R6 NAL: DarkZero and Oxygen Continue to Winner’s Group

The participants of the most recent Major have made their way to the Winner’s Group of NAL Stage 2 in the exact same formation. With yesterday’s victories, DarkZero Esports and Oxygen Esports have completed the pairings for the second phase, in which they now fight for a spot in the upcoming November Major.

DARKZERO 2-1 EUNITED

At the moment, the US division is spearheaded by Spacestation Gaming and Team SoloMid. DarkZero have recently fallen to SSG, but were eventually able to set themselves on top of eUnited – just barely.

On Villa, eUnited were ahead for most of the match. With a 4-2 offensive half, they were well-positioned to take the whole map for themselves. When they continued by winning the first round on their defense, DZ were with their backs against the wall. But they finally clicked. With 5 consecutive round wins, they mounted the perfect comeback to win Villa on a 7-5 scoreline.

So they got off lucky on the first map. But on Clubhouse, they didn’t stand a chance, as eUnited ran off with all 6 rounds in the first half. DarkZero managed to get one round on the board, but then it was over already. The eUnited players tied the match with a 7-1 victory and forced Kyle “Mint” Lander and his colleagues onto a third map.

On Oregon, it looked as though Léo “Alphama” Robine`s team would repeat their previous performance. With a 5-1 at halftime, eUnited were once again in a perfect position to secure the map victory. But again, they didn’t anticipate the DarkZero defense. Paul “Hyper” Kontopanagiotis carried them to overtime, where DZ managed to attain the victory in two successful defense rounds.

So they narrowly survived this encounter. Now, they’ll have to go up against Team SoloMid in the Winner’s Group, which is surely going to be a tall order for the roster.

OXYGEN 2-0 TEMPO STORM

Following the upset on the first play-day, the Oxygen Esports boys were highly motivated to get revenge on Tempo Storm. Just half a month ago, they had suffered a 1-2 defeat, but this time around, they held the match under perfect control.

The first step for this was the map choice. In this game, they went for Consulate, where they could set themselves up much better. TS won just one single round in the first half and with Oxygen’s switch to the defense, they had no chance of winning another round. The first map ended on a 7-1 scoreline in favor of FoxA and his mates.

On Villa, Tempo Storm at least managed to succeed in two rounds of the first half, but then the match devolved into the same pattern as before. Oxygen were much too strong on their defense, which enabled them to play loose on the offense. There, they quickly secured the 7-3 victory.

Gabriel “LaXInG” Mirelez and FoxA were the star players for their roster. They have now secured their ticket to the Winner’s Group, where they’ll have to face Spacestation Gaming right away. For the last-placed team of the August Major, this will not be an easy opponent to tackle. Additionally, SSG have showed up much stronger in Stage 2 so far. So FoxA and his colleagues will likely not have high hopes for this encounter.