KCP Chronicles: KCPods Compete in Last Chance Qualifiers but Fall Short of Champs Dream.

KCP Chronicles: KCPods Compete in Last Chance Qualifiers but Fall Short of Champs Dream.

Written by Trey Donovan

This past weekend, the ALGS held the Last Chance Qualifiers for a chance for the top two teams in each region to get to ALGS Champs. With the KCPods being given another opportunity to get into Champs, they needed a great weekend of Apex.

One major thing to note is that before the LCQs the KCPods moved to get a new coach. It was decided by the team that Voltic would not be their coach moving forward and that they would trial coaches going forward. During the LCQs, the coach of the KCPods would be Psykho. With that let’s dive into the games and format of the LCQs.

The format of these LCQs goes as follows: match one sees the top twenty go on to the winner’s bracket and the bottom twenty to the loser's bracket. Then both brackets play out like normal, i.e. losers of the loser’s bracket match are eliminated and losers in the winner bracket go to elimination round two. With this in mind, the Pioneers needed top ten placing every day until Sunday when the top two teams would secure a trip to Japan for ALGS Champs. Now into the start of the KCPods run through the LCQs.

Starting with game one of eight on Friday, the KCPods would play the composition of Newcastle (Deeds), Pathfinder (Gent), and Bangalore (Onmuu) to start. They would have a promising start by getting a team wipe and having three KP – kill points – but would be gatekept by a squad outside the launch pad on Storm Point placing 18.

Game two would be less fortunate for the KCPods as Onmuu would get a kill at The Mill, but with zone playing a factor the team had to play towards the outskirts of Cenote Cave. The rotation would lead to a team fight where Deeds would get two downs, but both Onmuu and Gent went down. With Deeds being one shot, he would fall as well as the KCPods place 16 with one KP.

Game three would be similar to game two in placing and KP, but unfortunately in a different way. Having to slowly rotate through the zone the KCPods were heavily gatekept by a team outside Lightning Rod. Gent would get a kill point here but with zone tick damage and the other team’s positioning was difficult to overcome.

Game four saw some momentum going for the KCPods as they would win a team fight outside Cascade Falls to get three KP. Later in the game, the zone would center outside the east side of Storm Catcher and the KCPods would need to fight for some space. Using both Pathfinder’s zipline and Newcastle’s walls the KCPods would wipe another team, but caught the attention of all the other squads close by and be finished. They would place 14 in this game.

With game five comes a map switch to World’s Edge and a composition switch. The KCPods would play Horizon (Gent), Bangalore (Onmuu), and Bloodhound (Deeds). They fought a team in Lava Siphon and Gent got a kill then the squad had to rotate to the west side of Harvester. Just outside of Harvester would be two teams looking to shoot them out of the sky and that is what happened as Deeds got knocked and all they could do was play for kills. They would place 16 in game five and be 19 overall.

Game six would see another composition change from the KCPods. This time it would be the original Pathfinder (Gent), Bangalore (Onmuu), and to add a wrinkle, Fuse (Deeds). The game would start with a team fight in Staging where Gent got knocked and killed, leaving Onmuu and Deeds to play out the round. In the final zone on the outskirts of Staging, the KCPods would get two kills and place in second for some much-needed points.

Game seven would see an action-packed game near the end of the game. With ten teams left the KCPods would have a team fight in the second-to-last zone. In Fragment East, a team jumped on KCPods and a well-placed knuckle cluster from Deeds and good shots from Onmuu and Gent landed the squad with five KP and a ninth-place finish.

How would this writer describe game eight? Well, one could say it was like a movie. It all started with a team fight in Epicenter. The fight wouldn’t end in KP, but it gave the whole squad purple shields for the upcoming fights. While still in Epicenter, the KCPods would pick off a player from Fragment and then fight another team on the outside of Epicenter. Deeds would down a player with Fuse’s ult making space for the team to move closer to the zone. The final zone landed in Survey Camp and the rest in history.

With seven squads left in the zone, the KCPods decided to zipline to the crane for high ground. In a chaotic final zone, the squad decided to use an evac balloon to get on top of a vehicle with the last team inside it. Gent would down one player, and Deeds cleaned up the rest of the squad to get a win with seven KP.  That would wrap up the winner’s round one for the KCPods as they placed sixth overall.

Next up came Winner’s bracket round two on Saturday. The KCPods would not start hot with one total point in their first two matches. In the next two matches, they would get five KP and one more placement point to get up to seven total halfway through the matches. Games five and six would be the biggest point totals in this series for the squad as they had 20 KP with six placement points.  In the last two games, it didn’t end well for the KCPods as game seven saw them be eliminated first, and in-game eight they would get two more points total. This would give them 35 points, 26 of which come in two games, landing them in 14 and a trip to the loser's bracket.

With a long day coming, game one of loser’s round two started. The action started just outside the Northeast chokepoint of Checkpoint where the KCPods would get a KP before rotating towards a Wall zone. While rotating they would get a team wipe, but Deeds went down and another team third-partied them. They would land in 11th place and get four KP for a solid start.

Game two’s action would start with a team fight outside Command Center. With a devotion in hand and a couple of well-placed grenades and fuse ult, the KCPods would get a team wipe. Later they would rotate to Storm Catcher and get into another fight. Below the main Storm Catcher building Deeds would fuse ult and get some damage leading to him knocking two players; however, Gent and Onmuu got downed and Deeds was one shot. While Deeds almost wiped out the enemy team he would fall, and the team would place in ninth with three KP.

Game three saw a change of pace from the KCPods as they were a tad more passive in their fights. They would only get one KP, but the zone favored them in this match. The final zone was in Cenote Cave which is close to their POI drop of The Mill, so they could sit in the zone and rack up placement points. They would get a second-place finish and be eighth overall after three games.

Game four saw another solid game from the squad. In a team fight right outside The Wall, the whole squad would get a kill each. While fighting through a chokepoint on the south side of The Wall the KCPods would get eliminated in 11th place and ninth overall.

With the map changing to World’s Edge, game five started slow for the KCPods. In a disadvantageous position in Lava Siphon, they would get picked off by another team. Game six would be the big game for the KCPods and it might have been the key game to get them into Match Point finals.

To start, the KCPods fought a team in Epicenter where Onmuu got an early kill. Another team would attempt to third-party the KCPods, but good damage from Deeds and an Onmuu Bangalore ult stopped it. The zone would rotate over towards Fragment East where all the action took place. The squad would pick off a team on the Northwest outskirts of Fragment East before ziplining into a massive six-team fight. Deeds would get two kills in the scuffle and Gent would get another. They would place third and have six KP, leaving them seventh overall.

Game seven would see another top ten placing, in ninth, with one KP. This game would see them under a ton of pressure from all sides in Thermal Station. Onmuu and Deeds would get killed, leaving Gent to try to get some placement points. In game eight the KCPods needed some solid points to secure top ten and a couple of other teams to dip out early. They would get a team wipe on the East outskirts of Epicenter to secure three KP. Right after that fight, Deeds would pick off a solo player to get four KP total.

With the zone heading towards Overlook, they took another team fight. It was looking good until a team with a Kraber headshot Onmuu. The team KCPods initially fought would finish them off due to that. With a tight finish coming, the KCPods just got in over Status Quo by two points meaning the KCPods gave themselves a shot at Champs.

Before Match Point finals started, it was noted that the KCPods would have to play without their coach Psykho as he wasn’t on the Battlefy roster. Without their coach, the KCPods started the Match Point finals with a solid game one. They ambushed a player in Geyser leading to Deeds getting a kill before rotating to Big Maude. Onmuu would kill a solo player there to give the team two KP. They would rotate to the north side chokepoint of Lava Siphon and wipe a team before another team would push them and kill them. They would end game one in fourteenth place with five KP.

Game two would be the worst match for the KCPods in the Match Point finals. They would place in 18 with no KP. Game three would see them rebound with a solid game, however. Now on Storm Point, the KCPods rotated early to a zone at CETO Station. With good positioning, they jumped on a team on the rock island on the northwest side of CETO Station. They would wipe that team and try to rotate into the zone again. With two teams close by there was some miscommunication about who to fight and they would lose a team fight to place in tenth.

Needing to build points to get to match point, game four needed to be big for the KCPods. They have a good position on the east choke point of Downed Beast. With the zone being in checkpoint they had a good spot to rotate out of and get some KP. In the final fight, Gent would get four kills and Deeds would get two. The KCPods would also place fourth for 11 points total.

Game five would not be as successful for the KCPods as they would place fifteenth with four KP. With two teams on match point, there were still chances to have a big game to catch up. The KCPods would have a similar game to game four in game six to try to get closer to match point.

In a team fight at Countdown, Gent and Deeds would wipe a team before they would rotate into the tunnel on the south of Skyhook. Onmuu would hit a solo player with a Kraber shot to get another kill and later in the Skyhook scuffle, Onmuu would get a grenade kill. The KCPods would place in fourth with five KP in the match.

In the final match of the Match Point finals, the KCPods didn’t have a good game. They would place seventeenth with one KP and Stallions would win on match point to end it. The KCPods finished in twelfth overall and were 12 points out of match point. It would end their season.

While it wasn’t the ending they wanted, it was a good year for the KCPods. They showed a ton of potential and showed it off a ton this year. The future of the KCPods looks bright and with more time under their belts, the light could become very bright next year. Congratulations on the year KCPods and come back stronger for the next ALGS season.