The Conclusion to AsiaFortress Cup 9!

SFM artwork by Blobinet, banner design by Cell, writeup by moosepi

AFC9 has ended, and what a ride it has been! Each division has seen some fantastic teams battle it out for the right to be called champions, and as a result we've seen some amazing TF2. Congratulations to all teams on their great gameplay, and to honour these players' efforts, let's go over the results of each division.

In Division 3, third seed Backcappers surprised everyone by not just holding their own against second seed Hemaera Cutie, but defeating them in a hard-fought best-of-3 semi-final match. They lost Badlands 3-4, falling short of victory by just a hair, but managed to pull themselves together to win Snakewater 4-2, and carried this momentum into a crushing 4-0 victory on Metalworks.

Meanwhile, Beyond Velocity, the undefeated first seed, displayed their dominance by taking out Morning Glory 6-1 on Badlands and 5-0 on Gullywash. In the finals, the Backcappers fought hard, but Beyond Velocity managed to eke out a 3-2 victory, and maintained their winning streak to take Process 8-3 to claim their title as undefeated champions.

In Division 2, fourth seed Color Gayming came out strong, almost taking Snakewater but ultimately letting victory slip out of their grasp, losing the map 2-3 to opponents Kuaga. Unfortunately, they fell apart after that, and Kuaga was able to take Gullywash with a convincing 5-0, bringing themselves into the sem-finals. In the other semi-final match, third seed Sweaty Tryhards was able to take the momentum early on both Badlands and Snakewater. While opponents Clinker Criminals managed to fight back in the later halves, it unfortunately proved to be insufficient, allowing Sweaty Tryhards to take the maps 4-3 and 6-4 respectively, bringing themselves into the Grand Finals.

There, they fought hard, but were ultimately unable to overcome Kuaga's solid play, losing Granary 1-4 and Process 2-4, and thus giving the Korean team the honour of first place.

In Division 1, Turbo 9000 shocked then-undefeated Mihaly's Flow by taking the first map of the semi-finals, Badlands, 3-2, making themselves the first team in the division to force the superteam to a map loss. They fought hard, but were ultimately unable to replicate this feat, as they lost the subsequent maps of Snakewater and Gullywash 1-3 each.

On the other hand, the match between Merc Cup 6 champions Cute Beast and seasoned veterans Emi Dizziness was insanely close, with each map going to a Golden Cap. After Cute Beast took the first on Badlands and Dizziness the second on Snakewater, the match came to Gullywash, and after a back-and-forth lasting fifteen minutes, Dizziness took the last point, finally ending the three-hour-long monster of a match and heading into the Grand Finals. There, Flow came out in force to take Granary in a convincing 5-1, but Dizziness didn't lose heart, and scraped themselves a win, taking Sunshine 5-4. Flow, however, ultimately proved the better team, and took Gullywash 4-2, proving themselves Grand Champions of AsiaFortress.

Congratulations once again to all teams, especially the champions! It's been an excellent season on all fronts, and we hope you've enjoyed it as much as we have.

Thanks for being with us, and we hope to see you again in our next competition!

...oh, and what's next, you ask?

Well, that remains something for us to announce in the future, but I can tell you how to be better prepared for what we have in store for Asia.  Heard of Razer Arena by any chance? It's pretty cool -  perhaps you should sign up for an account and maybe even register a team?

Better not reveal too much! Stay tuned for updates!