RLCS S9: EU Week 4 Review

We’re halfway through season nine of the RLCS, and the competition is beginning to heat up, as squads jostle for position to secure wins.

Veloce Esports vs Team Singularity

There’s a bit of unfortunate trend regarding Veloce matches. For as good as they are (and they are really good, 5th in the world is no joke), their series are a tad unexciting and often unremarkable, and having re-established their top tier status with a win over Reciprocity last week, their encounter vs Singularity was only ever going to go one way. Veloce as always would wait for mistakes to prey upon, and Singularity gave them plenty to feed on. Straight up basic whiffs, misreads or scuffed touches handed Veloce plenty of easy goals. All the while, Singularity wasn’t a threat on attack, Noly & Th0 aggressive but unable to generate many scores. And when Veloce had to work, Kassio would make a solo effort or FreaKii & FlamE would connect passes to set the other up as Veloce cruised to a 3-0 victory.

Renault Vitality vs AS Monaco Esports

Another unfortunately standard contest ensues as the back to back RLCS World Championship Grand Finalists Vitality took on the sole winless team promoted from RLRS in Monaco. Vitality looked truly comfortable throughout, averaging three goals per game, including a game where they were shutout. Everyone contributed near equally in the first game. Kaydop would pile on the offensive pressure in game two, outshooting ASM by his self. To Monaco’s credit, they came out all guns blazing in the third match, despite equal pressure on both sides, Monaco would shut out Vitality and get a trifecta of goals for themselves. But it was just delaying the inevitable as Vitality maintained their three goals per game average with six goals in the fourth match. A cynic might criticize Alpha for doing little, but there isn’t much that needs doing when Kaydop gets a playmaker medal to set up a FairyPeak! Hat-trick, as Vitality comfortably dispatched of Monaco 3-1.

Veloce Esports vs Team Endpoint

Once again, Veloce faced another squad promoted from RLRS, yet this series was far more interesting. Endpoint came out playing their game, not Veloce’s, as RelatingWave scored four goals from four shots to set the tone for the series. Endpoint’s trademark physicality was on full display. Veloce not liking playing from behind got the go-ahead goal in the second game, and held the league with an iron grip. Endpoint tried their best to make the Veloce backline buckle, but it would not break as Veloce tied the series. The third game saw Veloce settle into the game more, playing their style & forcing Endpoint to adapt to them. Little threatening chances were created, the ball being boomed back and forth to both ends. Veloce would eventually pound the backboard until Endpoint broke and Kassio got the decisive goal. Endpoint would bounce back in the fourth game, Nachitow scoring a hat trick, but a couple of genuinely unfortunate goals brought Veloce back into the game, a kickoff goal and an unavoidable mistouch from Nachitow kept Veloce within striking distance, and not long after, FreaKii would again set up FlamE for a 4th goal. And as Endpoint grew desperate, it gave Veloce an opening to score a 5th on the counter-attack, and take the series 3-1.

FC Barcelona vs Team Reciprocity

The start of this series saw FCB take a page out of REC’s book, scoring two goals off demos. Fruity would find Ferra for a nice consolation but FCB went ahead in the series. FCB started off the second game hot, Flakes scoring a musty flick. Chausette would set up Ferra who again scored to tie up the game, yet Deevo would immediately respond to put FCB up. And then the FCB bus was parked. Unlike their football team, FCB & Deevo would put up record numbers of saves. The REC shooting was off but in any other game they’d score multiple times, just Deevo happened to exist. Game three saw Deevo put up ten saves in regulation time, an RLCS record. Thankfully for REC, a Ronaky whiff gave Ferra the opening to tie up the game as they entered overtime. Reciprocity continued to pile on the pressure, Deevo continued to be a wall on defense, until Ferra again scored, muscle the ball past 2 FCB defenders as REC got a game on the board. REC maintained the pressure yet could not score to save their life. And that proved costly as immediately off kickoff in the overtime, a Ronaky shot found its way into the Reciprocity goal, as FC Barcelona took the series 3-1. Deevo won player of the week for his record-breaking save numbers, while REC languished at scoring four goals from fifty-three shots.

TSM vs AS Monaco Esports

Similar to Flight vs Cloud9 from last week in North America, this series saw two winless teams enter, where the loser would be favorites to demote to RLRS, and the victory securing their first win of the season. TSM would start out superior, the first game saw them never threatened, scoring a couple of goals and doubling Monaco’s shots. The second game saw Remkoe score early again. It was looking grim for ASM, but EyeIgnite the deadly striker would turn provider with a couple of passes delivered with pinpoint accuracy to both Extra & Tigreee, resulting in two goals that gave Monaco the game win. Thie third game again saw TSM start stronger as remkoe set up Mognus to go up. Brilliance from Extra would tie up the game, demolishing one defender and bumping the second for Tigreee to score, before an undefended backboard gave EyeIgnite a glorious chance he wouldn’t miss as ASM went up in the series. However, being on the brink of defeat saw TSM enter another gear, as the fourth game entered overtime, TSM had outshot Monaco ten to one, and despite the long overtime, TSM forcing game five ended up being inevitable. And in that 5th game, remkoe againwas the start for TSM, scoring two quick goals to bring his goals per game average to one for the series. TSM would contain Monaco in their half for most of the 5th game, only letting ASM break out once the series was already decided as TSM won the series 3-2.

Dignitas vs mousesports

The most anticipated match of the week saw a rematch from last season’s regional playoffs when Dignitas eliminated Mouz to qualify for the RLCS finals. However with Scrubkilla now a mouse player, the bolstered Mous roster started off better. Speed stepped up to his strongest showing all season, being integral all of Mouz’s goals in game one, no less the two that put mouseports up in game one. Dignitas would bring it back, their passing play unmatched as they tied up the game. A long overtime followed before a rare error from Dignitas occurred, as everyone over-committed, Speed had an open net and did not miss as Mouz took game one. This seemed to rattle Dignitas as they could not stop the flurry of moousesports offense as they again raced to a two-goal lead. Aztral would score off a Scrubkilla whiff but it was just a consolation as mousesports went up 2-0. A huge demo gave mousesports an open net to start game three, and they seemed destined to sweep, until Aztral & ViolentPanda linked up for a glorious passing play as Dignitas tied up the game. A lengthy overtime followed and after three minutes, Aztral returned to favor to set up ViolentPanda to score a goal top corner as Dignitas got one on the board. Aztral would again star in the fourth game, scoring the sole goal with a tight angle double-tap. Otherwise, apart from a small scare at the end, Dignitas would control the game and force game five. Aztral opened the scoring, doing well to dunk kuxir97, yet mousesports would bounce back as Speed found Scrubkilla who pushed up from defense to get a crucial goal. Both teams had a plethora of chances to close out the series in regulation, Dignitas passing was on point whilst Speed & kuxir where always a threat at the other end. A very tense overtime followed, lasting nearly five minutes on its own. EVentually, Aztral would air dribble to beat two mouse players on his own. This set up ViolentPanda to get a free pass to Yukeo who’d beat the recovering Scrubkilla to secure the reverse sweep for Dignitas, in what is surely the match of the season thus far.

Here are the standings after week four of the EU RLCS:

Click to enlarge

Main image via ZeeboDesigns.