Spoiler
During groupstages, Amaterasu in Group A continued to dominate and seem adamant to not lose any matches at all for the rest of the season having only lost twice so far in 5 tournaments! NSS also quailified for bracket play as 2nd seed after a close encounter with the 13e Academy who lost 5-4 to NSS. With MistyMountains not attending the tournament and Royal Fusiliers not being able to put up much of a fight regardless of effort, the top 3 progressing to bracket play was written before the first stab was thrown. During the groupstages of this 6v6 tournament we saw what we expected for the most part, the only exceptions would be in Group B where ENGIMA finished 3rd behind NPP and a weakened Poosy lineup. ENIGMA lost to NPP pretty hard and this would be a huge morale suckerpunch ontop of what has already been a sub-par performance this season from the Germans. On the otherhand, Amigos came close to defeating both ENIGMA and Poosy narrowly losing 5-4 and 5-3, they really put in a great performance against elite opposition! In Group C we saw Virgins rain supreme and unchallenged, yes Snappers and BlackKnights both got 3 rounds vs Virgins but it was clean and smooth sailing and they eased into 1st seed for brackets. The trio to watch in this group is most certainly Gordon BlackKnight and Snappers who are all classed as bottom tier 2 or top tier 3 teams and any could of progressed depending on the performances on the day, this day it was Snappers and BlackKnights. BlackKnights more specifically have started performing better as the season has gone on with the rise of Ciomico and the addition of Alatriste has really taken them up a notch. Gordon may very well look to come back fresh next season new and improved with additions to solidify them in the top 10 but only time will tell! Within a heavily fought group D we saw a similar situation to Group C, with CCCP, Fluss and GVT all looking to qualify as 2nd and 3rd seed with Legends dominating and taking 1st seed. We saw a confusing set of matches in which Fluss beat CCCP to make CCCP worry they may be eliminated early, but they went on to beat GVT 5-4 to progress to bracket play, GVT may feel hard done by to miss out but it was a great performance nonetheless. Sherwood Foresters gave it there best and tried to perserve but to no avail, they will be looking to set League 2 alight next season and finish in the top 6!
During Round 1 of knockouts, we saw a few interesting matches and a even more interesting outcomes. First match was NPP vs BlackKnight which the favoured NPP did go on to win convincingly and progress into the last 8 (Round 2), BlackKnight will be looking to bounceback in the 7v7 and try give there all till the very end and have a strong Season 3. In the next match we saw what was most certainly a weaker but inform team in Fluss, take on a out of form but stronger team in 13e, matching up. Interestingly 13e seemed to dominate them which other teams have struggled to do and convincinly won 5-1 like NPP did vs BlackKnights. In the 3rd Round 1 match we see CCCP take on NSS in which the favoruite in NSS was also heavily beaten 5-1 in a shocking match in which the flanks of CCCP time after time beat back NSS attacks and slowly wittled them down and eventually after patiently waiting, took the kills well and also the match itself, great win. Lastly we saw Snappers go against ENIGMA, both teams sit respectively in the playoffs and are stable top 8 teams which is the most skilled matchup in Round 1, this was also the most intense match as it finished 5-4 to Snappers which must of been a very exciting win compared to ENGIMA who must be really beaten up about it. In Round 2 we saw the 1st seed in each group enter the bracket play, first match as a VERY good battle in which NPP got a very respectable 4 rounds vs the top dogs Amaterasu in a 7-4 loss. We saw a similar situation with both Poosy vs CCCP and Virgins vs 13e, both favoruites eased to victory but both underdogs put up a decent fight to make it a interesting match. The last match with Legends facing Snappers however ended in completely domination by Legends with them beating the 15thYR team, 7-1. In the first semi-final we saw Amaterasu go up against Virgins, this match in previous editions went as close as 7-6 and was very intense, especially with the addition of Golden you would of expected a closer outcome with me personally seeing Virgins as the underdogs of this edition, but Amaterasu rained supreme and had a convicing 7-3 win vs the French majority counterparts. Also we saw Legends beat a depleted Poosy team 7-3 in the other semi final, which is not a true reflection on the teams performance as it was closely fought with minimal differences in both teams but the style of play and better skilled indviduals on the day showed in the end and they convincingly won to set up the final vs Amaterasu.
This is the first tournament in which Amaterasu and Poosy have not both participated, this time around Legends beat Poosy with ease to get into this position and gain alot of points for themselves on the team standings to qualify for the playoffs if they play well in the 7v7 aswell, that is by far the biggest achievement of the past 2 tournaments. In the match it was back and forth but Amaterasu was always one step ahead throughout the entire final, they found a answer for a trio of legends in Elsse, ExTaZz and Shadey with players they possess who aim to be of that calibre themselves with the likes of: Achilles, Higen and Zeyden all showing that skill to reach that goal in the near future if they continue like this. Higen more specifically showed great skill in middle making important first kills and counter kills throughout the entire final, he was for sure the Tournament MVP as he was so relentless and dominant. Zeyden may not have "carried", but he is showing his capabilities as a leader and his team are most certainly benefitting from such leadership with a fresh new approach. On the side of Legends it must be said that ExTaZz showed again why he is the best of all time as he continued to top frag and try to carry his team but unfortunately last tournaments MVP, and also a fellow legend Shadey, did not perform to expectation. Legends have freshly returning Tiberias trying to get up to speed and a outdated leader in Drake who both need to catch up to be back to their best and maybe compete vs Amaterasu and win in the 7v7 or playoff final! The final score was 10-6, but on another day if players was up to speed and playing well, it could very well have been a Legends win, but Amaterasu are still finding a way to win against different challenges which is a true credit to the character they possess and tactics they gathered from Zeyden.
