Evil Genuises, Knights, Luminosity Gaming and Rise qualify for VCT 2022 NA Stage 1 Main Event

After a series of intense competitions over the weekend, the last four teams to qualify for VCT 2022 - North America - Stage 1 - Main Event have been decided: Luminosity Gaming, Pittsburgh Knights, Evil Geniuses, Luminosity Gaming. Here’s how each of these teams earned themselves a spot at the main event.

Evil Geniuses

To qualify for the event from the Upper Bracket, Evil Geniuses, had to maintain a perfect record, which wasn’t an easy task with the likes of Ghost Gaming and Rise vying for the same spot. Up until the Upper Bracket quarterfinals, the team had no difficulty outsmarting their opponents. The first match to give them trouble was against Ghost Gaming, especially after losing Breeze, the matchup’s inaugural map.

However, it wasn’t until the second half of Ascent that they initiated a comeback. Just when Ghost Gaming was about to end EG’s run, they struck back taking the map 13-10. The last map witnessed a tie at the end of the first half, but Evil Geniuses were able to establish a formidable defense strategy to steer the momentum to their advantage and win the matchup. Their game with Rise, too, followed a similar trajectory as the team lost their first map, but secured successive maps with 13-8 and 13-7 scores respectively.

Pittsburgh Knights

Joining Evil Geniuses in the Upper Bracket qualified teams were the Pittsburgh Knights. Their run through the tournament doesn’t pale in comparison to Evil Geniuses, given that they had to face Soniqs, and Built By Gamers. It is worth mentioning that the team had impeccable form throughout the tournament executing perfect sweeps on more than one occasion, including the Upper Bracket Semi-Finals against Soniqs. Nevertheless, their matchup against Built By Gamers almost went south. It started with Pittsburgh Knights taking Ascent with a 13-7 score, where BBG failed to match the Knights’ defense in the second half.

BBG realized the significance of winning the next map and channeled their desire for revenge in the Attack strategy on Breeze taking the Knights by surprise. On defense, as well, BBG triumphed finishing the map with a mind-blowing 13-3 score. With a map to either team, the intensity of the matchup grew exponentially, and both teams came through on the audience’s expectations by taking the final map to overtime not once, not twice, but three times! Both halves of the map were balanced in terms of rounds taken with BBG taking 7-5 rounds in the first half, and Knights in the second. In the overtimes, defense prevailed each time, letting teams alternate between the round wins till the Knights decided to end the cycle and won on Attack in the 30th round. Ironically, the Semi-Finals were less eventful as the Pittsburgh Knights were able to send Soniqs to the Lower Bracket in two successive maps with 13-11 on Ascent, and 13-4 on Split despite it being the opponent’s map pick. Each player on the team was instrumental to its success but Logan "skuba" Jenkins deserves an honorable mention for his 1.45 Rating and 270.7 ACS.

Luminosity Gaming

After losing to Rise gaming 2-1 in the Upper Bracket, Luminosity Gaming did not waste any time to capitalize on their second chance. Soon after being relegated, they took on bait academy and emerged victorious 2-0 to face Kansas City Pioneers. Although they planned to continue this flawless form for the upcoming matches, they couldn’t keep up their defense against KCP’s attack on Split, and their attack couldn’t make a dent either forcing them to surrender the map with a 13-3 score to KCP. Icebox, however, was LG’s map pick and their confidence was eminent from the get-go. They finished the 1st half 7-5 and continued the momentum in the subsequent half finishing the map before KCP could reach a double-digit score. Bind witnessed an almost similar timeline except that LG was able to take the map with only eight rounds to KCP, instead of nine on Icebox.

Their last matchup, which served as the decider for qualification to the main event was against the Soniqs, which had to face relegation into the Lower Brackets after a 2-0 loss against the Knights. Soniqs were determined to capitalize on this opportunity because this would be their final chance to make the Challengers event for Stage 1 of VCT 2022 and their performance immediately out of the gate demonstrated their eagerness to gain the upper hand in this matchup. A plausible attack phase coupled with fascinating defense served as the recipe for their success on Breeze finishing the map 13-10 and being 1-0 in the matchup. Their path to the main event looked clearer than ever. Unfortunately, Luminosity Gaming wasn’t planning on giving up as they managed to come up with a brick-like defensive strategy and trampled their opponents on Split with a 13-3 score. The resolve of each team looked strong and the reward at stake demanded that each team give their best. Breeze began with LG and Soniqs taking six rounds apiece in the first half, which added to the excitement and drama surrounding the matchup even more. In the second round, either of the two teams had to take hold of the momentum and capitalize on it before the other team could turn the tables and LG did just that to finish the map with a 13-11 score and the 3rd spot from this event.

Rise Gaming

As you might recall that Rise fell to Evil Genuises even after taking the first map in the Upper Bracket Semi-Finals. Their loss demoted them to a matchup against Built By Gamers, which were in the Lower Bracket courtesy of their extremely close loss against the Knights. Their performance served as a warning sign for their future opponents to be wary of the team. Following their relegation, they defeated the recently reformed TSM as well as Akrew with a surprising run in the tournament. Breeze started with BBG taking a couple of rounds. Believing that they had already secured the game’s momentum was proven drastically wrong over the next few rounds as Rise dominated the map securing ten back-to-back rounds and finishing the half 10-2. The remaining three rounds to complete the map took a while but were taken by Rise eventually giving them the edge – only briefly though. Even though BBG’s performance on Ascent isn’t as flashy, the teams deserve a lot of credit for maintaining their cool and holding Rise back on defense, and following it with a successful attack phase as well. Haven allowed both teams one last opportunity to prove why they deserved the final spot at the main event. Rise showed that they were the better team amongst the two after attempting to hoard the game’s momentum once again. Although they didn’t have a consecutive 10 round streak like the first map, they finished the first half with a 10-2 score so it's worth mentioning. Being 10-2 down can be detrimental to a team’s morale, but BBG seemed unaffected as they attempted a decent comeback in the second half with the score being 11-9 at round 20. The tides could’ve turned in BBG’s favor but Rise decided against it and finished the map with a 13-9 score securing the last spot at the finals.

With the second qualifier complete, VCT 2022 - North America - Stage 1 - Main Event, starting in 4 days, has now the following teams

Invited

Qualified