Europe’s first tournament of the Rocket League Championship Series 2022-23 season has concluded and the reigning world champs could not take the crown. The former North American organization of Oxygen Esports with the newly formed roster of “Archie,” “Joreuz” and “Oaly” shocked the world and won the tournament. 

After losing their first series during the swiss stage, they would win six straight matches over three days to win the tournament and set themselves up for leeway in the hunt to make the Fall Major.

The playoffs included the reigning world champions Team BDS losing in the quarter-finals in a game seven overtime. While they were the favorites going into the tournament, they were not the only organization that could have competed for the title of the best European team. 

Karmine Corp’s new roster that included last season’s region MVP “Vatira” came out of swiss with their only loss being a tight five-game series against the aforementioned BDS. His former team of Moist Esports with former Karmine Corp player “Aztral” went 3-0 and secured the first overall seed. 

It had appeared to be a battle between those four teams to see who could take the win. Following the upset of BDS, the semi-final matchups came down to Moist vs. Karmine Corp and the BDS upsetting Quadrant vs. Oxygen.

Moist vs. Karmine Corp was the focus for all fans, as it was the battle of former players against their former organizations and the bad blood brewing between them. “Vatira” and Karmine Corp would take the win in a convincing 4-1 gentleman sweep. 

“Vatira” was by far the most productive player, contributing to 61.84% of the goals for the team throughout the tournament, according to Octane.gg. With both strong mechanics and rotations, he became the key to the success of the group.

On the other side of the bracket, Oxygen took down Quadrant in an easy sweep, 4-0. 

“Yeah, it means a lot to me, we aren’t even playing to our full potential and we made the grand finals,” “Archie” said following the semi-finals. 

“Archie” had played well all tournament, averaging a score of 480.23 per game with 2.35 saves a game. When it felt like Quadrant was reigning shots down on Oxygen and controlling the midfield, “Archie” was always able to come out with the stops necessary to keep his team in striking distance. 

The grand finals became Oxygen taking on Karmine Corp. After falling behind one game to two, Oxygen took their tactical timeout and talked things over. Whatever they said during that break reset the players’ mentality, as they won three straight to win the series 4-2. 

“It’s our offense; playing our best, no one can stop us on offense. For now, if we can keep it up, we will be unstoppable,” Oxygen coach “Billy” said. 

Outside of the defensive prowess of “Archie,” the team was led by “Joreuz,” who averaged precisely 1.00 goals per game alongside 1.97 saves per game. His performance was strong on both sides of the ball, leading to his Octane.gg rating being 1.207, the best player in the tournament. 

Over the course of the next two weeks, many teams will need to work harder to be more comfortable with their new teams if they want to compete for the opportunity to play in the Fall Major, as they only have two regionals left to accrue enough points to be in the top five in the region. 

For Oxygen, they will look to maintain their offensive mastery to stay atop Europe.