The Stormgate Nexus Ro16: Upsets and Madness

At the start of Day 1, 8 invited players squared off against the 8 players that qualified through from open qualifiers. While the invited group is full of the expected names like PartinG or Elazer, the open bracket players were a mix of new and old. Sure, Nina and Snoxtar qualified as expected, but so too did lesser known names like Elf, You, and Captain Alex - players very good at the game, but also players that hadn't quite shown up on a big stage yet.

That changed in the Round of 16, where Elf was the first up against TastlessTV Champion Probe. Despite massive underdog status and a 1-0 deficit, Elf was able to find an angle against Probe's Kri into Scythe strategy, kill the third base, cancel the big retaliation upgrade for the Scythe, and force Probe out of the game

That was not the only upset of the day, however. TheoRy's long been one of the top Americas players in Stormgate, winning multiple events in each playtest and placing top 2 in the EWC invitational. Percival cared for none of that, however, as he ran over TheoRy's Infernal AND his Celestials. Game one was a slow bleed lategame where TheoRy's innovative mass brute upgrade strategy failed to connect, and a couple cabals out of position against hornets spelled his doom in game two. Unfortunate for TheoRy, but it was exciting to see players swap faction mid series to try to find an advantage!

Other results were much as expected - PartinG breezed by You with some crisp timings in the celestial mirror, and Captain Alex's cheesy ways were out-pushed by Elazer's mass brute approach. At the end of Day 1, 8 players survive and advance to Day 2's Best-of-5 Quarter Finals with near perfect faction balance.

Day 2 starts at 9 AM EST/3 PM CEST on twitch.tv/BeoMulf and youtube.com/@BeoMulf - but the best way to watch it is on stormgatenexus.com/players, where you can watch the broadcast, track the results as they arrived, and compare them to how players stand on the ladder (with a lot more to come)! If you want to get caught up on day one, you can find the full VOD at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2237861200