Banner image: Ubisoft / @itsmeERROR
BR6 semi-finals, NA League’s final play day, the end of NACL Stage 3, the start of EUCL, and key moments in the EUL and APACL all took place this week.
With all that action, here’s a summary of the biggest stories of the week.
Four Major & four SI teams determined as TSM win NAL Stage 3
BDS smashed and lose perfect winning record
First APAC North win in six months for FAV against spiralling DWG KIA
Liquid and w7m set up BR6 grand-final meeting before next week’s CES
Elevate crushed by Wildcard to put Major qualification in doubt
One-quarter of SI and Major teams determined as TSM win NAL Stage 3
Following the conclusion of Stage 3 of the NAL, we now know the first four teams which will attend the upcoming Six Jönköping Major; TSM FTX, Spacestation Gaming, Soniqs, and Mirage. This will be the debut tier-one LAN for the Mirage organisation and all five of its players.
We also now know five of the 20 teams that will be attending the Six Invitational 2023 ; DarkZero Esports, Astralis, XSET, and Oxygen Esports from NA, and w7m esports from LATAM. Notably, no NA team has yet qualified for both events.
Finally, the finale of the NAL Stage 3 means we now know which teams will be competing at the NA League Finals, should they go ahead; DZ, Astralis, XSET, and OXG. These are the same four that have qualified for the Six Invitational, meaning it won’t clash with the SI qualifier preparations and means none of these four will be playing at the Jönköping Major.
We currently have no information on the dates or format of the planned Finals. Beastcoast and Parabellum are the only teams not set to compete at either SI or the Six Major.
Rogue smash BDS’s perfect Stage 3 record to pieces
Théo "LikEfac" Mariano joining Team BDS has been revolutionary for the Frenchmen, as they have gone from missing out on the Berlin Major to leading EUL’s Stage 3 with wins over Wolves, Heroic, Outsiders, and Secret.
This has now changed, as they lost their first game and their league lead to Rogue, the defending Six Major champions.
The 7-2 win for Rogue saw Pascal "cryn" Alouane personally net more kills than Stéphane "Shaiiko" Lebleu, Olivier "Renshiro" Vandroux, and LikEfac combined, while the result would have been even more dominant if it wasn’t for a 1v4 clutch from Loïc "BriD" Chongthep on Smoke, one of the best plays of the stage.
This ends a weak start from Rogue, with early losses to NAVI and MNM Gaming. While they still have several tough games remaining, including Heroic and Wolves, they are seemingly Major-bound, which would make them the first team since Team oNe a year ago to have the opportunity to defend their title after FaZe, TSM, and DZ each failed to qualify for the subsequent Six Majors.
First APAC North win in six months for FAV against spiralling DWG KIA
FAV gaming went on an 11-game losing streak in the APAC League, but finally broke their duck after an 8-7 upset over DWG KIA.
While the Japanese team ended Stage 1 with a 3-0-0-4 record and a final play day victory over T1 on Apr. 13, Stage 2 saw this fall to a 0-0-2-5 record before they came into this week with a 0-0-1-3 record in Stage 3.
Not only was this the end of a six-month wait for an FAV win, it was also the first 11-player game in 13 months, as Naoki "Yura" Takamoto was substituted out after two rounds for Ken "K-RAISER" Takazawa due to bad internet. It is a benefit FAV might be uniquely placed to take advantage of, having a seven-man lineup.
The win also effectively ended DWG KIA’s Major hopes, as they now sit in fifth place with seven points, compared to SANDBOX in second place on 12. There are also only two games remaining, with DWG still yet to face SANDBOX.
With APAC teams likely only winning a few Six Invitational spots, the lone SI qualifier position will be a hard battle to win. Before then, DWG may take advantage of the December transfer window and make their first player change since the beginning of the 2021 season.
Liquid and w7m set up BR6 grand-final meeting before next week’s CES
Last week Stage 3 of the Brasileirão League came to an end and next week the Stage 3 Copa Elite Six will start, while this week saw the semi-finals of the BR6 Finals take place before the grand final in December.
These two best-of-three map matches were both somewhat one-sided games. The Team Liquid vs Team oNe matchup ended in a 2-0 scoreline (7-5, 7-1) to Liquid, while w7m beat FURIA 2-1 (7-8, 7-4, 7-2).
Throughout the games, Luccas "Paluh" Molina was unsurprisingly the best performer as he hit a 1.30 SiegeGG Rating, with 20 kills to 12 deaths and a 1.00 kills-per-round figure.
Liquid and w7m will now face each other on Dec 4. Should Liquid win, this would be back-to-back titles for them and a third in four years. Meanwhile, w7m will be hoping to finally be crowned the best team in Brazil after winning three BR6 stages in a row, even if they were beaten to the Copa Elite Six title both stages so far.
Elevate’s outlook is dire despite Sapper’s return
Two weeks after Atibordee "Sapper" Noichan announced he was stepping down from Elevate to take a break from Siege, he announced a surprise return. He missed zero APAC League games in the meantime, though he skipped out on three Operation League SEA games.
What had changed in this time, however, were Elevate’s prospects of making it to the Jönköping Major, as their chances of a top-two finish looked questionable following a 5-7 loss to FURY, and Sapper was statistically their second-best player.
His return to the team did not rectify the issue, as they suffered a second loss this week -- this time to Wildcard in a shocking 2-7 result. This was Elevate’s first loss against Australian players since March.
While Elevate have six points in fifth place, Dire Wolves are in first with 11, while Gaimin Gladiators and FURY have eight and seven, respectively, and are both yet to play Tyde, who have a 0-0-0-4 record. Elevate, meanwhile, are still yet to play Dire Wolves, who are undefeated this stage so far.
This is noteworthy, as Elevate have qualified for the last three events in a row, reached the quarter-finals of the Berlin Major, and were just a few rounds away from qualifying for an event in 2021 on four separate occasions. To go from APAC’s top hope to fifth in APAC South in the space of two months is a worrying falloff.
As well as Elevate missing out on the Six Major, this also would have big implications for the Six Invitational.
Elevate currently have 655 SI Points. If Elevate finish where they’re currently at, they’ll earn zero points from Stage 3 and likely miss out on an invitation to SI 2023. With DWG KIA also struggling in APAC North, this possibly could mean APAC gets just two teams at SI 2023 -- CYCLOPS and one qualifier team.
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