RLCS NA Winter Regional Event 1 Predictions

With all the roster changes and new young talent headlining the transfer window, NA's 1st regional event of the Winter split is shaping up to be a weekend of high quality, high stakes, RLCS action.

Group A:

If you're a fan of NRG, coming off a strong 2nd place at the Stockholm Major, you will be pleased with draw, given group A is likely to be a walk for the current #1 placed team, The General NRG, with no other top 8 teams present. However, after NRG, anything could happen. RBG are the complete new kids to top 16, with nothing to lose, Vibrance have had strong results, but struggled for consistency, and XSET have greatly fallen from their early Fall form. Despite this, XSET is the only other team in this group to have achieved top 8, and has done it twice, meaning their experience could help to secure 2nd seed.

Group B:

Talk about a helluva group! Any team in here, at their best, is a top 8 contender, and will work to create some intensely tight matchups. Although a bold prediction after his break from Rocket League for the second half of the Fall split, our call is that Beastmode coming in for Version1 could give them the edge over their competition to top the group. All results in this group could go either way, but our predictions are as follows. Also, be sure to watch out for a heated matchup when Beastmode comes up against former team Shopify Rebellion, after abandoning them mid-way through Fall.

Group C:

It doesn't get much better than this, with arguably the most stacked group out of the 4. Daniel and Aqua, NA's two young prodigies, will make their main event debuts against each other, and Sypical will take on his former home, for 3 years, in SSG. FaZe, in our eyes, is a top 2 team NA and will top the group, with SSG just edging out Rogue due to Retals and Arsenal feeling the need for redemption after last split. If you're a Torrent fan, then sorry, but this could be a bloodbath.

Group D:

A pretty clear distinction between top and bottom half in the final group of the event. Envy could be shaky with the change in team chemistry and playstyle of dreaz compared to Atomic, meaning we have them finishing behind SAM rivals Complexity, and Soniqs are likely to replicate their closed qualifier performance and once again take down Oxygen to clinch 3rd place.

Winners Bracket Semis:

Both these matchups should be fairly clear cut, at least on paper. NRG and FaZe are shaping up to be the two powerhouses of NA Rocket League, meaning that they're our pick to both cruise into the event's top 3 teams.

Losers Bracket Round 1 To Semis:

G2 against Vibrance and SSG vs Soniqs are both likely to be comfortable series' for the more experienced, high level teams, with the bottom half of round 1 producing two near coin flip matchups, where Ghost's consistency should get them over the line whilst Rogue's Aqua could be dangerous vs Envy. Going further, our call is that once G2 gets going, they could be hard to stop, making for some tight wins over SSG and Complexity, and Beastmode could make the difference in the matchup of Rogue and Version1, having more experience and poise to be able to clinch in important moments, as we think will continue in the lower semis.

Top 3:

Bold predictions have got us this far, so we may as well leave it off with a bang. Although impressive to make it this far, Version1 is likely to be dismantled by NRG in lowers. With the NRG-FaZe matchup, it's poised to go either way, but let's hope is for a spicy finish, and the possibility is that NRG's high level of experience in pressure situations could have them bracket resetting FaZe in grands, with a nail biting game 7, to finish off a wonderful first event.