MidwayA series defined by hero bans and strategic pivots saw Melee Creeps claim the Night Shift NA #29 crown 2-1.
Melee Creeps won the #29 finals 2-1 over Floormen, but the series turned on something more specific than just mechanics.
Melee Creeps spent most of the finals reacting to two problems Floormen kept putting in front of them: League’s 
McGinnis and Goober’s 
Viscous. What made the win impressive is that they didn’t just survive those looks — they solved them.
Game 1: Floormen landed the first punch, but Melee Creeps stole the map
The opener was one of the strangest games of the set.
Floormen finished with more kills, 29-24, and for long stretches looked like the team in control. Goober put together a huge game on 
Paradox, AVG - second Steam ID piled up kills on 
Shiv, and League’s McGinnis was a real problem. The turrets, the pressure, the objective damage, it was the kind of performance that forces a team to start thinking about the next draft before the game is even over.
That was the real takeaway from the opener. McGinnis scared Melee Creeps. And yet Melee Creeps still won.
That’s what made the map so important. Floormen had the kill lead, the pressure, and one of the most threatening hero performances of the finals, but they never fully broke Melee Creeps’ economy. Even while losing fights, Melee Creeps kept themselves in position to win the game.
Then fishcake flipped it.
Around the 22-minute mark, fishcake’s 
Billy exploded for four kills in a short span and completely changed the pace of the map. What had looked like a Floormen win suddenly became a game Melee Creeps could close, and once the momentum swung, they took it all the way.
That comeback mattered for more than the scoreboard. It gave Melee Creeps the lead in the series, but it also made one thing obvious going into Game 2: they did not want to see McGinnis again.
Game 2: Melee Creeps banned McGinnis, Floormen punished them with Viscous
Right at the start of the second map, Melee Creeps made their adjustment. McGinnis was banned first.
It made perfect sense after Game 1, but it also opened the door for Floormen to pivot, and Goober made them pay for it with Viscous. He was the key player in the game. Viscous gave Floormen a different kind of control than McGinnis had in the opener, and Goober used it to shut down JonJon’s 
Wraith and disrupt Melee Creeps’ entire flow. It was the exact kind of answer Floormen needed after the Game 1 collapse.
Floormen were just cleaner across the board in this one. AVG stayed steady on Shiv, DMB did huge damage on 
Venator, and the whole game looked far more comfortable for Floormen once they got Melee Creeps off balance.
The final numbers tell the story: 31-14 in kills, a massive soul lead, and a map win that never really felt in doubt once Floormen took over. So after two games, the series had become very clear.
*Game 1 said McGinnis was a problem. Game 2 said Viscous was a bigger problem.*
Game 3: Melee Creeps won the series in draft, then backed it up in game
The deciding map was the most basic form of denial ever by Melee Creeps. Even the broadcasters were questioning how Melee Creeps could keep both heroes out of the hands of Floormen.
So first Melee Creeps banned Viscous, taking away Goober’s ability to repeat Game 2. Then they first picked McGinnis, taking away the hero that had rattled them in Game 1 by League. That was the series defining play made good by fishcake's solid play on McGinnis.
fishcake didn’t need to recreate League’s Game 1 carry performance. He just needed to hold the pick, stay alive, and make the comp function. That’s exactly what he did. His 1-0-20 line on McGinnis was one of the smartest performances in the series; low-risk, controlled, and completely good enough. He didn’t force the game. He enabled it.
That left Floormen reaching for a different answer, and they turned to 
Mo & Krill, a hero that had been banned in all seven previous maps across the EU and NA Night Shift finals. On paper, it was a dangerous fallback. In practice, it never gave Floormen the same kind of hold on the game that McGinnis or Viscous had earlier in the series.
Once the game settled, Melee Creeps took over. dew’s 
Lady Geist was the closer, finishing 11-0-9 with huge damage and healing numbers, and when the late fights arrived, Floormen had no way back in.
Game 3 was not just a better draft from Melee Creeps. It was a full answer to everything Floormen had shown earlier in the finals.
This series was competitive, and Floormen absolutely had their chances. League’s McGinnis changed the shape of Game 1. Goober’s Viscous took over Game 2. For stretches, Floormen looked like the more dangerous team.
But Melee Creeps were better at adjusting. That’s why they won. It was just simply great Deadlock at its best.