NPL Royale has already come and gone, and while it was fun to see all 32 teams compete, one remained dominant. Entering the weekend, we wondered which teams from NPLC could raise some eyebrows and put pressure their “older brothers” from NPL. We quickly learned that the top contender teams are actually able to hang in there, but at the end of the day it appears everyone is chasing the same squad.
There is a lot to unpack from the weekend, but let’s start with the most notable story. Tempo Storm proved once again that they’re the most well-rounded team, and they made it clear on Sunday that no one was stopping them from snagging the $40,000 grand prize. Remember, this is the same team that finished first during NPL Preseason, earning themselves a $50,000 paycheck before Phase 1 even began. Everything seems to be clicking for them at the moment and it’s hard to picture a final without their name involved! The guys advanced to the Sunday’s finals after placing 4th in their group play on Friday, a day in which everyone was talking about Shoot To Kill, who piled up 58 points with a 20 point lead on second place through four matches. Tempo Storm was able to pull together 32 points sending them, Shoot to Kill, and six other teams through to the finals.
Out of the eight teams advancing from Group A, three of them were NPLC teams. We saw a similar trend during Group B play on Saturday when half of the teams that advanced were from contenders. Even though all roads lead to Tempo Storm, it was nice to see some success from the Contenders’ teams. One of those Contenders’ teams from Group A was Mustache Dave, who missed the eight team cut off by one point. They fell behind early with back-to-back 14th place finishes, and then placed 7th and 4th respectfully. But it was too little, too late as Team Kru beat them out with 21 points.
I’d be remiss for not mentioning the most surprising contenders team performance which came from Overconfident. Who began the Finals on a bad foot, with no kills and a 16th place exit! But, after getting that out of their system the team completely flipped the script and took first during Match 2, compiling 10 points for the win and 10 more from kills. They followed up that twenty point round with second place finishes for Match 3 and 4. It was an impressive day from one of the better NPLC teams. Only four points behind Cloud 9 for second overall, it’s easy to imagine the team jumping into second for the additional $10,000 with just a couple more kills and a better first round. Regardless, this is a team we will certainly be on the lookout for after this kind of performance.
After three weeks of phase one, the top two teams from NPL are Tempo Storm and Cloud 9. And after eight matches among 32 teams, the same two sit atop our leaderboard. Tempo Storm and Cloud 9. It’s hard to see these results and not immediately wonder about how they’ll perform against Global competition when it rolls around. There is already plenty of “CIS > EU > NA” in the chat of these events. We have plenty of time for things to develop, but for now it appears Tempo Storm and Cloud 9 aren’t going anywhere.