Core Blindsides Wuhan in a five game sweep, 29-12

Posted by: MarkDolven

Tonight, the Carolina Core will open up their second straight World Final appearance with a match against the Wuhan Dragon. The Core enter the match as the North American champions and the Dragon finished second in Pan-Asia. The winner of the match will move on to the Semi-Final where they will take on the winner of the Birmingham and Mexico City showdown. At last year's World Final, the Core was able to win three straight matches to make it to the Championship match, but they ultimately fell to the Chicago Chimera and finished second in the world. They will be looking to improve on this result this year by winning the whole thing, but they cannot look past a strong Wuhan Dragon team in the first round. Tonight's match will come down to Forza 2 and Counter-Strike, so the Core really needs to step up in these two disciplines in order to book their ticket for the second round.

The action begins right at 11:30 PM EST, the match will be live on DirecTV Channel 101.

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World Final Quarter-Final

Carolina Core

29

Wuhan Dragon

12

CSS:

Core

(10)

Dragon

(8)

Forza:

Phantom

(2)

Lewis

(0)

Forza:

General E

(4)

Xos

(1)

DOA M:

Offbeat Ninja

(5)

Kindfox

(1)

DOA F:

Mystik

(5)

Catpower

(2)

FIFA:

Anomaly

(3)

ZZ

(1)

It the woman's match tonight, we will see Mystik of Carolina taking on Catpower of Wuhan. Obviously Mystik is the favorite of this match because of her recent strong play and World Final experience. This will mark her second straight World Final appearance and last year she dominated all of the international players easily with a 3-0 record, but ultimately fell to the American Kasumi Chan in the Final. If she can continue her International domination tonight, the Core will be in good shape. This will be Catpower's first World Final and her only big stage experience is in the Pan-Asian Final where she lost to Eileen 5-2. She uses Gen Fu, but unfortunately she's not as fundamentally sound with the character as say a Phoenix or NinjaCW. Nevertheless, she could come out with some surprises and catch Mystik off guard, but it's likely the Core fighter will run away with this one easily.


Catpower Is Another Gen Fu User
Mystik will be playing the character Hayate.

Cat Power will be playing the character Gen Fu.



Carolina Core - Counter-Strike: Source:
Cyrus "org" Habibi
Sam "Devour" Chamma
Chad "DAFF"White
Mark Torrez
Hoang "s0nNy" Tran

Wuhan Dragon - Counter-Strike: Source:
Randy “Randy” Lai
Ghim “Squall” Toh
De Wei “Kazuya” Chia
Kenneth “Monster!” Yeo
Prasad “Stryker” Paramajothi

This match will be taking place on Dust 2.

The one inconsistent spot for the Carolina Core all season has been their Counter-Strike Source team. Some matches they step up their game and bring the franchises a plethora of points and some nights they just forget to show up and cost the team the match. If the Core wants to go deep into the World Final, they are going to need to ride their CS team to victory. They outmatch tonight's opponent in Wuhan, but that's doesn't always guarantee victory with this bunch. However, almost the same exact Core CS team was lights out and undefeated at last year's World Final. They easily defeated every International opponent along the way. The Wuhan team is the former Singapore team The Titans. They are known for raw aim and strong preparation. If Monster and Stryker can play a strong game, the Core might be in trouble. If Wuhan is going to advance to the Semi-Finals, they have to do it through Counter-Strike.


The Core Hope To See More Of The Vocal Torrez Tonight


One of the most anticipated matches tonight will be Offbeat Ninja taking on Wuhan's Kindfox. In the Pan-Asian Tournament, Kindfox was able to step up his game and defeat last year's individual champion, Tetra of Singapore. This instantly put him on the DOA radar of many players including Offbeat Ninja. In the Pan-Asian final, he decided to play as Hayate and this proved to be the right decision as he defeated Berzerk of Sydney. However in the World Individual Championships, he decided to use Kokoro against Master and the results were not pretty. Master controlled the match from round 1 and Kindfox got nothing going. Tonight he has chosen to use Kokoro again which may be a pick based on Offbeat's weakness towards Kokoro that included a loss to Skatan Milla at WCG 2007. The problem with this selection is that it might not matter because Offbeat Ninja is on point now and currently riding a four game winning streak with two wins over Master in that streak. The Core needs their Franchise player to step up and he will do just that.


Kindfox Dominated Berzerk In The Pan-Asian Final
Offbeat Ninja will be playing the character Ein.

Kindfox will be playing the character Kokoro.



The most tightly contested match of the evening will be in FIFA08 between Anomaly and ZZ. Like Kindfox, ZZ dominated his Pan-Asian Final match, but then fell in the first round of the World Individuals tournament. Anomaly has been playing strong all year, but he hasn't been tested internationally yet. At last year's World Final when Anomaly played for the Chimera, he was a huge catalyst to their World Championship when he went undefeated at 3-0. He can keep his World Final record perfect tonight with a win over ZZ, but it won't be that easy. The Chinese striker is a strong player and the match could come down to penalty kicks. If it does, maybe Anomaly can win his first sudden death of the season.


ZZ Looked Strong In The Pan Asian Final
Anomaly will be playing Brazil.

ZZ will be playing France.



In the race of the evening, we will see the Core trying to rebound for their loss in the World Individual Championships to Berlin. It was on the same track as tonight and the Core didn't look strong in the race. Their opponents tonight will be the the fast Chinese racer Lewis and his fill-in teammate Xos. Coming into the World Final, Lewis has been hyped as one of the fastest racers in the world and tonight will be his last night to show that off. In his Pan-Asian race, he and Cam battled it out in a collision war, so we never got to see his speed. It is expected that the Core will do the same tonight and make Xos step up, but if Lewis gets out front we'll finally get to see his speed. The Core have looked spectacular all season, but a strong performance in the World Final could take their season from good to great. The Core really need their racers to be on top of their game in every match and tonight has to be the start of that.


General E & Phantom Race Perfectly Against Venom In the NA Final
The race will be played on the track Inland Taipan.

The action starts at 11:30 PM EST tonight!!!

Go Core!~