Denial wins iBUYPOWER GameFest 2017
While the August player break provides much needed relief for the top echelon of CS:GO players, many aspiring professionals continue to be involved at smaller, local LANs. August 12th & 13th saw some of these aspiring pros compete at iBUYPOWER GameFest in Costa Mesa, California for their share of a $10,000 prize pool.
The sixteen team tournament made use of best-of-one double elimination GSL groups until the playoff stage, wherein a single-elimination best-of-three format was used to close out the tournament.
With the debut of Tempo Storm’s newly acquired Brazilian roster, the stage looked set for a clash between Denial and Tempo Storm in the grand finals.
The two forces did clash in Costa Mesa - but not in the grand finals. Due to Tempo Storm dropping a map in the group stage, they were forced to face Denial in the semi-finals instead. David “Xp3” Garrido led his squad to a 2-0 in their own group, grabbing victories over Plant-it Hollywood and Upsetti Spaghetti. Denial’s form didn’t drop off for the rest of the tournament either. A stellar performance from Michael “dapr” Gulino throughout the tournament allowed the North American squad to run a flawless bracket, not dropping a single map for the duration of the tournament.
Xp3 & co. crushed Rest in Paradise in their quarter-finals matchup, and followed up their performance by coming back from a 11-4 deficit on Overpass versus Tempo Storm to clinch a 2-0 in the semi-finals as well. Denial then went on to face Ryan “freakazoid” Abadir’s mixteam in the grand finals. Though Denial did manage a flawless tournament, freakazoid’s Swole Patrol gave them a tough run. In the end, two hard-fought 16-13 victories in the grand finals allowed Denial to claim $5,000 for themselves to close out the weekend.
DenialSwole Patrol| Denial |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Dylan 'RIKO' Sabin-Arnce |
55 - 42 | +13 | 94.2 | 79.3% | 1.40 |
| Michael 'dapr' Gulino |
44 - 38 | +6 | 87.0 | 69.0% | 1.21 |
| David 'Toy' Han |
42 - 34 | +8 | 72.0 | 79.3% | 1.10 |
 David 'Xp3' Garrido |
36 - 37 | -1 | 72.2 | 72.4% | 1.04 |
| Kyle 'flowsicK' Mendez |
29 - 41 | -12 | 71.8 | 69.0% | 0.85 |
| Swole Patrol |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ryan 'freakazoid' Abadir |
45 - 40 | +5 | 83.1 | 75.9% | 1.14 |
| Jordan 'Zellsis' Montemurro |
43 - 43 | +0 | 79.5 | 67.2% | 1.09 |
| Henry 'bigb33tl3' Cash |
38 - 41 | -3 | 77.4 | 70.7% | 1.05 |
| Austin 'Cooper' Abadir |
35 - 39 | -4 | 61.9 | 70.7% | 0.96 |
| John 'Arbiter' Burt |
31 - 43 | -12 | 67.3 | 62.1% | 0.86 |
