Minnesota Røkkr vs Dallas Empire

CDL 2021: Minnesota tops Dallas, evens up Stage 2 record at 2-2

Coming off a stunning sweep of Chicago OpTic on Thursday, R­økkr prepared for a rematch against the other Group B titan, Dallas Empire.

The first match-up between the teams was in Stage 1; Røkkr won 3-2. A key question following the roster change that brought Standy to Minnesota was whether R­økkr could remain strong in Search and Destroy. Today the team proved the SnD chemistry is still there.

Like last time, R­økkr won both Search and Destroy maps and Control and Dallas won both Hardpoints. With the win today, Røkkr evened its stage 2 record at 2-2 and created a path to a top 3 finish in the group, which would yield a spot in the winner’s bracket at the second Major. 

The entire Røkkr roster made key plays and lit up the scoreboard today. Priestahh turned in a consecutive strong performance with a 1.07 K/D and led Røkkr with over 18K of damage. Attach had the highest K/D at 1.1. The young gun Standy won several critical gun fights and Accuracy had a rare ace in SnD, a moment that gave Røkkr momentum they carried through to win the match. 

Map 1: Checkmate Hardpoint

The opening Hardpoint had an all too familiar feeling for R­økkr fans. They opened with time on P1 and flipped spawns heading into P2 to jump out to a 64-18 lead. R­økkr was up 126-111 heading into the second P2, but it was all Dallas from there and they secured a 250-180 win. Huke led the way for Empire at 29/18 with 1:54 hill time.

Map 2: Moscow Search and Destroy

Another strong SnD performance was highlighted by a rare ace by Accuracy in round 4. That put Røkkr up 3-1 on its way to a 5-3 map win.

Accuracy tallied another five kills to end the round at 9/2. Priestahh also turned in a strong round with a 9/4 score line. 

Map 3: Raid Control

Some of the most exciting Control action of the season culminated in a critical map 3 win for R­økkr. Minnesota went up 2-0, highlighted by an epic four killstreak by Standy to delay Dallas from securing the A point in round 2. Røkkr was within 25 seconds of closing out round 4, but Empire held strong with critical kills to force a deciding Round 5. 

Minnesota was on defense for Round 5. Dallas captured the A point with two minutes remaining and began its push towards the B point. Attach had two critical kills to slow them down with roughly one minute left. Shortly after, Attach won a critical 1v1 against Illey and Minnesota thwarted a final push from Dallas to close the map with a win. 

A highlight from the rookie: in map 3, Standy went 31/40 but lead both teams in damage at 7,039, proving his impact and ability to create opportunities for his team to finish strong.    

Map 4: Raid Hardpoint

Even with their backs against the wall, Empire dominated the second Hardpoint map, taking an early lead they never surrendered. The easy 250-181 Empire win sent the match to map 5.  

Map 5: Express Search and Destroy

If Dallas expected R­­­­­­økkr to hold form and come into the second SnD with slow and methodical play, they were taken by surprise from the start. Minnesota won round 1 in just seven seconds, and nearly repeated that in round 7. 

Dallas battled back after R­økkr won a few rounds to tie things up at 4-4. In round 5 Attach won a key gunfight with Shotzzy and the Dallas offense was faced with an inconvenient bomb drop.  Standy read Illey’s next move, eliminating him to put R­økkr up 5-4. 

In the deciding round 10, Priestahh and Attach covered Standy while he planted the bomb at A and escaped cleanly with three Empire players in the vicinity. R­økkr then easily deflected the push by Empire and closed out the map, winning the match.