French Rocket League rookie celebrity Alexis “zen” Bernier was instrumental in profitable Crew Vitality’s first regional event in virtually two years in his RLCS debut on Could 14. This comes only a few months after zen completed his year-long aggressive ban for competing whereas underage.
In Feb. 2022, Zen was banned for one yr for breaching the Rocket League Championship Sequence’ 15-year age minimal, with the ban set to begin on his fifteenth birthday.
Forward of his sixteenth birthday, zen was then preemptively signed by Vitality, with him making his official aggressive Rocket League debut on the crew on the Players With out Borders charity event on Wednesday, Could 3.
After dropping simply three maps throughout everything of the occasion to qualify for August’s Gamers8 event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, he then made his first approved RLCS look on Could 12 within the EU Spring Open, the primary of three European regionals.
Regardless of having a comparatively weak begin towards Quadrant, through which zen had the bottom rating within the sport, doubters had been rapidly silenced as Vitality dropped only one map every towards G1 and Karmine Corp.
Karmine Corp is the reigning Main champion after profitable the RLCS Winter Break up Main in San Diego final month. Throughout KC’s profitable title run, the crew defeated Vitality 3-1 within the group stage, making such a fast turnaround to a 4-1 Vitality win hanging proof of the crew’s enchancment.
From right here, Vitality confronted Crew Liquid within the winner’s remaining, which they took in a 4-2 conflict, adopted by a grand remaining rematch that was remarkably shut. Whereas Vitality gained the sport 4-3, Liquid scored extra objectives over the Rocket League sequence, 13 to 10, as all 4 Vitality map wins had been determined by a single aim.
Zen scored and assisted in map one’s 2-1 win, scored all three objectives in map three’s 3-2 win, and saved probably the most photographs in a single map throughout the grand remaining throughout sport six’s 1-0 win. This put the sport at 3-3, with Andrea “Radosin” Radovanović helping zen’s profitable aim with simply 70 seconds left on the clock, giving Vitality the regional title.
This result’s Vitality’s first regional title since they had been topped the RLCS Season X European champions in June 2021. Yanis “Alpha54” Champenois is the lone member of that crew to stay on the present Vitality lineup. Now, he seems to be to guide a brand new technology again to the group’s profitable methods.
As for zen himself, he has been heralded as a coming star for 2 years already and he actually proved why with this efficiency.
Following the sport, Alpha54 stated he didn’t suppose Vitality was enjoying at their finest regardless of securing the title. As a substitute, the crew had discovered “a extremely good consistency between the gamers” that led to the title even with simply weeks to apply alongside zen.
The concept that Vitality nonetheless has room to enhance shall be a worrying assertion significantly for groups exterior of Europe as Vitality’s resurgence comes at a time when BDS and Liquid additionally look on the up whereas European gamers have gained the final 4 worldwide tournaments in a row.
Contemplating the energy of the European area, Vitality not shedding a sequence throughout the 2 EU tournaments since zen joined makes them an early Spring Main favourite.
Vitality will subsequent be in motion in the course of the European Spring Cup from Could 26 to twenty-eight, whereas the North American Spring Cup begins subsequent weekend on Could 19.
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