The JeeSports CTF Nations Cup has reached round 2 now.
We would like to present a little review on round 1 with detailed insight on the most exciting matches.



In the Nations Cup opening match Norway faced The Netherlands.



The encounter of those Group 1 teams took a brief ending since Norway couldn't keep up with their superior colleagues from middle Europe. The Netherlands' map pick Ironworks turned out 8-0 only 17 seconds before the 20 minute mark. Norway showed a quite defensive play and eventually was not able to take control over enemy red and the Powerups. Draven showed impressive homered-play which allowed him to build up monster stacks which mostly ended up in caps. While DCR had a hard time keeping the flag in base, Sc00t played a remarkable base defence detering Norway from their first flagtouch for 10 minutes.

Norways pick Troubled Waters started just like the first map. After only 1 minute draven managed to steal the flag easily which was punished immediately with a 1-0 for Holland. Only a few minutes later Norway expierenced a flicker of hope when DCR finally got into the game and put a 1-1 on the scoreboard. Unfortunately this cap should stay the last for Norway and The Netherlands continued their convincing 3-men-attacks. A lack of communication or maybe Vissers and Sc00ts dominating mid and supportive play might be the reason, why the Scandinavians barely had any red armor or medkit touches, while their opponents controlled the items as strong as the mid itself. The match and the game ended after 16 minutes and 5 seconds, 8-1 in favor of The middle europeans.

VOD



In the second game of Round 1, another middle vs northern Europe match took place: Germany played against Finland. The Group 2 match would turn out as one of the closest in Round 1.



On the first map, Japanese Castles, aim-heavy players such as wit, gerppa and fragmaster showed amazing moves and frags. Also xtro proofed himself with his sneaky-in-fast-out skills once more. It looked like the match would surely go into overtime but the Germans didn't count with gerppa who managed to win the game 5-4.

The second map pick Ironworks was even closer. Barely one Powerup got picked up clean and the match turned noticeably dead serious. Germany seemed to advance out of this brutal battle over the mid control and thanks to xtros and Fragmasters attacking skills it was 2-0 at the 10 minute mark. This fragile balance turned to Finlands advantage and legendary thaigo finally capped after 12 minutes. With only 20 seconds remaining thaigo once more capped and therefor forced Germany into overtime. After 4 minutes of incredibly intense CTF action quake 2 legend gerppa could take advantage out of a clean Powerup touch and a medkit to end the overtime with 3-2 for Finland.

VOD



The third match to take place was Italy versus France. Spider Crossings and Ironworks were the maps to be played.



Italy confronted with Frances star line-up (winz, the_k1ng, l1nkin and fishbone) would show a clean fight and a good game on the french pick Spider Crossings. Despite the final map score 6-0 in favor of France, the Italians played solid and clever. The french team with superior aim and some little mistakes in communication on the italian side decided the map clearly for France. zyrinx, the flag def, showed a great performance though. His clever reads and smart decisions combined with strong aim surely secured the Italian team from a brief 8-0.

Quite the same situation appeared on Italys pick Ironworks. While Spider Crossing is a more stiff structured map Ironworks is decided by individual play since u need to react on situations instantly. Italy seemed to struggle on keeping the fragile construct of their strong-def-2-attackers formation alive. dimitris good home Red play worked in parts against l1nkins convincing enemy Red attacks but the bottom line is - Italy had to accept their defeat without a single cap. 5-0 and team France winning the game.

VOD #1, VOD #2



The fourth game of the JeeSports Nations Cup would later be known as The Great Battle of the East. Russia and Poland delievered epic 3 matches which couldn't have been closer at all. Japanese Castles was the first pick, Troubled Waters the second and Ironworks eventually ended the carnage.



On Japanese Castles springsteen, h8m3 and hypnoi showed off an amazing box defence. While Russia defended with 2 players, the burden of defence was on quake 3 legend springsteen a.k.a. annihiluzz all alone. Both Poland and Russia had back to back flag touches but the perfect teamplay of both teams didn't allow anyone to cross mid. It looked like no matter what direction to take, how much support to have, the opponent team always catched the carriers right away. There was literally a fight over every single Powerup and only few Quads actually made it into the enemy base. After 9 minutes of holding the balance pyton took down the defence line and made his way to the garden where he got stopped. When hypnoi returned the flag immediately without waiting for the "save" by his mates, wolf had an easy grab and made his way home. This crucial mistake put a 1-0 for Poland on the scoreboard. With 14 minutes on the clock Russia decided to switch their tactics to a 3 men offence which eventually was rewarded with a cap. Poland was able to keep their game stable though and the match lead to an insane 8 minute overtime. After 3 Powerups in the overtime, pyton finally got a clean pick up and stole the flag. When he used the front yard jumppad to his base, down to 35 hp, railbot missed the crucial rail and pyton was able to finish the map to his favor.

Russians pick Troubled Waters was the second map and Poland made a tactical player switch. wolf got exchanged for paw, polands teamleader.The polish team seemed to have troubles getting control over mid and after only 3 minutes railbot had a rather easy cap without much resistence by Poland. The russian tactics seemed risky though. They didn't care about red armors or medkits, trying to dominate mid. Unfortunately the polish attackers couldn't convert their stack advantage into a cap and the map ended 1-0 for Russia.

After a short picking process Poland decided to take the fight on Ironworks. After 5 minutes the perfect balance over mid turned into a cross cap. pyton with the flag only made his way across the map because of the brilliant support by springsteen and wolf while railbot made a quite clean steal. Only some seconds later Poland could get the return and the cap. After 8 minutes wolf once more proofed he`s worth the money and made a genious sneak to the flag escaping high with well-timed support by his team - 2-0 Poland. From that point team Russia seemed to lose confidence and railbot struggled defending his base. On the 10 minute mark wolf once more stole the flag and made it across but railbot stopped him with a holysh1t rail. As nice as the shot was wolf had enough support and the cap eventually was made. After a 3 minute cross cap hypnoi finally made the first point for Russia at the 14 minute mark. Unfortunately the Russians couldn't keep control and the match ended 6-1 after 3 quite convincing caps from Poland.

VOD



The 5th game was Denmark vs Belgium.



On the first map Ironworks Denmark was struggling against Belgiums heavy-aim line-up naming vertex and dem0n but thanks to great individual play by zlc and rahzei Denmark could take advantage of the Powerups and finish the map 5-2 in their favor.

On Belgiums pick Japanese Castles the middle europeans were clearly dominating and forced a decider map with 6-3. The Belgians finally got into the game and were able to put constant pressure on their opponents while Denmark had a hard time breaking dem0ns remarkable box defence.

On the third map Troubled Waters the Belgians could take full advantage of vertex ruling mid with dem0n as strong flag defence.Denmark really did play well but their opponents teamplay wouldn't let them escape the base or even get across mid. After 20 intense minutes Belgium took the map 2-0.

VOD #1, VOD #2, VOD #3



Round 1 of the JeeSports Nations Cup was completed with Sweden versus United Kingdom.

After a thrilling match Sweden won on their map pick Spider Crossings 3-1. Sweden Nace and Sweden dibbe showed great teamplay just like United Kingdom betija and United Kingdom Derfel.

Spider Crossings was a very close and even match and thats why it was a big surprise seeing UK owning Sweden on their pick Ironworks. After a rather short game the match ended 8-1 in UKs favor.


The third map Japanese Castles was very similar to the first map and UK eventually won the game 3-1.

VOD #1, VOD #2



Text by mousestar. We will keep you uptodate with the Round 2 matches. Don't forget to follow JeeSports ! Stay tuned! - FaceBook and Twitter. Thanks!