Crew’ s relentless aggression and flawless field awareness allowed them to dish out a shocking, lopsided 6-1 defeat to the Midwest favorites that left jaws agape and Wrecking Crew headed on to see the Noobies in the finals.
Somewhat deflated, Blastcamp went on to defeat Legacy Factory 6-4 to take home a bronze.
As for the Noobies, this was their first Semipro finals appearance, a massive accomplishment for their first season at this level. The Crew established a sizable lead early, but the Noobies did not go down quietly. Typically a tactical team that waits for their opponents to make mistakes, they modified their play-style to meet the aggression of Wrecking Crew head on and ran a comeback that had crowds on their feet. But the Crew was able to hold on to the lead and took home a massive 6-5 win in regulation to walk away with the gold.
Looking forward, Wrecking Crew is on the right trajectory. A disappointing 13th place finish in Tampa is holding them back, but with this win, they have lifted themselves back into the conversation and now sit in fifth place overall.
If history repeats itself for the Noobies climb through the ranks, a podium for this squad has been followed up with a gold medal at the next event. Last season, they took home gold at the Lone Star Open in Division 2. Perhaps Texas will be a lucky spot for the Noobies again, but they are currently tied for third place with Preferred Mob on the season rankings, and a mere four points behind the Rejects, a team that appears explosive and volatile.
Meanwhile, Blastcamp’ s third place finish was enough to keep them at the top of the division, but it was a harsh reminder that the competition in this division is hot and it’ s unpredictable.
Pro WNXL
The WNXL at the MIdwest Open was a tale of two brackets- one stacked with heavy-hitters, and the other with surprises.
In Bracket B, the story was all about the Canadians. The Northern Lights came to this event looking stronger, faster and cohesive. The narrative was that they leveraged a favorable bracket schedule. With eleven teams in the Women’ s Pro division, the two brackets are staggered. The stronger bracket contained five teams that all played one another in a round robin format for prelims. The second bracket, composed of six teams, had four game structure for their schedule as well, meaning that each team would play only four of the five other teams in their bracket.
For the Northern Lights, their schedule was such that they missed the matchup against the strongest team in this bracket- the Femmes Fatale.
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