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DM-HeatRay: freedie00 turns the match with eleven kills

Veteran struck first and controlled the middle, but freedie00 built a Stinger comeback that nobody could stop.

DM-HeatRay did not open with an explosion of frags but with tense waiting. The first kill came only in the 131st second, when Veteran dropped freedie00 with the Link Gun for the authoritative first blood. Six seconds later Kulomet answered Veteran with a rocket, while freedie00 remained stuck on zero for a long stretch. The opening belonged to his two opponents as the eventual winner searched for rhythm. Once he found it, the Stinger became his main tool and the scoreboard began to change step by step.

Veteran struck first while freedie00 started slowly

Veteran opened the match at 2:11 by killing freedie00 with the Link Gun and soon added a second point with the Rocket Launcher. Kulomet stayed close, immediately answering Veteran with a rocket at 137 seconds and later sending freedie00 back to respawn with the Flak Cannon at 184. After 227 seconds Veteran led Kulomet 3:2, while freedie00 was still waiting for his first point.

That point arrived at 4:15 when freedie00 hit Kulomet with the Stinger. From there the patient recovery began. Two more Stinger kills followed at 321 and 364 seconds, and then came the longest dead period of the entire match: 192 seconds without a kill. When action resumed at 556 seconds, freedie00 again caught Kulomet and drew level with Veteran at 4:4. Another Stinger kill at 654 seconds gave freedie00 his first outright lead, 5:4.

The Stinger built a lead, the Dark Walker took it back

freedie00 kept working on Kulomet: between 654 and 722 seconds he added four Stinger kills and climbed to eight points. A later rocket against Veteran moved him to 9:4. Veteran answered hard. Between 888 and 901 seconds he killed freedie00 three times in a row with the Link Gun and closed the gap again. The 18th minute produced four kills, matching the busiest rate seen later in the match, and marked the transition into a very different middle phase.

The biggest swing came from the Dark Walker Turret. At 17:31 Veteran hit freedie00 from 101.4 metres, the longest kill of the match, then tied the score 10:10 five seconds later. At 17:47 another turret shot put Veteran ahead 11:10. He added three more turret kills on freedie00 and by 19:57 had stretched the advantage to 14:10. The player who had been chasing was suddenly in firm control of the middle portion.

A self-inflicted mistake hurt, but the comeback was forming

freedie00 tried to respond with the Rocket Launcher and Shock Rifle. At 21:37 he hit Veteran with the Shock Rifle and reduced the gap, only to suffer a bizarre setback two seconds later: a death recorded as RanOver deducted a point and returned his score to 11. Veteran then used the Link Gun and a rocket to build a 16:11 advantage. Kulomet mixed Link Gun, Sniper Rifle and rockets and stayed active, but his average life of 67 seconds shows how often that activity ended in a respawn.

From the 24th minute onward, however, the picture changed. freedie00 killed Veteran with a rocket, then Kulomet, and after one Veteran reply he launched the defining run. The kill on Kulomet at 24:58 started the longest spree of the match. Stinger and Rocket Launcher kills alternated, with a VehicleExplosion on Veteran added to the sequence. At 27:51 freedie00 tied the match 18:18, and 39 seconds later another Stinger kill on Kulomet gave him a 19:18 lead he would never surrender.

Eleven kills without dying and a controlled finish

From 24:58 to 32:57 freedie00 collected eleven kills without dying. Kulomet absorbed most of that avalanche, while Veteran fell at 29:36 to a VehicleExplosion. The score moved from a tight 14:17 deficit to a 24:20 advantage, and that stretch effectively decided the contest. Kulomet finally ended the spree with a rocket at 32:57, but the comeback itself was already complete. After that brief interruption freedie00 found the pace again and reached his last six points through the Flak Cannon, Rocket Launcher and Stinger.

The closing minutes were clear. At 34:54 freedie00 killed Veteran with a rocket to make it 26:20, then scored twice on Kulomet and added a Stinger kill on Veteran. The final two points again came against Kulomet: a rocket at 36:49 and a Stinger at 36:58. The 30:20:11 final score closed a match with three lead changes. With no headshots and no multikills, the result came not from one explosive sequence but from sustained scoring pressure and a much stronger finish.

Match moments

• Veteran scored first blood at 2:11 with a Link Gun kill on freedie00.
• freedie00 took his first lead at 10:54 after another Stinger kill on Kulomet.
• Veteran hit freedie00 from 101.4 metres with the Dark Walker Turret for the longest kill of the match.
• Veteran turned a 10:10 tie into a 14:10 lead during his strongest Dark Walker Turret phase.
• freedie00 tied the score at 18:18 and then took the lead during an 11-kill spree without dying.
• Kulomet ended that spree at 32:57, but freedie00 still closed the match at 30:20:11.

HeatRay rewarded the player who survived both a poor opening and his opponent’s strongest phase. Veteran owned first blood, the 101.4-metre longest kill and a 14:10 lead built around the Dark Walker Turret. freedie00 answered with the commodity that matters most in Deathmatch: a steady stream of points. His 11-kill spree broke Veteran’s control and turned a close fight into a clear finish. Kulomet was more than a bystander—he was the player who finally stopped the winner’s longest spree—but 32 deaths kept him out of the race for first place.