HCS NA Super 2022 Day 2: OpTic and Sentinels dominate

OpTic Gaming and Sentinels meet in the upper bracket finals, while Cloud9 has everything to do in the lower bracket.

With Championship Sunday about to commence, ESTNN does a quick rundown of day two for the HCS NA Super. All eyes were on three teams as the tournament moved into the bracket stage; OpTic Gaming, Cloud9 and Sentinels.

Cloud9 must make the lower bracket run

c9 halo — *Image courtesy of HCS via Twitter.*

Starting with Cloud9, the undisputed best team in Halo Infinite finally confirmed the acquisition of Adam “Bound” Gray. The move followed the shock departure of all-star fragger Jonathan “Renegade” Willette. Although Cloud9 has not been performing at the same heights, they are still a top three team worldwide.

Cloud9 did what they had to do in pool play, they dispatched all three teams, including their former player in Renegade in what was a 3-0 sweep for C9. The dents in the armor at the NA HCS Super came against eUnited. C9 had to roll their sleeves up and take care of business in five maps.

The series that will be playing in the minds of Cloud9 for a while is their 3-0 defeat to long-time rivals OpTic Gaming. The GREENWALL put on a clinic as they continue to ramp up with Matt “FormaL” Piper in the starting lineup. If Cloud9 are to win the HCS NA Super, then they must win two best-of-sevens against either OpTic Gaming or Sentinels.

Sentinels and OpTic to do battle in the upper bracket

Another team with a point to prove as HCS Orlando approaches is Sentinels. The HCS Kansas champions will be looking to prove their dominant victory over C9 in the final was not just a ‘flash in the pan moment. Sentinels have only competed in the one HCS Pro Series event since their LAN triumph where they fell flat on their faces, placing in sixth after losing to SSG 2-0.

Unlike their rivals in C9 and OpTic, Sentinels did not manage to 9-0 their pool after dropping two maps to eUnited and CoL respectively. That being said, Sentinels have had a fine bracket stage thus far. SEN has dispatched both Oxygen Esports and Gamers First – both by 3-0 scores.

OpTic Gaming is on course to win their first ‘big' Halo tournament with FormaL in the lineup. The GREENWALL has looked dominant thus far and they're only going to get better before the HCS World Championship. OPT, like Cloud9, dominated the pool play – not dropping a single map in the process. OpTic's pool play success has carried over to the bracket stage, clean sweeping SSG and rivals Cloud9.