With the league section of Season 2 of the ESL ANZ Championship completed, all that remains are the finals themselves.
The four top teams will be duking it out in Australia in November. First, though, let’s look back at what happened in the final week of the league – and what the results will mean for the finals.
The winners
Week 5 saw the tournament’s top two seeds, Natural 9 and Athletico, going head-to-head for the first time since the Season 1 finals. N9 entered the clash undefeated and looking in prime position to take home the gold from this event. However, history repeated itself – the seemingly-unstoppable team suffering a 2-0 loss against their rivals, giving them both a final score of 24 points.
Although Athletico had sustained losses against IRS.R and iClen earlier in the tournament, they had no problems reminding N9 why they were the ones to win last time. N9 will have to improve their performance to finally overcome Athletico – unless of course they stumble to a lesser side – and claim the title.
The contenders
The lower-ranked of the four teams to qualify, KSY and iClen, managed to scrape together enough points to make it through – though only barely, in the case of the latter.
The two teams managed an even 1-1 score against one another, giving them 15 and 12 points respectively. iClen were left with only a single match separating them from the elimination bracket – but despite their position as the last of the qualifying teams, they are not to be discounted at all.
iClen are the only qualifying team who have been able to get a win against Athletico so far – and if Athletico are the new favourites, this could put iClen in position to shake up the whole event going into the finals.
KSY, meanwhile, have only suffered defeats against N9 and Athletico, with one win against iClen. It’s hard to imagine them making it all the way, at least without a sudden change of fortune.
The eliminated
The two teams sent home after the league stage are IRS.R and Fox Gaming – though it was a close thing, for the latter.
Fox managed to sweep both of their games against IRS.R, putting them on nine points, enough to tie for with iClen – if they didn’t win again. Sadly for Fox, iClen were able to take one of their matches and clinch the final qualifying spot.
