Image: Ubisoft/Kirill Bashkirov
The final day of APAC South gave us an incredible amount of excitement and back-and-forth swings in fortunes as the final APAC team secured qualification to the Jönköping Major.
Here is how Day 7 of the APAC South Division looked like:
- Elevate 7-5 Gaimin Gladiators
- FURY 8-7 Tyde
- Dire Wolves 8-6 Knights
Play of the day: MrPuncH 1v2 for the win
Phuriphat "MrPuncH" Kessaneeyabut was in fine form for Elevate on the final play day, helping his team in the hunt for a near-guaranteed place at the Six Invitational 2023.
Elevate only needed one point to ensure they had a 99.2 percent chance at qualification through the Global SI Points standings, but they gave no quarter to Gaimin Gladiators, who themselves needed a win for Jönköping Major qualification.
But Gaimin Gladiators crashed to a regulation-time loss thanks to MrPuncH's 1v2 clutch and had to pray that FURY would not beat Tyde in the next game.
Player of the day: Onigiri
Paramin "Onigiri" Suwanwattana was vital in Elevate's efforts to draw within spitting distance of SI 2023, as the Elevate captain led the way with 14 kills that saw him have an impact in 83 percent of the rounds played.
His DMR prowess was on full show, as he primarily played Dokkaebi and Aruni on attack and defense, using the Mk14 EBR to full effect.
Surprise of the day: Tyde
Tyde came into this final play day with zero expectations and zero points.
FURY had been expected to roll over Tyde with little effort, having beaten Elevate earlier this stage and also having taken a strong 7-4 win over an impressive Knights roster. The bias towards FURY increased on the final day, as all they had to do to qualify for the Jönköping Major was to beat Tyde.
But FURY got far more than they had bargained for against Tyde, who pushed things first to round 12, then to overtime, and then all the way to maximum overtime on Skycraper. Tyde finally measured up to the sum of their parts and nearly denied FURY a place at the Major by getting their first win, but had to settle for their one and only point this stage.
Top moments of the day
Here's a quickfire rundown of other top moments in APAC North this week.
HysteRiX retires from competitive Siege
Former Invictus Gaming and Giants Gaming star Jeremy "HysteRiX" Tan called time on his competitive Rainbow Six Siege career four days after the final day of APAC South.
He ended his career after a tough final stage, with his Tyde team having lost its two best players in the second mid-season transfer window. As a result, Tyde were winless all stage long and only managed to score their one and only point in their final game last week.
FURY qualify for Jönköping Major
FURY player i9 at the Six Invitational 2022 with Elevate, who helped him out today. (Photo: Ubisoft/Kirill Bashkirov)
FURY secured qualification to the Jönköping Major with a brutally-fought maximum overtime win over Tyde and after Elevate helped them by beating Gaimin Gladiators in the preceding match.
Fate had been outside of FURY's hands coming into the final APAC South play day, as they trailed second-place Gaimin Gladiators by one point and did not hold the head-to-head against the Indonesians. As a result, if Gaimin Gladiators beat Elevate in any fashion, they would have qualified for the Major and FURY would have been out of the running.
Elevate's win, however, put fate back in FURY's own hands -- now, any form of a win against Tyde was going to be sufficient.
Even though Tyde had no points so far, they proved to be one of the toughest opponents for FURY all stage and were looking good to take the win after forcing overtime. But FURY rallied to win 8-7 and will now make their debut on the international stage in Stockholm next month.
Dire Wolves continue flawless run
Dire Wolves were playing with Huang "HARAM3E" Chih-hang in place of Wu "Reeps96" Weichen, having already qualified for the Jönköping Major. Reeps96 had returned to China to clear his mandatory 10-day quarantine ahead of his visa application for Sweden.
Nevertheless, they were more than capable of fighting off a Knights that were seemingly resurgent. As a result, they managed to keep their flawless run going across all competitions -- though it came to an end in the Operation League SEA playoffs two days later.
They now gear up for a tough preparatory period ahead of the Major, during which time they will not be able to practice with their IGL Hou "Ed" Tsung-cheng due to his national service. As a resut, they may need a stroke of fortunte to finish in the top two of their moderately strong group.