With Elevate winning the Winter Cup, the race to the Major spot is heating up. It's a four-horse race with Elevate and Gaimin Gladiators tied for the top spot and Detonator and Lycus Empire being close behind. No single team has gone to an International event consecutively since the inception of APAC into the RLCS. So, Elevate will be trying their hardest to break the tradition, while the other two are going to make sure that the tradition stays alive. With the possibility of a four-way tie not out of the question, the Winter Invitational will be a region-defining tournament. But before we get into that, let us take a look at what happened in the Winter Cup that led to these scenarios being a possibility.
Group Stage
For the most part, the group stage went as expected with Elevate, Detonator, and Decimate Gaming topping groups A, B, and D respectively. The only curveball came from Nimmt55 getting one over Lycus Empire and topping group C, the latter losing series against both the teams they faced, getting their only win of the day against Godalions who forfeited.
Playoff Stage
Round 1 of the playoff stage was a fairly easy affair for Brokoli, Lycus Empire, and Gladiators in which they dominated and swept their opponents 3-0 to qualify for the quarter-finals, with the only close series coming from Lotus Gaming against ATK which ended 3-1 in favor of the former, in which the games were close even if the series score doesn't indicate it.
The quarter-finals as well proceeded with most results matching expectations. Elevate and Gaimin Gladiators were able to handle their opponents without breaking a sweat with results of 4-0 and 4-1 going in their favor respectively. Although the series score might not indicate it, Decimate Gaming had worked hard for their 4-1 victory over Lotus Gaming with the individual games being mostly single-goal affairs. The most entertaining series of the night was undoubtedly Detonator against Lycus Empire. The series went to the full 7 games which involved games with a single-goal score difference as well as massive blowouts. With the series being 3-2 in favor of Detonator, Lycus Empire called a timeout which gave them newfound confidence, and the remaining 2 games were dominated by the latter. Although getting eliminated in the quarters, the Winter Open Champions will be looking to prove that their regional win was not a fluke and will be working hard to bounce back in the Winter Invitational.
The semi-finals were an extremely dominant affair, with Elevate and Gaimin Gladiators running rampant and sweeping their respective matches to meet in the grand finals.
The grand final was very important for both teams to put their best foot forward. With Elevate failing to make the grand finals of the Winter Open, a victory here will put them back up on top of APAC with the first regional of the winter split being only a small blip on their decorated legacy in the region. Whereas, for Gaimin Gladiators this was their second grand final appearance of the split and the win here would put them 8 points clear of second place. The first time they came extremely close, only a single game separated them from being the Winter Open Champions, but this time they were facing a rejuvenated Elevate, who took the loss from the last regional in their stride and ironed out any issues they previously had. This resulted in a close grand final with Elevate coming out on top in a 4-1 series and reclaiming their throne at the top of APAC.
Comments
Post a Comment