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Mieridlo takes DM-Deck after a furious one-HP finish

Four lead changes, freedie00's rocket-fueled spree and Mieridlo's climb from 18 to 30 turned DM-Deck into a test of nerves.

DM-Deck produced a match that refused to settle into one script. Ostrelovac opened the scoring after 16 seconds, dropping Trhac with the Flak Cannon for first blood, but that early lead quickly dissolved through self-inflicted mistakes. Trhac briefly moved in front before Mieridlo took control from the 49-second mark. By 2:02 Mieridlo had six points and the first Double Kill, with the Link Gun and Stinger helping build the gap. It was never a comfortable cruise: the lead changed four times, the log recorded 111 deaths, and several stretches ended with a scoreboard that looked completely different from the one a minute earlier.

Early blows and Mieridlo's first escape

Ostrelovac scored first blood at 0:16 by killing Trhac with the Flak Cannon. Seven seconds later he fell into slime and lost the point. Trhac moved ahead by killing Nescafe at 0:38, but Mieridlo answered with two quick Link Gun kills and led 2:1 from 0:49. By 2:02 Mieridlo had reached six points; the Link Gun kill on Nescafe also completed its first Double Kill. Trhac stopped that early run at 2:07.

The fastest opening was followed by the longest quiet spell of the match: after Trhac killed Ostrelovac at 2:45, 44 seconds passed before the next death. Nescafe then hit Mieridlo with a Shock Combo from 41.4 metres at 3:29, showing that the fight would not stay close-range. Despite two slime suicides, Mieridlo remained near the top, and the Redeemer sequence at 6:25 captured the chaos perfectly: it killed freedie00 and Trhac while also catching Mieridlo in the blast. The exchange still left Mieridlo on eight points and in front.

Nescafe takes the lead, freedie00 gathers speed

The middle phase belonged to Nescafe's steady pressure. Mieridlo had nine points at 7:21, but Nescafe closed the gap through the Link Gun, Flak Cannon and sharp counterattacks. At 9:18 Nescafe killed freedie00 with the Flak Cannon and moved ahead 10:9. Two seconds later came a Double Kill on Trhac, and at 10:07 the longest shot of the match arrived: a 62-metre Redeemer kill on Mieridlo that made it 12:8. Nescafe's average kill distance of 21.7 metres was also the highest in the field.

Mieridlo started to answer. At 12:16 a Link Gun kill tied the score at 13:13, but three seconds later Nescafe used slime to kill Mieridlo and retook the lead 14:13. Another tie followed at 12:34 when Mieridlo eliminated Nescafe with the Flak Cannon from 0.8 metres. The decisive lead change came at 12:46: Mieridlo's rocket on Trhac moved it to 15 while Nescafe remained on 14. The 13th minute was the busiest according to the data, with seven kills, and this was the phase in which the match changed from a chase for first place into a defence of Mieridlo's advantage.

Eight for freedie00, then the closing avalanche

freedie00 refused to disappear from the result. From 13:41 to 16:39 he built the longest spree of the match: eight kills without dying. The Rocket Launcher did most of the work, accounting for 13 of his 21 kills overall. The spree began against Nescafe, continued through Trhac and Mieridlo, and carried freedie00 to 18 points. Trhac ended it at exactly 16:39 with the Bio Rifle; earlier in that same second freedie00 had scored his third quick rocket kill on Trhac. Ten immediate revenge kills were another sign of how quickly freedie00 answered after being eliminated.

Mieridlo, however, had prepared the decisive finish. From 18 points at 15:22 it kept adding eliminations with the Redeemer, Bio Rifle, Rocket Launcher, Flak Cannon and even the match's only Sniper Rifle kill. From 18:35 the final five points arrived with almost no reply: freedie00 fell to the Redeemer, Trhac to slime, Nescafe to the Stinger as part of a Double Kill, then Trhac and Nescafe were finished by the Flak Cannon. The winning shot came at exactly 19:08 from 0.9 metres, leaving Mieridlo on a single hit point. The final 30:20 over freedie00, with Nescafe on 17 and Trhac on 12, looked clear on paper, but the path there was much tighter than the final table suggests.

Match moments

• Ostrelovac claimed first blood at 0:16 with the Flak Cannon against Trhac.
• Nescafe hit Mieridlo with a 62-metre Redeemer kill at 10:07, the longest kill of the match.
• The lead changed four times, with Mieridlo taking it for good at 12:46.
• freedie00 produced the longest spree, eight kills from 13:41 to 16:39, before Trhac stopped it.
• Mieridlo recorded six Double Kills, including the point that completed the score at 30.
• The winning kill came at 19:08 with a 0.9-metre Flak Cannon shot while Mieridlo had 1 HP left.

A 30:20 scoreline can look comfortable at first glance, but the chronology tells a different story. Nescafe took the lead away from Mieridlo in the middle of the match, and freedie00 later produced the longest spree of the entire contest. Mieridlo nevertheless had the longest average life, scored with a broad mix of weapons and never surrendered first place after the final lead change. When it then stacked late kills all the way to the last Flak Cannon shot on one remaining hit point, DM-Deck got a finish worthy of a match in which the scoreboard could turn faster than good intentions after a respawn.