Luckily 16 of the 24 teams would make it to the ocho rounds or get an earned pass to the quarterfinals and the above bracket all made it through . ASG Aftermath running the table in the prelims is a mild surprise , considering their bracket wasn ’ t exactly stacked … I ’ ll leave it at that . The same could be said for Red Legion , who even still somewhat shorthanded easily made the cut . Another nice surprise ( to us Americans anyway ) was Lucky 15s Staffordshire taking three of their four preliminary round games and easily moving on with only one loss — to San Antonio X-Factor .
In the ocho rounds ASG Aftermath , Red Legion , Edmonton Impact and Baltimore Revo would do enough to survive and advance . It would be the end of the line for Columbus LVL , NRG Elite , Los Angeles Infamous and Lucky 15s Staffordshire .
The Pro quarterfinals were set and with the TonTons , Dynasty , Red Legion , Heat , Impact and Damage there were six powerhouse teams plus ASG Aftermath and Baltimore Revo , no slouches either , vying for four semifinal round spots .
The Toulouse TonTons knocked off ASG Aftermath 5-3 ; San Diego Dynasty beat Red Legion rather easily 5-2 ; In a great rivalry game Edmonton Impact defeated Houston Heat 4-2 ; and In a fairly surprising game , Baltimore Revo sent Tampa Bay Damage home 3-2 .
And the semifinals were even better . Both games were back-and-fourth for the duration but Impact held on to beat Revo 3-2 and Dynasty did the same against the very feisty TonTons 4-3 .
It hasn ’ t been the best of seasons for Edmonton Impact , but here they were on the doorstep of another World Cup victory . In the way of that dream was San Diego Dynasty and everyone knows what they bring to the table . This one , as most Pro final round game do , lived up to expectations . Dynasty did what Dynasty does and in the end they would win the 2023 NXL World Cup , defeating Edmonton Impact 3-2 for their fourth straight World Cup Professional win ! And in case you are wondering , in the 33 years the World Cup has been played , four straight has never been done before by anyone .
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Photo By Dave Stufflebeam