With only four weeks of competition remaining, teams are surely starting to feel the pressure in the GSA League.
This week was no exception, as there was much chaos sowed by the dark horses against the league leaders. Much could still change and if the Week 10 results continue in the next few play days, with even the long-dominant leaders under threat.
Keep on reading to find out what happened this week, which provided us with some unexpected results!
Team GoSkilla 7-1 Sissi State Punks
Everyone expected this game to be a close one, where the little things would make the difference, but that was certainly not the case in reality.
SSP had been the strong favourites to take the win, having been in second place or higher since Week 3. The team’s last loss had also only been in May, against G2 Esports, and the team was playing the Week 10 match during a bootcamp.
But that favouritism vanished after just a few rounds. Playing on Clubhouse and despite starting on the attack, Team GoSkilla dominated SSP and took an incredible six rounds in a row to race to match point. Not long after, the win was secured in an impressive 7-1 fashion.
With ratings over 1.50, M4DMAN and Mekses were vital for GoSkilla. Meanwhile, the stand-in of Turqo also had another good performance with a rating of 1.31.
PENTA Sports 7-5 G2 Esports
If GoSkilla's impressive win could help someone, that was G2 Esports.
The organisation based in Berlin had lost the lead the week before, but with SSP's upset loss, its European League team had the chance to take it back.
However, the attention of the viewers was somewhere else. Prior to this game, Ubisoft had announced that PENTA’s player, Levolution, had been banned from all competitions for until the end of June 2022.
Despite the difficult situation, PENTA Sport went ahead and played with Neixtro as a stand-in.
While G2 took the initial, PENTA completely dominated the game after Round 1, winning the following five defences. But G2 seemed to get back into the game on their defense and G2 survived three match-points after PENTA forced out an attacking win.
But, unlike against GC Esport, the European League team could not force overtime. Three kills by Fluchtw4gen in the very last round were pivotal to send PENTA home with all three points.
Despite being called in without much practice, Neixtro had a very good game as he finished with the second-best rating on the team and indicated that he may make the position his own regardless.
GC Esport 8-7 Team Secret
While GC Esport could not surpass PENTA after the G2 Esports upset, it was very important for GCE to win to stay in the running.
With only five more matches, a loss would have put them four points from the mid-table, inside the relegation zone.
However, it seemed that Team Secret would be the eventual victors after going up 6-3, despite GC Esport managing to win two rounds in the first half off the backs of two Paiin0 clutches.
Nevertheless, GC seemed to finally wake up and forced overtime after a 1v1 clutch by Qurly in the 12th round.
Overtime followed the same pattern seen during the whole game, as the attacker side looked way stronger than the defender side. That gave an advantage to GC, which they successfully converted by winning 8-7.
The stats reflect a curious situation, as Jay finished as the MVP of the match with 17 kills and a rating of 1.27, almost twice as good as his performance against G2 Esports. The same can be said of Koji, who nearly tripled his rating from that match.
Rogue 7-2 Ovation eSports
While GC Esport seem to be improving in order to get out of the relegation zone, Ovation are still looking lost. This time, the German roster fell against the European League side of Rogue.
After losing in the first round, Rogue went on a five-round streak to swap roles with a 5-1 lead. Although Ovation seemed to fight back, Rogue extinguished any hopes and quickly closed the game by winning the following two rounds.
Cryn went berserk once again and secured a rating of 1.66, closely followed by his teammate AceeZ, who finished with a 1.55.
What’s next?
After these results, GoSkilla is now four points ahead of Secret and one point ahead of Rogue. With only four games remaining, the possibility of one European League roster missing out on the Finals is becoming more and more real.
This situation could get even worse for Team Secret next week, as they will face a stern test in Rogue. A regulation win would see Team Secret leapfrogging Rogue in the table, as the tie-breaking rule prioritises head to head results.
Then, SSP and G2 Esports, the two best teams in the competition, will face each other in a game that could eventually decide the winner of the group stage.
Ovation eSports and GC Esport will afterwards follow in a crucial game to avoid the relegation zone and the day will conclude with a game between PENTA and GoSkilla.
Overall, the GSA League seems like it is going to continue to wow, with various permutations dictating various teams in the relegation zone and the Top 4 still viable.