RLCS X: Winter Split (Week 5): Round-The-World Recap
As the Winter Split of RLCS X approaches half time, there were two equally-exciting regionals in South America and Oceania. Rocket Street's first Grand Series and ESL's second RL Oceanic Championship event of the split saw upsets, excitement, and some outrageous goals. With both regions now taking a break until the new year, let's take a look at what went down in this week's Round-The-World Recap.
Oceania - Ground Zero continue to dominate
Daniel "Torsos" Parsons doesn't stop winning, does he? Since Oceania was first added to the RLCS circuit at the start of 2017, the Australian veteran has won eight out of the region's twelve regional championships (failing to reach the grand final just once!), with Ground Zero's 4-1 victory over his old teammates on Renegades cementing his side's lead. Now that their lead has expanded to over 200 points across the entire season, the Perth-based organisation are in pole position to take the first of the region's two World Championship spots next year.
However, it wasn't all about Ground Zero last weekend. Dire Wolves began to narrow the gap between themselves and the top four thanks to a strong top-four run that was ultimately cut short by the eventual champions. A sweep over Major winners Mindfreak in the swiss stage was a dominant statement by the ex-Gaming Gamers side as their run featured some absolutely spectacular shots including a double pre-jump passing play. The top four's other two teams, Renegades and Cringe Society, performed very much as expected. Although Renegades were upset by Slow Brain Good Brain at the start of the swiss stage, the two rivals would meet in the semifinals, where Renegades would take a 4-1 victory before falling to the region's dominant side in the grand final.
South America - True Neutral hang on
It almost ended so differently, but how could it have ended any other way? After an exciting weekend of fast-paced South American action, True Neutral and Ellevens Esports faced off in yet another grand final. For those who aren't counting, that's eight times so far this season. Both Noble esports and Chromax came oh so close to denying True Neutral in the playoff bracket, coming back from 3-1 down to secure a deciding seventh game but, in the end, the leaderboard-toppers were just too strong. Ellevens hadn't had the best time themselves, being upset by Locusts in the group stage. Nevertheless, the Brazillian titans cruised past PDHM Gaming and Rebel to give us that fabled rematch.
Although Ellevens took home a game, the name of the series was suffocation as True Neutral took home game after game. With a record of 6-2 against their closest rivals, and an almost-200 point lead at the top of the standings, True Neutral are undoubtedly South America's best team heading into the second phase of the Winter Split.
That's all for this week; we'll be back after the break with more South American and Oceanic Rocket League action. In the meantime, stay tuned to GGRecon for all of your RLCS X content.
Images via WSOE and DreamHack
