The second week of the Battlerekt: The Proving Grounds series had a lot of excitement in store for the viewers. Not only was top level Battlerite gameplay displayed again but the week had a lot of upsets, especially the European division, with the reigning champs and runner-ups being eliminated early and Enter the Arena veterans returned to the Top 4.
What’s better than one support?
Ever since Enter the Arena, the European region has been up for grabs with no Onslaught-esque team developing a strong dominance on the continent. The second week of Battlerekt saw a chance of either Project Horizon or Intolerant stepping into that void to claim the undisputed top spot in the region. Needless to say: European teams had other plans.
It was just the Wednesday night when the prospect of a top team went up in flames. Project Horizon couldn’t do any damage against Daebak and their support-heavy composition, while Intolerant fought hard against U choose, but ultimately had to concede defeat. The door was wide open once again for any team to show they belong in the upper echelon of the region – Daebak and U choose answered the call.
U choose swept Bruce Lee straight off their feet in the semis, while the Functional Sociopaths couldn’t utilize their Sherlock Holmes skills to solve the mystery of how to break through the double-support composition of Daebak. That mystery overall proved to be an unsolvable one with Daebak sustaining and grinding out every single of their foes throughout the tournament. U choose came the closest to competing with the ultra-defensive approach of Daebak, as they tried to switch up the pace of the game and brought out double melee against it.
The idea worked at first, as Bakko could just jump the double-support backline and disrupt the flow of the composition. It took Daebak three rounds to come up with a counter, which saw K3b4b1 becoming the aggressor as well, ignoring Bakko and going on Pearl and Shifu instead. The result was a 5-3 in Game 2 of the Grand Finals and Daebak becoming the new Battlerekt weekly champion with an unconventional lineup. Now the question is whether the opposition can figure out another way to deal with the sustain and break through, or if Daebak is the new gold standard in the European scene.
Speaking of gold standards – in Week 1 the finalists of Enter the Arena were absent from the Top 4 completely, and they’ve now rectified that dilemma. Functional Sociopaths randler and Xaynox reached the Semis while their former teammate 213213 even got to play in the Grand Finals with his signature Bakko. Same thing for one third of the former TelRoskMi squad, as Mini was the third member of Functional Sociopaths. Do the veterans have more improvement in them for an even deeper run next week?
Europe VoD
Semifinals Bruce Lee vs U choose
Semifinals Functional Sociopaths vs Daebak
Still the best
Europe is unpredictable, North America has Onslaught. For the longest time they’ve hardly lost games, let alone series in official tournaments. That all changed early this week when the Rivals Cup went to Unsung over Onslaught in the Grand Finals – so how would Onslaught respond? With dominance.
It took them a while to warm up in the Top 4, but then it was back to business as usual. In the rematch with Unsung it looked like they might be figured out after all this time, with Unsung going up 3-0 early in the contest. What then followed was a display of dominance, with Onslaught putting up 10 straight unanswered rounds to cruise to a 2-0 victory and yet another date with the Grand Finals of a Battlerekt tournament.
Following them into that Grand Finals was Deadly Insplosion – a minor upset as well. The predicted result was another matchup between Onslaught and Excel Wizards to finish off Week 2 of Proving Grounds, but Deadly Insplosion could finally break through. In Week 1 both teams met in the Semis, with the better result for Excel Wizards even though it was one of the closest series of the entire tournament. This time it was once again a thrilling series with great exchanges and fights, but ultimately it was Deadly Insplosion with more points on the scoreboard. The matchup has the potential to turn into a great rivalry, as both team’s style seems to produce exciting matches every time. X-factor throughout might become the Iva pick, ironically enough. In Week 1 it was Excel Wizards trying Iva out and losing promptly with it, this week it was Deadly Insplosion integrating it into their lineup, replacing their usual Jade pick every now and then.
Iva was not a factor at all for the Grand Finals though, as the focal point of adjustments was more the support position. When Deadly Insplosion went with their standard Lucie in Game 1 of the Grand Finals, they got absolutely smacked around by Onslaught and their aggressive approach in forcing cooldowns and capitalizing off of that. Both Jade and Lucie fell victim to these predators in the backlines consistently, prompting a Pestilus pick for support in Game 2.
That pick made the series a lot more competitive, but in the end the normal North American Battlerite result was appearing in the bracket – Champion: Onslaught. The week however, added some cracks to the armor of Onslaught. First it was Unsung overcoming them, now it was Deadly Insplosion pushing back hard with a hero adjustment mid-series. Onslaught is still confident, but they can’t take anything for granted, as the North American scene is catching up.
North America VoD
Semifinals Onslaught vs Unsung
Semifinals Excel Wizards vs Deadly Insplosion
Finals Onslaught vs Deadly Insplosion
Highlights
k3b4b1 1vs2
Ninjas 1vs2 – Part 1
Ninjas 1vs2 – Part 2
Join the fray!
Not just the pros can figure out strategies and compositions though. If you think you have the counter to Onslaught or other team’s comps, make sure to sign up for Week 3 of Battlerekt competition. It’s your time to enter the Proving Grounds!
