In their first major tournament under new ownership and branding, Moist Esports stormed through the lower bracket and took down Team Falcons in Sunday’s grand final to win the Rocket League Championship Series 2021-22 Spring Split Major on Sunday at Copper Box Arena in London.
The roster formerly known as Team Queso was acquired by Moist Esports in May. Queso lost the grand final of the Winter Split Major to G2 Esports.
Moist won three matches Sunday, beating Karmine Corp in the lower-bracket semifinals and getting revenge on Version1 in the lower-bracket final before vanquishing Team Falcons in two sets, 4-3, 4-0.
England’s Joe “Joyo” Young of Moist took home overall MVP honors. His teammate Axel “vatira” Touret of France was the defensive MVP and Falcons’ Ahmad “Ahmad” Abdullah of Saudi Arabia was the offensive MVP.
Sixteen teams competed in a double-elimination bracket tournament. In the upper bracket, the first round and quarterfinals were best-of-five matches while the semifinals and finals were best-of-seven. In the lower bracket, the first three rounds were best-of-five and the quarters, semis and finals were best-of-seven.
The grand final was best-of-seven with a bracket reset. Moist, as the lower-bracket champion, needed to win two best-of-sevens while Falcons needed to win just one.
Moist started the day with their 4-1 victory over Karmine Corp. After dropping the first game 3-2 on Mannfield (Night), they earned four straight one-goal wins the rest of the way: 2-1 on Aquadome, 3-2 in overtime on DFH Stadium, 4-3 on Utopia Coliseum (Dusk) and 1-0 on Wasteland (Night).
Meanwhile, Falcons went the distance in the upper-bracket final with a 4-3 win over Version1. After Falcons won 2-0 on Mannfield (Night) to start the set, the six remaining games were all decided by one goal. Falcons prevailed 2-1 on Champions Field in the decisive seventh game.
Moist made it eight straight map wins when they swept Version1 — the team that beat them early in the upper bracket — 4-0. Moist notched wins of 3-2 on Mannfield (Night), 4-2 on Aquadome, 1-0 on DFH Stadium and 2-1 in overtime on Utopia Coliseum (Dusk).
In the first set of the grand final, Moist rallied from a 3-2 loss on Mannfield (Night) with three straights wins: 2-1 on Aquadome, 3-2 in overtime on DFH Stadium and 2-1 on Utopia Coliseum (Dusk). Falcons responded with a 5-2 rout on Wasteland (Night) and a 2-1 overtime victory on Neo Tokyo, but Moist grabbed a vital 3-2 win on Champions Field to keep their tournament hopes alive.
After staving off elimination, it was all Moist from there. They swept the final set by winning 3-0 on Mannfield (Night), 2-1 in overtime on Aquadome, 2-1 in overtime again on DFH Stadium and 4-1 on Utopia Coliseum (Dusk).
Rocket League Championship Series Winter Split Major prize pool
1. Moist Esports — $90,000, 801 RLCS Circuit points
2. Team Falcons — $60,000, 700 points
3. Version1 — $30,000, 600 points
4. Karmine Corp — $24,000, 500 points
5-6. Spacestation Gaming — FURIA Esports, $18,000, 420 points
7-8. Team Liquid, OpTic Gaming — $12,000, 360 points
9-12. Pioneers, Team Secret, FaZe Clan, G2 Esports — $6,000, 260 points
13-16. Gaimin Gladiators, PWR, Team BDS, Endpoint CeX — $3,000, 160 points
–Field Level Media
