Close to Death were a fringe team going into the final Division S qualifier on Saturday.

By late Sunday night, they were winning 1-0 against Looking for Work in the finals.

CTD ended up losing a bloodbath of a finals, but not before a surprising run to get there. They won two series without dropping a match to start the weekend (being the only team in the semi-finals forced to play in round 1), and defeated Order of the Sleeping Dragon 2-1 in the penultimate round.

After winning the first map of the finals, they lost the final two games to LFW. The series featured 100 total kills.

“Our team is special, because we have been friends for years,” said Keenan, the team’s captain. “We look after each other.”

Keenan has said that the team “is like a family.”

“Our success stems from the fact that we all want to win for each other and not just ourselves.”

The team said that despite strong performances from each player, CookieMan deserved praise for stepping up during this tournament.

“CookieMan deserves the honor of the evening,” Keenan said. “[He] was aggressive and led the charge.”

CookieMan drafted Cassia three of the six matches in the final two series. While on the hero, he out-damaged the enemy team’s highest-damage assassin by an average of 18,974 per game.

“We honestly just need to keep doing what we’re doing more often,” Keenan said. “We are not as experienced as the former HGC teams and we just started playing together again after a two year break.”

League play for HeroesLounge Division S will begin at the beginning of March.