After a long weekend of sick games, the Fnatic players are done for the MLG Summer Arena. All three of our players (Rain, aLive, and Oz) have qualified for the Summer Championship that will be held in Raleigh, North Carolina in late August. We had two players finish in the top 8, with aLive tied for 7th and Oz tied for 3rd. The Fnatic players did quite well and only lost in very close series. MLG Summer Championships is going to see at least 3 Fnatic players vying for a championship belt.
Update: In another extended series, Oz lost a close 4:3 match against Alicia and will finish tied for third. Update: Oz has defeated Stephano once again with a 4:1 score in total, as MLG uses extended series for players who meet twice in the tournament. Now he is in the finals of Bracket #1, and is playing against Alicia. The score is 2:2 now, and the first to 4 wins will get into the finals of the MLG Summer Arena. Update: Unfortunately, aLive lost a tough series 2:1 to IM.First and is out of the tournament. He finished in 8th place and thus has earned himself a spot in the 2012 Summer Championships and an all-expenses paid trip there. Update: In a tight series, Oz was knocked to the Losers Bracket by Alicia 2:1. He will face the winner of Stephano/HerO. Update: Because aLive and Daisy have already played, their series was an Extended Series which aLive took 4-0. He moves on to face First in the LB Round semifinal. Update: aLive has fallen to Losira 2-0, so he will be in the Losers Bracket where he will face Daisy. Update: Oz has defeated Stephano in a breathtaking comeback! 2:1 win which means he is through to the next round in the winner-bracket and has knocked the French star down to loser-bracket. Update: Unfortunately Rain is out after losing in the lower-bracket round three to Ryung 2:0. The rest of the players are still going. Update: Rain took down both roof and Grubby, and will face Ryung in 3rd round of Loser's Bracket. Update: aLive takes out TOP with a score of 2-0, moving on to the Winner's Bracket #2 semi-final. Update: Oz has progressed further to the semi-finals of the Winner's Bracket #1, as he took down viOLet with 2:1 score. After going a game down, Oz was able to recover and score two wins. The next challenge will come in form of Stephano. Update:aLive has won his first match over Daisy with 2:0 score. He progressed further to the second round of Winner's Bracket #2, where he will wait for the winner of TOP vs Golden. Update: Sadly, even though Rain was one game ahead, he wasn't able to finish the series and get another win over viOlet. He is now in the first round of the Loser's bracket and will play against roof. Update: Oz has beaten the German player roof and will play against the winner of Rain and viOLet in the Winners Bracket Round 2.
TOURNAMENT DETAILS
New York City will be once again the host for an MLG tournament. With three players on-site FnaticRaidCall will be covering the entire tournament. The action will kick off on Friday, with the Grand Final being played on Sunday.
The starting field consists of the top eight finishers of last's Spring Championship, six North American invitees and nine invitees from Europe as well as from Korea. While Oz and aLive made a top eight finish at MLG Spring Championship, Rain did well enough in the Korean Qualifier to send him to New York.
The tournament will be played in a double elimination bracket, with a Best-of-Three format until the Final match, which be played in a Best-of-Seven. The prize pool is just over $25,000 and the top 16 finishers in the Summer Arena will receive a paid trip out to the Summer Championship in Raleigh, North Carolina. The bottom 16 players will be seeded into the Open Winners Bracket at the Summer Championship.
The MLG Summer Arena has an interesting format. There are two Winners Brackets (1 and 2) and Losers Brackets for each of those. The winner of each bracket meets up in the Grand Finals.
Prize Distribution
With just over $26,000 at stake, here is how the prize money will be awarded: