NA Rivals Clash 1s #4: Return Of The King

The king of NA sideswipe has returned, with a dominant performance securing rayzoxxs back to back titles. Yet although rayzoxxs’ success was to be expected, the rest of the crowd produced an array of interesting results that made for an exciting day of play.

2s Champion HowlGarrett falls early:

Garrett shocked the world in last week’s 2s event where he produced a phenomenal performance to help guide Binky Boys to a surprisingly dominant tournament victory.

However, today, it was a completely different story in 1s, with Garrett falling to two relatively unknown players in Osvi and CharlotteG, facing a quick exit from the tournament and exhibiting how his focus is firmly placed on 2s events now.

Fnord Blitzed By Competitive Group

One of the top players in NA, having placed3rd at the 2nd event and 9th at the third, Fnord went into the event as the #6 seed, and at first glance, had a relatively tame run to playoffs.

Yet that was certainly not the case, with Fnord losing out 2-1 to a piping hot DazZ, who returned to top 8 after a miserable week 3 result, before being caught out in a shock, BO1 upset by Piki.

Although his run turned out to be harder than expected, it’s still one that Fnord would’ve been expected to go through, as next event will now be important for Fnord to get his invitational credentials back on track.

Aslan Returns With A Bang

For a while, it appeared a big 3 of sorts would be created with Amir, rayzoxxs, Alex, and Aslan Bang, and although the other 3 had thrived, Aslan’s results, despite his talent, had been inconsistent.

Yet this week, Aslan broke that trend, dominating groups with just one game dropped, including a sweep over old, bitter rival MrLlama, to lock in top 12.

After faltering against aNoahh, Aslan made the full losers bracket run,

taking down the dangerous Haru, upcoming prodigy Factor, the in form Beeps, and former champion, as well as 3rd place getter last week, Amir en route to the losers bracket final.

Coming up against Alex, someone normally known for very strong defence, Aslan picked him to pieces. His gold shooting and low 50s were phenomena, as well as constantly beating Alex in midfield opened up an early 3-1 lead. Although Alex seemed to comeback after taking the llama topper off, winning a tight game 5 and leading game 6, Aslan’s gold shot finishing was near perfect, securing a 4-2 win and top 2 finish.

Despite falling to rayzoxxs in grands, Aslan produced an admirable performance, and secured himself high seeding and credentials as a top tier contending for weeks to come.

rayzoxxs Dominates To Go Back To Back

The king of NA is back, and what a performance he produced. Rayzoxxs not only won today, he absolutely dominated the bracket.

After sweeping groups comfortably, he breezed past Polar Ace’s Factor, and on main stream against 2s champion aNoahh, producing some incredible chips, kickoffs and perfect finishes to send the series away 3-0 again.

His sweeps set up a rematch with long time rival Alex, yet in this series, rayzoxxs made him look silly. Rayzoxxs’ speed and confidence was unbelievable, combining some perfect stalls into gold shots and pristine shadowing to produce another sweep against NA’s 2nd best, running away with the series as he conceded just 2 goals up until the last game, whilst scoring 18 of his own throughout the 4 games.

Heading into grands, rayzoxxs had a one game advantage, and having not dropped a single game for the day, had to be feeling good. Despite this, he looked shaky early on in games 1 and 2, dropping the first with some defensive misreads, before some great kickoffs saved him in game 2 to bring up a 2-1 lead.

In game 3 of the series, Aslan produced some of his best gameplay, with the game looking all but over at zero seconds with Aslan’s 2-1 lead and rayzoxxs low on boost, rayzoxxs somehow made the recovery, before slotting a disgusting gold shot to tie the game. Rayzoxxs was pushed on the back foot in overtime, but an incredible goal line save and clear notched up the game and a 3-1 series lead.

With Aslan on the ropes, rayzoxxs continued to power forward, scoring gold shots flicks, ceiling pinches and a nasty double tap, before staving off a late Aslan comeback to take the game 4-3 and series 4-1.

A phenomenal performance throughout the tournament, dropping just one individual game in the whole run, rayzoxxs has solidified himself as the best 1s player in NA, and perhaps, just maybe, as the best in the world.