NUSELO Top 20 - Winter 23 - 1st - Maza - Archers
Quite a while ago now, but I once wrote that Maza was the worst thing to happen to the crossover of University CS and UKCS. It was a misjudged and misplaced argument and the way I put it was pretty majorly wrong. However, the specific statement of “Maza is unfortunately the embodiment of what's wrong with the UKCS and University CS crossover” surprisingly, I still stand by.
However, this is for very different reasons and far closer to reality. Maza is one of the very few University CS players to have a liquipedia page, one of the very few to have a HLTV page, to play in A tier events, have played for a top UK team, won UK events and the list goes on and on. Maza is the embodiment of what's wrong as he shouldn't be here. The collegiate scene in a perfect world shouldn't be a retirement home for previous greats , ideally it should be feeding upwards into the ecosystem. Maza also perfectly encaptures one of the main issues with UKCS too, its nearly impossible to make a life within it, the offer of a good job or a degree will 99.9% of the time trump the UKCS alternative and its a shame that its so hard to succeed in UKCS. As many paths are, Maza’s was riddled with bad luck but like many others , deserved better.
Most of Maza’s notable achievements occur before University CS, first starting with UK Circuit division grind, haznoodle mixes, then moving up to uMx which eventually became Coalesce and then eventually opting to come entertain University CS , a.k.a stomp it. It was a somewhat slow start, with a couple mixed attendance seasons then some seasons where nothing significant was accomplished (apart from absolutely humiliating podbots) , however the stars seemed to finally align at the start of the Winter 23 season. This season had alot of previous top UK talents enter the foray such as Gizmy, Dutchy and Kica, Maza had mostly been coasting through previous matches with not much to prove, it was time to prove his mettle. It also helped that the Archers players had finally found their hands and they now only caused Maza “huge grief” compared to the previous “insane grief”.
For once, both the NSE and NUEL qualification phases would be pretty carefree. A tough loss in OT to Podbots in NSE but comfortable wins over Swansea White, UEA Bluejays and the juggernaut Bath Boomers would see them through. The new UKIC Varsity would present a bit more challenge but Archers hugely impressed, only dropping a map to podbots and beating out strong teams like Surrey and Half Natty and getting a few zeuses along the way. Maza would drop a ridiculous 1.55 rating in the group stage, which was far above and beyond everyone else. For the first time ever Maza would have a 100% attendance, it was a bit like if Harry Kane played every match for a League 2 team but Maza was happy with his “minions” and all of them were having personal best seasons , with the only team to have all their member sporting positive ratings, finally the team was working. Archers would end up finishing 4th in both NSE and NUEL, tournament records for the University which was a huge accomplishment and saw the team playing very well just losing to strong teams in Mama P (the eventual winners) and KCL Lions (the KCL Lions). However, all was still to play for , with Archers making the UB Final against Podbots, guaranteeing them prize money.
Archers would take Map 1 in spectacular fashion, Mirage was one of their best maps and Maza’s 1.37 rating across it really did help lock it in. Unfortunately despite Maza’s 1.21 rating across the series they would get reverse swept by podbots after losing the final map of Vertigo. Rumours suggest that the self proclaimed IGL in Bob had strategically lost this final map to lull podbots into a false sense of security, while this wasn't the case Vertigo would come up later.
The lower bracket would be very close, but a clean 2-0 win over the Surrey Stags, aided by very strong performances from noheochaidh and retro to get them across the line, it would all fall on the grand final against podbots.
The first two maps would see each team win one a piece, Maza was playing his heart out averaging a 1.55 rating across the first two and on map two had a 0.6 gap to the next closest on Archers. Going into Map 3 , Maza had already laid down the marker as probably the best individual performance in a finals, win or lose. On the T side , Archers would end with a tied 6-6 half, a pretty big improvement from the Upper Final. Final half of the tournament and alot to do, Archers would drop their most dominant display of the entire season winning every single round on their CT side and win each of their first Collegiate titles and the University’s first title, this would mark number 7 in all tournaments for Maza. An exceptional season for Maza, being one of the best attending players, managing to guide his “minions” through their matches and absolutely demolishing all three tournaments.
This season Maza absolutely silenced the haters (me) , was a really good teammate, had some ridiculous stats and while an AWP abuser helped fill the void Macky left and stepped up to help out with calling. Its a shame a player of his calibre isnt exceeding elsewhere and does indicate an issue with the UKCS - University CS relation, however it also shows the upside too. Players can still enjoy a some-what team based tournament while working on a degree so they still have a variety of options. Turned out that Maza couldn't only exceed in the Keto / Haznoodle systems but also the Bob Zeus Meta system. A truly deserved #1.
