Last Saturday, April 21, was the kickoff for Call of Duty: WWII Pro Tournament presented by PlayStation®, a tournament with matches held on a monthly basis for the coming half year including a whopping prize pool of 10,000,000 yen (~92,000 USD), with first place taking 8,000,000 yen (~73,500 USD) home.
About the Pro Tournament
This is a professional tournament to showcase the very best teams with the most intense competition Japan has to offer. Grand finals will be held on stage during this year's Tokyo Game Show. For the meantime, with the matches for April completed, let's take a look at how Rush Gaming did, with some insight from behind the scenes.
Rush Gaming were up against DetonatioN Gaming and Libalent Vertex.
Both considered two of the stronger teams in the league.
Rush Gaming vs. DetonatioN Gaming
The matches against DetonatioN Gaming were not livestreamed. However, the matches were really close. Both teams took games off each other and the match went into 2-2. Noone could tell which side would come out victorious until the really end, where Rush Gaming picked up the pace and came on top with a S&D 6-4 score in the BO5 match point, winning a hard fought victory of 3-2.
Team studying matches pre-game and Nagato trying to remain in the zone
According to the players, they didn't perform up to their own standards and wasn't expecting the game to be so close. WinRed in particular hid the fact that he was feeling ill to not let his teammates and staff become worried. Although not the best start the team wanted, they talked to each other and reflected on what they should fix going into the match in the afternoon against Libalent Vertex.
Rush Gaming vs. Libalent Vertex
Only individuals directly affiliated with the league were allowed in the venue, audiences will be brought in starting from next month
Matches against Libalent Vertex were livestreamed and the VOD can be watched through this link (timestamp included)
YouTube livestream has reached ~170K views within 2 days
Despite the other members not performing up to their own standards, GreedZz took the responsibility of controlling the matches with his impressive performance, taking the lead against Libalent 1-0.
Photo credits: Sony Interactive Entertainment @COD_SIEJA Twitter
The next game Rush Gaming struggled in Search & Destroy, and as a result dropped one game.
For the rest of the matches, Rush Gaming showed us their specialty in Capture the Flag and Hardpoint, taking home the match with a 3-1 victory.
Photo credits: Sony Interactive Entertainment @COD_SIEJA Twitter
While the results may seem flawless, the members felt that if they don't perform even better from now on, not only they might lose all the games in CWL Aneheim, they might also potentially drop games in the Pro Tournament.
They hope to deliver more satisfying plays to the audience and fans who will be allowed into the venue starting from next month.
As Rush Gaming, we'd like to thank Wekids for the behind the scenes support, and also big shoutouts to Sennheiser Gaming for providing us the necessary equipment to win.
The next matches will be held during May 19, 2018.
More details about the time and matches will be announced at a later date.
Lastly, stay tuned for a recap video that will be uploaded here
Photo credits: Sony Interactive Entertainment @COD_SIEJA Twitter
Rush Gaming Twitter Account
https://twitter.com/RushGamingJP
Rush Gaming Partner, Sennheiser Gaming Japan https://s.wekids-inc.com/sennamazon https://s.wekids-inc.com/rushsenn
More information about CoD: WWII Pro Tournament (Japanese Only)
http://www.jp.playstation.com/events/call-of-duty-wwii-taikousen/standings/