At the start of this week – on Monday and Tuesday, to be precise – the qualifiers for the Betclic Clash Polish Championship took place. Entry fees were quite high, and the only team from our partner network to decide to take part was the newly announced ViBe Gaming line-up. They already have experience of playing in similar qualifiers, as in the same format – whilst still competing under the name UwuZa100sm – they managed to qualify for the Galaxy Cup LAN event, where they reached the final. In this tournament, however, the standard of the teams was a little higher and there were no easy matches.
Opening match – ViBe Gaming vs Brazilian Luz
As the qualifiers failed to fill all 32 spots, many teams, including ViBe Gaming, received a bye in their first match and advanced straight to the second round of the upper bracket. There, they came up against no ordinary opponent: the Brazilian team Luz, whose line-up had featured on HLTV on numerous occasions and achieved some minor successes. Nevertheless, it was a BO1 match and, with MR12 – the mode played in the second part of Counter-Strike – anything could have happened. Dust 2 became the battleground, but from the outset it was the opponents who took the initiative; once they get into their stride, they can be unstoppable – and, unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened. ViBe also had issues with their aim, and apart from Stajlbendham, no one else was on a par with their opponents in terms of gameplay. In a best-of-13 format, such problems simply cannot be allowed to happen, because before our partner had time to recover, the match was already over and ViBe Gaming were facing a run down the lower bracket.
A rematch in the losers’ bracket – ViBe Gaming vs Narodowy
As I mentioned at the start of this article, the team line-up for these qualifiers was packed to the brim with stars from the global Tier 2/3 scene. This time, our next opponent was a mixed team called Narodowy. Don’t be put off by the unfamiliar name, though, as this team includes n0tice, who has appeared in numerous HLTV tournaments. This time, the match was played in a BO3 format, which many players consider to be fairer.
We started on Dust, which was picked by our opponents. Their choice was likely influenced by ViBe’s previous match, which wasn’t one of their best, but they’d had time to practise it a bit more. As a result, they went into this do-or-die match with greater confidence and showed what they were made of. ViBe Gaming won that map and moved on to Train, knowing that if they managed to win, a promotion decider lay ahead of them.
That thought certainly gave them even more confidence, and as they’d chosen Train themselves, they were perfectly prepared for it. They demonstrated this with excellent shooting and tactical play. The second map, therefore, went even more smoothly than the first, and they secured their place in the do-or-die clash at the Polish Championship LAN. Awaiting them in this match was a team that has been enjoying a lot of success recently, namely TNC Esports.
The battle for promotion – ViBe Gaming vs TNC Esport
ViBe Gaming’s final match in the qualifiers was against TNC Esport. This match would decide which of the underground teams would make it into the main event of this year’s biggest all-Polish tournament. Just as in their previous match, ViBe opted for Train this time, whilst TNC went for their best map, Ancient. This veto was certainly to the night-time clan’s advantage, though our partner put up a decent fight on their home map.
The start of Map 1 wasn’t ideal, as TNC showed what they were capable of and quickly built up a fairly comfortable lead – something ViBe would certainly have wanted to avoid. The problem was that it didn’t end there. Their opponents gave our partner no chance of a comeback and dominated virtually every part of the map. With that sort of performance, the result could only be a very comfortable 13–2 victory for TNC Esport.
ViBe Gaming hadn’t lost hope yet, though, as they still had Ancient to come. Things looked quite different there, as we witnessed a closely fought contest in which TNC were in the lead but could have lost it at any moment. At one point, our partner were just a few rounds away from a draw, but their opponents played incredibly well in the clutch moments, and that drove the final nail into ViBe’s coffin. The second map ended in an 8–13 defeat, meaning TNC Esport took the match 2–0.
How did ViBe Gaming fare against some of Poland’s top teams?
In the qualifiers described, ViBe Gaming showed that they are no pushovers and are capable of beating even teams that, on paper, are better than them. However, in the decisive match, they faced one of the very best, and they were unable to overcome that hurdle. This merely goes to show, though, that the decision to field this line-up was not a bad one, and with the right amount of training, the team can compete for the very top honours. All that remains for us to do is to wish them the best of luck and, most importantly, perseverance in their training, so that they can achieve even more!
ViBe Gaming (Facebook – x.com)
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