With the conclusion of the third playday of the North America League 2024 Stage 2, here's everything you need to know about what happened in today's matches!
Soniqs 8-6 M80
Soniqs and M80 kicked off the third playday of the split in the North America League 2024 with a heated match that was decided on overtime.
In what was Soniqs’ third time playing Nighthaven Labs this season, the American lineup had a dream start after winning the first three rounds of the match – including a Troy “Canadian” Jaroslawski 1v4 clutch with a round-saving Pulse C4 from below.
Although M80 secured two of their three remaining attacks before swapping sides, the team’s efforts seemed to not be enough as Soniqs reached match point after the conclusion of round nine. With Soniqs dominating the game, the players afforded themselves to tease their opponents – an imminent win for the team coached by Seth “supr” Hoffman seemed imminent.
However, it was then when M80 reacted. The European duo of William “Spoit” Löfstedt and Ben “CTZN” McMillan took over the match as the British stole the show with a 4K on round eleven. Eventually, M80 managed to force overtime and secure a point from a game that looked lost three rounds earlier. Despite the team’s best efforts, Soniqs ended up securing an 8-6 win to keep their unbeaten streak alive.
While Spoit was the best-rated player in the match with a SiegeGG rating of 1.30 and an outstanding KOST of 86, Troy “Canadian” Jaroslawski was the best player of the match for Soniqs with a SiegeGG rating of 1.21 and two plants.
DarkZero Esports 7-4 Spacestation Gaming
DarkZero Esports obtained a much-needed regulation victory against the joint-leaders Spacestation Gaming as they had yet to win a game in the stage before today.
Although the purple roster ended up grabbing the three points, the start of the game was far from being promising. Alec “Fultz” Fultz’s 1v2 clutch saw the astronauts grabbing an early lead; eventually, both teams swapped sides with a temporary 4-2 lead for Spacestation after having played on defense.
Nevertheless, as soon as both teams changed roles, DarkZero Esports took over the game. After winning their first defense, two back-to-back clutches from Roberto “Panbazou” Feliciano and Nick “njr” Rapier gave the purple roster the lead for the first time in the game. Only two rounds later, DarkZero Esports completed a perfect defensive half to claim victory on Chalet.
With a SiegeGG rating of 1.41, njr was the best player in the game. Meanwhile, Benjamin “Benjamaster” Dereli’s 1.18 was the best rating in Spacestation Gaming’s squad. It’s also worth mentioning Nathan “Nafe” Sharp’s SiegeGG rating as he was the lowest-rated player in the game (0.49) after finishing the match with a K-D of 1-10 (-9).
Cloud9 Beastcoast 7-4 Luminosity Gaming
The BLAST R6 Major Manchester champions are back to winning ways after defeating Luminosity Gaming on Border. Combined with their overtime defeat against M80, Cloud9 Beastcoast currently have four points out of a possible six. Meanwhile, the Esports World Cup-bound only victory so far came against LOS.
Both Cloud9 Beastcoast and Luminosity Gaming were extremely close during the first half of the match and swapped sides with a draw on the scoreboard. However, it was game over for Luminosity Gaming after moving to the attack, as they struggled to match Cloud9 Beastcoast’s firepower.
With seven kills in the last three rounds of the game only, Shaun “Gunnar” Pottorff was a crucial part of their team’s win. Eventually, he finished as SiegeGG’s highest-rated player in the game with a SiegeGG rating of 1.55 and a KOST of 91.
Wildcard 8-6 Oxygen Esports
Wildcard defeated Oxygen Esports on overtime on Chalet and secured the team's first victory of the stage. Meanwhile, this is Oxygen Esports' third consecutive defeat and the team's first loss on Chalet since September 2021.
Oxygen Esports started the game with a great Montagne play by Evan "Yoggah" Nelson that saw the green roster take a provisional lead. However, both teams ended up swapping sides with Wildcard ahead on the scoreboard thanks to a 1v3 clutch by Jacob "Bae" Dowling.
After moving to defense, Oxygen Esports took over control of the game as they won four back-to-back rounds to secure two match points. When it looked like Oxygen Esports were on the verge of securing their first win of the stage, two attacking rounds won by Wildcard saw the game going to overtime.
Eventually, a Chris "Spiff" Park's post-plant clutch on round thirteen and a one-sided attacking round saw Wildcard winning the match. Curiously enough, the team's two most-recent signings Bae and Spiff were the best players of the game with SiegeGG ratings of 1.52 and 1.48, respectively.