On Sunday July 13th, after almost 4 months in between cups, NA’s famed competitive format made a triumphant return. 10 teams signed up in pursuit of the famed NightCup Trophy. NightCup 11 presented a great opportunity for new LAN rosters to get their first taste of competition and begin the build to Columbus in October. We had upsets, a throwback final, and even a donut.

DIDN’T SEE THAT COMING

Okay, this one isn’t the craziest on paper. But given Janitorz insane recent form, it seems that ANY loss is out of character. Goons have the ability to pull off a win like this, but more on a regular basis would be nice. With new addition Cruizer seemingly slotting right in, it bodes well for the future, highlighting a potential this group can strive to achieve.

Unfortunately, the big win came after goons were technically eliminated from the competition after losses to pug team xcx, and the newly unveiled empyrean. The one saving grace for Janitorz here is that they had already secured first place in the group on head to head, so the loss didn’t hurt.

The Nephilim pug came out swinging, taking down the second seed in the group right out of the gate. They could have even fought for an unexpected playoff spot with just one more win, but it wasn’t meant to be, as they ended up finishing 1-3, despite the impressive win.

It’s a match that Plus Forward would like to have back, and will absolutely need to clean up going forward. The w key pressers, who had an impressive season, and top 3 locked up in GOTN season 1, probably had the most disappointing cup of any team. Including this defeat, Plus Forward lost to Bricked 13-11 in the group stage, and failed to put up a fight against Janitorz in the semi finals. Both teams they’ll need to beat if they want to win GOTN S1. They’ll have Bricked Up next in a couple of weeks in the 3rd place match for GOTN S1.

Pleasant Surprise

The Empyrean core took a big step towards getting back to where they belong with Sundays performance. Okay, putting it that way may sound dramatic, but it really doesn’t seem as ludicrous when you look at the fact that this team was just two rounds away from second place in the group. After taking down both Goons, and Nemesis’ new lan rosters, Empyrean took on Awakenings pug “xcx” roster in a matchup for second place in the group. Both teams came into that match with a 2-1 record, with the winner moving on. It was a hard fought 13-11 battle on Carentan, but the group fell just short of their result in NightCup 10, where this core finished 3rd place.

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD

It was a night to forget for the new Nemesis roster. A team that most would agree “improved on paper” with their announced LAN roster struggled to find their stride Sunday.

Unfortunately, the revamped Nemesis struggled in the group stage despite decent performances, going 0-4. Nemesis lost a slew of close games, including a 13-11 to Janitorz on train, and an unlucky OT loss vs xcx after being up 12-10. More was expected from the GOTN S1 5-6th place finishers, who also took down Awakening in the playoffs.

PLAYOFFS

The top two seeds handled business en route to an old school finals rematch. xcx had the opportunity to break up the reunion, but was unable to hang on to a 12-10 lead on Toujane, falling in OT

On the other side, Plus Forward hardly put up a fight against Janitorz.

In the end, it was a throwback finals matchup between the two current hottest teams in North America. These two teams have played plenty of finals against each other dating back to revival 1 in 2021. But, you’d have to go back to GOTN NightCup 7 on January 5th for the last time these two faced off in a final. It was a reunion of sorts. As we got into the wee hours of the night, it took 3 maps, but Janitorz got it done, 2-1.