AUTHOR: CHRIS "BEARLIGHT" LEE / @BEARLIGHTCASTS
Stay Plugged In's Turbo Tuesday rolled into the final month of the year this past Tuesday. Rocket League collegiate recruits from across the country continue to compete against one another to stay sharp in their gameplay, and to remain in the watching eyes of the hundreds of colleges within the Stay Plugged In network. Ardent returns to Turbo Tuesday with their best showing yet, and a new team takes the title in Week 39. Check out who finished on top, and who else stood out in this week's breakdown.
LOWER SEMIFINALS: ARDENT vs X13 BLACK
ADRIFT and SHANAENAY of X13 Black picked up a big win in our Campus Series LAN at Johnston Community College this season. Since then, they have been working to stay on top, and this week they worked their way into the equation with a Lower Final appearance. That being said, team-on-the-rise "Ardent" had beat them 3-0 in the upper bracket already, and they were on a mission to improve from their 5th/6th place finish last week.
KDN of Ardent kicked off the best-of-five series with a hattrick and two added assists and saves for a well-rounded statement game in Game 1. ANGEL, formerly with team "AllMid" of Rocket League's professional circuit (RLCS), showed he's still in charge when he put up four goals in the next two games to assist in Ardent's 3-0 sweep over X13 Black.
GRAND FINALS: DABBLERS vs ARDENT
We've seen SPOOKED and TUV of team "Dabblers" as recently as a couple of weeks ago, and given their success we expected no less than a Grand Finals appearance again this week. They also added DAROU to the equation, a Mexican-born Rocket League star best known for his relatively recent runs with RBG Esports and Parabellum. This team had already defeated Ardent in the Upper Finals 3-0, but it's very common to see a new match spark something in the team who had fallen. This is especially true when we talk about teams trying to break-out on the North American side, and even more so when collegiate opportunities often await our top teams as we've seen happen many times in the past.
The stage was set for the rematch, and in Game 1 we saw an immediate push back from Ardent. Although they would drop that first game, their balanced attack looked much better. Ardent ended up grabbing their first win in either match against Dabblers in Game 3 thanks to their high-octane offense that took 14 shots and found the back of the net three times. Unfortunately for Ardent, Dabblers bounced back with a huge 6-0 victory on a 4-goal performance by WHALE, and then closed out the series to win the Turbo Tuesday title in Week 39.
Congratulations TUV, DAROU, and WHALE for their tournament win, and to WHALE specifically for earning MVP honors with a bracket-leading 3.86 shots per game and a premiere 40.74% shooting percentage! Registration for the final Turbo Tuesday of the year is open now. Visit our events page to get your team registered now.