Banner image: Ubisoft/Kirill B.
Following three days of competition, the Gamers Without Borders charity tournament's regional events came to a conclusion on Jun. 5. One team from each event in NA, EU, and LATAM qualified for the $2 million Riyadh finals and took home $250,000 in prize money.
NA
Spacestation Gaming took top spot in North America, meeting the expectations despite having missed out on the Charlotte Major last month. The top-seeded team in the NA event took on Parabellum twice, winning four maps to Parabellum's one.
The initial 2-1 victory over a new-look Parabellum, now officially playing with Shaun "Gunnar" Pottorff, only saw SSG drop a map in overtime, though was pushed to maximum overtime in the BO5 grand final that saw them win 3-0 with an upper bracket map advantage.
Bracketed between the Parabellum games was a 2-0 win over NA Challenger League side Leftovers, who were nevertheless impressive and won 9 rounds against SSG.
EU
Europe was home to an impressive upset run from WYLDE, the GSA League 2022 team that features former Rogue duo Lukas "korey" Zwingmann and Maurice "AceeZ" Erkelenz.
They kicked their run off with a 2-1 victory over EUL Stage 1 table-toppers Heroic, only losing the second map by an 8-7 margin, before coming back from behind to beat Victus 2-1. Meanwhile, Rogue had a tough run to the grand final, losing 1-2 to Victus before beating Heroic and Victus 2-1 in the lower bracket.
A close grand final and map advantage for WYLDE was too much for Rogue, who were debuting in this tournament with hot prospect rookie William "Spoit" Löfstedt, and WYLDE took the win 3-1 to qualify for the Riyadh finals.
LATAM
Over in LATAM, it was a straight fight between FaZe Clan and MIBR that was promised and it was a straight fight between the two Brazilian titans that we got.
Both teams won their opening games, FaZe in a 2-1 over Escolinha do Bubu and MIBR in a rather quick 2-0 over Furious Gaming. But FaZe were left in the dust in their upper bracket 0-2 loss to MIBR, losing the first map 0-7 and the second 6-8.
After beating Escolinha do Bubu 2-0 in the lower bracket, FaZe returned to face MIBR once more and both teams traded maps in 7-3, 7-2, 7-2, and 7-2 fashion, but it was MIBR that took the win 3-2 with the upper bracket map advantage.
What's Next?
Spacestation, WYLDE, and MIBR are now qualified for the $2 million Gamers Without Borders finals held in Riyadh from Aug. 4 to 7. They will be joined by five other teams -- one qualifying from the Saudi eLeague and four other invitees.