Game Changers Championship Day 2 Recap

Although it was cut short, the second day of the Game Changers Championship had many exciting moments throughout, with the second half of the bracket in action.

Shopify Rebellion v Guild X (SR 2–1)

The day kicked off with a second consecutive NA v EU matchup, with NA’s second seed, Shopify Rebellion, facing off against the EU first seed, Guild X.

The first map in this series was the same map in which Shopify Rebellion’s North American brethren fell to G2 just hours prior to the match, Pearl, although instead of being the decider, Pearl was the opening map. Shopify’s pick opened with Guild X ending the first half 8–4. Shopify would then counter with an 8–4 half of their own, sending the first map to overtime. The teams would go back and forth for two overtimes, before Shopify finally won an attacking round, breaking the streak. They were able to win the next round as well, winning the map 16–14. Lorri came out of the gates swinging, finishing the first map with a KDA of 31/22/12.

The series would then shift to Haven, Guild’s pick. Guild once again opened the map by ending the first half 8–4. They would quickly push their score to double digits by picking up the pistol round and anti-eco. However, Shopify Rebellion would strike back, bringing the score to 11–12 in Guild’s favor. Guild would then close the map 13–11 in a nail-biting final round.

The final map of the series is Icebox, a map that Guild had statistically looked much stronger on than their opponent. However, Shopify Rebellion would shock the analysts by winning 10 rounds in the first half behind 19 kills from sonder. Shopify would then close out the map shortly into the second half, only giving up 4 rounds in total. Sonder and Lorri shone throughout the series, recording 69 and 70 kills respectively.

Shopify Rebellion advances to the upper semifinal against Team Liquid tomorrow at 6 am pst.

Guild moves to the lower bracket to face FENNEL HOTELAVA in the first elimination match tomorrow.

Team Liquid v FENNEL HOTELAVA (TL 2–1)

In the final quarterfinals match, Brazil’s representative Team Liquid and East Asia’s representative FENNEL HOTELAVA would face off.

The opening map would be Ascent, wherein Team Liquid would win the first six rounds in a row, before eventually closing the half 9–3 in their favor. Team Liquid would continue their dominance in the second half, closing the map 13–4.

The match would continue on Icebox, where FENNEL would show off a double controller composition, with both an Omen and a Viper. This composition would prove fruitful, as with the extra smokes and mobility of suzu on Omen, FENNEL was able to increase their control over the map. They would end the first half 6–6, but they would flex their increased level of control over the map by winning 7 rounds in the second half and only losing 2, ending the map 13–8.

With the series tied at one map apiece, the decider would be Breeze. On Breeze, FENNEL would utilize a double duelist composition, while Team Liquid would use a more traditional composition. The first half of the map would end knotted up at 6 rounds apiece, but Team Liquid would pull ahead in the second half and close the map 13–9.

With their victory, Team Liquid would advance to the upper semifinals tomorrow against Shopify Rebellion.

FENNEL moves to the lower bracket against Guild tomorrow.

Looking Ahead

After the conclusion of the first two matches, Riot announced that due to the local curfew, which restricts people under the age of 18 from working past 11 pm local time, the third match of the day would be rescheduled to the next day, moving the schedule back to start at 6am pst once more, alongside the first elimination matches of the tournament.

Tomorrow’s schedule is: