MAG1 Season 3.5
For this season of the tournament, 32 top ranked players were invited to compete on a private server across 2 days. A minimum of 5 games had to be played on each day, with the top 8 players by MMR proceeding to the round of 8. Despite the larger field players, tournament favourites still ended up in the top 8. By the time the semifinals rolled around, only Feng Feng [201], Flower Fairy [201], Shade [201] and n_sacco [501] remained. In spite of the immense pressure from the [201] region, n_sacco managed to qualify to a third tournament finals against his rival Flower Fairy. Though their previous encounters had been sweeps, it went the distance on this occasion. Whilst things were looking one-sided at first, as Fairy dominated the long-range games, a clever pivot to aggro strategies in the middle of the series gave n_sacco the advantage. Clawing his way back into the match, he ended up claiming his second ever title with a 4-3 victory. The meta during this season wasn’t too different from the previous, as Marksmen and Stormcallers dominated in standard matches. Sandworms and Fortresses saw plenty of play too, with Tarantulas remaining a staple of aggressive strategies.