Determined to level up from their 2020 runner up position, Dead Weight have this year claimed victory in the Red Bull Flick 2021 Australian finals.
For the second year running, grassroots competition Red Bull Flick, gave amateur Australian players the opportunity to get their wings – while playing against some of the nation’s best pro players in custom CS:GO 2v2 maps with a futuristic twist.
Pairs of players faced off in a set of brand new custom Red Bull maps specifically designed for new game mode, Hold the Flag, alongside a new narrative for players to immerse themselves in a sci-fi setting. The 2021 competition featured capture points, with each duo fighting for control with themed maps and content incorporated into the Red Bull event.
The Australian online qualifiers kicked off on June 26 and 27, July 3 and 4. There were more than 550 registrations for the competition, with 16 duos (four from each qualifier) competing in the final qualifying round to determine which eight teams would make it to the national finals. The top eight teams then battled it out in the national final on July 10, with more than 7,800 viewers tuning in across the tournament, with duos Dead Weight and Steam Support making it to the final round.
Dead Weight, made up of Mr Sharky and Velocity (Velo), were no strangers to the series having almost secured the victory last year in a down-to-the-wire finals match against eventual 2020 champions Dynamic Du-Woah. After learning from the experience and focusing on leveling up their game, this year Dead Weight brought with them confidence in spades.
“Our expectation for this year’s Flick experience was no lower than top two, and we were very confident that we could win it out this year in the Grand Final as we wouldn’t have to worry about our nerves this time around,” says Velocity. “We did a lot of practice and scrims prior to joining the tournament so we were confident we would be a favourite to win.”
However, there were a few bumps in the road to victory.
“We came into the tournament as first seed and didn’t drop a single round,” says Velocity. “But unfortunately for us, we ended up versing Steam Support on the only map that we didn’t have any experience on as we thought it was a very straightforward map. After we lost to them and went into the lower bracket we were confident that we would verse them in the Grand Final and come out victorious as the maps for the grand final we were very well versed on.”
