📝 Crazy Raccoon vs. Twisted Minds Full Match Recap

The losers final took us to a match-up between the Korean first seed Crazy Raccoon and EMEA first seed Twisted Minds. A battle of two fierce teams, which ended in a 3-1 victory for the EMEA side, who took the win in a fairly dominant fashion.

Crazy Raccoon truly earned their spot in this game after a nail-biting clash against Team Falcons yesterday, winning the game 3-2. They will set their sights on defeating EMEA's finest with the prospect of not only a chance to win the World Finals,but also an opportunity to run it back against Al Qadsiah.

As for Twisted Minds, they will be looking to prove themselves worthy of a spot in the Grand Final after losing to Al Qadsiah in the upper-bracket final earlier today. They will be hoping Saudi superstar Ibrahem "Quartz" Alali is firing on all fronts in order to take down the tournament favourites.

Map 1: Busan (Twisted Minds pick) Crazy Raccoon ban Lucio, Twisted Minds ban Winston

Twisted Minds first took Crazy Raccoon to Busan, a tactical choice to take Korea's first seed away from their preferred dive composition. The EMEA champions lined up with Quartz on Sojourn, Ahmad "Youbi" Alyoubi on Symettra, Abdualziz "TVNT" Altmimi on D.Va, Kim "Simple" Ji-sung on Kiriko and Daniel "FunnyAstro" Hathaway on Juno. Their opposition chose to take Chae "HeeSang" Hee-sang on Echo, Lee "Lip" Jae-won on Ashe, Park "JunBin" Jun-bin on Ramattra, Kim "Shu" Jin-seo on Ana and Sung "CH0R0NG" Yoo-min on Brigitte.

Downtown was the first control point, with Crazy Raccoon looking uncharacteristically slow out the gates. Twisted Minds first took the control point after a simple fight win, thanks to JunBin overstepping. Crazy Raccoon did manage to win a couple of fights, but the ultimate trades seem to all go the way of their opposition, constantly having the perfect answer to flip a fight on its head. In the final fight, TVNT and Quartz staged for a simple dive onto the Korean team's support line, and managed to take out both Brigitte and Ana before they were able to use their ultimates - a monster play to give Twisted Minds the first control point.

On Meka Base, a scrappy back-and-forth first fight gave Crazy Racoon the first meaningful capture, until Twisted Minds retook the tempo and used an early Kitsune Rush to flip the point in their favour quickly. Following this, TVNT found infinite value in D.Va, shutting down flanks and finding numerous picks, while Quartz looked really sharp on Sojourn (who would've guessed). This duo, along with clever uses of support ultimates, allowed Twisted Minds to easily take the map and end Crazy Raccoon's unbeaten record on Control Point maps.

Map 2: Dorado (Crazy Raccoon pick) Crazy Raccoon ban Symettra, Twisted Minds ban Brigitte

Crazy Raccoon came out with a super aggressive dive composition for Dorado, playing to their strengths with Twisted Minds, played more for poke, keeping Quartz on Sojourn, while Genji and Tracer were the DPS lineup against his opposition.

Crazy Raccoon eventually converted a fairly even neutral fight into a first point capture from Crazy Raccoon, who beat down a disjointed Twisted Minds' desperation touch. The second phase of the attack caused problems as Quartz dominated the high ground, which Crazy Raccoon eventually identified, and a well-coordinated dive eliminated the Sojourn, followed by the rest of the opposition. With the second point captured, the attackers had a small time bank, and thanks to a clever soundbarrier trade from Funnyastro in a 5v4, Twisted Minds were able to take the tempo and beat back Crazy Raccoon, who would fall short of map completion.

Twisted Minds came out of spawn looking for a fight on their attack, but in a strange display, managed to take the first point with no eliminations coming through for either side, just a clever map flip and Crazy Raccoon finding difficulty with engaging the enemy. The second point was smooth sailing also, with Crazy Raccoon only finding one fight win thanks to a Sound Barrier engagement. Twisted Minds played clever, disengaging when they were down players and coming back with a massive ultimate advantage, taking out JunBin and then the rest of his team to take the second point. This map would end with a whimper, a Kitsune Rush from Simple and Sound Barrier from FunnyAstro overwhelmed Crazy Racoon and swiftly eliminated Shu and CH0R0NG, making the next map match point for Twisted Minds.

Map 3: Kings Row (Crazy Raccoon pick) Crazy Raccoon ban D.Va, Twisted Minds ban Wuyang

Finally, in map three, we see signs of the Crazy Raccoon we know, with an unusual composition featuring Heesang on Pharah and CH0R0NG on Mercy. They also opted to substitute JunBin for Choi "MAX" Su-min.

Kings Row would start with Twisted Minds defending, who quickly lost the capture point thanks to two kills onto the opposing Lucio and Kiriko. To break through Kings Row's well-known first choke point, Crazy Raccoon invested a fast B.O.B. to kill Youbi, and Shu hit an impressive anti-nade to allow the attackers to begin pushing through the streets phase. A final fight for the second point saw a Nano-Barrage combination take down TVNT early. Max then took space on Ramattra, allowing the defenders to step off the point long enough to reach the final phase. A quick fight win for Crazy Raccoon on the third point took them to a final fight, where BOB once again found way more value than it should, eliminating Simple and Youbi and forcing Twisted Minds to scramble for a touch, which reaped no rewards.

It looked as if Twisted Minds would match the pace set by their opposition as they quickly take the first control point, but with massive ultimate trades at the start of second point, Lip's BOB (again) would prove the deciding factor, finding two kills and swinging the momentum in favour of the Korean superteam. Shu, playing his favoured hero Ana, managed to find picks in two consecutive pre-fights. He caught LBBD7 on the flank with a sleep dart and followed up on his team's damage with a biotic grenade onto Funnyastro. His positioning, however, caused him to be traded, setting Twisted Minds up to surely complete their second point push with a significant ultimate advantage. Up steps the hero of the map, Heesang, still on Pharah, who stealthily flanked and found three eliminations with a tried and tested Nano-Barrage, rewarding Crazy Raccoon the map win.

Map 4: Runasapi (Twisted Minds pick) Crazy Raccoon ban Ramattra, Twisted Minds ban Mercy

Runasapi began with Quartz setting the standards early, finding a triple kill in the first full fight and earning important kills in the subsequent two. An early fight for Crazy Raccoon set the map up to be a close affair; however, by this point, it was clear Twisted Minds had found a rhythm, something had clicked, and they were expertly coordinating their engagements, disengagements and ultimate usage. Using TVNT's D.Va Self-Destruct with Youbi's Symmetra Teleporter became a feature of this map, only finding purchase once onto Shu but displaying their top-tier teamplay. Twisted Minds quickly captured the first checkpoint.

From this point, the action took place only on Crazy Raccoon's side of the map, except for an impressive four-man Graviton Surge that briefly swung the action in the other direction. Twisted Minds got back on track with an Overclock and Kitsune Rush combination, making short work of their opposition. Near-perfect gameplay from Twisted Minds would see out the rest of the time bank, with Heesang dying first in consecutive fights and a healthy ultimate rotation giving the EMEA first seed the last map they needed to head to the Grand Finals.

With this, Twisted Minds toppled the last remaining Korean team in the competition and set themselves up for a face-off against EMEA rivals Al Qadsiah, a grudge match sure to be a great watch.