Final WESG USA Qualifiers conclude; Swole Patrol and Star Spangled Fraggers to LAN
The second and final WorldGaming-held WESG qualifiers for the USA concluded last night, with one team from each of the Co-Ed and Women's disciplines heading straight to the LAN event at the Santa Anita Park racetrack in Los Angeles California. The event itself is set to take place on November 9th-11th.
We'll begin with the Women's tournament where there were three teams who took place, up from the first qualifier's two. As such, the teams played in a round robin group. Overall, it was a relatively simple affair for Star Spangled Fraggers, who lifted a 2-0 over Old School and a 2-1 win over Nemesis Fe, to take the top spot as well as a place at the LAN event in November. Nemesis Fe were the second placed team in the group, as they completed a 2-0 win over Old School in their final match.
The point standings of the second WESG USA Women's qualifier are as follows:
1. 
Star Spangled Fraggers (EMUHLEET, artStar, milk, minnieyo, Theia) - LAN
2. Nemesis Fe (Missperceived, Slapknutt, natty, SamanthaG, Naomi) - 12 points
3. Old School (moxie, moogs, JeNneSis, starry, S3) - 5 points
This means the current teamlist for the upcoming WESG USA Women's LAN will be:
| cheeseburger |
Star Spangled Fraggers |
| Playoffs |
Playoffs |
This also leaves an interesting predicament, considering that there have been only four teams in total who have competed in both of the WESG USA Women's qualifiers, leaving just Nemesis Fe and Old School remaining for any potential online playoff. This could potentially mean they also receive invites to the event in November.
The Co-Ed tournament saw 36 teams sign-up, and this time around it wasn't seeding shenanigans that took the spotlight, instead it was the sheer number of forfeits throughout the tournament. Eleven matches in the round-of-32 had forfeits in them, before another four matches in the round-of-16 suffering from drop-outs.
The two finalists in the competition were Swole Patrol and Vireo.pro. Swole Patrol's journey was similar to their last run out, seeing them take a 16-0 win in the first round against 'Honk if You Donk', a 16-7 win against 7ty Below and a 16-3 win over Disruption. It was at this point Swole Patrol once again suffered a overtime loss in the round-of-four, albeit this time to Blake "Strings" Stringer and co. in Infamous and a 22-20 scoreline.
Vireo.pro's run to the final was less eventful. They secured a 16-4 win over iNTACT in the first round, followed up by a 16-1 win over ReGeneratioN in the second before taking down POWERHAUS 16-10 in the third. Their round-of-four match was against ESEA divisional rivals Fam143, where they comfortably dispatched their opponents 16-6. Their upper bracket final match was another simple display, as they were 16-3 untroubled victors against Infamous.
Swole Patrol's lower bracket run saw them take a 16-2 victory over Red River Rebels, a 16-11 win over iNTACT, before seeing them lined up for a re-match against Infamous in the lower bracket final. This was another close affair, although it didn't appear that way on Nuke with a 16-3 win. Infamous' 19-16 win on Inferno certainly shook up their opponents, but not for long as Swole Patrol prevented another overtime on Cache, going in 16-5 winners.
The final would, once again, require Swole Patrol to win two best-of-threes to secure a LAN appearance in November. The first was over quickly, taking a 2-0 result after a 16-8 win on Overpass before a closely fought Cache game saw the two teams head to overtime, before Swole Patrol completed it as 19-17 winners. The second best-of-three was another Swole Patrol win, this time being much more comprehensive with a 16-1 win on Overpass before winning the qualifier with a 16-7 result on Dust2.
It's worth mentioning that Fam143 forfeited out in the eighth round of the lower bracket, gifting iNTACT a fourth-place finish. With Ahsan "draek" Ismailzadah already out due to being unwell and replaced by Nolan "Temperature" Pepper, Alex "lanhero" Suarez also had to drop out due to clashing plans.
The point standings for the second WESG USA Co-Ed qualifier are:
1. Swole Patrol (Zellsis, swag, Cooper, Laski, freakazoid) - LAN
2. Vireo.pro (zNf, paperboy, pwnalone, robby, stellar) - 12 points
3. Infamous (Bwills, JoshRT, Strings, sayonara, agM) - 5 points
4. iNTACT (optimus, turismo, Shakezullah, Swahn, Noxio) - 3 points
5-6. 
Red River Rebels (gmanchew, Critical, cRYPT1C, HexT, benGOD) - 1 point
5-6. Fam143 (jaychancE, shonk, lanhero, NEXlevel, Temperature) - 1 point
After a brief look, we have determined that Red River Rebels are a Canadian team who competed in the WESG USA qualifier, and therefore their results should be void. We have relayed this information to the tournament organizers.
This means the current WESG USA Co-Ed LAN attendees are:
| Gorila Gang |
Swole Patrol |
| Playoffs |
Playoffs |
With the second qualifier concluded, the teams and playoff seeding order is locked in. From our calculations, the seeds for the upcoming four-team WESG USA playoffs will be:
1. Vireo.pro - 17 points
2. iNTACT - 6 points
3. Infamous - 5 points
4. Whatever It Takes - 1 point
=. AZIO - 1 point
=. Fam143 - 1 point
With three teams (when we ignore the Canadian team) all tied in the fourth place, all on one point, we await what steps WorldGaming will implement to break the tie. They have over a week to decide this, with the WESG USA playoffs taking place on October 20th. The dates for playoff, and both USA and Canada LAN events, can be seen on the Dust2.us Calendar.
