It was a fitting name to be the standout player of the tournament, as Ecl9pse rose to the occasion just as the sun set in Las Vegas. With this win here, he was instrumental in bringing home the first trophy of every Rogue player's careers.
With Rogue headquartered in Vegas, and the team house there as well, the home crowd was scarcely silent as Ecl9pse bulldozed his way to securing a 1.14 rating across all games this weekend.
Of all the games, the Grand Final was surprisingly not the only one where Rogue had to fight tooth and nail. While their first game against Team SiNister was hardly a challenge (finishing 12-3 in their favour), their Western Conference game versus Spacestation Gaming was one that went down to the wire. There, they were pushed hard on all three maps and came off with just the skin of their teeth in a 2-1 victory.
Their fourth LAN meeting with Evil Geniuses started off well as they secured a strong victory on the first map, before a Caveira interrogation got the crowd into an absolute frenzy. A third map was required for Ecl9pse and his team, though, after the second map of Villa saw Rogue unable to close things out for three match points. Nevertheless, thanks to a stellar performance from Ecl9pse and his teammates, Rogue took home the Team USA title with a 2-1 win.
SiegeGG spoke to Ecl9pse after the event to get his thoughts on how he felt about getting his first piece of silverware.
You have never won a title before, how does this winning feeling feel? Has it sunk in?
I don't know what else to say except that it feels good! It still hasn't sunk in yet, when I take the trophy home it'll feel good.
Are you going to get the full-sized, solid metal trophy?
Oh, no, we're gonna get smaller trophies to each bring home.
With Rogue based here, and your team house here, how much was the crowd a factor in your performance?
As much as I love the fans, I feel like as a player I'm good at tuning them out and focusing on my own game and just not worrying about anything. Like the casters in my ear, or for some reason what the crowd is saying. But, honestly I'm super surprised at the turnout. At the most recent Invitational, you just had the “Let's go, EG!” chants. Seeing all the Rogue jerseys and signs, it felt great.
You guys got really close at DreamHack Montreal, finishing second-best to Cloud9. What, outside of the obvious player change, was different? The mentality?
I think the mentality change came with the player change. Right before we picked up Seth (Supr) we were trying to change some things and pick up some players -- we were trying to pick up VertcL for a very long time. With this change, I've kind of changed a bit more to a passive role. I'm not the player who's first in which I used to be which I've been itching to get off from a while. So now I'm off and VertcL is killing it at that role. I think our mentality has improved and we're more confident in our play.
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