Day 3 of the Winter NA 2016 Championship included the semifinal rounds and the grand finals. Read on to find out who was crowned the champion of North America! If you haven’t yet, make sure to also read our recaps of Day 1 (Elite Eight) & Day 2 (Elimination Day).
Semifinals: HH Velocity v. Nemesis Hydra
In a riveting semifinal series, HHV swept NemH to move on to Grand Finals. NemH’s teamfighting was world-class, but in the end, their macro strategy wasn’t quite as strong as HHV’s. DNZio once again showed off his otherworldly mechanical skills, both as a tanky bruiser in the first game and as a squishy hyper-carry in the second game.
View the recap of each match in the series here!
Semifinals: GankStars Sirius v. Team SoloMid
Despite starting out with a one point advantage in the series, GSS was swept by TSM. All the games were fairly close, but TSM capitalized on crucial mistakes by GSS in late-game teamfights to pull ahead. TSM ultimately showed that they were the better team, with superior macro play and mechanics.
View the recap of each match in the series here!
Grand Finals: Team SoloMid v. HH Velocity
After being defeated on Elimination Day by HHV, TSM was absolutely determined to defeat their rivals in the grand finals. Now with extra footage available for analysis, TSM came into the grand finals extremely well prepared for the matchup, and it showed. The first game was close, but TSM absolutely dominated the second and third games. Incredible play from every member of TSM cinched a clean 3-0 sweep to conclude the Winter 2016 NA Championship.
View the recap of each match in the series here!
Nemesis Hydra
No one can deny that Nemesis Hydra has some of the best players in the world. Every player on this team is great at teamfighting, but their largest weakness is the cerebral side of the game, as they’re one of the only top-tier teams that doesn’t have an analyst. Going forward, it will be interesting to see if Nemesis Hydra can recruit an analyst to help them improve further and really compete with other top teams in North America.
GankStars Sirius
A top guild and team since the very early days of Vainglory, GankStars has made momentous steps forward as an eSports organization. Today, GSS played extremely well but failed to close out games that, by all rights, were theirs. In the future, GSS surely have learned from their mistakes here today and clean up their play, just as they did coming from the qualifiers into the live championships. GSS will hopefully also continue to surprise Vainglory fans with unconventional picks like roam Vox and Krul.
HH Velocity
A nascent team by any all measures, HH Velocity wowed Vainglory fans as they defeated numerous top North American teams this weekend, even taking a series home against Team SoloMid. A centerpoint of their team is DNZio, an extremely young but talented player. HHV will surely evolve into an even better team, cleaning up some of the overaggressive misplays that they made today.
Team SoloMid, Winter 2016 North American Champions
Formerly Ardent Alliance, then just Alliance after signing CullTheMeek, Team SoloMid has shown off just exactly how important being a cerebral team is. Although FlashX is absolutely the MVP of the team with fantastic decision-making, CullTheMeek and MICSHE are two of the best players in North America, both exhibiting awe-inspiring mechanical skills as well as excellent macro play. Going forward, as full-time eSports players, Team SoloMid will surely only improve.
Congratulations to Team SoloMid!
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