NA Day 12: SSG Dominates, Noble and Obey in Trouble

Game 1: Rogue 6-4 mousesports

Map: Border

Rogue: Slashug, Ecl9pse, Easilyy, Shuttle, Supr

Mouz: England, Vandal, Vertcl, Beastly, Hyper

In an important match for multiple reasons, not the least of which being LAN implications, Rogue came up on top over a much improved looking mousesports (mouz). Despite a strong performance by England on the last stop on his ‘revenge tour’, a stronger performance from former teammate Shuttle guaranteed the loss for mouz. While the loss doesn’t put mouz in or even near the relegation zone, it does drop them out of the top half of the standings, and effectively LAN contention. Conversely, Rogue has gone from a bottom half team to a LAN contender with this win.

Game 2: Spacestation Gaming 6-0 Obey Alliance

Map: Border

Spacestation: Chala, Thinkingnade, Bryan, Redeemer, Rampy

Obey: Mahman, Benji, Adam, Bosco, Skys

In an incredibly one sided affair, Spacestation Gaming (SSG) beat the woefully outclassed Obey Alliance. Despite fragging well and coming very close to winning multiple of their attacks, very late pushes in a style not unlike Team Vitality hampered them, especially with some strong plant denial play from SSG. This loss firmly cemented Obey in the bottom two, and gives SSG a much better chance at going to LAN.

Game 3: SK Gaming 6-3 Noble esports

Map: Bank

SK: Mint, Hotancold, Pojoman, Jarvis, Nyx

Noble: Yeti, Acid, Krazy, Breezy, ZZ

In a hectic affair between the second and last placed teams, SK Gaming predictably took down Noble esports. While Noble initially looked strong in the face of SK’s onslaught, splitting the first four rounds 2-2, they capitulated and went on to lose three straight rounds. While they did manage to steal one back near the end, it was nowhere near enough to stymie the spectacular individual performance of Nyx, and the performance of SK as a whole. The loss keeps Noble in the eighth position, which is an unenviable position to be sure. On the opposite end, the three points gained for SK have very nearly secured their ticket to LAN, although with NA’s competitiveness this season it may be too early to pronounce a final judgement.

Game 4: Evil Geniuses 6-2 Cloud9

Map: Coastline

Evil Geniuses: Canadian, NvK, Yung, Geo, Necrox

Cloud9: Goddess, FoxA, Mark, LaXinG, Retro

In a predictably one sided match, Evil Geniuses (EG) beat Cloud9 (C9) by a scoreline of 6-2 on Coastline -- an unsurprising result given that C9 had not played the map this season prior to this game. This win put EG in first place and guaranteed that they can finish no lower than fourth place, whereas conversely, C9 missed out on crucial points. While C9 is not in the relegation zone currently, they sit a mere two points above the drop zone, and can finish no higher than fifth.