The Rocket League Championship Series finished its third week of league play last weekend. With more than half the season in the books, the table is beginning to settle.
Only two weeks of league play remain and each series last weekend will have major consequences on postseason contention.
NRG Esports kicked off play with a resounding 3-0 sweep of Spacestation Gaming. The last two games of the series were close, but NRG had control of the series throughout. Garrett “GarrettG” Gordon, Justin “JSTN” Morales and Jayson “Fireburner” Nunez could not be stopped and outscored Spacestation 8-1 in the series.
Rogue followed suit with an impressive sweep over Splyce. The series wasn’t close. Rogue outscored Splyce 14-1 in three games. The win gives Rogue the inside track in avoiding bottom two and leaves Splyce in a dangerous position with three series remaining.
Cloud9 outgunned Evil Geniuses 3-1 in the third series of the day. Jesus “Gimmick” Parra scored four goals, dished out six assists and made eight saves. Cloud9 set the tone offensively by winning the first two series by a combined score of 7-1 before EG won game three in overtime. C9 bounced back in game four and won 2-1 on Neo Tokyo.
G2 Esports then took a comfortable sweep against Ghost Gaming. Ghost’s defense struggled to slow down G2’s offensive attack and gave up 10 goals in three games. Jacob “JKnaps” Knapman scored six goals in the series. Michael “Memory” Moss scored four goals in a losing effort including two exciting solo plays in game one.
Cloud9 remained undefeated after beating Rogue 3-1. Mariano “Squishy” Arruda scored six goals in the series including a hat trick in game one. Rogue played well in the series, but couldn’t keep pace with C9’s high flying offense. Cloud9 lost their first game of the season when they fell 0-3 in game three.
NRG completed Saturday’s action with a 3-1 win over Evil Geniuses. JSTN scored seven goals in the series and had five assists for NRG. EG are the first team to beat NRG this season after winning game three 4-3 in overtime. NRG punctuated the series with a 7-0 win in game four.
Cloud9, NRG and G2 all sit at 4-0 after week three. Spacestation (1-2), Rogue (1-3), Splyce (1-3), EG (1-4) and Ghost (0-4) are all still in the hunt for the final playoff spot.
Triple Trouble began Sunday’s action with a 3-2 win over PSG Esports. Aldin “Ronaky” Hodzic scored six goals in five games. The RLCS Admins paused the game right as Euan “Tadpole” Ingram went to take a shot on net. There was an audio issue persisting throughout the match and the admins chose to pause right after PSG player Emil “Fruity” Moselund saved a shot that fell in front of net. The pause has sparked discussion all over the internet.
Vitality at the DreamHack Leipzig Final – Image Courtesy of @ItsZeebo on Twitter
Renault Vitality took down The Bricks 3-0. Kyle “Scrub Killa” Robertson scored five goals in the series and led Vitality to their fourth victory. The Bricks forced overtime in game one but couldn’t match the skill of Vitality.
Team SoloMid beat FC Barcelona 3-2 in a series that went down to the wire. Barcelona won the first match 8-1 but TSM bounced back with a win in game two. After FCB took game three TSM won two games in a row to earn the series victory. TSM solidified their place in the top two with the win against the talented Spanish squad.
Dignitas picked up their first victory of the season in a sweep of mousesports. Pierre “Turbopolsa” Silfver and Jos “ViolentPanda” van Meurs both scored four goals in the series. Dignitas’ defense was excellent in the series as they held Mouz to just one goal. This was an important bounce back series for the team who started out the season 0-3.
PSG Esports overcame their prior loss to beat The Bricks 3-2. Victor “Ferra” Francal put PSG up two goals with 3:23 remaining and the team was able to hold off the offensive assault to win game five. PSG moved to 2-2 and third place in EU with the win.
Vitality picked up their fifth win of the season against TSM 3-1. Scrub Killa scored 3:40 into game four’s overtime to get the win. Scrub Killa earned player of the week honors for his impressive performance on Sunday.
Chiefs Esports Club, Justice Esports and ICON Esports remain undefeated after series victories on Saturday. The Oceanic region is just two weeks in and there is a clear top three emerging after two weeks.
Five of the six series in South America ended in sweeps as Lowkey Esports, INTZ Esports, Erodium and Lotus picked up wins on the day. Erodium and INTZ sit comfortably at 4-0 on top of the table. Lowkey sit in third with a 4-1 record and Lotus aren’t far behind at 3-1.
All Week 3 action will be streamed on twitch.tv/rocketleague. Full standings, schedule and info are available on Liquipedia.
Featured image courtesy of DreamHack.
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