NA Regional Event 3 Takeaways: 3 New Competitors Sent To LA

After a see-sawing split, North America’s 5 teams have finally been confirmed for the LA Winter major. With upsets galore across the weekend, some teams rose to the big moment, whilst others faltered when it mattered most. Here’s our takeaway on the competing teams’ performances:

Version1 Bootcamp Buff Locks In Qualification

With their major chances hanging in the balance, Version1 packed their bags for the team’s first ever boot camp at the team HQ. And what a great decision that has turned out to be.

When faced with the pressure this weekend, Version1 have absolutely risen to the occasion, with their initial 9-0 sweep of groups followed by an incredible comeback 4-3 victory over Complexity in the upper bracket. They looked positive, together as a team, and played 3 near perfect games to take the series, lock in top 3, and book their ticket to LA.

Even with world champion and MVP Torment on the team, the remainder of the lineup is largely new to this high level competition. Comm debuted in RLRS Season 8 where he placed 6th, before placing 8th there in season 9, struggling to really get anything done. This will be his first official LAN of his career, as the excited, fearless rising star will be looking to prove his worth on the big stage.

Additionally, V1 also have Beastmode, the wildcard of the region. Tough to really get a read on, Beastmode has been a dominant force since joining KCP in Season X, but with real life commitments in the way, there were questions about whether Beastmode could make it to the highest level. All doubts are now out the window, as the 16 year old young gun has certainly shown himself to be one of North America’s beast, and will be one to watch on his LAN debut in LA.

Daniel Breaks Record After Nervous Wait

After a 2nd place finish in the first regional, and 4th in the second, SSG seemed all but confirmed to make it to the LA major. But after a loss to Complexity in groups, and game 5 defeat at the hands of Oxygen in round 1 of playoffs, SSG were sent home in 9th-12th in the third event.

For a while, SSG found themselves in a nervous situation as Version1 found their way into top 3, and Oxygen overcame the rising Randoms to make top 6, with a top 2 and 3 finish respectively sending SSG out of qualification for the second split in a row.

To SSG’s good fortune, FaZe saved the day in their win over Oxygen, helping SSG to clinch a spot at the major. The big storyline of the split for SSG has been the performance of young prodigy Daniel, who now finds himself in attendance at the LA major along with experienced team mates Retals and Arsenal.

With his qualification, Daniel will become the youngest ever player at LAN at the age of 15 years and 108 days, taking the throne from America’s king GarrettG who previously had it at 15 years and 182 days. Can’t wait to see what this young phenom can do at LAN.

Oxygen Run Out Of Breath

Oxygen have had one of the quickest, most impressive rises in recent RLCS history. After failing to even qualify for the first two events of Fall, Oxygen made a top 8 to finish the split, with the addition of veteran, world champion Torment helping to get back to back to back top 6 finishes in Winter.

Despite a fighting performance, where the lineup overcame LA bound SSG and the dangerous Randoms, they ran out of steam in their matchup with FaZe, getting comprehensively swept in a devastating loss that sealed their fate for the split, ending in an impressive, but tough to swallow, 6th place.

Even though they missed out on LAN, the roster has some young phenoms who everyone will need to pay attention to in seasons to come. The mechanical mastermind Lj has proved to one of the best attackers in the region, in just his second season of playing, and Toastie, a 17 year old also new to the scene, has seen extremely high levels of improvement, and with the mentorship of brother Moses, who attended worlds in season 1 and 2, there’s no doubt that he’ll continue to rise up through the scene.

Veteran Teams Reign Above The Rest

Even with the rising new guard in North America, it’s still the experienced old guard who are on top of the region. Of the top 3 lineups (NRG, FaZe and G2), all players have attended LAN before, and have been ingrained at the top for at least 2 seasons each already.

Having fallen to Europe at the Stockholm major, North America will be looking to take back the throne in LA, with these experienced rosters leading the charge from the top of the region.