Stage 1 of the U.S Nationals played out last week, and with it the first two teams to the U.S. Nationals live finals were confirmed.
The Eastern Conference
In the Eastern Conference finals, Noble eSports faced off against mousesports in a nerve-racking matchup. Noble, having secured their finals spot in the first week of qualifiers, looked to be the stronger opponent coming into the series. On top of this, mouz had just made a roster change with Neptunez leaving the team, using England as a sub for the series, potentially weakening team play and coordination. Starting on the first map, Oregon, the suspected weakening of mouz’s team play and strategy looked clear, with Noble taking numerous attacking rounds and gaining a 4-1 lead. On the attack however, Mouz found their stride and show the quality of their players, bringing the map to overtime. Noble shutdown mouz’s attempt to reverse sweep the early lead gained with a standout performance of 17 kills by the end of the map from Acid, taking a close win at 7-6.
The second map of the series, Clubhouse, went the full distance once more. Noble and mouz went round-for-round again but this time without a clear victor headed into overtime. With strong play from Noble’s Acid and Heavy, including a crucial defuse plant denial from Heavy, Noble ended the series 7-5, securing a place in the U.S. Nationals live finals.
The Western Conference
The Western Conference finals saw a rematch from the first week of qualifiers, with Spacestation Gaming facing off against Disrupt Gaming. After a surprising victory for Disrupt during the last time these teams played, Spacestation was given a chance for revenge, starting on one of their strongest maps, Border. The first map stayed close during the first half, with Disrupt keeping up in round score despite Spacestation’s strength on Border. Spacestation eventually began to take the advantage however, pushing their 3-2 lead at half time to a 6-3 victory.
With the first map being close despite Spacestation’s proficiency on the pick, Disrupt looked to turn the series around as the teams headed onto Bank. The first few rounds on Bank went to Disrupt, however strong play from Shuttle on Spacestation halted their momentum and brought Spacestation once again into the lead. Some vital plays from Spacestation’s Chala, including a crucial 2v4 clutch, took this lead further into a map and series win, confirming Spacestation’s ticket to the U.S. Nationals LAN finals.
Summary
With some of the closest matches of Stage 1, two teams secured their spot as the Stage 1 representatives at the U.S. Nationals finals event. In the Eastern Conference finals, Noble eSports took the victory over mousesports in a 2-0 victory. Despite the series score-line, both maps went the full distance with overtime victories for Noble on Oregon and Clubhouse. The Western Conference saw Spacestation Gaming face Disrupt Gaming and get revenge for their match in the week one qualifiers, with another 2-0 series victory. The U.S. Nationals returns with Stage 2 on September 8th, live on the official Rainbow Six Twitch channel.
