[t,5680,au,10586,10588,10587,9105,11141] lift the trophy as they emerge victorious in the Grand Final of EB Expo Sydney Finals, after defeating [t,7170,au,8776,9118,10163,11473,9110] in a close series 2-1 (16-6 de_train, 14-16 de_overpass, 16-13 de_mirage).

The two finalists, Athletico and onestop, won their respective semi-finals against AVANT and Legacy quite convincingly, both with a 2-0 stomp before encountering each other in the Grand final.

Starting strong on the Terrorist side of Train, onestop took the first three rounds easily before Athletico's AWPer, Jesse "⁠InfrequeNt⁠" Barker, reversed the tide to make it 5-3 their way. Chris "⁠CHRiSOAOW⁠" Forman and the crew could not find an answer to break through the CT's defence. This was because Athletico's teamwork and double awp setup was too effective, closing the first half 11-4.

Once again, onestop were able to take the pistol round on their CT side, with a stack on the A bombsite. However, the mongolian stand-in, Erdenetsogt "⁠erkaSt⁠" Gantulga opened up with multi-entry kills in the following anti-eco round with the deagle, where his teammates capitalized on the situation to win the round.

Athletico reached map point first at 15-5, until Dylan "⁠kyoto⁠" Brown prevented the finishing blow, with a triple-kill on the B defence. It was short-lived, as onestop lose their map pick to their enemies 16-6.



Athletico add another trophy to their cabinet

On the next map, Athletico were ahead on the Terroist side with a 3-0 lead, after Travis "⁠wizard⁠" Richardson secured a 1v2 clutch in the first pistol round on Overpass. Seth "⁠seth⁠" Leeson and company adapted and flipped the scores around to lead 10-5 on their CT side.

The in-game leader of Athletico, Stuart "⁠sonic⁠" Rayner, secured the second pistol round with triple usp kills to close the gap to a 10-7 scoreline. Of course, onestop did not allow that to stop them, as they won the next couple of rounds to increase their lead even further.

It was Athletico's turn to bring it back with erkaSt resetting the Terrorists' economy with a quadruple kill on the B site. In addition, wizard aced the glock train in the following round. Adding more insult to the injury, Jay "⁠Liazz⁠" Tregillgas clutches a 1v3 situation allowing his team to eventually tie the scores 12-all.

Both teams continued to trade rounds until onestop finally managed to crack the CT's economy in the 29th round, winning a crucial and chaotic 2v2 after-bomb plant situation. Athletico with upgraded pistols on the last round, could not prevent onestop from taking map 2, losing 14-16.



From left to right: InfrequeNt, wizard, sonic, liazz & erkaSt

With the match tied 1-1 and both teams winning their opponent's map pick, the final battle was on Mirage. There was no time for Athletico to breathe on the favored CT side, as onestop managed to obtain a 8-7 lead.

The same could be said for onestop after the switch, due to Athletico changing gears to take the front seats again. At 14-11, Peter "⁠pecks⁠" Nguyen prevented Athletico from reaching match point for the next two rounds including a 1v2 clutch. Sadly, his valiant efforts was not enough for the inevitable, allowing Athletico to insert the final stop in onestop, taking the series with a 16-13 win in the final map.

EB Expo Sydney Finals Best of 3 onestop Matchpage 1 2 Athletico 6 Train 16 16 Overpass 14 13 Mirage 16

onestop K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Sam 'mizu' Richardsonmizu 57 - 56 +1 79.0 1.07 Peter 'pecks' Nguyenpecks 60 - 59 +1 75.5 1.02 Chris 'CHRiSOAOW' FormanCHRiSOAOW 46 - 60 -14 68.6 0.91 Dylan 'kyoto' Brownkyoto 50 - 62 -12 69.9 0.91 Seth 'seth' Leesonseth 47 - 61 -14 57.1 0.87 Athletico K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Jesse 'InfrequeNt' BarkerInfrequeNt 74 - 55 +19 94.2 1.42 Erdenetsogt 'erkaSt' GantulgaerkaSt 62 - 51 +11 76.3 1.20 Travis 'wizard' Richardsonwizard 57 - 55 +2 76.7 1.07 Jay 'Liazz' TregillgasLiazz 52 - 50 +2 76.6 1.03 Stuart 'sonic' Raynersonic 53 - 49 +4 69.6 1.01

EB Expo Sydney 2016 final standings:

1. Athletico - $5,000 AUD (~$3,800)

2. onestop - $2,500 AUD (~$1,900)

3-4. AVANT - $1,250 AUD (~$950)

3-4. Legacy - $1,250 AUD (~$950)

Photo Credit: Michael Craft (ESL Australia) at the Esports Arena at EB Expo