The ’94 Knicks entered their Week 2-1 match against the New York 3D in desperate need of a win. Expected to be contenders for a playoff spot, they were still looking for their first victory after starting the season 0-2 with losses to x3o and Dynamic.
After Sunday’s match, they’ll have to keep looking.
New York set the tone early in their dominating 13-3 victory on Season, starting as defense and stopping a split rush on the right bombsite. The two teams traded entry kills before Funshine was left in a 1v2 against method and n0it. He narrowed it to a 1v1 but couldn’t pull off the last kill.
That was as close to victory as the ’94 Knicks got for the next eight rounds.
In the first week of the CEVO season, 3D had success fielding a three-AWP defense on Inferno, and that strategy, and the results, seem to have translated well for their first match on Season. Volcano, Ksharp, and nickn0it were all AWPing for the vast majority of their time on defense, and it gave their opponents fits.
Of course, the Knicks’ efforts weren’t helped by method, either. During New York’s opening 9-0 run, they combined to go 18-3 in the first three rounds, 28-3 by the end of the sixth round, and 35-5 before the Knicks took their first round. There were a fair share of defuses in those stats, but they were still the key cogs of New York’s (for this night) nearly unbreakable defense. Method played the right site, scoring one or two entry frags on each strat to his area, while n0it, always in the thick of the action, floated between middle and aggressively AWPing near the stairs at the left site.
It was at that left site where the Knicks got their first round. Exodus, wielding the same AWP that had served 3D well for the previous nine rounds, scored an entry frag on Volcano and limited n0it to a single kill on the rotation, legging n0it with the AWP before finishing him with a glock as n0it tried to establish position behind a site box. They caught Ksharp in a rotation, and finally had time to set up a solid defense – something that was missing in the earlier rounds as any site take was quickly greeted by rotators and flankers.
That made the score 9-1, New York. The Knicks pushed it to 9-2 before falling back to 10-2 when Funshine couldn’t pull out a 1v1 against Volcano.
Funshine and exodus led the way for the losing team, each finishing the half 13-11. And for New York it was a parade of frags, with the aforementioned n0it and method leading at 22-5 and 18-6, respectively.
The second half brought the customary side-switch, but no relief for the Knicks. They picked up an early round but didn’t make it much farther than that, dropping three of the first four and dropping the match 13-3.
It was a tough time all around for the ’94 Knicks, with bright spots and good frags few and far between. Now they face a familiar foe, the zomblerz, as their second matchup on Season.
And in addition to still looking for their first win, they’re also looking to bounce back from a big loss and an 0-3 start to what started as a hopeful season.
