We’re now past the mid-point in the NAL and BR6 League, while the Mexican and South American League has now ended.
One play day in the European, APAC North, and APAC South Leagues, as well as two games per team for the North American and Brazilian rosters all added up to a lot of action, so here’s a summary of the biggest stories of the week.
Julio beats NiP in first head-to-head as a player
Rogue suffer another loss ahead of gauntlet schedule
DarkZero smashed while on the edge of SI qualification
Ramu wins 1v4 overtime ace clutch against ex-FAV teammates and against ex-FNC players
Four BR players qualify from South America while BR, EU, and US players miss out on CES from Mexico
Julio beats NiP in first head-to-head as a player
After being replaced on Ninjas in Pyjamas by Gustavo "Wizard" Gomes, Julio "JULIO" Giacomelli spent three months on FURIA Esports as a coach before joining w7m esports as their in-game leader in September. On Sunday, he played against his ex-teammates, with whom he won a world championship for the first time as a player.
The game ended at 8-6 to w7m, with JULIO’s team led by w7m’s Gabriel "volpz" Fernandes. While NiP hit match point first, w7m then won three in a row with a volpz triple kill on round 13 followed up by a flawless round 14 that began with a volpz spawn kill.
It’s notable that prior to JULIO, w7m beat NiP 7-5 and 7-2 in the BR6 League. As such, while the win would’ve felt good for JULIO, it was the minimum that is now expected from w7m.
With this win, w7m now climb in fourth place in the league, while NiP are in ninth -- five points behind and with just three games remaining next week. W7m also have the easiest possible lineup of games, as they will play 00 Nation, Team oNe, and TropiCaos who, alongside NiP, sit in the bottom four of the league at the moment.
This all means that w7m, FaZe, and Liquid, some of the most popular teams in Brazil, are all looking set to qualify for the Major. The fourth team, however, are Black Dragons and may seem to have come from practically nowhere to currently sit in second place. They will play FURIA, NiP, and oNe as they hope to finally qualify to the CES after prior choked attempts.
Rogue suffer another loss ahead of gauntlet schedule
A confident win over TT9 last week was a good recovery from a 6-8 defeat to NAVI during week one. This week, however, Rogue fell once again to MNM, 7-8.
This result wasn’t too unexpected, as MNM have a perfect record against Rogue, but it continues a somewhat weak start to Rogue’s title defence.
The game itself saw Rogue end with a minus five opening kill differential, while Tom "Deapek" Pieksma got just three kills and Luke "Tyrant" Casey ended with the highest SiegeGG Rating at 1.38.
While five points in three games is a good total, Rogue’s next games will be against G2 Esports in a Berlin Major quarter-final replay, followed by BDS, Outsiders, and Wolves. All four of these teams are realistic Major contenders, meaning Rogue will not want too many more losses.
DarkZero smashed while on the edge of SI qualification
DZ needed an overtime win against Mirage to qualify for the 2023 Six Invitational. Not only did they fail to do this, but they fell by a fairly remarkable scoreline of 3-7.
The 3-7 loss is surprisingly common for DZ, as four of their last five defeats came with just three rounds won, while they’ve only had one game go worse than this all year (2-7 vs SSG during Stage 2).
This result stood out as Alexander "Skys" Magor and Roberto "Panbazou" Feliciano totalled just five kills between them, while Benjimoola and Dexter ended with SiegeGG Ratings of 1.41 and 1.40.
This was Cristian "Guerra" Guerra’s first win as Mirage’s coach against DZ after he worked as a DZ analyst, while his new team Mirage are looking like surprise Major contenders.
DarkZero will still likely qualify for SI 2023 on Tuesday but may miss out on being the first team to do so, as XSET play first.
Ramu wins 1v4 overtime ace clutch against ex-FAV teammates and against ex-FNC players
Beyond the JULIO revenge match in Brazil, there was also one in APAC North. Hikaru "Li9ht" Osawa and Naoki "Yura" Takamoto, who had less-than-amicably left Fnatic in September, were set to play their old teammates for the first time on their new team, FAV gaming.
One of their replacements on Fnatic was Ryuki "Ramu" Matsuoka, who had similarly been benched from FAV in August.
Considering how rare top-level roster changes in Japan are, this was a really exciting head-to-head, which Fnatic and Ramu finished an inch ahead of.
The players in question clearly knew what was on the line, as Ramu was Fnatic’s best player with a SiegeGG Rating 1.31, while Yura and Li9ht topped FAV with 1.46 and 1.22 Ratings.
While Ramu did this on Ace and with three plants, the most notable play came on round 13 in which he won a 1v4 ace clutch. The following round, his teammate Lily finished the game with a 1v1 of his own against Li9ht.
Four BR players qualify from South America, while BR, EU, and US players miss out on CES in Mexico
Finally, the South American and Mexican Divisions of the Latin American League ended this week, as we learnt which four teams would go further on to the Copa Elite Six for Stage 3.
In South America, these were Pampas and Malvinas Gaming. Both teams included Brazilians, while the latter has a Brazilian core. Furious Gaming, who had attended both Stage 1 and 2 of the CES finished in third place after making two roster changes between stages.
South America’s best player was undeniably Pampas’ Josias "Soco" Altamirano, as he had the best kill record with 82 kills to 43 deaths, had the second highest opening kill differential, the most clutches (five), and the highest KOST (78%).
In Mexico, the foreign players weren’t able to win CES spots, however, as the top-two teams were both fully Mexican. Six Karma and ALPHA Team topped the league despite the latter team losing on the final play day.
Just below them sat Skull Cracker, which includes players from the UK, Poland, and the USA, including the ex-NAVI player, Joe "Joe" Crowther. Fenix Esports, which included two Brazilian players, finished fifth.
The top two players by SiegeGG Rating were both from Six Karma, as four of their members made it into the top seven. 6K had dominated the stage with 18 points won compared to ALPHA on 13.
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