Phee Phi Pho Phum win OZF 31 Open!

Congratulations Open winners Phee Phi Pho Phum

Logs

Gullywash - 3 - 1
Clearcut - 3 - 2
Match Thread

Congratulations to Phee Phi Pho Phum on winning the OZF 31 Open Grand Final against hume doors.

We can't lie, Phee Phi Pho Phum has had an incredible season. Between not dropping a single map to anyone, and only losing seven rounds prior to playoffs (credit's to Avo's Cados for contributing four of those), and sadly playoffs didn't stop their march to total victory.

Going off that blurb you would think that they were unrivalled and breezed through their two playoffs matches but whilst it was not a close series, Meat Your Match gave it a crack in the Upper Page match and managed a respectable score and time, but quickly saw themselves sent to the Semi's to face the team who would become our runner up, hume doors. hume doors had a decent showing throughout the season, only dropping two matches in rounds three and six, and losing a map in round seven. Whilst they had a decent season their playoffs performance stands apart from the regular season, but we do have one last honourable mention. humblegods had a season of results much like hume doors, however they actually entered the Lower Page match with a higher seeding than hume doors, losing both maps to them in a fairly close series. With hume doors beating out the team seated above them, they proceeded to the Semi's to take on Meat Your Match, closing out the match in another close series and cementing Meat Your Match in third place, proceeding to the Grand Finals. Whilst their in-season performance is nothing to scoff at, some were surprised to see them come from the bottom position in playoffs to be in the Grand Finals.

So back to the match you're reading this post for, the Grand Finals. Whilst we can't be sure, seeing the bottom team in playoffs fight their way through statistically better teams, that had to worry Phee Phi Pho Phum. Nonetheless, the Picks and Bans was process kicked off by Phee Phi Pho Phum:

Phee Phi Pho Phum banned Granary
hume doors banned Metalworks
Phee Phi Pho Phum banned Snakewater
hume doors banned Sunshine
Phee Phi Pho Phum picked Gullywash
hume doors picked Clearcut
Phee Phi Pho Phum picked Reckoner

The Picks and Bans saw more of the traditionally chosen maps banned out, with only Gullywash remaining. Seeing the relatively new Clearcut in playoffs is great, but also surprising as it is not the only KOTH map on the table. With Product, yet another staple not even in the running, the process was closed out with another recent-ish addition in Reckoner.

Gullywash got the ball rolling, and for Phee Phi Pho Phum that ball must have been a wrecking ball. Within the first three minutes, they had managed to convert their mid-fight win into the first round of the series, establishing early dominance though not a lasting dominance. Whilst Phee Phi Pho Phum converted the second round into a win after six minutes and a mid-fight win, from here on out the rounds were consistently longer than the first and hume doors had finally shown some fight on their own last hold. In the space of just over three minutes, both teams took uber exchanges, with Phee Phi Pho Phum picking up frags across the board and leaving only hume doors' medic tohca left all alone to defend the round, and whilst a noble attempt was made, it was only an attempt. Round three would be the longest round of the match, and was taken by hume doors after spending majority of the ten minutes between Phee Phi Pho Phum's choke and last, and whilst we saw a half-dozen uber exchanges, nothing in the way of momentum came out of either side, especially hume doors who would tragically need it. They closed out and converted the round into a win, but round four onwards started the trend of quicker rounds again, as it seemed Phee Phi Pho Phum had found their feet and off the back of an uber drop from tohca, they silenced any self-doubt and took round four. With the new found confidence, and with some not so great fights from hume doors, we saw the fifth round end due to the time limit.

hume doors had managed to take the number one down a notch by taking a round and bringing the map to time, but sadly that's the end of the praises. Neither team saw any real standout players, the closest we got was chimes from hume doors with bottom frags but top damage out of the combat classes, and the medic selad from Phee Phi Pho Phum ending the map with three frags. With the star pupils credited, we need to put out any flames in your heart for a possible three map series, as Clearcut would end up being the last. That's not to say it was a bad map for either team, it ended up being the closest map in the series.

We ended up seeing five rounds in total, with the first round wrapped up as a win for hume doors off the back of a mid-fight win, with hume doors own alrac pulling off ten kills, closely followed by their other scout lachlan with seven. These two would end up being the driving force for hume doors on Clearcut, but an exceptional game from both PhiPhi and dott from Phee Phi Pho Phum would have us witness seventy-one murders that turned the tide for round two and onwards, but it wasn't the only round taken by hume doors, managing to close out round three after another mid-fight going in their favour, with their scouts yet again showing up. Two crucial medic picks from hume doors saw round three close in their favour and overall it was a much cleaner round for them, but yet again Phee Phi Pho Phum found their feet. Round four brought us the PhiPhi experience, with eleven kills being followed only by dott with six, seeing us through to a round four conversion in the favour of Phee Phi Pho Phum after medics from both sides couldn't find the miracle secret of Team Fortress 2, survival. See, it is much easier to convert rounds when the most important class in the game is alive, and considering the mediocre at best uber exchanges, there wasn't much hope for the post uber fights. Alas, in all but one instance both medics died sometime not too far after the exchanges, leaving round four to be narrowly edged out by Phee Phi Pho Phum. Round five gave us not lemons, but finally cleaner exchanges and fights, and inin keeping with the traditions set thus far by Phee Phi Pho Phum, they made this the final round of the series. There wasn't much for either team to write home about with this round, players from Phee Phi Pho Phum led the pack with the highest frags for the round, but other than that everything was fairly standard, some cleaner play than we had seen earlier on in combination with the edge in frags saw the end of Clearcut.

Whilst the scoreline doesn't give it the justice this match deserves, the series saw some less than ideal mistakes come out of hume doors which consistently gave Phee Phi Pho Phum an edge, namely one-too-many ubers akin to the infamous catfish "fat dub". There weren't even any significant deathmatch differences between the players, just bad play at the crucial moments needed to convert rounds. Neither team were exempt from the mistakes, sadly however Phee Phi Pho Phum was able to play cleaner and convert more advantages and post fights in their favour.

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

Placements

1st - Phee Phi Pho Phum
2nd - hume doors
3rd - Meat Your Match - Duckypus' Revival

Awards

Best Demoman: fatpizza
Best Medic: crying laughing emoji
Best Pocket: cool dad
Best Roamer: dott
Best Combo Scout: PhiPhi
Best Flank Scout: Covino
Best Utility: dott

Most Improved Player: Ducky
Most Valuable Player: clrizm

Friendliest Team: Flying Spies and Meat Your Match - Duckypus' Revival
Most Improved Team: fatpoggers but we actually signed up and Meat Your Match
Best Dressed Team: Flying Spies
Best Caster: Luggnuts