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Anub1ss storms Rankin and steals victory at the finish

Just when trajbalajko looked like Rankin's owner, Anub1ss arrived for the final 513 seconds and rewrote the whole scoreboard.

DM-Rankin-2010 initially looked like a fight for first place between Hlavicka, trajbalajko and Jano. Hlavicka drew the authoritative first blood at 0:38 by dropping Jano with the Link Gun and built the early advantage. trajbalajko then forced his way toward the top, Jano stayed relevant despite three suicides, and Bogota gradually increased the pressure. The entire story changed at 1313 seconds, when Anub1ss scored his first kill. From that point, the late arrival turned a comfortable lead into a frantic retreat. The Normal Deathmatch ended 30:25, but the route to that final score was anything but normal.

Hlavicka strikes first and claims the early map

The first twelve minutes belonged mostly to Hlavicka. First blood on Jano arrived at 0:38, followed by a string of close-range fights where Hlavicka used the Link Gun, Rocket Launcher and Flak Cannon. At 190 seconds he added a Double Kill with the Rocket Launcher on Jano and reached five points while Jano still had one. Hlavicka kept the advantage later as well, and his average kill distance of only 8.1 metres matched an aggressive style built around Rankin's tight passages.

trajbalajko refused to disappear. At 598 seconds he and Hlavicka met at 11:11, and after another Hlavicka push they were level again on thirteen. Hlavicka then committed a Stinger suicide at 725 seconds, closing his active chapter on a final score of 13. The match went quiet for 93 seconds without a regular kill after the event at 696 seconds, the longest lull of the night. That was where the centre of gravity began to shift.

trajbalajko takes command while Jano and Bogota bite

After Hlavicka stopped adding points, trajbalajko collected them steadily. Around the 14th and 15th minutes he reached 13, then climbed through kills on Bogota and Jano to 16, and by the 20th minute he had 19. His arsenal was broad: five kills each with the Flak Cannon, Bio Rifle and Rocket Launcher, four with the Stinger, and the rest spread across other weapons. He also posted the highest average kill distance among the main players at 14.9 metres, so he was never limited to point-blank chaos.

Jano answered primarily with the Rocket Launcher, which produced 19 of his 24 kills. Three suicides, however, reduced those 24 frags to only 21 score. Bogota found his own rhythm and at 1158 seconds delivered the longest kill of the match, hitting trajbalajko with the Link Gun from 49.3 metres. At this stage there was still no sign that leader trajbalajko would face a bigger problem than holding off Jano and Bogota.

Anub1ss arrives late and launches the chase

Anub1ss's first point did not come until 1313 seconds, against Bogota with the Shock Rifle. At that moment trajbalajko had twenty points and Anub1ss was effectively starting from zero. A few minutes later, calm was over. From 1516 seconds Anub1ss produced the longest spree of the match: thirteen kills of his own without dying, lasting until 1663. He rotated through the Rocket Launcher, Shock Rifle, Stinger, Shock Combo, Bio Rifle and Sniper Rifle, never settling into one predictable pattern.

The spree was savage in pace as well. Minute 26 brought eight kills, minute 27 six, and the busiest 28th minute had nine. Anub1ss supplied six of those nine. Bogota finally ended the thirteen-kill run with the Enforcer at 27:43, but the damage had been done: Anub1ss had 21, trajbalajko 23, and a lead that once looked safe was down to two. Anub1ss's average life lasted 102 seconds, roughly twice that of most rivals, and it showed in every exchange.

Tied at 23:23, then a sprint to thirty

After dying to Bogota, Anub1ss came straight back. A Shock Combo on Bogota, a Flak Cannon kill on Jano and a Double Kill at 1677 seconds lifted him to 23, exactly level with trajbalajko. Eight seconds later he killed Bogota with the Rocket Launcher for a 24:23 lead. From there he never gave first place back. The Sniper Rifle, Shock Rifle, Rocket Launcher and Sniper Rifle again kept the score moving while trajbalajko could only answer intermittently.

The final thirty seconds still had plenty of teeth. Bogota killed trajbalajko twice, trajbalajko immediately answered him twice, and Jano hit trajbalajko with the Rocket Launcher at 1788 seconds. The last word belonged to Anub1ss: at 29:51 he ended the match by killing Jano with the Flak Cannon and reaching the target 30 points. Four lead changes ended in a five-point win, even though the leaders had been tied with less than two minutes remaining.

Match moments

• Hlavicka scored first blood at 0:38 with the Link Gun on Jano.
• Hlavicka earned the first Double Kill at 190 seconds and controlled the opening phase.
• Bogota hit trajbalajko with the Link Gun from 49.3 metres, the longest kill of the match.
• Jano scored 19 of his 24 kills with the Rocket Launcher, but three suicides cost him three score.
• Anub1ss produced a 13-kill spree from 1516 to 1663 seconds before Bogota stopped it.
• The busiest 28th minute contained nine kills, six of them by Anub1ss.
• Anub1ss tied the lead at 23:23 at 1677 seconds and moved ahead eight seconds later.
• Anub1ss scored the final kill on Jano with the Flak Cannon at exactly 29:51.

The final 30:25 score looks fairly clean, but it hides the disorder that came before it. Hlavicka opened the match, trajbalajko controlled a long middle stretch, and Jano with Bogota kept applying pressure from different angles. The deciding factor was Anub1ss's late arrival: in 513 seconds of play he managed thirty kills, only four deaths and the longest spree of the night. Rankin therefore offered a simple Deathmatch lesson: a lead is not defended by staring at the scoreboard. As long as the clock is running, someone can join and turn eight minutes into an entire match of their own.