One of the fastest rising talents of this year has finally won a major.
For Frank “Fr0zen” Zhang, 2016 has been nothing but a string of successes, all leading up to his first major championship this weekend. This year alone, the American came one game away for qualifying for the Americas championship, made top 16 at DreamHack Austin and topped it off with a runner-up finish at DreamHack Summer, and he is now the proud champion of the 2016 ONOG circuit finals.
The crown event of the tournament series, whose goal was to develop the grassroots scene in the Americas and nurture the talents of tomorrow, was held at PAX this weekend and featured the best performing players throughout the year, selected based on their performances in the open and featured tournaments. The pool of names included not just up-and-comers, but headline names of the scene, David “Dog” Caero and Keaton “Chakki” Gil among them.
The group stage on days one and two served as a seeding procedure and all eight players were allowed to advance to the playoffs on Sunday where the real race for the $25,000 began. Undefeated in the winners bracket, Fr0zen secured the first grand finals spot by defeating Chakki in the winners finals. A game later, Chakki emerged as the lower bracket victor and was allowed another shot at taking down the youngster.
As with the winners final between the two Luminosity players which ended on a 4-3 scoreboard, the grand final, too, went the full distance of the Bo9 set, despite Fr0zen carrying a one-game advantage due to his winners bracket position. His overpowering of his opponents has brought him the fattest check of his career – a good $10,000 – and the first gold from a LAN event. For Chakki, on the other hand, this was the sixth grand final of his career, his lifetime winnings now nearing $40,000.
