The New Kings of Paris: MCC Finals Recap

Once more, Heroes of the Storm esports have arrived at the Centre Culturel la Ferme Corsange in Bailly-Romainvilliers, right outside Paris. The third Master Clash Championship LAN put together the four best European teams to look for a new (or returning) owner of their beautiful trophy.

The four contenders were Chilly Mountain, Bang Bush and Oxygen Esports coming directly from the group stage, and Granit Gaming as the gauntlet winners. Two of these squads needed to bring in some stand-ins due to some of their players not being able to make it to Paris. In the all-Swede roster of Granit Gaming, POILK and Galnegunnar subbed in for Azyrite and SmX, while the Spaniard Nano replaced Bishepss for Bang Bush. The cores of these four rosters were the same that qualified for the 2021 Masters Clash Championship finals, so most of the players weren’t new to Paris.

The games began on Friday, July 8 with a really packed schedule. Only the losers’ finals and grand finals were to be played on Saturday, resulting in 2 bo3 and 2 bo5 series for the first day. The favorites, Chilly Mountain and Oxygen Esports, proved to be a step above their rivals and sent them to the lower bracket. Both these CCL colossi collided at the winners’ finals and, as their last matches pointed out, Oxygen came out victorious. Their victims fought to make it to the next day, trying to avoid being the first team eliminated from the LAN. In this do-or-die duel, the team with the least stand-ins won, sending Granit Gaming back home.

The second day of Masters Clash Championship finals dawned with a bo5 series between Bang Bush and Chilly Mountain. The Swedes of Bang Bush (and Nano) arrived at the losers’ finals after asserting themselves against their compatriots, while the French-German roster had played and lost a very long, tough and exhausting series barely 12 hours before. Despite this momentum difference, Chilly Mountain began the first map, Alterac Pass, ahead of their opponents. However, Bang Bush won a late-game 4v5 teamfight out of nowhere and that was enough for them to claim the first round of the series. After that initial misstep, the CCL roster didn’t show any weakness and took the three following maps, winning the series 3-1 and earning a rematch against Oxygen at the grand finals.

Chilly Mountain (left) and Oxygen Esports (right) moments before the grand finals.

Chilly Mountain began the grand finals taking the lead in Battlefield of Eternity. Oxygen—sitting on their 1-map advantage thanks to coming from the upper bracket—managed to win most of the fights even though they were behind in terms of experience (which was something recurrent during the series)… until they didn’t. Once CM won their first teamfight, they grabbed that advantage and growed it until their enemies’ core fell. With this 1-1 tie, the series had been resetted. In that scenario both teams decided to play safe in a Volskaya Foundry game with very few kills. In fact, Chilly Mountain only managed to get one single kill during the whole map, making it impossible to stop Oxygen.

In the third map, Tomb of the Spider Queen, Oxygen slowly built an experience lead that allowed them to wipe Chilly Mountain at minute 15 and end the game. The 3-1 score in the series meant 3 match points for Oxygen, but nobody said it would be easy. Chilly Mountain stepped up in Towers of Doom and once they grabbed their fifth Bell Tower, they kept it (or traded for another) until the end of the game. They also managed to win the next map, Alterac Pass, in a really back and forth game.

At this point the score in the series was 3-3. Everything was to be decided in the last map, Infernal Shrines. Would Oxygen use their third chance to win the series and the tournament? Would Chilly Mountain repeat their 2021 victory? One more time Chilly Mountain took the early lead, but Oxygen was able to dispute—and claim—objectives playing from behind. Chilly Mountain got the third punisher of the game and pushed alongside him towards the enemy core, but Oxygen stood their ground, won the decisive fight and pushed back. And that miraculous push was powerful enough to win the game, the series and the outstanding Parisian trophy.

Masters Clash Championship was an awesome event! Let us know your thoughts on the Paris LAN and the rest of the tournament.