The final Stage of the US Nationals played out last week, with two teams confirming a place at the US Nationals Finals in Las Vegas.
The Eastern Conference
In the Eastern Conference finals, Pro League team Obey Alliance faced well-known Challenger League team, Elephant Gang. The first map of Coastline started out with some explosive moves out of MahMan from Obey Alliance, finding a crucial flank but unable to find the round win in the final seconds. While Obey Alliance were able to secure the following round, strong play from Elephant Gang for the first half of the map secured them a 4-1 lead headed onto the defense. With a strong lead, Elephant Gang closed out the rest of the rounds, only allowing Obey Alliance to find one more round, winning the map 6-2.
The second map of the series saw stronger play out of Obey Alliance as they headed onto their map pick, Consulate. Even play from both teams saw rounds going both ways in the first half, with Obey Alliance leading 3-2 at the side swap, but some consecutive round wins from Obey secured a lead and ended the second map 6-3, bringing the series to the final map of Border.
On the final map of Border, Obey Alliance and Elephant Gang showed once more how closely matched the two teams are, with rounds going Obey Alliance’s way early on before strong play out of Elephant Gang’s Ghost secured critical rounds, leading to a 3-2 score line for Obey at the side swap. While Obey Alliance looked to be securing rounds more confidently in this second half, strong clutch plays out of Elephant Gang players like Kanine kept the score line close. The consistent play out of Obey Alliance however proved too much for Elephant Gang, as they secured the final rounds, winning the map 6-4. With a close 2-1 series win, Obey Alliance confirmed their place at the US Nationals finals in Las Vegas.
The Western Conference
The Western Conference finals saw mousesports attempting to secure a place at the US Nationals Finals once more as they faced off against Vicious Gaming. Headed onto Clubhouse, Vicious Gaming looked to deny the series favorites the first map, starting with strong initial rounds and finding a 3-2 lead headed into the second half. On the defense, mousesports were able to find their footing and bring the series to a close 4-4 scoreline. Standout play from NoG from Vicious on the first map however proved too much for mousesports to come back from, allowing Vicious to close it out with a 6-4 victory.
Despite strong play out of Vicious Gaming on the first map, on Bank mouz found their footing, with dominant play out of Obey on the defense leading to a 5-0 lead at the side swap, and an eventual flawless 6-0 victory on the second map, bringing the series to the third and final map.
Despite coming off of a 6-0 loss on Clubhouse, Vicious Gaming were able to find some of the early rounds against mouz and keep the score line at a close 3-2 at the halfway point. With mousesports reaching matchpoint at a 5-2 score line, a comeback looked unlikely for Vicious Gaming. Despite the difficult task of winning the next 3 rounds, consistent play from Vicious Gaming pulled the teams into overtime. As the teams headed to overtime, close play back and forth between mousesports and Vicious Gaming brought it to the final round before Vicious found the comeback win, knocking mousesports out of a spot to the US Nationals Finals once more, and securing their place in Las Vegas.
With Stage 3 being the final opportunity for teams to qualify for the US Nationals finals in Las Vegas before the Wild Card qualifier, two teams secured their spots. In the Eastern Conference finals, a close matchup saw Obey Alliance secure their place in Las Vegas. Over in the Western Conference, a back and forth series between Vicious Gaming and mousesports saw an impressive comeback finish from Vicious, knocking out mousesports once more and securing a ticket to the US Nationals Finals at the Penn & Teller Theater in Las Vegas. The U.S. Nationals returns with the Wild Card Finals October 26, live on the official Rainbow Six Twitch channel.
Tickets are available to catch the US Nationals live in action in Las Vegas at the Rio Hotel here.
