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hemeroid ruled Animus and survived the furious late chase

Animus hit everyone hard, but hemeroid eventually turned it into a private range with a particularly unfriendly Bio Rifle lane.

DM-UOF-LP-Animus opened with a burst of chaos that foreshadowed the whole match. At 15 seconds Nanoblack scored the authoritative first blood on Krallbait with the Link Gun, then died by his own Shock Rifle in the very same second and left after only fifteen seconds of play. From there the fight became a four-way contest between hemeroid, Strepina, Jano and Krallbait. Strepina opened regular scoring against Jano, but hemeroid answered with rockets: Strepina fell at 33 seconds and Jano followed three seconds later for a Double Kill. With only one lead change in the entire match, that early surge established the target everyone else would chase.

Rockets create the first gap

hemeroid built the early lead mainly with the Rocket Launcher. After kills on Strepina, Jano and Krallbait he had five points by 89 seconds. Jano finally got moving with a Flak Cannon kill on Strepina at 85, while Krallbait could punish the leader with the Link Gun, but hemeroid scored more consistently. The longest quiet spell began after 103 seconds and lasted 24 seconds. When action resumed, hemeroid found Jano twice with rockets at 127 and 137 seconds.

His first major stumble came at 188 seconds, when a Bio Rifle suicide dropped his score from nine to eight. Jano had begun a recovery using the Enforcer, Stinger, Rocket Launcher and Link Gun. The fourth minute then became the match's grinder with ten kills, the busiest minute overall. hemeroid switched back to the Bio Rifle and killed Jano at 225 and Krallbait at 228 for a Double Kill. Strepina answered with a Double Kill of her own, yet the leader still kept control.

Five frags, one stop and a 62.1-metre reply

The decisive stretch ran from 286 to 350 seconds. hemeroid started with a Flak Cannon kill on Krallbait, added Jano three seconds later and continued with Rocket Launcher, Flak Cannon and Bio Rifle kills. The result was the longest spree of the match: five kills without dying. By 333 seconds he stood on 16 points and the chasing pack had lost valuable ground. Strepina finally ended the run with the Link Gun at 350 seconds.

The pause lasted exactly two seconds. At 352 seconds hemeroid hit Krallbait with the Bio Rifle from 62.1 metres, the longest kill of the match and the only clearly sniper-range hit beyond 50 metres. His average kill distance was 14.8 metres, highest in the field; Krallbait had 9.7, Strepina 9.6 and Jano 9.4. While most fights stayed close, hemeroid kept finding points from unusual range.

Revenge chains and the fight behind the leader

The second half was not a comfortable walk. Krallbait caught hemeroid twice with Shock Combos, Jano punished him with Bio Rifle and Flak Cannon, and Strepina kept scoring through Flak and Link Gun. At 451 seconds Krallbait completed a Double Kill on Strepina and Jano, then added a Shock Combo on hemeroid five seconds later. The leader answered Krallbait with Bio Rifle at 461. Immediate revenge was a theme: hemeroid and Krallbait recorded nine revenge kills each, Strepina and Jano eight.

The strongest personal rivalry was hemeroid against Jano. They accounted for 24 mutual kills: hemeroid took 15, Jano nine. Jano kept attacking around the 500-second mark, scoring on Krallbait, Strepina and the leader, but his average life was only 19 seconds and three suicides cost him three points. Strepina averaged 38 seconds per life, the best figure in the field, and that stability carried her into clear second place.

Twenty-nine is not thirty

hemeroid reached 25 points at 574 seconds, then the field slowed him down. Strepina killed him twice, Krallbait once, and Jano remained involved in the podium fight. The leader moved to 26 at 655, 27 at 706 and 28 at 722. Seven seconds later he killed Jano but also killed himself with the Bio Rifle in the same second, leaving the score on 28. Even the winning weapon occasionally worked for the opposition.

At 740 seconds a Shock Rifle kill on Krallbait made it 29. Jano still killed hemeroid with Bio Rifle at 750, Strepina dropped Krallbait at 756, and the last question was who would become point number 30. The answer arrived at 762 seconds: hemeroid hit Strepina with the Flak Cannon from 16.6 metres and closed the match. Strepina finished on 22, Jano and Krallbait on 20 each, and Nanoblack on zero after his brief opening cameo.

Match moments

• Nanoblack scored first blood at 15 seconds with the Link Gun on Krallbait, then committed a Shock Rifle suicide in the same second.
• hemeroid produced the longest spree, five kills without dying from 286 to 350 seconds.
• Strepina ended that five-kill spree with the Link Gun at exactly 350 seconds.
• Two seconds later hemeroid hit Krallbait with a 62.1-metre Bio Rifle kill, the longest of the match.
• The fourth minute contained 10 kills and was the busiest minute of the Deathmatch.
• hemeroid and Krallbait had nine revenge kills each; Jano and Strepina had eight.
• The final frag came at 762 seconds when hemeroid killed Strepina with the Flak Cannon to reach 30.

After 763 seconds the scoreboard read hemeroid 30, Strepina 22, Jano 20, Krallbait 20 and Nanoblack 0. The winner was not flawless: he committed two suicides and even cancelled a fresh frag with his own Bio Rifle while sitting on 28. Still, the combination of early rocket pressure, the five-kill spree and the ability to score from longer range created a cushion nobody could erase. Strepina had the longest average life and became the strongest late chaser, but the gap was already too large. When the Flak Cannon wrote the thirtieth point at 762 seconds, Animus had its winner.