The REVENGE - N0X vs LEG | UC Round 3 | Events with N0X

 In the second round of UC, N0X had beaten UTB, securing their first-ever UC win and they were lucky: in the next round, they would face LEG and although maybe that was just the hype from winning Round 2, N0X was hopeful to get a win once more. Hotep, on the other hand, still remembered their humiliating loss against them in UC two seasons prior and so was not optimistic. 

LEG had also decisively beaten UTB, more than N0X had beaten them with. In addition to that, a good chunk of N0X accounts were already out of speeds and so would not be able to do much.

N0X had one main strategy going into the match and that was to win races. LEG was known to have their best leads be good racers taking and holding buildings without any chance for an intercept, so winning races would be key.

After the races, N0X would still have to play their A game, though, against the stronger LEG leads.

When the match started, N0X racers had started doing what was needed, winning both mother and warrior races, while LEG leads won races on the two outposts.

After swapping both buildings, N0X prepared for the first defense, which would be at the mother. Since LEG did not swap, N0X still had to wait for their bubbles to drop.

The defense was surprisingly easy, with just 2, maybe 3 rallies from LEG even winning. There was a reason N0X swapped VERGO in there. As one of their strongest accounts, he held very well vs UTB, with Mother being the only building they could hold for most of the match.

Besides Nominor, LEG's strongest account, there was not much that could kick VERGo, making the first defense a full success.

With this win in their back, N0X now finally was able to start their own offense and it was another big success, taking the close Outpost and securing warrior buffs before Hoteps rally had even arrived.

In the port races, each team got one port and while LEG rallied their outpost, N0X rallied the enemy outpost. N0X was quicker to fill their rallies and so got the first chance to hit, but unlike the other outpost, this one was holding strong.

Since the building was spear, Hotep had no chance, but he had rallied anyway, just to reduce the defenses. With 4 of their big leads tied in buildings, though, N0X was not strong enough to win.

Quickly speeding back, N0X could defend their building as well when the LEG rallied it, although it was much more difficult than the mother defense.

In quick succession, LEG rallied port and then warrior, and while LEG was unsuccessful at the warrior, they were able to win and take the port, which was bad news for N0X. Since the CR race was at the same time and N0X won it, it was not too demoralizing.

That demoralization would come less than a minute later when LEG pulled off a crazy interception without having a slow march.

N0X wanted to respond by taking the close port, but although it was close, LEG reinforcements arrived in time to save it.

While setting up for a second attempt on the close port, which actually turned out much worse than the first one, Hotep found out that the far port was quite soloable for him and probably a lot of others and so after the lost rallies on Arwen, they took the building with a solo wave of their leads.

This win was followed up by N0X also kicking LEG out of CR and then in the third attempt, finally taking the close port.

In the next minutes, N0X and LEG kept on trading ports back and forth, while N0X successfully defended Warrior, CR and the close outpost.

30 minutes in, the match was super close, although N0X had a slight advantage since Warrior, Mother and CR were basically locked in, forcing LEG to always fight on the downhill. Since Nominor, their strongest account, was in a port too, N0X also had a lot less to worry about regarding solos.

When the mines opened, N0X had built up a 4k lead, but that would hopefully be increased soon since they won both mine races.

After getting two top leads in the form of Belore and Bearface into the mines at the same time, it was time to defend. And defend they did, taking two rally leads on Bearface, but Bearface, although close at times, could always hold. After their two waves, the mines were almost empty and so LEG had to give up. 

The last 10 minutes of the match were basically just N0X securing the last few buildings, just for the sake of it. LEG did embrace the fun, though, bubbling their port, which led to the entire voice chat launching. Now with the pressure off, that's the kind of thing they enjoyed.

It had been an amazing match and probably the best performance N0X ever had. With all their swaps (besides the CR one) working, a lot of good defenses, perfect racing and well-timed rallies, it had been a great conclusion to the season, beating the rival that had kicked them two seasons ago and proving Hotep wrong in his pessimism. For once, Hotep did not mind being wrong, though…

Their next match would be vs HD, a match they would lose for sure, so now they could just enjoy the rest of the season as spectators, being proud they had somehow found themselves in the top 8 of the most competitive event of the game…

GOT WIC Chronicler HotepRa