After a month of competition, the Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS) team Singularity have convincingly taken home the title of European Invitational champions. Having lost twice to their grand final opponents, the Middle Eastern team Sandrock Gaming, Singularity stepped up where it mattered and won the grand final 5-1 in a best-of-nine format. This occurred while Sandrock Gaming had started the series with a 1-0 advantage from coming through the winner’s bracket.
The European Invitational, the tournament of non-RLCS teams
The European Invitational (TEI) was hosted on RLCS caster John “Johnnyboi_i” Macdonald’s Twitch and YouTube channels with a $20,000 prize pool. Sandrock Gaming’s founder, Incivik, had funded the tournament on condition that his Middle Eastern team would have a chance to take on the very best of Europe.
Besides the whole of EU RLCS and Sandrock Gaming, there were five other spots for non-RLCS teams to secure through qualifiers. Each of these spots was filled by teams from the lower tier of the Rival Series, and the teams from this league stepped up. After the group stage was over, most of the top RLCS teams had already been eliminated.
Team Singularity dominates in the Rocket League grand final
Singularity had already faced Sandrock twice in the European Invitational before the grand final, and on both occasions, Sandrock had taken the better of the Europeans. Going into the final from the lower bracket against that same Sandrock, therefore, surely meant Sandrock would take the tournament with ease.
But Singularity had other ideas. With immense pace, Singularity completely overwhelmed and won five games in a row in the best-of-nine to take home the TEI title. Sandrock had their highlight plays as usual but quickly looked tilted from Singularity’s constant pressure.
“Today was the first time we actually properly prepared to play against Sandrock,” SNG’s Leon “Godsmilla” Mares explained to Johnnyboi in the post-game interview. “We watched the replays and we knew what to expect, how to play. The past two times we played them we just went in blindly, just assuming we’ll know what’s going on. But they caught us off-guard both times.”
Singularity’s performance in the TEI grand final was a sight to behold, and it shows promise for next season’s RLCS. SNG finished in seventh place in the RLCS this season, meaning they qualified for next season but missed out on the regional finals. If this TEI performance is a glimpse of their future, however, their opponents in the RLCS have their work cut out for them.
