After eight months of games, Spacestation Gaming and Team Reciprocity met in Las Vegas earlier today to fight become Team USA and get the top share of the $156,000 prize pool. SSG came into the final day having made their second grand-final in a week and Canadian’s seventh since his last title, and we're also playing on Fultz’s birthday. Meanwhile, Team Reciprocity came in with the only remaining titleholder in VertcL and SSG’s old-analyst in Daeda. A victory for either side was bound to be huge in anticipation of Season 11 of the Pro League and the Six Invitational 2020.
Spacestation Gaming vs Team Reciprocity
Spacestation Gaming: ThinkingNade, Rampy, Bosco, Fultz, Canadian, Lycan (coach), sovsov3 (assistant coach), and EkuL (analyst)
Team Reciprocity: FoxA, Retro, LaXInG, Nyx, VertcL, HOP3Z (coach), and Daeda (analyst)
Maps: Clubhouse (SSG Pick), Consulate (REC Pick), Bank (SSG Pick), Border (REC Pick), and Villa
After a flawless round one, VertcL won a 1v1 by running down the clock against Fultz in round two as Fultz achieved triple kills in both rounds two and three. As Reciprocity took round four thanks to double kills from both FoxA and LaXInG, Fultz got a further two triple kills in round five, with they won, and six which ended in a 1v1 between VertcL and Rampy.
With SSG ending the first half at 4-2, sides switched and SSG started their defensive half on the Master Bedroom site as Canadian secured a 1v3 win, before a Rampy 4k won the Armoury defence to put them on map point. This final round ended flawlessly for SSG thanks to doubles from Canadian and Rampy, ending the map, 7-2.
Map two started with a number of explosive plays. Round one saw a triple kill by LaXInG to take the lead, round two saw a Bosco double-kill in response to a double by Nyx, before Bosco and Canadian took round three. Despite a triple kill by LaXInG in round four, a 1v2 by Fultz was to follow before Reciprocity finally added to their initial round on round five. Finally, the half ended due to a very late rush by Reciprocity failing as they were left in a 4v4 situation with just 10 seconds remaining.
With SSG already up 4-2, it was just a short push to the map win. Canadian got the plant down early, allowing SSG to defend the bomb successfully before, after a round win each, SSG ended the map at 7-3 after they attacked the Lobby/Piano objective thanks to even more double-kills from Bosco and Fultz.
LaXInG on the USN stage.
As Reciprocity lost their own main map pick, things looked to be going heavily South for them as they went back to SSG’s pick of Bank with SSG already 2-0 up. The Pro League semi-finalists were, however, focused on not letting the map get even further away from them as they responded to a first-round Montage-led loss thanks to Nyx’s denial of the plant with seconds to go. The next two rounds saw each team take one each, before SSG finally got two in a row thanks to another Montagne push that got the defuser down, leading to VertcL simply giving up on the retake.
With SSG up 4-2 in rounds and 2-0 in maps, Canadian’s first title victory in three years was well in reach. A clever entry through the Garage gave LaXInG an opening double kill on their way to a flawless round seven before they attempted the exact same attack the following round. With all 10 players left alive with nine seconds remaining, Reciprocity just didn't have the time to push, allowing Spacestation to rush the attackers and clear them out without losing a single life. SSG then got to title point thanks to a triple kill while defending the CEO objective on Maestro, but the game was not yet done.
With Canadian this close to the title, his fans must have started having flashbacks to previous lost titles as Reciprocity pushed back. Round 10 effectively ended with a minute remaining thanks to a quick clear from Reciprocity, while an ineffective White Stairs hold by Bosco and a Garage push by VertcL put the score to 6-5 as the game looked to go to overtime. Bosco once again fell on White Stairs with limited effectiveness in round 12, before a very quick push during their plant won Reciprocity the round.
The first overtime of the grand-final saw SSG start on defence and opt to go downstairs for the third time in a row. Two sets of trades came here, with three kills at both the 25 and 14-second mark, and an overall triple by Rampy finally won them this objective. SSG finally took the game thanks to a final 20 second rush into site, cutting down every defender that peeked to deny the plant. This meant the map ended 8-7 to SSG following an incredible 15 rounds, and SSG was crowned Team USA by a 7-2, 7-3, 7-4 scoreline.
---
As such, that marks the end of the US Nationals in 2019, with the tournament sure to return for 2020.
Keep an eye out here at SiegeGG when Season 11 kicks off and for further updates for both the Six Invitational 2020 and US Nationals.