KILL-BY-KILL

Round 1

The match kicked off on a slow pace imposed by Team Fishbed as they surprisingly kept circling over their base in what seemed to be an attempt to draw their opponents into their own airspace. However, the F-5s chose to stood off on the outskirts of Sukhumi to gauge the situation until Tiger went on the offensive in a courageous attempt to attack the enemy AWACS; he sneaked in behind enemy lines and before the MiGs realized what was going down, it was already too late as Tiger hit his target twice with a pair of Sidewinders forcing the AWACS to go for an emergency landing.

It seemed though as Tiger was able to escape the angry MiGs but got entangled in a one vs many furball where he got shot down by an R-60 missile fired by Frostie. Tiger, however, had given his team the upper-hand through cutting team Fishbed’s AWACS out of the equation, thus depriving them from valuable tactical intelligence for the rest of the fight.

Moments later, Rage went alone against 4 F-5s led by Stuge. Despite surviving the first merge after exchanging fire, Rage seemed to be unaware of Manzanita’s presence who took him out with a AIM-9 shot.

More MiG pilots turned up moments later, then furious turning fights ensued with tracers flying all over the place before Manzanita, once again, positioned himself for a perfect kill, this time over Teknetinium. 3-1 to Tigers!

The furious furball continued with Scoops firing 3 R-60s that all missed Custard before Croncat appeared to support his wingman. Tony Kito also tried to gun down Custard while he was himself under Manzanita’s fire who always seemed to have an impeccable timing. Noticing the tracers flying past his canopy, Tony finally squeezed that R-60 off the rail taking out Custard before getting himslef blown out of the sky by a very effective Manzanita who had at that time already 3 kills under his belt!

Scoops tried to escape the carnage but Croncat gave chase before sending an AIM-9 up his tailpipe. The furious furball was over, all MiGs were shot down against one loss for team Tiger. The F-5’s lead 5-2!

Round 2

Both teams gathered their forces in preparation for the second wave. With the Fishbeds now down 5-2, they had no choice but to attack and sure enough they scrambled, flew past Gudauta though with Frostie seemingly having issues with his connection, there was only four of them taking on 5 Tigers.

Teknetinium and Rage soon found themselves merging with Stuge and Manzanita. Unexpectedly, Stuge poked out of the furball first chased by Rage who was also being targeted by Manzanita and Teknetinium was also there on Manzanita’s six o’clock. Stuge Got splashed first not long before Manzanita answered with his second kill on Rage and 4th overall then gave everything he had to shake a furious Teknetinium off his tail, dodging multiple tracers and an R-13 missile before conceding his first loss. The MiG’s had the last word this time around but it wasn’t over as more fights were still raging nearby.

Custard had the perfect angle as he unleashed a curving AIM-9 shot that blew Scoops out of the sky but then got jumped by Teknetinium who retaliated with an R-60 shot that took Custard out of the equation. This second exciting and massive furball came finally to an end as Tiger crashed into the ground and Croncat bugged out of the fight. The Fishbeds dominated this time around and leveled the score! 6 kills each!

Round 3

The next round kicked off with a fast and easy kill for Custard over Rage. A few moments later, Stuge sprang on Scoops and sent him down in flames with a devastating flanking attack.
It was about time for team Fishbed to fire back if they were to stay in this match and it’s Teknetinium who slid right behind Manzanita before taking him out with an R-60 while being under extreme pressure as he was himself targeted by Custard who was furiously spraying tracers on him, though Tek was able to break hard left and get out of immediate danger as wingman Frostie turned up all guns blazing forcing Custard to let go for the sake of his own life. Frostie refused to relinquish his grip on Custard until he scored his second kill of the match to level the score at 8-8!

So much on the line at that moment of the match and it’s Stuge this time around who screamed past the sound barrier before taking Teknetinium by surprise, killing him, then turned his attention towards Frostie who then defended himself ferociously, which allowed him to buy enough time before Tony kito closed the distance and downed Stuge who had gotten a bit target-fixated. Frostie and Tony dropped their guards after downing Stuge, which gave Croncat the perfect opportunity to retaliate for Stuge through sending both MiG’s down in flames for 2 critical points as team Tiger was up 11 kills to 9!

Round 4

The 3rd furball was finally over and with the clock ticking past the 3/4 mark, there was still just enough time for one last round! Aware that they were down by 2 kills, the Fishbeds roared towards Sochi at full speed in an attempt to take the F-5s by surpsise before they could even take off. They almost succeeded reaching the outskirts of the enemy base before three F-5’s got airborne! A furious fight ensued…

A bold Teknetinium was again the first one to attack as he fired 4 missiles at Tiger but they all missed as Tiger defended aggressively…Tek gave chase and as he started shooting with his cannon, got hit and teamkilled by Scoops, who seemingly thought he was shooting at an F-5! disaster for team Fishbed who were then down 12-9!

Moments later, Tiger crashed into the ground trying a split S with not enough altitude as he tried to shake off his pursuer off his tail. 12-10 in favor of the Tigers!
Stuge appeared again and in a lightening attack, managed another flanking fatal attack and this time, it was at the expense of Tony Kito! 13-10 for the F-5’s!

Hope was not lost and the MiG-21 pilots were still fighting tooth and nail – Frostie behind Manzanita trying to take him out and with emotions running high, got target-fixated and failed to notice the AIM-9 that Custard sent his way for team Tiger’s 14th kill!

But it was not over yet! Rage swung back around and got a good angle at Custard, took him out with a R-60 but that left him vulnerable to Manzita who fired an AIM-9 up his tailpipe! 15-11!

Team MiG-21’s last man standing, Scoops, had an almost impossible mission as his team was down by 4 kills and he was alone against multiple F-5’s – he did not shy away and gave it his best shot but got killed by a relentless Croncat and that was the last kill for Team Tiger, which also wrapped up a well deserved victory in this epic second showdown of the Grudge Match Series – Final Score: 16-11!

What a match! One should remember that fighting in the MiG-21 or F-5 is much more demanding in terms of pilot proficiency and skills compared to more modern combat jets like the Su-27 or F-15. This is simply because of the limited sensors the pilots have at their disposal, which doesn’t allow for stand off engagements. Pilots are forced to get much closer to the enemy, which also translates into less reaction time to threats and higher difficulty in spotting them early enough.

Credits

Big Kudos to all the brave pilots who fought tooth and nail in this exciting match. A massive thumb up goes to HOOK, the creator and organizer of the Grudge Match series for his excellent commentary and coverage of the event.

This PvP competition could not have become what it is today without the support of all the sponsors, so a big shout out and our genuine appreciation to Leatherneck Simulations who are our valuable prizepool providers and creators of the fantastic MiG-21 DCS module!

We would also like to thank our friends over at Maple FLag Mission who generously provided all winners with cool t-shirts!

Massive kudos go to Airdog and the Black Knights squadron for their top-notch hosting machine and valuable help in organizing the event and finally SA-Sim for their sanctioning and support!

SCOREBOARD

REPLAY

Ranking Points

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