Rise Nation are your Dust2.us Masters #1 champions

Rise were dominant — but not untouchable in a 2-0 sweep of MDL rivals SoaR.

osorandom helped lead his young team to victory this weekend

Rise Nation kicked off Train, the pick of their opponents, with 13 straight rounds of stifling Counter-Terrorist defense. Not until a triple kill from in-game leader Matthew "mCe" Elmore in the fourteenth round would SoaR get onto the board. Followed up by another 3K from AWPer Logan "Voltage" Long, the half ended decisively in Rise Nation's favor 13-2.

Ryan "Snakes" Amann kept SoaR's hopes alive with a gutsy defuse in the second half pistol round, which seemed to ignite the team. mCe's squad were able to accumulate eight rounds to a single one from Rise, bringing the score to 14-10, before Brandon "Ace" Winn and company were able to claim sixteen rounds, as well as the map.

ALSO READ Rise Nation take down Rogue; advance to grand final to face SoaR

Mirage started off with Rise Nation on the CT side, and in-game leader Andy "vSa" Xu brought the fireworks with an all-headshot ace with his USP. Off the back of the opening round, Rise would extend their lead to 5-0, before SoaR came roaring back and equalized. After the teams each traded two rounds, a magnificent quadruple kill from Voltage ended the half 8-7 in SoaR's favor.

Rise again won the pistol, and took the next five rounds to extend their lead to 13-7. SoaR again countered with five of their own, nearly evening the line at 13-12. The Americans then proceeded to run the score up to 14-12 in their own favor, before a multi-weapon clutch from Kaleb "moose" Jayne put Rise onto match and series point. Rise easily cleaned up SoaR in the following round, claiming Mirage, the series, and $1,500 for themselves.

Best of three maps Dust2.us Masters #1 SoaR 0 - 2 Rise Nation de_train 10 - 16 de_train de_mirage 13 - 16 de_mirage de_inferno de_inferno

With the result, the final standings of the Dust2.us Masters #1 are as follows:

1. Rise Nation - $1,500

2. SoaR

3-4. ex-Naventic

3-4. Rogue

5-6. GX

5-6. Mythic

7-8. Tempo Storm

7-8. F1-racecar-PEEK

Thanks to all the teams for coming out, and to Scrawny, boq, and Seaside for commentating the action this weekend! Keep your eyes on Dust2.us for news about the next iteration of the Dust2.us Masters, which will be taking place in January!