Even though the region is still quite small, over 30 teams turned up to participate in the ANZ Spring Championship, with only one team to represent the region over in Korea. This team won't be determined until the final to be held on the 28th of February, but it will be one of the four teams to emerge from the two qualifiers held over the last fortnight.
The first week gave us our initial glimpse at the kind of competition we could expect from the region. We were not too sure what to expect, but what we were given was an overwhelmingly dominant performance from Negative Synergy, running through the entire tournament without dropping a single map to take the first seed. The other team to make it out of the first qualifier was Fresh, a team which flew under the rader for most of the day with a lot more of the attention being placed on the well performing Dark Horse and Kyanite Esports.
The second week brought a bit of confusion with a lot of players and teams from the first week shuffling around to try and find that right team balance. Teams such as Crazy 8s and Dark Horse performed well in the first week, so with a fair few of those players returning for the second chance, they were expected to at least make it to the pointy end of the competition.
Override brought in some outside talent and were the first team of the day to qualify for the finals, running through the upper bracket while only dropping a single map. The one team to take a map off Override, Micro Gods, was the last team to qualify, and in quite unusual fashion as well. In their lower bracket final against Cynical Strategy, the final map was held on Towers of Doom, and even though Micro Gods were in a bit of a hole in terms of core health, one successful late game team fight gave them the opportunity they needed. Following the clean team wipe, Micro Gods were able to fire off 28 shots at the opposing core in the span of about half a minute, ending the game then and there, shocking casters and players alike.
With Micro Gods securing the last spot in the finals to be held at the end of February, all that was left was the rematch with Overdrive to determine seeding. In a gruelling three game series Micro Gods were able to take the top seed, narrowly avoiding having to go up against Negative Synergy earlier than they probably would've liked to.
With the two opening matchups determined, with Negative Synergy vs Override and Fresh vs Micro Gods, the teams now have the rest of the month to prepare. A lot can change of the span of a month and with the game already so different than what it was only a week ago, it is going to be hard to determine just which team will emerge as the representative for the ANZ region.
The finals will be hosted by ESL Australia on the 28th of February, but to check out how the teams got to where they are, check out the VODs which can be found over at http://www.twitch.tv/anzheroestv.
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