Earlier this week, ANZ team Dark Sided announced their newest addition to the roster in speca, a former player for Verdict. In the wake of the move, Verdict unexpectedly disbanded due to multiple reasons including not being able to fill the 5th position before roster locks and lack of a sub. Due to Verdict being dissolved, it meant that there was now one spot in the ANZ Pro League up for grabs.
The only fair way of determining the team for the final spot was to complete an ODC, or One Day Cup. It was decided this was the best way forward, and four teams including the likes of TBD, Outlaws, Obsidium, and Eclipse were invited. They competed against each other in a two-round single-elim Best-of-3 bracket, played under the new 10-round Pro League format, in which the winner would be promoted and claim the final ANZ Pro League spot. The scores for each game can be found below, along with the bracket.
Semi Final 1 - Outlaws vs Eclipse
Map 1 (Border) Outlaws
Map 2 (Consulate) Outlaws
Final score Outlaws (2) vs Eclipse (0)
Semi Final 2 - TBD vs Obsidium
Map 1 (Border) TBD
Map 2 (Oregon) TBD
Final score TBD (2) vs Obsidium (0)
Grand Final - TBD vs Outlaws
Map 1 (Border) Outlaws
Map 2 (Bank) TBD
Map 3 (Oregon)
Final score TBD (1) vs Outlaws (2)
The Grand Final between TBD and Outlaws was an extremely close and well fought out series by both teams. Outlaws started out strong, taking Border in round 13 after a back and forth map that looked like it could have gone either team's way.
Map 2 saw TBD step up from their previously lost but close map, and took a quick 6-1 scoreline after exploiting their opponent's weaknesses on this map. Clearly, they were not done yet and were willing to fight it out in the last map.
On the decider of Oregon, though TBD put up a valiant fight, the Outlaws side seemed to be in control for most of the map, excluding a late attempted comeback from TBD. Outlaws came out on top, winning 6-4, thus sending themselves into the ANZ Pro League for Season 8.
SiegeGG got the chance to exclusively speak with Calibre, Sirrom, and Bundie right after their series win against TBD.
As one of the players in your team to have competed in Pro League before, how does it feel to not only to achieve it again but do it with your current team?
There was no doubt some uncertainty and speculation if the team would get a new roster after previously being relegated. How proud are you to have stuck it out and now achieve your ultimate goal as a team?
Were you worried about the lack of preparation due to the recent announcement of the qualifier and the lack of experience in competing against higher tier teams with a newer roster?
As such, the Outlaws roster for Pro League Season 8 is as follows:
James “Joker” Boland
Luke “Calibre” Wright
Conway “Sirrom” Morris
Jacob “Bundie” Tangira
Rhyan “Muesli” Mewes
The team is scheduled to play Athletico Esports as their first game of the season, although the date hasn’t been confirmed due to the recent delays with Pro League. Catch the team in action at twitch.tv/Rainbow6ANZ from 7PM AEST onwards to see how this new roster fares.