FUT Esports narrowly avoid day one exit at the EWC LCQ

FUT Esports have narrowly avoided an early day one exit at the Rocket League Esports World Cup LCQ. The Justin "jstn." Morales-led squad suffered an upper bracket upset to Criminals, a European roster featuring peripheral RLCS regulars Thomas "ThO." Binkhorst and Dan "Chippy" Hypher as well as 1s prospect, George "Rebmob" Bomber. Forced to recover in the lower bracket, they were able to beat Moroccan up-and-comer Rayane Bennani "ray" Smires and his team Oxalys Bunch 3-1 but not in a comfortable series. FUT Esports will now have to start stage #2 of the event in the lower bracket, with the stakes at an all time high.

On the other side of pool 2, Geekay Esports secured their spot in the top 16 with a straight forward 3-0 win over South American professionals BS+COMPETITION in the upper bracket. BS+COMPETITION then recuperated by beating Belgian organization Frites Esports Club 3-1 in the lower bracket. As a result, Geekay Esports, Criminals, BS+COMPETITION, and FUT Esports have made the final bracket of the EWC LCQ, which will begin on August 10.

In pool 1, things went more according to plan for top seed Man City Esports, who defeated L'Antique Esport (AnoriQ, MayKo, skyrix) 3-1 in their upper bracket matchup. NOVO Esports, who were coming off an early exit to Volare in the RLCS European LCQ, managed to earn revenge against Damian "Tox" Schäfer’s men, defeating them in a five-game series to reach the top 16. Volare and L'Antique Esport both recovered in the lower bracket, reaching the LCQ Main Event despite stiff competition from Maëllo "AztraL" Ernst’s TRKF Esport. The veteran Belgian professional linked up with Jovinson "rysfox." Frankinioulle and 15-year-old prospect Simão "prozy" Santos, but the roster failed to make a splash, losing 0-3 to Volare in the upper bracket and 2-3 to L'Antique Esport in the lower bracket.

Pools 3 and 4 will begin their games tomorrow, with Virtus.pro and PCS Stride set to take centre stage in their respective attempts to reach the last 16 teams. Dignitas, Team Stallions, Gen.G Mobil1 Racing, and M80 will also all be on show tomorrow with pool 4 expected to be a very close affair. The games in pool 3 will begin at 12:00 CEST and at 15:40 CEST in pool 4.