Donovan ‘Tekkz’ Hunt needed a minor miracle to reach the play-offs in the FC Pro Open on Monday evening. The Englishman set off on a great race to catch up, which came to a dramatic end
“I feel like I’m the best in the world right now,” said ‘Tekkz’ back in November. He was one of only two players to win all seven matches at the Global Qualifier in London – and thus qualified for the FC Pro Open. But reality quickly caught up with the Englishman: He finished the first round of Group D bottom of the table with just one point. Six points behind, Hunt had to stage a comeback for the history books.
According to his own statement on Monday evening, he was also “nervous” ahead of the first match of the second half of the season. The comeback project would be “very, very difficult” in order to achieve one of the top two places and make it into the play-offs. However, there was no sign of nervousness in the opening duel with Saudi Arabia’s ‘The1OS’: ‘Tekkz’ dominated his opponent from the outset and put down a big marker with a 9:0 win – the hunt was on.
Only one goal missing
Hunt then fell behind early against Julien ‘Fouma’ Perbal. However, this did not throw him off course either: by half-time, he had turned the score around to 3:1, ultimately defeating the Frenchman 6:2. Two wins had been secured, with two more to follow. But ‘Tekkz’ still had the two strongest opponents ahead of him. Francesco Taglafierro and frontrunner Levi de Weerd were waiting for him at the end of the group stage.
The first match was against the Italian ‘Obrun2002’. Hunt scored early to make it 1:0, but this also woke Tagliafierro up: The latter followed up his equalizer shortly before the break with two more goals after the break. ‘Tekkz’ were suddenly 3:1 behind. Hopes of qualifying for the play-offs were fading and the Manchester City professional now needed three goals. A small miracle was needed – and Hunt set out to bring it about.
He scored the equalizer in the 69th minute. ‘Tekkz’ then pressed for the double, but worked their way around Tagliafierro’s backline. Until Hunt profited from a build-up mistake by his opponent in stoppage time and made it 3:3 (90.+1). There was one minute left on the clock – and ‘Obrun2002’ didn’t let anything else get in the way after his kick-off. As a result, ‘Tekkz’ was mathematically eliminated before his final match.
‘RBLZ_Umut’ against de Weerd
His final match against ‘LevideWeerd’ was therefore only a question of prestige. The 5-2 win over the Dutchman gave Hunt eleven points and a goal difference of +8 – better than that of ‘Obrun2002’, who had three points more in the end. A single additional goal in the direct duel would therefore have ensured ‘Tekkz’ progressed. “In the end, a bad day did me in,” he wrote on X.
regarding his weak first half of the season after his exit.
Meanwhile,
De Weerd and Tagliafierro were the beaming winners of the day – a special occasion for the Italian: ‘Obrun2002’ presented himself with a ticket to the play-offs on his 22nd birthday. “I’m so proud of myself and the performances I was able to produce,” said the Italian in an interview after his last game. After all, Group D was “one of the toughest”. ‘Obrun2002’ will face Emre Yilmaz in the quarter-finals of the knockout phase on Saturday.
Group winner ‘LeviDeWeerd’, meanwhile, will face Leipzig’s Umut Gültekin in the last eight. His teammate Anders Vejrgang will face Brazil’s Gabriel ‘Young’ Freitas, while the remaining quarter-final is between ‘PHzin’ and ‘AbuMakkah’. The four winners of this round and the semi-finalists will secure their ticket to the FC Pro World Championship in the summer. The eliminated ‘Tekkz’ will have to qualify via the ePremier League.