The Update: November 18

By: Zachary Lange 

Rocket League reaches Madrid, Counter Strike defeats FURIA and a DreamHack Atlanta to remember – here is The Update for Nov. 18.

eUnited Rocket League races to Spain

In the team’s first event under the eUnited banner, the trio of Colby “hockser” James, Jackson “ayjacks” Carter and Raul “Roll Dizz” Diaz won two straight sets in the lower bracket to qualify for the RLCS Season 8 Finals in Madrid, Spain.

The finals, featuring a prize pool of over $500,000, are set for Dec. 13-15 at the Palacio Vistalegre. eUnited will face Renegades in Group A of the finals, which features a double elimination bracket consisting of two pools of six teams. Of the six teams in Group A, three will make the final playoff bracket.

Competing as “Birds” for most of the season, the team’s 3-4 record in regular season play qualified them into the bottom half of the Regional Championship bracket, where four teams were vying for two remaining spots to take a trip across the pond.

To qualify, two foes in Rogue and Ghost Gaming stood in the way. In the regular season, eUnited took down Rogue in convincing, 3-1 fashion on Oct. 19, but fell to Ghost 3-1 on Nov. 2.

An overtime match against Rogue to open the first round of the lower bracket would go down as the first Rocket League win in organizational history. Near the 1:20 minute mark of OT, hockser received a touch from ayjacks near midfield before striking a juggled ball into the back of the net, alluding two defenders along the way.

With both teams battling through the best-of-seven series, the found themselves up 3-2 through five games and would put home the game-winning goal in Game 6 with a strike from ayjacks with 4:19 left on the clock. With an insurance score to boot, eUnited earned a 4-2 series victory against Rogue, setting up a run back match against Ghost to determine the fourth and final playoff spot.

A flair for the dramatic, eUnited’s set opener against Ghost was mere tenths of a second away from overtime – Roll Dizz had other plans. A shot from ayjacks to the Ghost goal hit the back wall, before being spiked down into the net at the :01 mark of regulation to put eUnited up by a 1-0 margin.

Ghost would respond by winning three-straight games to force eUnited up against the wall in a best-of-seven set. Needing to win three in a row of its own, the team’s stingy defense allowed only three goals in the final three games, with the final Game 7 ending regulation in a 1-1 deadlock.

Nearly playing a second full game, it was Roll Dizz yet again that would step up and be the hero for eUnited, scoring at the 4:09 mark of OT to clinch the series.

All matches in the RLCS Season 8 Finals will be streamed on the official Rocket League Twitch channel with times TBD.

Counter-Strike defeats FURIA, awaits Isurus to close out EPL Season 10

In the last chance qualifier for the EPL Season 10 Finals in Odense, Denmark, eUnited currently sits in second place and will need help to force a tie.

With a win against FURIA on Sunday night and a win against Isurus Gaming tonight, the team would finish up play in Group B with a 2-1 record. Should FURIA defeat 100 Thieves, all three squads would finish with a 2-1 record, enacting a head-to-head tiebreak.

Against the No. 11 HLTV-ranked FURIA, eUnited managed to pick up wins on Overpass (16-13) and Vertigo (16-8) to earn what many deemed an upset at the outset of the match.

In both maps, eUnited hung strong with the torrid-paced Brazilians, earning a sizeable 9-6 lead at the end of the first half on Overpass. In the second half, the team managed to earn four-straight rounds to open play to put themselves in the driver’s seat to earn the map win. Both Edgar “MarKE” Maldonaldo and Austin “Cooper” Abadir finished with more than 20 kills.

On Vertigo, all five eUnited members would finish with a positive kill-death ratio, going on to close out the second half on an 8-1 run with a 8-7 advantage at the break.

Opening the weekend in Burbank, California against 100 Thieves, eUnited would struggle to find t-side momentum on both Dust2 and Mirage, falling in both contests in a 2-0 win for 100T.

On Dust2, 100 Thieves would jump out to a commanding, 12-3 lead in the first half on CT side. With the heavy advantage in hand, the Thieves would only win four of the nine rounds on T side, finishing 16-8 over eUnited.

Up 1-0 in the series count and on their map pick, Mirage, 100 Thieves would once against jump out to an early halftime lead of 10-5 on CT side. Despite eUnited winning the second-half pistol round to flash a glimmer of hope, 100T would win six of the following seven rounds to end the hopes of a comeback.

eUnited’s match against Isurus Gaming is set for tonight at 12:15 a.m. Eastern (9:15 p.m. Pacific).

DreamHack Atlanta sees silver for Samsora; SMITE finishes year at SWC 2020

Continuing an action-paced weekend, Ezra “Samsora” Morris would finish as the runner-up at DreamHack Atlanta.

The Peach main would open up play in the event, held at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, by winning eight-straight sets, charging all the way to the winners side of the final top-8 bracket.

It wasn’t until the winners finals where Samsora would meet his toughest challenger of the weekend in Panda Global’s Marss. In a best-of-five set, Samsora would go down to the wire in the final stock of Game 5, falling just short to Zero Suit Samus player.

After a losers final rebound that would see Samsora sweep Dabuz 3-0, it was a chance for a run back against Marss in grand finals. After trading the first four games consecutively, another Game 5 would go the way of Marss who would walk away as champion.

 

A total of 641 participants entered the Smash: Ultimate bracket, deeming it a A-tier event according to the points system from Panda Global Rankings.

…

Over on the other end of the sprawling convention center, eUnited SMITE would close out its year with a 2-1 loss to Renegades.

After finishing the regular season with a 10-8 record, eUnited would depart the world championship in the opening round for the second-straight year.

In 2020, eUnited will return to the SMITE Pro League that will boast a variety of changes. Broadcasts will return to Twitch, with matches beginning March 14, 2020. Each week will see eUnited play at least once, with match play on Friday-Sunday beginning each day at 3 p.m.

You can read the full details on Season 7 of the SPL here.