The Semis also saw the two teams competing for the underdog story in Uprising and the TonTons. Uprising would take the best of the TonTons with a hard-fought 5-3 win, but it was a proud accomplishment for TonTons who managed a third-place spot despite their six-man front, enough to put them in the running for a podium finish in the overall rankings.
Finals
The finals left crowds in nothing short of awe. Impact came in having already played 38 points on the day, and Uprising was riding high as the dark horse contend and crowd favorite for the potential upset. The first half ended in a 2-2 tie as both teams played tactical and disciplined. But from the outset of the second half, the tempo shifted.
Austin Woodward of Uprising saw an opportunity to change the tone on the opening point when four of Impact’ s guns turned toward the snake side simultaneously. Woodward seized the moment and executed an inside, dorito run-through that resulted in a 3-pack, breaking the game open and stealing the momentum. Uprising would take the point and the following two to go up 5-3.
With four minutes remaining, LJ Parrish of Impact answered back in the same fashion with a 3-pack of his own. And Impact would tie the match at 4-each to bring the finals into overtime.
Overtime is where the veteran Impact showed what separates them from the rest as Nick
Leival freestyled an insane move to break open the locked up Uprising zones. He leveraged the limited visibility from the back can bunkers against Uprising, made a clean launch laterally from the center wall, leaped over the snake into the snake 50 brick, and set a trap for Alec Holland, Arnold, and Woodward to fall right into. The move won the finals for Impact, 6-5, and the MVP for Leival.
Looking at the season so far, there are stories at every end of the spectrum. New York Xtreme took a fifteenth-place finish in the Midwest, which is an improvement for them so far this season, but likely not enough to lift them out of the path to relegation yet again after a pair of last place spots to start their season. Unless they put together a strong performance at the World Cup and capitalize on double points, the outlook for the organization’ s chances of holding on to their Pro status is bleak.
On the other end of the spectrum, however, the heat is turning up. With the win here, Impact has secured their place in the top tier of the Pro division. Bolstered by the sixth and eighth place finishes from Damage and Fit respectively, it will be difficult mathematically for anyone to catch Impact going forward without a storybook comeback. The only team remaining to challenge them is Red Legion. But following their win at Tampa, Legion has been on a bit of a slide, taking third in Dover and fourth in Cincinnati. Will they stop the skid and make a turn around to challenge Edmonton? We will find out in Garland, Texas at the Lone Star Open September 11-14.
Photo by Weronika Wrona Krzemińska- Połeć
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