One key factor spelled the doom of wNv: improper saving on the offensive side. For some reason it got into wNv’s mind that they could buy out every round. wNv would repeatedly buy Galil’s instead of saving for AKs or AWPs. At one point wNv bought six straight rounds despite losing five of them. I’m not sure who thought of this strategy, but the dependence on the Galil as a weapon to turn the tide of a match is a very risky proposition.

---

In their first match against Lunatic.Hai, wNv began with a good banana bombsite rush that scored them a pistol round win. With one save round win, wNv faced deagles from Lunatic who used them well enough to retake the main bombsite and win the third round. Then wNv started buying guns.

They followed the third round loss by buying Galil’s and continued to buy whatever weapons they could afford for the next five rounds. Only once did it work, and that wasn’t enough to turn the tide of Lunatic victories but gave wNv a false sence of hope that the strategy was effectve. When wNv finally did save after down 6-3, they came back and won the next round making it 7-4. wNv’s ability to setup a good strategy using a full arsenal of grenades and flashbangs really pushed back Lunatic and gave them a good entry of the main bombsite.

After trading a couple of close rounds, wNv returned to its previous buying pattern once Lunatic reasserted their control of the map. By this point their momentum was lost and Lunatic kept the pressure on to again force wNv to keep buying. This allowed the Koreans to amass a 10-5 first half lead, one that wNv would not likely recover from.

This was made even more improbable when Lunatic won its second save round. wNv came out strong and won the second half pistol defusing under intense pressure from Lunatic in the main bombsite. Still they blew the following save round as Lunatic used deagles, scoring three fast headshots, to force the remaining two members of wNv to save their guns and concede the save round.

From there it was all downhill. wNv manage to push across two more rounds and force a 3-6 second half score but match ended with a 16-8 blowout.

---

What was most surprising is that wNv didn’t change their philosophy against Complexity. Getting the easier offensive side of Dust2, wNv would think they could roll the Americans in a style similar to the WEG Masters event. Instead, wNv again went on a buying rampage and turned a tight game into a blowout.

In the opening round, coL charged the dark halls of bombsite B as wNv did a massive bombsite B rush. The timing was perfect as three members of Complexity were on the flank of the Chinese before they really had time to react. Yet again, wNv bought Galil’s after only one save round and was demolished by Warden, who picked up three huge frags. At this point wNv showed some life with a couple of good strategies, attacking with Jungle’s AWP and managing to force Complexity into several defensive shifts.

Winning five straight, wNv pulled ahead and started to show some dominance. Everything looked good until Jungle AWP’d fRoD. At this point it seemed like the two got into a battle over who could out-AWP the other. They exchanged shots back and forth and battled it out across the map with at least three encounters resulting in deaths for either side.

Still wNv got too caught up in that and lost precious money buying weapons. This triggered another all out buying phase. Over the next five rounds wNv bought out and subsequently lost every round. Not until the 14th round did they save by all grabbing deagles. Ironically, this was the round they finally won as the deagles scored a few headshots and gave them a plant in bombsite B.

The last round saw a split rush of bombsite B with wNv sending a few guys middle and others into the dark halls. Still, their attack was not coordinated very well and the team emerged one at a time baiting each other. This gave Sunman and Storm the chance to take out members of wNv as they looked to bait teammates upon entering the site. Complexity didn’t mind, using it to grab a 9-6 first half lead.

Complexity all but clinched the match on a solid catwalk rush on their offensive pistol round. wNv would save the next two rounds without any success and go on to lose back to back gun rounds. The Americans sealed the deal.

The first gunround boasted a very nice catwalk fake by coL that was eventually diverted back into bombsite B, while Sunman waited middle to take out rotating defenders. The strategy worked flawlessly. Complexity followed up with a catwalk rush the following round. The previous round's fake caught wNv off-guard, and the combination of the strategies worked perfectly to slow wNv’s rotation time between the two bombsites.

By this point the match was 15-6 in favor of Complexity and only a few last ditch rounds by wNv held off a total blowout. Warden was clearly a hero, but all of coL had rounds they shined in, and fRoD’s ability to get wNv thinking about the Jungle vs. fRoD match up helped to keep their eye off of potentially other successful strategies.

In the end Complexity dominated wNv via two pistol round wins in combination with wNv’s constant buying. Lunatic’s victory over wNv was the exactly the same scenario, no surprise the same score. When I asked Complexity about wNv's constant buying during their match, they had this to say:

“If they want to take the AWP out of Jungle’s hands that’s fine with us.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. While Galil’s can provide early help, it is not a frontline weapon that teams should depend on. wNv decided to put their fate in their Galil's and they paid for that decision.