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Rogue wins RLCS NA Regional #3

In a true heartbreaker final that actually started two rounds earlier, Rogue took the title of the RLCS Season X Winter Split: NA Regional #3. In the final Regional event of the Winter Split, the North American teams auditioned once again before heading to the Major in February. This will also be split between the major regions due to the ongoing pandemic.

Already at the start there were some small surprises. On the first weekend, The Peeps slipped into the lower bracket early on, but then performed strongly there again. G2 Esports had difficulties with EUnited, but managed to get into the next round. Rogue was waiting there.

Rogue takes course

G2 took a 2-0 lead with two more or less convincing performances, which was equivalent to three match points. Especially the clear 6:1 in the Forbidden Temple suggested a certain outcome. However, Rogue managed to catch themselves and actually complete the reverse sweep with three close wins. This meant that G2 went into the Losers Bracket. There, after a clear success over XSET, came the duel with the Peeps. Again, the Samurai started strong and won the first game 5:1, but then lost two close games. Again with a four-goal difference – 4:0 – G2 tied the series again. How else should it have been decided, if not with a golden goal in overtime.

In the upper tournament tree, the four favorites, who had already been declared in advance, were in the semifinals. Team Envy had to play against Rogue. The two played a duel on equal terms – apart from a clear dismantling in the Utopia Coliseum. In the end it had to be decided by the seventh game. As befits the occasion, they went to Champions Field. A bad mistake by Turbopolsa and the advance of Firstkiller finally decided the series in favor of Rogue.

Spacestation runs over Envy

In the Lower Bracket, Envy was then blown out of the arenas 4-0 by Spacestation, after SSG had previously lost 4-3 to NRG, who had been sent down to face the Peeps.

The Winners Final was then back and forth between Rogue and NRG. A good start for the Ninjas, a strong comeback from NRG. In the end, it was back to Champions Field at 3-3. Five long minutes without a goal meant another overtime. Taroco, who only joined the team in November, got the game into the Grand Final.

For NRG there was only one direction in the Losers Final against SSG – back to the top. With 4:1 Spacestation Gaming was sent back into space and the chance for revenge lived.

In the double elimination format, the finalist from the top of the tournament tree gets a second chance should the first series go to the returnee. So it happened, in North American Rocket League tradition, that NRG took the first part of the Grand Final 4-3. What followed was a response that Rogue could not have given more clearly. In four games that were actually close, they kept coming out on top. In the end, it was another strong performance from Firstkiller, culminating with the goal after that move.

NRG then failed to equalize, losing the Grand Final 4-0 at the second attempt to Rogue, who now move ahead of G2 in the NA rankings and can celebrate their first ever Regional win.

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