Congratulations Premier winners soirée

Logs

Reckoner - 4 - 3 GC
Gullywash - 2 - 3 GC
Snakewater - 4 - 2
Product - 3 - 1

Congratulations to soirée on winning the OZF 29 Premier Grand Final against happy feet.

Reckoner

With soirée taking the Upper Page Playoff victory, the choice of first map of the series was theirs. After bans of Villa and Granary, Reckoner was the opening map of the evening. soirée hit the ground running, taking the first map in a dominant fashion. The second round was much closer, as both teams began to get comfortable. Ultimately the coordination from happy feet prevailed and they tied up the scores 1 - 1.

happy feet began finding form and were able to crush soirée and take the next two round extremely quickly off the back of the dominant midfights. Round five looked more promising for soirée on the midfight with some heroics on the part of cooki and silvo, however the death of lau at the hands of a clear rocket from yewl* and the survival of Doge.exe left soirée facing a down an Uber push from happy feet. A clutch sticky trap from enrith, however, found the Uber drop and gave soirée the momentum to convert the round and claw the score back to 2 - 3. Another convincing mid for soirée saw Doge.exe surviving with only AiShou with him, forcing happy feet back to their last. soirée once against took the next midfight, however with both Medics surviving it was a stalemate on mid. A failed sac attempt leads to a three player advantage for happy feet, which they used to reclaim mid and then have a shot at a last push. After several failed pushes, happy feet opted to slow down their play, putting the onus on soirée to push with happy feet currently in the lead. soirée found themselves with a player advantage and a great Uber trade from cooki led to the death of Doge.exe in the ensuing fight. lau and soirée* were able to roll the advantage all the way back to happy feet's last point and a textbook push saw them equalise the score with three minutes left on the clock.

The final midfight of regulation saw both Medics survive, however happy feet were pushed all the way back to their last. soirée could not find an opening into the last point of happy feet due to their strong and with time running low they decided to take an Uber trade on cooki. This ended in disaster with cooki dying to a stick trap from redcoatzygote, taking us to a Golden Cap.

A passive middle from both teams saw both Medics survive, with happy feet forced back to their own last yet again. A huge double bomb from riot and Paulsen saw cooki in a position to take a favourable Uber trade, getting two picks during the Uber. happy feet were unable to withstand the numbers advantage of soirée, and soirée took the Golden Cap and with it the map at 4 - 3. Both redcoatzygote and enrith dropped impressive damage numbers, and despite losing down was able to post 35 frags from the flank.

Gullywash

Gullywash was the first map of choice for happy feet. Despite this, soirée won a convincing first mid and were poised to take the first round, however some absolute clutch plays from down and yewl saw happy feet fight on in the first round. An uncharacteristic fail from a Paulsen Spy play gave happy feet even more momentum, and saw them roll from their last all the way to their opponent's last point. A messy fight saw soirée emerge on top and they pushed out from their own last and retake second. They attempted to take mid as well, however after another fight were unable to get the cap. During this fight, Paulsen was able to flank Doge.exe, however, and find the frag securing Uber advantage for soirée. soirée then took the mid point and the second point, with silvo attempting an ambitious backcap on last. happy feet were able to shut him down and reclaim their second point and the mid point, however they lost three players in the process giving soirée the opportunity to take an Uber trade, forcing happy feet back to last. Several failed sacs came in from soirée saw the second silvo Spy play of the evening to no avail. happy feet decided to push out from last with the player advantage but in the chaos of the Uber exchange, riot managed to pick up three huge frags! Off the back of his huge Soldier play, riot and the rest of soirée managed to force happy feet back to their last point and overwhelm them with their huge player advantage, securing the first round.

After losses in both the first map and first round of the second map, happy feet needed to start making plays and it was season MVP redcoatzygote who stepped up on the second midfight. Two very fast kills from the Demoman quickly sealed the mid for happy feet, as soirée retreated back to their last point. happy feet tried to roll the momentum all the way into last but the resulting Uber trade did not go their way, forcing them to retreat. They opted to take a messy and chaotic fight, however, after the Ubers had faded that call proved very effective. The fight went the way of happy feet and they were able to pick up the first round of their map pick, tying up the scores.

After some heroics from his Demoman counterpart on the previous midfight, it was enrith to step up this round. Opting to roll the Loch-n-Load to the middle, a clean pipe onto Doge.exe at the very start of the mid allowed riot to bomb in and easily pick up the frag. This early loss caused happy feet to play hyper-aggressively to pick the opposing team's Medic, however some smart teamplay from lau and silvo saw soirée retain their Uber advantage with happy feet setting up at their own last. Doge.exe's early death, however, ended up saving last for happy feet as due to some very efficient Uber building, happy feet just managed to use their Uber as soirée were on their last looking to cap. soirée knew they would lose this fight against the much more favourable Uber of happy feet and made the call to fall back to second and reset to and even Uber situation. After building Uber, a failed double bomb from Paulsen and riot gave happy feet the chance to push out from last, however two very quick trade frags opened up an opportunity to push for soirée. An early Uber from lau sees a much later Uber from Doge.exe, and the subsequent fight leans in the favour of happy feet, with them getting three picks and a midpoint as their reward. As Ubers evened out once more, happy feet decided to sac three of the own players for the force. Their sac was successful, however a beautiful return force from only Paulsen left the three players of happy feet staring down the five of soirée, but a promising situation turned sour as cooki was dropped in an Uber trade to a pipe from redcoatzygote. With silvo going down on the flank at the same time, happy feet could easily retake mid. With the combo of soirée holding in in their own River, a perfectly-timed flank from feyn saw him pick up the frag on lau, giving happy feet a seemly perfect setup for a textbook Uber advantage last push. In the blink of an eye, however, the tides turned. Three instantaneous frags for soirée saw a complete collapse onto happy feet, with Doge.exe dying in the process. soirée managed to reclaim their own second point, but feyn and down winning a fight against cooki, riot and Paulsen saw another quick retreat to last from soirée. In the background of all of these scrappy fights, lau lad managed to stay alive and now found himself with significant Uber advantage, prompting a push out of last from soirée. They choose to push through River, but in the process left Lobby wide open. The veteran experience of AiShou and feyn saw them take this opportunity to sprint to last for a backcap. Despite cooki's sprint back to last, AiShou and feyn were too far ahead and secured the backcap, putting happy feet up 2 - 1 with less than four minutes left on the clock.

An early frag on the next midfight led to aggression from soirée as happy feet were retreating, and with time running out soirée decided to take an aggressive Uber trade. Their gamble paid off as they caught Doge.exe and happy feet off-guard, with the opposing Medic dying only four percent away from his Ubercharge. With soirée looking equalise the score and force a Golden Cap, Doge.exe spawned in time to have only a slight Uber disadvantage, but soirée were looking to capitalise with whatever advantage they could find. Excellent Pyro Uber denial from down right as the Uber came in saw Doge.exe easily get his Uber and the resultant fight saw both Soldiers die on each team, leaving us in a four on four situation. Despite the health advantage on the side of happy feet, stellar coordination from the Scouts of cooki and silvo, along with enrith trapping the point saw happy feet unable to deny the cap and soirée equalised the score to 2 - 2. The clock had kept ticking in the background and how had less than a minute remaining. With neither team taking an early lead in the next midfight, a Golden Cap was all but confirmed, taking us to our second Golden Cap of the evening.

The analyst desk were predicting a soirée victory in the Golden Cap, and with soirée winning all but one of the midfights in regulation time the pressure was on for happy feet. An early player disadvantage made happy feet's chances look slim, but an absolutely clutch triple kill from redcoatzygote, picking up both Scouts and the Medic saw the mid swing in happy feet's favour. Full Uber advantage for Doge.exe saw happy feet made a statement to soirée, executing a textbook last push and dominating the Golden Cap round, assuring soirée they were here to stay and winning their map pick 3 - 2 and tying the series up at 1 - 1. Both Demomen in the server once again put outhuge amounts of damage for their respective teams. cooki also topped the server in the fragging department, with an impressive 29 frags.

Snakewater

The next map up was Snakewater. The two finals teams were yet to play one another in an official match on Snakewater this season, so the winner of this map would be in a very strong spot to take the series. The first mid was a passive one from both teams, however happy feet found the player advantage and capitalised on it to force soirée out to their second. With pressure coming in from happy feet, soirée decided to take an Uber trade on cooki. The trade saw no major picks for either team, but the post-fight was firmly in the control of happy feet. A huge flank from yewl onto the combo of soirée saw the Pocket pick up three frags, with the rest of his team cleaning up two more. With only one alive on the side of soirée, happy feet were able to roll into last with a clean push, putting them ahead after the first round.

Another slow-paced mid saw no frags initially for either team, however soirée ultimately won the DM fight and picked up two, forcing happy feet back to last. A double Soldier bomb saw riot and Paulsen land no damage on a very passive Doge.exe, prompting a return sac from yewl. soirée were able to clean up yewl and use the advantage to make a last play themselves, however they lose three players in the process and allow happy feet to push out to second. Yet another double Soldier bomb from soirée this time does force the Uber from Doge.exe, and the tightly-grouped combo of cooki, enrith and lau are able to retain their Uber advantage while also fragging the sacing happy feet players. With full Uber advantage soirée were in a prime position to get their first round of the map, but a very effective Heavy play from down along with the support of his Soldier duo was enough to stave off the last cap. The survival of lau and the death of Doge.exe during the exchange, however, saw slight Uber advantage for soirée. Despite Doge.exe only on 80 percent Uber as lau popped into last, the Uber initially looked disastrous for soirée. Three frags went the way of happy feet in the middle of the soirée Ubercharge, and things were looking dire for the favourites. However, the chaos of the fight gave silvo the chance to cap last while the rest of happy feet were preoccupied, and the fast 2x Scout cap saw soirée even up the scores.

An initial early bomb led to both of the Soldiers of soirée go behind happy feet on the next mid. happy feet were not rattled by this and great team play and coordination from them saw the Soldiers behind them cleaned up as well as another two frags on the Demoman and Scout, leaving only lau and cooki alive for soirée. Looking for the Uber force, yewl and redcoatzygote aggressively bombed for lau and managed to get the force as lau was almost back to last. Using the remnants of the Uber from lau, cooki rushed to mid to force Doge.exe’s Uber in return. A successful force from cooki saw lau with another slight advantage, however soirée were unable to get into mid with it after losing Paulsen. What looked like a double Soldier sac for happy feet saw down die as well, netting no frags for the attacking team in return. With a three player advantage soirée were able to easily retake mid. After some failed sacs from both teams, soirée sent both riot and Paulsen in once more to get another force. A risky Uber milk from Doge.exe led to disaster, as he dropped Uber through cratering, putting soirée in the driver’s seat for this round. Some failed sacs onto lau saw that soirée would have a guaranteed push into last, and but some fantastic Uber kiting and well-timed player respawns led to a dominating hold from happy feet along with full Uber advantage. happy feet rolled this momentum all the way to mid, before a sneaky kitchen play from Paulsen successful managed to force Doge.exe. Despite this less than ideal Uber, happy feet made the most of it and quickly fragged both the Scouts of soirée along with the Roamer. Thanks to their Uber advantage, soirée were able to hold on to their second point but more picks for the side happy feet gave them the opportunity to push. But then, for the second time this evening, enrith’s clutch sticky traps bailed soirée out of a scary situation as he found the Uber drop on to Doge.exe. happy feet were able to force lau in the aftermath, but at the cost of redcoatzygote and down’s lives. The player advantage allowed soirée a shot at a last push once again, and it was silvo’s perfectly-timed point play taking the cap in the middle of an Uber exchange putting soirée up 2 - 1.

An early Paulsen bomb on the next mid picked up the instant frag onto redcoatzygote, prompting the casters to already call the mid to soirée. But excellent counter-aggression from happy feet onto an unprepared soirée saw them come out of the fight with play advantage and a midpoint capped in their favour. The first major offclass of the map, down decided to spawn on Spy. After finding himself in an extremely promising position, a heartbreaking backstab miss leads to both down and yewl dying for happy feet. A much better Uber trade for soirée seems everyone die on the side of happy feet with lau surviving with Uber advantage. A textbook push into last with the Scouts playing the point gave soirée the fourth round of the map, despite Doge.exe getting his own Uber seconds before the cap came in. With the pressure mounting for happy feet, things went from bad to worse as an extremely dominant mid from soirée led to a full wipe on the side of happy feet without them getting a single frag in return. Despite a valiant effort on last from AiShou and redcoatzygote, soirée were able to put another round on the scoreboard putting them up 4 - 1 on the map.

With yet another mid win from soirée, it was feyn to save the side of happy feet. A stunning Soldier bomb saw him drop lau as he was pushing into second, giving his team full Uber advantage. After a failed soirée backcap, the trio of cooki, Paulsen and riot sac for the Uber force, but with happy feet* already close to last all efforts from soirée to keep their last point were futile and happy feet managed to put up a desperately needed round. The pressure was now well and truly on for happy feet, and they were able to take the next mid with a narrow player advantage. With time running low and a two round deficit to overcome, happy feet found themselves pushing the second of soirée but the advantageous positioning of soirée saw the push fall apart for happy feet. Four deaths and a death from Doge.exe put soirée in a very favourable position. Using their own Uber on second, soirée picked up three frags and made their way into the last of happy feet, looking to extend their lead even further. Spawners came in for happy feet however, and soirée lost three players giving happy feet their second point back. An Uber trade onto mid initially looked dicey for happy feet, but excellent coordinated aggression picked up frags onto four soirée players, including lau. happy feet were forced to push without Uber due to the clock, and a scrappy fight on last came down to the wire but fell in the favour of soirée putting happy feet in an impossible situation. With a minute left on the clock, soirée had secured the map victory and took the map 4 - 2, putting them up 2 - 1 in the series. Despite a relatively convincing win from soirée, redcoatzygote topped the damage numbers in the server by quite a considerable amount, totaling 367 DPM on the map and over 10,000 total damage dealt. The unconventional Force-A-Nature combo Scout from cooki also proving its worth, with the combo Scout in question dropping 31 frags with only 12 deaths.

Product

Product was up next, and this pick of happy feet had the analyst desk questioning their decision. A historically strong map for soirée, happy feet would have to put on an impressive show to take it but doing so would put them in a very favourable position for the final map of the series. Unfortunately the map did not start out as they would have hoped, with a convincing mid win for soirée seeing Doge.exe die during the retreat at the hands of enrith and lau surviving, netting soirée massive Uber advantage. happy feet did acquire a few frags on the midfight, and decided to use the spawner advantage to refight the point. The fight was was won by soirée without lau needing to use Uber, and with Doge.exe nearing his own Uber it was looking to be another even fight. At that point it was redcoatzygote, one of happy feet’s best performers of the evening, to make another huge play for his team. Perfect stickbomb placement found the drop on lau. Seeing the potential amount of time that happy feet would be able to drain from the clock with full Uber advantage, soirée used this situation to sac all of their remaining players towards the point, successfully forcing the Uber from Doge.exe. After respawning, soirée choose to take an aggressive and scrappy fight with happy feet which pays off after riot finds the frag on to Doge.exe. lau once again finds himself with a significant Uber advantage and now the point in his team’s control. soirée were reluctant to use the Uber however well coordinated aggression after finding two picks finally saw lau use Uber. No returns frags for soirée saw happy feet take the point and Uber advantage. Both teams continued to trade point control and Uber advantage until it looked like happy feet were solidly in control, but yet another incredible sticky trap from enrith saw soirée in a perfect position to close out the round with less than 30 seconds on the clock. An Uber on the point with only ten seconds remaining gave soirée the first round of the map, leaving the analyst desk’s predictions of a soirée victory looking all the more likely.

Keeping with analyst predictions, soirée took the next midfight but a successful force on to lau gave happy feet full advantage. happy feet managed to capture the point with the Uber, but no frags along with it. The repush from soirée gifts them four frags, but not the Medic they were looking for. In a similar fashion to the first round, the Uber trades continued but this time it was Paulsen to break the rut with a massive sync bomb onto Doge.exe after the soirée Uber. soirée now found themselves in a very similar situation to the first round, with the clock running down and significant Uber advantage. The Uber of soirée initially looked to be very good, however some last minute heroics from the Scout combo of AiShou and down picked up three frags including the Medic, ensuring Uber advantage for their team. In tune with the rest of the evening it was another individual play from soirée to help them out of a difficult situation, with a silvo flank picking up Doge.exe. In an exact repeat of the previous round, soirée’s Uber on the point with less than ten seconds left saw them pick up another round, putting them on championship point.

With everything on the line happy feet finally found a mid win, but an instant refight from*soirée* immediately put the pressure back on. A much better Uber for Doge.exe saw a full wipe on the side of soirée, giving happy feet a much needed opportunity to begin snowballing momentum. A successful force from soirée gave them Uber advantage but happy feet’s clock time was running low, forcing them to make a play soon. soirée were able to use their advantage to full effect, wiping happy feet and putting them back in contention. Another teamfight looked to go in soirée’s favour, however the last man alive AiShou snuck in a kill on to lau putting his team in an extremely good position to retake the point. An Uber trade went strongly in the favour of soirée but with no time on the clock for happy feet and over a minute and a half for soirée things were looking good for the attacking team. Despite the Uber advantage , excellent coordinated spam saw a force from lau and great focus fire eliminated the flank of Paulsen and silvo. With significant player advantage, happy feet were able to recap the point and secure their first round of the map, keeping their Grand Final hopes alive.

After 20 seconds of passive play from both teams, the next mid eventually saw both teams trading frags with the trades going the way of soirée. An Uber trade saw no major frags for either team but the postfight was not kind towards happy feet. Another Doge.exe death allowed soirée to bleed more time from the clock, and things began to look very dire for the reigning champions. A successful force from lau allows soirée to transition into a forward hold, and happy feet lose both down and redcoatzygote during their attempted push out of cliff. This man disadvantage prevented happy feet from capitalising on their Uber advantage and with lau the odds were not looking good for happy feet. An Uber trade saw an extremely dominant soirée wipe the side of happy feet losing only riot in return. With only a last minute push left, lau comes up on his Uber just in time preventing the cap from happy feet and securing the final round of the map, taking it 3 - 1 and the series 3 - 1 as well. Once again despite the loss it was redcoatzygote topping the damage stats with a ludicrous 446 DPM, with Demoman counterpart enrith top-damaging for the side of soirée. Dominant Scout performances from silvo and cooki paved the way for soirée throughout the evening, and Product was no exception. All of the soirée players performed during the finals and played a part in crowing soirée your ozfortress season 29 Premier champions!

Thank you to all the players, support staff and patrons that helped make this season possible. We'll see you all again soon!

Placements

1st - soirée
2nd - happy feet
3rd - Taylor Swift Fan Club

Awards

Best Demoman: redcoatzygote
Best Medic: lau
Best Pocket: yewl
Best Roamer: feyn
Best Combo Scout: AiShou and cooki
Best Flank Scout: down
Best Utility: down and silvo

Most Improved Player: daz
Most Valuable Player: redcoatzygote

Friendliest Team: happy feet
Most Improved Team: ✨ C'EST LA VIE ✨
Best Dressed Team: happy feet
Best Caster: Elmo.