While most of the R6 world’s attention was on the Six Berlin Major over the last month, several tier-two and three tournaments took place. Here’s a roundup of some of the action since the regional leagues ended in early May.
#flag@20:br Copa do Brasil: Team oNe win title
After Team oNe failed to qualify for the Copa Elite Six by a single point, the team dominated much of the Copa do Brasil, notably taking down INTZ in a straight 2-0 scoreline. In the grand final, they were met by Black Dragons, who themselves had beaten 00 Nation 2-0.
Team oNe looked to end the tournament early as they dropped just five rounds in the first two maps, only for a reverse sweep attempt from BD to pick up pace.
The game finally concluded on Clubhouse, where BD went up 4-1 on the defence. A 1v2 clutch from Lorenzo "Lagonis" Volpi on Thermite ended the half, before oNe finally caught up to BD as a 1v1 by João "Dotz" Miranda put the teams level, 5-5.
Another 1v1 by Dotz and a 1v2 by Ronaldo "ion" Osawa took the game into overtime, as the clutches could not be stopped. After a 1v1 to secure series point, Lagonis then pulled off a 1v4 by denying the diffuser plant using his Yokai drone with zero seconds remaining to win the title.
While he was far from the best performing player overall, three clutches in map five of the grand-final, including the 1v4 on round 15, means that Lagonis was the star player for oNe’s victory. This is Lagonis’ and the Team oNe organization’s first victory in any tier of competition since the Mexico Major one year ago.
#flag@20:mx LATAM North Super-Cup: ALPHA Team vs ALPHA Team for the title
The LATAM Norte Supercopa tournament -- the successor to the Mexican Super-Cup -- ended with a grand final between ALPHA Team and ALPHA Team Academy.
While ALPHA Team ended two points shy of attending the Copa Elite Six, ALPHA Team Academy is a team that only formed at the end of June and finished in 10th place in the tier-two Liga Six standings.
Nevertheless, ALPHA Academy had beaten Fenix 2-0 and REVEN 2-1 and, in the grand-final, beat their professional counterparts 8-6, 7-2, 7-5.
With the transfer window opening today, it is theoretically possible for four members of ALPHA Academy to move to the main roster via roster changes and roster swaps (see the “academy roster loophole”).
Even if ALPHA Team does not wish to make these changes, the Academy players will likely be a hot commodity in the coming weeks.
#flag@20:us NACL Quals: Elyssar stay up
After finishing Stage 2’s NA Challenger League tournament in last place, with a 2-0-1-7 record, Elyssar had to defend their spot in the league against an open qualifier team. Usually, the bottom-placed team is automatically relegated, but Nokturns disbanding meant that they took this position instead.
In this relegation match, Elyssar faced the qualifier winners, “Runnin”, who included Parabellum Esports content creator, Seth "Pox" Johnson.
Runnin’s effort was for nought, though. Elyssar, who had replaced “Gity” with “Focal” before the game, beat Runnin in a 5-7, 7-5, 7-1 scoreline to retain their NACL spot.
Just after the match, Alec "yungalec" Bhatty, best known for his short stint on beastcoast during the 2021 NA League season, announced he had left Elyssar and retired. This comes after he was the lowest rated player in the NACL during Stage 2 with a 0.76 SiegeGG Rating.
#flag@20:be Benelux League
Europe’s 2022 Challenger League season got its sixth qualified team a week before the Major began, as Activit-E Esports won the Season 7 Benelux Finals.
This majority-Belgian roster which is coached by ex-Fnatic and Millenium coach, Laurent "Crapelle" Patriarche, beat JLingz Esports. JLingz notably included the ex-GAMMA GAMING players, Dean "Avaiche" Groenen and Leon "Leonski" Snikkers.
The Finals were notably streamed on the personal YouTube account of the ex-Manchester United and current Nottingham Forrest football player, Jesse Lingard, as well as the usual Ubisoft Benelux Twitch accounts.
This marks the very first time the Benelux League hasn’t been won by a Dutch player and the first time a team from a Benelux nation other than The Netherlands won the title.
#flag@20:cz V4 Masters
Finally, the finals of the V4 Masters started the day before the Berlin Major -- an expansion of the Polish Masters that now includes Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic.
Playing in the grand final were Invicta, the team that had won both the 2020 and 2021 Polish national titles and represented the nation in the EUCL seasons. They were up against NecroRaisers, a Czech team which included both Martin "Yuki" Kabele and David "Mengo" Broukal. The duo had competed in last year’s Challenger League after winning the Nordic Championship.
NecroRaisers finished as the top team in the group stage and won both the winners final and grand-final, 2-1. As such, the Polish players will have to qualify via the open qualifiers if they wish to see any representation in this year’s Challenger League -- just like the Dutch rosters.
As it stands, these are the EUCL qualified teams:
- #flag@20:fr ex-Heroic
- #flag@20:ru HellRaisers
- #flag@20:it Mkers
- #flag@20:es Rebels Gaming
- #flag@20:fr 321 Sked Esport
- #flag@20:be Activit-E Esports
- #flag@20:cz NecroRaisers