Abrahams defeats Buff Enjoyers to win R1 Tourney 02
With Arzo at the top of his game, Abrahams claimed his first trophy in two months after overcoming a two maps deficit
Abrahams came back from a two-map deficit to finally defeat Buff Enjoyers 3–2 and win the second edition of the R1 Tourney DeadLock; this marks Abrahams' second major trophy of the year, following the Death Slam Invitational Europe #1
Thirteen was the number of consecutive victories secured by the core of Lowkey W (which had rebranded as Buff Enjoyers) over Abrahams’ squad; Abrahams had not won a head-to-head match against them since April 29, 2026, at Night Shift #36, an event where they defeated Leviathan, marking the Russian team's last trophy win to date
To be precise, the record was actually broken the day before during the Upper Bracket final, a best-of-three series that seemed destined for Buff Enjoyers, especially after they won the first map in a lightning-fast 24:48 (the quickest game of the entire playoffs); however, poor late-game execution allowed Abrahams to secure a 2–1 victory and a spot in the final
All the ingredients were thus in place for a wild final between Abrahams and Buff Enjoyers who had once again triumphed by beating Leviathan 2–0 just a few hours earlier
Reflecting the issues Abrahams has faced for several months with an actually quite good early game offering a slight advantage but poor decision-making in combat and completely botched objectives ultimately cost the Russians the first two maps
After losing a 46-minute game despite a 25k-gold lead, Abrahams seemed doomed; however, a very well thinked draft allowed them to scrape a narrow victory and avoid the humiliation of yet another flawless win for Buff Enjoyers
Tension quickly mounted during the fourth map, but an imperious Arzo playing Wraith and then Venator calmly led his team to level the series (MVP of maps 3 and 4)
Six hours straight against the same opponent is a long time, and the last-pick Ivy, the Gargoyle's first appearance of the playoffs was a surprising and puzzling move; however, the damage was already done for Buff Enjoyers. There simply wasn't a final map, given the sheer number of individual errors piling up on their side. Ironically, Ivy didn't even end up being the central factor of that last map, as Abrahams dominated from start to finish, securing his most convincing victory of the tournament.
The two teams will almost certainly face off again in a high-stakes Night Shift #45.