GUTS and Chiefs will qualify for Sweden Major, ORDER for relegations – SiegeGG
This week was the sixth day of action in both the APAC North and APAC South leagues, as major uprisings took place in both sub-regions. Let’s take a look at some of the key highlights and stories as we approach the end of step 3.
APAC North
From the north, GUTS secured what is probably the biggest gain in their history. Their 7-2 result over mantisFPS now puts them in a very strong position to win the APAC North League for stage 3 and qualify for the Six Sweden Major.
This result led Hikaru “Li9ht” Osawa to secure a 1.55 SiegeGG rating with 10 deaths to five deaths, while Kazuki “Lily” Yamane secured eight deaths to just three deaths. Between them, the two secured massive five offensive wins at Villa, which inevitably led to map wins when the sides switched.
GUTS are now tied with mantis at the top of the APAC North position, but keep the head-to-head result to their own advantage. Next week, they face the seventh-placed Fnatic, while the Koreans face the eighth FAV.
GUTS, which has three members of Nora-Rengo’s ESL Pro League season 7 roster, is shortly after a massive outrage and should be able to lock in its first global appearance under the GUTS banner.
This week was also a 7-4 win with T1 against Talon. This was not only a second win in a row for T1, it was also only their third of the entire 2021 season.
This result was largely due to the impressive dispersal ability of the former player-coach, who became a turner, Jaehyun “PJH” Park. The current player secured 11 kills to four deaths during the 11 rounds, which included a 1v3 against Masaki “AzzyyyS” Someya, Daeyeong “Demic” Kim and Sihyeon “Soldier” Lee to close the map.
While T1 is already locked in a relegation battle to stay in the APAC North League 2022, there is now a chance for them to qualify for the APAC playoffs and maybe even the Six Sweden Major.
To do this, they must beat DWG next week and at the same time hope for a close game between CAG and Talon – an unlikely but possible result.
Finally, Fnatic’s 4-7 loss to CYCLOPS means that the Australians have dropped to seventh place and cannot qualify for the APAC playoffs. This is a disappointing stage for them, and this is their worst result this season, even though they have played with their entire starting lineup in almost the entire stage.
Finally, DWG beat FAV 7-1 to secure a place in the APAC playoffs, while FAV’s window to escape the relegation zone has become even narrower.
APAC south
This week’s biggest result in APAC South saw Chiefs beat Invictus Gaming in a rather impressive 7-4 point at Kafe. While Matin “SpeakEasy” Yunos initially took advantage of two multi-kills and put iG ahead, Chiefs fought back, with Raine “Dgtl” Wright winning a 1v2 against Jeremy “HysteRiX” Tan and Glen “Lunarmetal” Suryasaputra to tie the finish line .
Two more innings gave the Chiefs half before pushing even further with a reading room defense to start the second half. While iG started pushing back, Chiefs newest player of Ethan “Ethan” Picard stopped his line with a 1v1 over Lunar, who tried a 1v4 connection himself.
Finally, the Chiefs ended the game with an almost flawless defense of the kitchen, as iG was forced to make a very late execution.
This result drives Chiefs Esports Club up in first place, one point ahead of iG in second and two ahead of Elevate in third. The Chiefs are also head-to-head against both of these teams and while they face the last placed ORDER next week, iG and Elevate are set to face each other.
This puts the managers in a really good position to lock in their qualification in Sweden Major as APAC Syd’s winner next week after finishing the last stage far down in fifth place. However, just as the Knights failed to go to Mexico in stage 2, it is unclear whether the Chiefs will even be able to participate in Sweden Major if they qualify.
One thing that really helped the Chiefs reach this position was the Knights vs Elevate result just before this game. Here, the last-placed Knights took third-placed Elevate to overtime due to a fantastic performance from Harper Hayward, who finished with a 1.37 SiegeGG rating.
After going into overtime, the game eventually won due to a 1v4 link from Knights’ Joshua “Jsh” Coombes, as Adithep “DCH” Channuan fell off the facility to relocate without realizing there were zero seconds left.
Elsewhere, the two remaining matches saw the seventh-placed QConfirm take a 7-2 victory over ORDER, pushing the latter team from fourth to last place, while an 8-6 win from Dire Wolves over Wildcard meant they switched positions in fifth and sixth place.
Next week comes the final matches in the APAC North and South Leagues this season. In the north, mantis will need more points from FAV than GUTS gets from Fnatic if they hope to tie the Six Major place from the Japanese list.
In the south, iG and Elevate will face each other, and the winner hopes that the Chiefs will lose to ORDER so that they get the auto-qualification spot instead.
The matches will take place as usual on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the playoffs will start from 18-20 as we approach the four APAC teams we will see at Six Sweden Major.