Spacestation Gaming slammed the gate shut against Rise Nation in the R6 US Nationals Stage Two Eastern Conference Finals. Rise had been reborn since being ousted from Pro League, but it wasn’t enough this time around.
Early rounds on Kafe unsurprisingly went the way of SSG. Javier “ThinkingNade” Escamila really aided in stacking the bodies for SSG on defense. Alec Fultz also had a couple of hilariously easy death blows to deal, as he used Rise’s own smoke grenade to get the drop on them in the dying seconds of the round.
ThinkingNade continued to shine by grabbing some important frags in the opening moments of round four as Jӓger—effectively crippling Rise’s utility in one of their final attacks. SSG stumbled on the attack, which gave Rise a couple of rounds. The match was easily recoverable for SSG, though, as they grabbed the final point. Ultimately, Kafe belonged to SSG at 7-3.
SSG kept up the pressure on Coastline. Rise fell into SSG’s time traps early on and found themselves consistently at war with the clock. The wasted time came in clutch for SSG as Rise couldn’t make last-second pushes happen. The strategy worked for three straight rounds, but Rise woke up a bit to spoil SSG’s run. Taking two rounds off of SSG drastically slowed the momentum.
Looking to end it, SSG pushed match point at 6-2 on Coastline. Joshua “Vandal” Diaz got left in a one-vs-four clutch with defuser planted. Despite Vandal being a solid player, the clutch was far too big of an ask and SSG brought it down to series point.
After a fairly one-sided best-of-three, SSG came out on top. Coastline spelled the end for the ex-Pro League squad. While Rise put up a good fight, SSG showed up hungry for the win here. The final round on Coastline was over before it began. The kill feed lit up and it was finished in the opening 45 seconds.
It was great to see SSG continue to perform strongly in and out of regular season. The win here only adds to the squad’s rep. While they’re notorious for forcing draws in the regular season, there are no draws in the R6 US Nationals. SSG showed that they can still get the job done in a best-of-three setting. Having SSG in the R6 US Nationals Finals will only add to the competitive spirit of the tournament, especially since Rogue just qualified this past Tuesday.
With Stage Two of the R6 US Nationals in the books, fans and players can look forward to the Stage Three qualifiers. The R6 USN qualifiers are highlighted as one of the most challenging gauntelts to get through. Signups for Stage Three are now live and more information can be found here.
