After two days worth of competition, Negative Synergy and three new pretenders to the throne remain.
For the Spring Season it was Negative Synergy who were able to overcome all challengers and represented the ANZ region in Korea. So it's no real suprise that heading into the first of two preliminary qualifiers that they would be expected to do well, and they lived up to expectation.
Among the 15 teams that entered the first qualifier there was a decent mix of new and old faces. There were only a few teams that carried over from the previous season, but the rest were mostly made of high ranking players forming new teams. As expected, Negative Synergy were able to run through the bracket without any trouble, leaving the rest of the teams scrambling for 2nd place to lock in a spot for themselves at the ANZ finals.
The team that joined Negative Synergy would be Linda's Little Angels. The team brought players from the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th placing teams from last season, and when they came together it seemed to work, taking out Fusion in the lower bracket final to lock in their spot in the regional finals.
Heading into the second qualifier we again saw returning teams, as well as a whole load of roster shuffling. All the shuffling seemed to pay off in the end, with the two teams to qualify being new teams with old faces. After the first few rounds of matches, it was looking like Tutsis was going to be one of the teams to beat. Their run to the winners finals wasn't the cleanest, with a few stumbles here and there, but they were given the opportunity and they took it. When put up against one of the favourites to win the whole tournament Fresher (the team Fresh from last season with 1-2 roster changes), they made every play count, knocking them down to the lower bracket and taking one of the finals spots for themselves.
Fusion, who had barely missed out during the first tournament didn't get off to a great start, as they were knocked into the lower bracket early on by Fresher. They were able to persevere, and made their way to the lower bracket final again, where in a rematch with Fresher they were able to take victory and secure themselves a spot at the finals. In the battle for the top spot however, Fusion came up a little short, and in a very swingy match on Dragon Shire, Tutsis was able to take the win and the tournament.
With Negative Synergy, Linda's Little Angels, Tutsis, and Fusion as the top four teams in the ANZ region, there will be another two weeks of preparation. The finals will be on May 14, and will be hosted by ESL, with more information about the event to be released closer to the date. If you would like to catch up on some of the teams and how they got to this point, the vods for the qualifiers can be found at the ANZHeroes Twitch page.
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