Preston ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops 4‘s fifth major tournament of the season, CWL Finals.
CWL Finals played host to the Pro League Playoffs, with number one seed eUnited and number two seed Gen.G Esports squaring off in a tense final that saw Gen.G reset the bracket after coming from the losers side of the tournament.
While momentum seemed to be with Gen.G, it was Prestinni and eUnited who ran out eventual winners, taking the second series 3-0 and securing James ‘Clayster’ Eubanks’ first tournament success in 1,400 days.
When asked what eUnited did to swing the momentum back into their favor ahead of the second series of the grand final, Prestinni revealed that taking some time to recover between maps, a conversation and the crowd all played a part in their astonishing turnaround after being demolished in the first series.
“We were flat. The energy wasn’t there,” explained the 21-year-old. “We went back, talked, regained, and listened to music and vibed a little bit. Got in that same mindset and reset, because the whole bracket was reset.”
“The crowd were amazing, they did help us, but it wasn’t even that. We just had that talk, and it was like that (first) series never existed. We played the way we were playing the day before, we went back to our teamwork.”
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Prestinni also discussed the fear of losing another grand final this year, following defeats in Las Vegas and London: “I was sitting there thinking ‘I’m not looking forward to the disappointment tweet’, and I didn’t want to do that again, so I ended up turning up.”
Finally the submachine gun player revealed how much the tournament victory meant to him, explaining that the tears he shed on stage, and behind the scenes flowed because winning the tournament “was the best feeling in the world,” and that winning with his brother Alec ‘Arcitys’ Sanderson made it all the sweeter.
Their victory at CWL Finals means that eUnited take home the $500,000 grand prize, and head into the season’s biggest tournament, CWL Championships, as one of the favorites to lift the trophy and be crowned 2019 World Champions.