Storylines - RLCS X EU - Edition #6
After casting Libertas getting beaten to a pulp by the Top Blokes in The Grid, my co-caster, the producer, and I had a lot of time to talk. Ten minutes had passed (Team Liquid were taking their time against Solary) when our producer started making his case for why BDS were so much better at Regional 1 than The Grid. I, the cynic, dismissed it as a period of good form, but, lo and behold, BDS are now a two-time Regional champion. Curse thee, Kiza!
That being said, it wouldn’t have mattered which format was used - Team BDS had a flawless Regional, only dropping seven games across nine series. They, alongside the Top Blokes, the Vodafone Giants, and Renault Vitality have already secured one of sixteen spots in the European section of the Fall Major. The action continues in The Grid this week, where Renault Vitality has become the first team to secure their Grid spot in the Winter split by winning Week 5 last Thursday.
Oxygen Esports
Placement (in Regional 2): Tied seventeenth
Standings (Regionals then The Grid): Tied twenty-first (60 pts), third (610 pts)
Prediction (for Week 6): Second
The Vodafone Giants and Oxygen Esports can secure their spots by reaching the semifinals this week, but I doubt that’s what Oxygen be focussing on. The top team in The Grid standings after Week 9 becomes “The Grid Wildcard” at the Major, and Oxygen desperately needs it, given their poor placements in the first two Regionals. It will be a struggle for the French side though, they have reached three Grid finals and won none, but reaching the finals now seems to be the norm.
My 8-Ball says the outlook is not so good for Vitality this week, therefore my next best bet for the victory is the Vodafone Giants, who placed second in the Regional but have otherwise been trending downwards, this makes no sense, but I must trust in the 8-Ball.
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Read More - From ARG To BDS: The Ascent Of EU’s New #1
Top Blokes
Placement: Tied third
Standings: Second (450 pts), fifth (341 pts)
Prediction: Tied third
This was by far the hardest prediction to make this week: Triple Trouble seem to get more inconsistent as time goes on, Team BDS just won the Regional but has never survived the quarter-finals in The Grid, Team Liquid and Team Singularity made semifinals last week but haven’t been performing elsewhere. With the Top Blokes’ Week 4 win still fresh in my mind, I have to side with them. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the other four candidates make up the rest of my top eight.
Endpoint CeX
Placement: Tied twelfth
Standings: Twelfth (170 pts), seventh (300 pts)
Prediction: Tied ninth
Endpoint has had a poor week, they were eliminated from The Grid without winning a series and bowed out of the Regional with just one win - over Solary. The team isn’t exactly in dire straits right now, but they do need to score a few more points in both the Regional Ranking and The Grid to guarantee their places at the Fall Major and the Winter Split of The Grid. A single series win on Friday would easily keep them afloat while they figure out their issues, but those problems are exactly why I can’t predict Endpoint getting further than the round of 12.
FC Barcelona and Guild Esports are two of the other teams I anticipate being knocked out in tied ninth, they had strong performances in the Regional - both reaching the quarter-finals - but have been consistently struggling in The Grid. The FC Barcelona we saw in Week 3 has not reared its head on weekdays since, and Guild Esports has only made playoffs once, also in Week 3.
Click to enlargeSolary
Placement: Tied twelfth
Standings: Tied seventh (220 pts), eleventh (200 pts)
Prediction: Tied ninth
Solary on the other hand, performed poorly in both recent editions of The Grid and in the latest Regional. For the last three weeks, they have scored only 30 points in The Grid, and it makes the most sense in my mind for them to do the same again. Note that Barcelona, Solary, and Guild are in a three-horse race for the last guaranteed Winter split The Grid spot and all of them will be looking to edge ahead as we approach the final weeks.
This leaves Libertas (who have failed to win a series in The Grid for two consecutive weeks), Monkeys, Dignitas, and Chalked without a series win, and if that’s the case, the rest of the pack may start running away from these four. If this prediction is correct for Chalked, their shot at qualifying the Winter split of The Grid will be taken out of their hands - their maximum final score will be 663 points, 19 shy of the number required to guarantee that spot.
The Grid Week 6 starts at 5pm BST on many different Twitch channels, but until then, stay tuned at GGRecon for more Rocket League news, interviews and features!
Images via DreamHack | ZeeboDesigns
