The second and final qualifier for the Stage 3 Conference finals played out last Sunday, and with it the four teams who will be playing for one of the final spots to the US Nationals event were set.
The Eastern Conference
In the Eastern qualifier finals, well known amateur team Elephant Gang faced MembersOnly. Starting on Club House, Elephant Gang began the map with strong defensive play, with MembersOnly struggling to find a footing against the changing styles of Elephant Gang between rounds. After a flawless start to the map from Elephant Gang with a 5-0 lead, a clean final round on the attack secured the first map for Elephant Gang with a perfect 6-0 score.
The second map of the series, Consulate, MembersOnly began to look warmed up to the series and began to push back against Elephant Gang, bringing rounds much closer and falling just short of a lead headed into the second half of the map at 2-3. On the attack however, MembersOnly were still not able to find an answer to Elephant Gang’s strong defense, allowing Elephant Gang to close out the map with a 6-2 score and win the series.
The Western Conference
The Western qualifier finals pitted well known amateur team HypeR Esports against Vicious Gaming, previously FlawlessGG, from the Challenger League. Headed onto Clubhouse, HypeR Esports showed their ability to match up against Challenger League teams, going toe to toe with Vicious Gaming for almost the full duration of the map. With back and forth rounds up until 4-4, HypeR Esports were able to secure the first consecutive round wins of the map, taking the next two rounds in a row and winning the first map with a 6-4 score.
After a close victory for HypeR Esports on Clubhouse for the first map of the series, momentum looked in their favour for the start of Oregon, the second map of the series, securing the first two rounds. Vicious Gaming were able to find their footing into the third round, securing their first round of the map and taking that round win forward into two more, to secure a lead headed into the second half. Despite the strong showing from HypeR at the start of the map, Vicious appeared to find the answer to their play and secure the rest of the rounds needed to win on Oregon, bringing the series to a third and final map.
With Vicious Gaming on a six round win streak headed into Border, an unsure start on the defense and strong play out of HypeR Esports came close to breaking that streak, but with another round win for Vicious, the streak continued on to seven consecutive round wins with the start of this final map. After some valiant attempts by HypeR to break the momentum and streak of Vicious falling just short for the rest of the map, Vicious Gaming won the map 6-0, with a total twelve round win streak, securing them a spot at the Conference finals with a 2-1 series win.
With only two spots remaining before heading into the Wild Card qualifier, the four teams who will be competing for those spots are now confirmed. After their wins in the final Stage 3 qualifier, Elephant Gang will go on to face Obey Alliance for the Eastern Conference finals. In the Western Conference finals, Vicious Gaming will rematch against their opponents in the first Stage 3 qualifier finals, mousesports. The U.S. Nationals returns with the Stage 3 Conference finals October 19, live on the official Rainbow Six Twitch channel.
