With the conclusion of the Six Major, regional Siege is back in the spotlight. Throughout Tuesday and Wednesday, three relegation matches took place in LATAM.
Brasileirão - Santos e-Sports 3-2 SuperNova eSports
In Brazil, the 10th place team in the BR6, Santos e-Sports, faced the Challenger League winner, SuperNova eSports.
Santos’ season has been a rough one. The team was four points clear of relegation with just two matches to be played. However, W7M Gaming pulled off a great comeback by winning against both FURIA Esports and INTZ in the last two play-days. Such unexpected results saw Santos falling to the bottom of the standings.
Meanwhile, despite experiencing some trouble during the Challenger League regular-phase, SuperNova Team crushed its opposition in the playoffs after beating the Golden Kids and Guidance Gaming.
Santos got a leg up on the game as the team won the very first two maps of the series. The matches, played on Club and Bank, were quite one-sided as the Série A roster won by 7-3 and 7-4 respectively.
However, SuperNova refused to give in as they defeated Santos in the next two maps, Kafe and Chalet, both by 7-5.
It was do or die in Villa,since the winner of the match would play in next years’ Brasileirão. SuperNova were off to a great start in the Italian map, winning three attacking rounds in what historically is a defensive map. But that was not enough, with Santos finally imposing themselves over SuperNova following three back-to-back successful attacks.
With this win, Santos secures a spot to compete at the BR6 2022.
Mexicano - Chivas esports 0-3 Team Cruelty
Chivas against Team Cruelty was the most one sided series of the relegations so far — and curiously the only one to be won by the Challenger League opposition.
Following a complicated season full of signings and controversies, the Campeonato Mexicano side had to play with two coaches in its main lineup, Rodrigo “Physics” Flores and Alfonso “EzPz” Ruiz.
However, the relegations gave Chivas esports a fair shake, which they could not capitalize. Team Cruelty finally won after an overtime on Oregon and two very-one sided matches on Bank and Coastline.
After two years of relegations in LATAM under the current format, this is the first and only time that a Challenger League has beaten a top-flight opposition.
Sudamericano - Leviatán Esports 3-2 Valhalla Legion
Leviatán, who went winless on Stage 1 and Stage 2, made a step forward during the third and final stage after beating Malvinas Gaming and Infamous Gaming. However, these results were not enough to save them from the relegation match.
Following a thrilling BO5 series as three of the five maps played went to overtime, Leviatán Esports successfully defended its Campeonato Sudamericano spot.
Following the relegation games, the LATAM region now heads to the regional Finals, which will be played between November 25th and December 4th.