Last regional of the year and NA really saved the best for the last moment. These past 4 days were very exciting for the viewers, especially that championship Sunday. I will give my views on all of the games of day 4 and then as always give my top 3 winner and loser teams and my overall thoughts.

 

Day 4

First series was Rogue vs The Peeps which ended 4-2. At moments it looked like this series was a 3 v 1, Rogue vs AyyJayy, who was the reason The Peeps were able to pick up 2 games and avoid a humiliating sweep. As for Rogue, this new team is really showing what they are capable of. They don’t have that problem of communication that they clearly had during the fall split and their playstyle just completely destroyed The Peeps. So Rogue definitely deserved the win here.

 

Next series was Space Station Gaming vs G2. This series didn’t have a dominating team, but SSG won it 4-2 games. First game was as close as it gets, and G2 lost it by, as always, giving away free goals and then find themselves unable to comeback from behind. Next 2 games were dominated by G2. Even though the score line wasn’t great, G2 had a perfect defense and their striking was on point. But the next 2 games their defense started to fall apart and this combined with not hitting their shots made them lose. And last game was all SSG, who had no mercy and won 5-0.

  

Now it was time for the upper bracket finals. Envy vs NRG, the rematch of last regional. And long story short, it was very disappointing.  Even though all games were 1 goal games, Envy swept NRG and sent them to the lower bracket. NRG just lacked that clutch moment during this series and had no spice towards the end of the games. And for Envy, they demonstrated that what happened last regional wasn’t an accident.

We go back to the lower bracket with SSG vs Rogue. SSG ended up sweeping them. But the result of this series doesn’t reflect how it was played. Rogue could have easily taken games 1 and 4 but they also lacked those clutch moments that SSG definitely had, and ended up losing them. But for SSG, they continued their lower bracket run and were looking like themselves again. They had great defense and were solid on offense, which was more than enough to win against Rogue.

 

Next we had a matchup we saw a lot during the fall split. NRG vs SSG. Coming into this series everyone expected a close matchup, but it was far from that. Space Station completely dominated NRG and won the series 4-1 games. NRG couldn’t adapt to the extremely physical game that SSG was playing and this cost them the series. As for SSG, they made the complete lower bracket run and was in the grand finals.

 

Finally, our grand finals were Team Envy vs Space Station Gaming. And it was one of the most exciting series in my opinion of all RLCS history. Only 1 of the first 7 games was decided by more than 1 goal and every single player was performing incredible. Then, for the first time in the Winter Split regional of both NA and EU, a bracket reset happened when SSG won game 7. But after that it was all for Mist and Team Envy as they dominated the second round winning all 4 games and outscoring SSG 12-4 goals. With this, Envy won their third consecutive regional that also includes Regional 3 of the Fall Split.

 

Top 3 Winners

Team Envy

They won their third straight Regional and they look better than ever. Mist is in the conversation for being a top 3 player in NA and this team’s chemistry is at an all-time high. Almost no double commits and clean rotations demonstrate that. So no doubt about it, in this moment, they are the best team in NA and arguably the best in the world.

 

The Peeps

After last regional I said that they couldn’t have another tournament in which they don’t show up. And they showed up in this one. Even though they are not at their best, they still did better and tied with KCP for that 6^th spot in the ranking, and let’s remember that only the top 6 teams get to go to Worlds. So for The Peeps a top 6 finish in this regional is an absolute win.

 

Space Station Gaming

They lost their first series against Alpine and then almost got taken out by Version 1 and Ghost Gaming in series that were decided in a game 5 during overtime. But from there on it was absolute dominance. They swept KCP, looked great against G2, completely dominated both Rogue and NRG and finally forced a bracket reset against Envy. So for a team that had a very low start and a really bad regional 1, this regional was a complete win.

 

Honorable mention: Sippin’ Ice Cubes.

 

Top 3 Losers

G2

Another regional and G2 still hasn’t win a best of 7. This team when they are all at their best can be easily the best in NA, and they showed it last season, but this one they are still struggling to perform on championship Sunday. So until they can be at least a top 4, they will be on my loser’s team list.

 

Pittsburgh Knights

Last regional they surprised everyone by reaching a top 4 finish and beating teams like G2 and SSG, but this one it was a complete failure. They lost against Sippin’ Ice Cubes in losers round 2. And for a team that is competing for that last place to go to Worlds, they can’t afford going out so early in this tournaments. So they better pick up their game because The Peeps, KCP and Alpine that are the teams competing for that spot, all gain more points than them.

Version 1

If this team had any hopes in trying to make worlds, after this regional they are over. They found themselves in the 16^th spot, just enough to make the major in case it’s just NA. But they were very unlucky with their matchups. Got reverse swept by G2 and then lost to SSG in lowers. They didn’t play bad, but you don’t advance in this tournaments, especially against this 2 top 5 teams by just not playing bad.

 

Honorable mention: eUnited.

 

Overall Thoughts

This regional was just amazing. Getting to see that SSG lower bracket run and then force a bracket reset was insane. Forky’s team winning 2 best of 5 was amazing. And finally, Team Envy demonstrating that they are the best team in NA, and maybe of the World, but that conversation is for another day.