The Gamers8 Rocket League Tournament these past 4 days have dazzled fans with it’s exciting format, top-level play and high stakes prizepool. The $2,000,000 prizepool on show is rivalled only by the RLCS World Championship itself upcoming in August, with the winners taking home $500,000.
The format was a “crew battle” style featuring both 1v1s and 2v2s alongside the standing 3v3 in every other game. It featured 24 teams from all over the world competing in Saudi Arabia.
FaZe Clan Impress But Same Old Story
The FaZe Clan Rocket League team were one of the teams we highlighted pre-tournament as one of the favourites. Their strong individual players the likes of FirstKiller and Ayyjayy giving them two great choices on the 1v1 battlefield.
They indeed made their mark in the group stage, although were upset in the upper bracket by local side and crowd favourite F16 Esports. They would go on to take out the Sub-Saharan African side Orlando Pirates followed by Europe’s SMPR Esports. Finally, they won a third series in a row to take their revenge on F16. In the playoffs on Saturday, they faced a familiar Spacestation Gaming opponent, where despite Daniel having the edge on Ayyjayy in the 1v1, they would limit SSG to just two goals across 4 games on 2v2/3v3 in a dominant showing.
But speak of dominant, FaZe would once again end up with a Top 4 finish trademark of their season this year. A resurgent Guild Esports with crr, who was simply on fire, took out the North American titans in a clean sweep of all things. You heard it here first: if you’re going for Rocket League betting, better put FaZe for Top 4 and no further.
FURIA And Yanxnz Unstoppable
Well with our piece on the “Minor” regions making a Major impact, you would think we’d have been ready for this opponent. However, we’re not sure anyone in the world had FURIA taking the win of the entire tournament here. The South American sensations found their footing early on and hardly ever looked like losing it. Winning against both OWL Esports and F16, they dispatched the talented Middle Eastern teams to swiftly make it to the playoffs.
With yanxnz’s offence looking like – and rightly highlighted by analysts as – possibly the best in the game right now, their old amigos in Complexity Gaming could not stop them. FURIA clutched back-to-back overtimes in game five and six to win out the series 4-2 in a 3v3 followed by 2v2.
They were about to find a whole new level of clutch against the home favourites, Spring Major runners-up and on form Team Falcons. They went up 3-0 in the best-of-7 following a masterclass from trk511 including a close 1v1 win over yanxnz. Yet FURIA would find another gear, and gather momentum across 2v2 and 3v3 to win the series in a dramatic game 7 overtime. When they went on to meet Guild Esports in the Grand Final, it was no contest. Yanxnz and FURIA had clearly ascended to final form, and with two one-goal victories in the 3v3 games they broke Guild’s spirit, taking home the lion’s share of the enormous Gamers8 Rocket League prizepool.
Looking Towards Worlds
The tournament and the play we saw certainly shake up the pack and only ramp up the excitement for the RLCS World Championship, starting with the wildcard event on the 4th August. 4 of the teams in Gamers8 feature there, including Spacestation Gaming, Dignitas, 01 Esports and Orlando Pirates Exdee.
While SSG RL are probably a safe lock-in still, and the Orlando Pirates don’t yet have the top level experience, this even certainly gave an interesting recent look for Dignitas. Having missed the Spring Major, many fans were hoping to see them bounce back at the prestigious Gamers8 Rocket League tournament, yet the pain unfortunately only continued. The European side reached the upper finals of their group after a win over 01, yet from there wouldn’t win a single 3v3 game. They lost to Team Falcons and then 01 Esports who, with that victory, are now certainly a team to watch themselves for that Wildcard Qualifier.
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