Recap of the 2023 Salt Lake City HCS Global Invitational won by Spacestation Gaming
(Gray News) - This past Sunday, Spacestation Gaming claimed victory at the final HCS Global Invitational of the 2022-23 HCS season. Spacestation hosted the tournament in Salt Lake City, Utah, and put on a dominant display, taking the majority cut of the $125,000 prize pool.
Pool B was the starting point for Spacestation, where they were pitted against Native Gaming Red, BitterSweet, and Team Cruelty. They won their three matches, only losing two maps along the way. Spacestation emerged as the top seed of their Pool, with Native Red taking second and BitterSweet relegated to the Lower bracket due to a third-place finish.
In the Upper Bracket Quarterfinals, Spacestation went head to head with Gamers First (G1), who placed second behind FaZe Clan in their pool. With all matches being a best-of-five, it was pivotal that Spacestion won handily on the map one King of the Hill. After that, G1 couldn’t hang on in maps two and three and were swept to the Lower Bracket, where they would be knocked out of the tournament by Shopify Rebellion.
For their closest tournament match, Spacestation met OpTic Gaming in the Upper Bracket Semifinals. OpTic, who have begun to show chinks in their armor, finished second in Pool D behind Sentinels due to a loss in a tight series between the two. In the Semifinal match, OpTic managed to eke out two huge wins on the first maps of the series. Spacestation, with backs against the wall, knew they needed to show up for their home crowd. They managed to hold off OpTic, pulling off the reverse sweep and sending OpTic to the Lower Bracket, where FaZe would eventually knock them out in the Lower Bracket Semifinal.
Upper Bracket Finals were next, and the Sentinels were waiting. Spacestation were unstoppable at this point. Sentinels only managed a single win in the series, forcing them into the Lower Bracket Final, where they would face off against FaZe. Sentinels beat FaZe 3-1, giving them a shot at redemption against Spacestation.
Grand Finals are a best of seven, but only four maps were needed. Spacestation started hot and never let up, sweeping Sentinels and taking home the Salt Lake City HCS Global Invitational trophy.
Spacestation Gaming further proved to their home crowd that they are a top-tier HCS team. Braedon ‘Stellur’ Boettcher lived up to his name, and teammates Adam ‘Bound’ Gray, Kevin ‘Eco’ Smith, and Zane ‘Penguin’ Hearon showed how surgical they can be. Spacestation have put themselves in a great position as the HCS Fort Worth Major is just around the corner.
Sentinels also proved that their roster shifts back in June, which included the addition of Jesse ‘bubu dubu’ Moeller and Michael ‘Falcated’ Garcia, might finally be paying off. Overall, the tournament confirmed that the somewhat two-horse race expected from FaZe and OpTic all season is not the reality of the HCS.
Gray Television is an investor in OpTic Gaming.
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