Day 2 of the North American Last Chance Qualifier finished with the Soniqs and OXG winning their respective matches. This puts them in line to face off tomorrow, April 12 in the semi-finals. The winner will move on to play against the winner of Beastcoast/West Garfield Park.
The Soniqs won over Arial Arise, who had Benjimoola subbing in for Azian. While AA’s map pick of Theme Park was a close affair, and showed the T2 team’s promise, sQ was able to close out with a regulation win 7-5. Clubhouse was a dominant affair from the NAL team as even in the rounds they won, AA looked constantly on the back foot.
OXG’s win was clean over Parabellum. pB’s map pick of Kafe started strong as they picked up a 3-1 with good team play and individual heroics, but the map slowly slipped away round by round until OXG eventually won 7-5. Map 2 was a much more dominant affair as OXG was in the driver’s seat of Border from the start, winning 7-3.
If Parabellum is to show their worth, it will have to be in Stage 2 of the NAL after a very underwhelming Stage 1. Expectations for the team were that they’d take time to develop, but the lack of major improvement is a mark against the squad. If Stage 2 goes poorly, roster changes are needed at minimum. Otherwise they become yet another example of a franchise team hogging a T1 opportunity that better and hungrier amatuer teams could take advantage of while doing more damage.