Third in tpp use that view if they are firing dont peak into fire. Last of all dont ever underestimate your opponent. Let's get out there and make those plays. I have begun to look at maps different after this play from Baraka. It was not that I didn't do it before but now I was looking for the advantage. I hope this can open up our minds and we can become stronger as NA players. I hope too that Cloud9 gets back to form they are a great team, this tournament was ruff for them let's see them bounce back. I will be looking into as many games as possible and see what happened to the NA teams. Maybe I will try and get an interview from some of the players as well get there insite, see what was going through there minds. Open to discussion and other points I might have overlooked. In the words of HotJukes LetsGo!!!