Almost two weeks have passed since Rocket League’s first ever ELEAGUE Cup. It was an exciting tournament full of many surprises. ELEAGUE did an excellent job showcasing Rocket League as an esport with a high-quality stream for spectators at home and a phenomenal stage set for those who attended the event in person. The top eight teams from the RLCS Season 4 Finals were invited to participate at the event, which was located at the ELEAGUE Arena in Atlanta, Ga. The teams invited included Gale Force eSports, Method, PSG eSports and Mock-It eSports from Europe, while G2 Esports, Cloud9 and Ghost Gaming were invited from North America. Chiefs eSports Club were the only club to represent the Oceania region after their surprising showing at the RLCS Finals one month ago.

Unlike past Rocket League tournaments, ELEAGUE featured a round robin group stage format that are used in many other esports. The teams were split up into two groups. Group A consisted of GFE, G2, Chiefs and Ghost gaming while Group B included Mock-It, C9, PSG and Method. When asked about the format of ELEAGUE, Caster/Analyst Adam “Lawler” Thornton said, “I loved it. I’ve been hoping for a format like that for a long time.” Regarding the RLCS format he stated that he thinks it’s, “too long and I think there’s too many games. I think there’s too many second chances. There’s something about best of ones like single elim, not like a best of three single elim or best of five single elim, that is really entertaining and it’s really, really clutch… I love the concept of group stages. I think you really do get the best teams coming out… I know players liked it. I loved it. I thought it was perfect.”

Leading up to the tournament many people expected Gale Force to win it all. Only a couple weeks had passed since their RLCS Season Four title and most people expected them to continue with their consistent run of form. Even the casters and analysts attending ELEAGUE would tell you the same thing. Lawler stated that, “…for the competitive aspect everyone had their eyes on Gale Force… Gale Force is also one of those teams that knows how to handle a lot of events one after another… They do a good job of taking time off and I think that’s something that a lot of teams can learn from… Sometimes it’s actually better to sit back and relax and take that time off and refresh and handle it… Almost everybody talked about it like you know Gale Force is gonna be the one that you know you’ll probably see in the finals.”

Group A finished the way most people imagined it would. Gale Force won every series they played and finished first in the group. G2 secured second place in the group stage, with their only loss being to GFE. Even though they did lose to the World Champions there was a bit of extra buzz floating around them because they looked quite strong. Group B was the Group of Death, and it definitely lived up to its name. Day one and two were full of surprises with Mock-It taking the number one seed after the round robin matches. They completed two grueling reverse sweeps against C9 and PSG. The first one left C9 demoralized while the second reverse sweep, against PSG, actually helped take C9 to the semi-finals as the second seed from the group. Everyone was extremely surprised to see Mock-It bounce back like this after a disappointing showing at the RLCS Finals. “Nobody expected Mock-It to go undefeated in groups,” Lawler agreed. When asked what his thoughts were on Mock-It he said, “they’re fluky… they’re super weird… Fairy Peak has been playing out of his mind for like a month straight now.”

Day three saw Gale Force continue their dominance against a tame looking C9 while G2 defeated Mock-It pretty handedly in the other semi-final. Both series ended in a 4-1 game score, lining up a final that featured Gale Force eSports vs G2 Esports. Most would call it the perfect match up for the inaugural Rocket League ELEAGUE Cup. The World Champions vs the crowd favourite, G2. NA vs EU. North America has not had a team in a major final since RLCS Season One where iBUYPOWER Cosmic defeated FlipSid3 Tactics. G2 has underperformed since they got picked up from the organization and this ELEAGUE Cup was their first serious chance at a major title since season one.

G2 convincingly won game one but then GFE came back to win games two and three. G2 tied up the series in game four before GFE took the series lead again in game five. Now in a must win scenario, G2 was forced to win both game six and seven in order to take the title and that is exactly what they did. Game six and seven were decided by one goal and both ended in G2’s favour. Rizzo, Jknaps and Kronovi finally lived up to their expectations and won their first major trophy under the G2 Esports name. When asked for his thoughts on G2’s massive victory, Lawler simply said, “Welcome to sports. This is home-field advantage… it’s huge for NA.” He then continued to comment on the post-game emotions shown from both teams. “To see G2 and see how excited they were when they won, then to see the contrast of that, that’s just good entertainment…it puts on a good show.”

Now that G2 and North America finally have a second major title we can see if they are capable of repeating this success. Their next chance to show us will be next month at Dreamhack Leipzig in Germany. So far only four teams have been invited but it is expected that most major teams will attend. G2 Esports, Method, PSG eSports and Gale Force eSports have all been invited at this point but there are still 20 teams that will be decided over the course of the next month. When asked for his predictions for Dreamhack Leipzig Lawler said, “Given any tournament one of these teams in the top 10 that were at the World Championship can beat every other team, at any given moment… there’s certain teams that when they’re really pushing are definitely a little bit of like a step ahead… I think NRG will have a good performance. I think they need a bounce back and I know they’re motivated to do it… Gotta count Gale Force, always gotta count Gale Force.” When asked if he will be attending next month’s Dreamhack event Lawler said, “I hope so. That’s not up to me… I hope to be there; those events are always super cool…”

Check out my full interview with Lawler here.