The final has been played and what a final it was! Two of the best quake 2 duel players in the world faced tonight in the battle of titans. Damiah who had won 27 games in a row was a favourite in many peoples eyes, but there were also many who believed that provi could do what noone else has done for years. Read more and find out what happened and how the champion got his crown!


Damiah who was a hometeam in this final got to play his maps first. He chose what expected, q2rdm2 as his home map and maybe little surprising q2dm2 as his secondary map. He had the advantage of knowing that no matter what happens, he gets to play both of his maps. The server chosen was KTA Battle where provi had a little ping advantage over Damiah. After scorebots were running and GTV was on, the game got started.

Damiah apparently spawned behind MH and had an opportunity to make jump for the railgun but instead, he chose to go on the other side of the wall where he picked chaingun in his hands. Provi spawned under the jump pad next to the hand grenades and he quickly jumped up and took megahealth. Damiah's chainfire pushes provi down to the ground where he pickes up RL and makes his way back to the jumpad and straight for the rail. Damiah can't keep provi from grapping the most powerful gun in the map and that is the first nail in his coffin. Provi who has now the railgun controls the map and keeps damiah on distance with some sneaky rails. He hits some slugs to Damiah but never he is able to find a way to put that one final slug on him that would give him the first frag. Damiah does what he can under this railgun pressure and the game is a little bit campy. Provi who has mh and all possible weapons just keeps his mind cool and stays on the higher levels of map where Damiah can't kill him.
First frag starts developing when Damiah sneaks to the rail and is able to run away with it. Provi puts on his 2nd gear and it does not take long when he puts Dami on low health with a well placed slug and then chains him down making the score 1:0. Provi who controls the mh does not make any hasty moves, he just waits for a chances to hit some rails and maybe then use his fearful chaingun to finish the job. Even hitting a single rail seems to be hard here when Damiah hides behind every possible corner and does not let provi to see him straight and clear. After 6 minutes provi finally frags damiah for the 2nd time and now it takes just 20 seconds before the score is 3:0. Damiah spawns on the railway and tries to go for the rail, but he is shot down to lava by provis railshot making the score 3:-1. Damiah is able to steal another railgun when provi is at the water armor area, but it does not take long before provi chains him down and gets a spawnfrag right after that.
Score is now 5:-1 for provi and it definately doesn't look too good for Dami. Provi makes his lead to 6:-1 with a rl kill and then Damiah gets lucky and spawns at the railgun. That was a really important spawn because now he is able to take control from provi and maybe make a comeback. After a fierce chaingun fight at the water armor area Damiah is finally able to kill provi, but that frag does not help him too much. Provi gets the best possible spawn at the rail and he kills Damiah as he jumps up the jumppad unaware of provis railgun. Damiah tries to make a quick attack after that, but provi simply rails him twice and takes his 8th frag. Damiah who now gets again a good spawn at the rail is finally able to break provis control and start to make his comeback. It doesn't take too long before Damiah has turned his 0 frags to 3 and when 4 minutes of the map is left the game is still open. Valuable time runs out when provi plays defensively and runs away the best he can. Finally a prediction rocket combined with chaingun attack gives Damiah some chances as he evens the score to 8:4.
Provis chain is bit too much for Damiah to handle and he has to pull back and find more health, using the valuable time for comeback. Provi does everything he can to run away and Damiah's chaingun attack almost turns to his death when provi chains him down to 6 health. One minute is left when Damiah evens the score to 8:6 and the chances are still there. A missed railshot as provi goes up the jumppad and a careless attack followed after that, gives provi an opportunity to end this map as he smashes three massive SSG shots to Damiah's face. One more frag for provi before the end and he wins with 4 frag margin, 10:6. Very exciting map where spawnluck played a big part.



The second map and provis first home map is not q2dm1 as expected - it is q2duel5. I thought that this map should be easier to win for provi, but oh my god how wrong I was. Damiah is just not a person to be underrestimated in any circumstances. The map starts when with Damiah getting the Rocket Launcher and provi the railgun and chaingun. As a reminder that this map is nothing like q2rdm2, the first frag comes really fast when Damiah hits provi couple of times with RL and then rails him to his death. Second frag is soon to follow and we can see that his is not going to be a low frag game. Provi is able to kill Damiah with a nice hyperblaster fire and then tie the game with a RL frag, but then starts Damiah's play. He hits really many important rails and score changes from 2:2 to 8:2 really quickly. Provi is now struggling to find a way to get back to game but Damiah doesn't think so. He keeps on hitting those rails and rockets and Provi does not seem to be able to break his control. Finally Damiah misses some important rockets and Provi is able to kill him, but it doesn't take too long before Damiah kills provi again.
Game is going from one side to another and it seems that it is Provi who is trying to control the map more when Damiah is taking it more easy. Provi seems to be on a hunting mood and he keeps on attacking Damiah the best he can. Damiah is not an easy target to kill and provi just cant find a way to kill him and to gain the control. Damiah plays defensively and lets provi to take the initiative, hoping to be able to kill him on some careless attack. That tactic reminds me of the previous EDL final where purri fall in to that trap and lost the game 3:0. I dont know if provi thought the same because he calms down a bit and that starts to give him some results. He is able to find a frag from here and there and the score gets more even. Provi is mostly controlling the RL area while Damiah controls the rail/chaingun area.
When there is 7 minutes left of the game, the score is 15:7 for Damiah and game is going from side to side. For each frag Provi gets, he also gets killed and the gap stays pretty much the same. Provi misses some important rails here and there and that must feel frustrating knowing that he really needs to close down the cap as fast as possible. Damiah plays his own game, wise and well controlled when provi has the upper hand, but he changes immedeately to more aggressive style when he has a chance to do so. Game stays really even all the time and when there is 5:30 left of the map the score is 16:9 for Damiah. The scenario does not change a bit as the game continues: provi keeps on running after Damiah who does his best to stay the hell away from him. It seems that there is just no way to break Damiah's defence and the gap just won get any smaller.
Time starts to run out and when there is just 3:30 left and score is still 20:14 in favour of Damiah, provi seems to start to be desparate. Unlike in rdm2 where comeback is really hard to do, it is possible in here. Provi shows us how its done: He starts with a railkill when there's 3:12 left, followed be 2nd railkill 10 seconds later. Then a chainkill on 2:50 mark, and a railkill when there is 2:35 left of the game. He dies under Damiah's chaingun fire when its 2:20 left of the map, but then when Damiah kills him again, provi explodes a handgrenade in his face and that is a frag for both. Score is now 22:19. Provi takes a breath for half a minute now and then continues: Chaingun kill at 1:29 and a rocket kill few seconds later makes score 22:21. 1:08 left and RL kill ties the game. 53 seconds left and another rocket put on Damiah's feet gives provi the lead for the first time in this map. A railgun frag just 4 seconds after that gives him 2 frag lead and when there is just 35 seconds left, another railshot makes his lead up to 3 frags. A chaingun kill and a exploding grenade in Damiah's hands adds one frag for both, but keeps provis lead in 3 frags. Again just seconds after that when there is 22 seconds left on the clock, provi adds another rocket boosted frag in his pocket and score is 27:23. One last frag with a chaingun with 3 seconds left leaves us with the final score of 28:23 for provi and 2:0 lead in maps.



dm2:
Very nice start for Damiah and an absolutely HORRIBLE start for provi here, one of the worst i've ever seen. Dami spawned above ra lift and provi at the rocketlauncher. Knowing provi would go for the chain, dami threw a grenade while riding up the lift and provi cought it cleanly in the face. Provi gets his rl back, but somehow manages to blow himself up with it. Right after that he misses the grenadejump to mega and gets chained in the back while dropping down making him crater. Score after 50 seconds is 1 - -2 :) After that it's classic dm2 with Damiah in control and provi desperatly trying to break it. He actually manages to get the bfg and kills dami with it while dying himself at the same time. Damiah wins the spawn lottery and gets the rl making a rocketjump to ra and gets the map back in control again. It stays that way for quite some time, provi getting very little done except dying. With 10:20 remaining he finally gets a chance when he's given the rail and ra by a good spawn. Provi starts to hunt for dami, but to have any chance of coming back here he would have to do it much faster. After only a few frags he gets killed with a few solid rockets and dies with rail in hand giving Damiah control of the map again. At that point the game was clearly over, and even if provi made a few nice rail and chainfrags in the end there was no way he could have won. Final score 16-9 for Damiah.



dm1: Start went to Damiah who got the chain and made the first frag. He never got any control going thought since he got hurt by provis ssg and couldn't survive the rail provi landed soon thereafter. Now it was full control by provi, with Damiah doing some strange camping above low rl to throw him off. It sort of worked, because he managed to retake mega with some rl spam, but couldn't kill provi who ran out to collect some health and then came storming in making short work of Damiah with the chaingun. Now provi really started to shine and stalked dami everywhere he spawned, never letting him get any breathing room. With about 9 min left score was 6-1 for provi and the map was in a kind of deadlock with provi staying in the mega and Damiah not wanting to attack since provis railgun kept him away. Provi finally decided he'd had enough of that and ran up to the lift with a raging chaingun killing Damiah. After that dami almost killed provi, but he survived with 6hp and Damiah blew himself up shortly thereafter. Score was now 11-0 for provi, and Damiah was typing (in finnish) "I haven't hit a single rail yet". Sure enough his rail was at 0%, and that just doesn't cut it against opponents like provi. Time was now running out for Damiah, who desperatly tried to force himself into the room and actually succeeded. Provi went down and Damiah was running with crazy moves moves all over the map trying to get some frags. He did get a few, but got shut down by some nice ssg work from provi and that was game over for Damiah. Score was now 14-3 with only 3 minutes remaining and both players knew it was over. They kept playing to the end just for the sake of it though, GG's were being exchanged and we have our new EDL champion in provi! Congratulations!