Results: Rise Nation Beat Red Reserve to Advance to CWL Anaheim Grand Finals

CWL Anaheim has seen its fair share of exciting professional Call of Duty action through its three days of action with the winners bracket finals between Red Reserve and Rise Nation. 

Rise Nation was able to collect a 3-1 record in Pool B of CWL Anaheim with victories against Luminosity, Epsilon and Enigma6. The defending CWL champions suffered their lone loss of their CWL Anaheim pool with a 0-3 defeat at the hands of Tea Kaliber. Making their way into the winners bracket of the event, Rise Nation was able to advance to the winners bracket finals of CWL Anaheim with a 3-0 win against Splyce and a 3-1 win over UNILAD to come one step closer to the championship match of CWL Anaheim. 

Red Reserve had a similar strong performance in Pool A, as the European roster was able to secure a perfect 4-0 record in pool play with wins against eUnited, FaZe Clan, Tainted Minds and Ghost Gaming. Heading into the winners bracket of CWL Anaheim, Red Reserve continued their impressive play with a 3-0 victory over Echo Fox and a 3-1 win over Luminsoity to secure a spot in the winners bracket final of CWL Anaheim. 

IT’S WINNERS FINALS TIME!

Watch #RISECOD go up against @RedReserve now!

: https://t.co/HuBgH7pmW2 #WeRise pic.twitter.com/nP0Tv4W7IX

— RiseNation (@TheRiseNation) June 17, 2018

The strong performances of the two teams set up an epic matchup between the Rise Nation roster of Daniel "Loony" Loza, Thomas "TJHaly" Haly, Peirce "Gunless" Hillman and Austin "Slasher" Liddicoat against the Red Reserve roster of Joseph "Joee" Pinnington, Rhys "Rated" Price, Trei "Zer0" Morris and Matthew "Skrapz" Marshall. 

Red Reserve started the series off strong with a 250-216 Hardpoint victory on Sainte Marie du Mount to take a 1-0 lead. Rise Nation made sure to not let Red Reserve get a 2-0 lead in the next match, as the CWL Seattle Champions were able to secure a 6-3 Search and Destroy win on Valkyrie to tie the series at 1-1. The roster of Joee, Rated, Zer0 and Skrapz made sure to not let Rise Nation go on a run, as they would collect a 3-2 Capture The Flag win on Falk Tower to retake the advantage with a 2-1 lead.

In an intense Hardpoint match on Ardennes Forest, Rise Nation and Red Reserve took part in a back and forth battle that ended in a very uncommon draw with both teams ending the map with a score of 227 each forcing a replay of the map. Rise would make the replay of the map count, as it would collect a 250-163 win to tie the series at 2-2 and force a winner take all game five.

.@TheRiseNation back in the grand final! They win the five-game series vs @RedReserve to punch their ticket in the championship match at #CWLPS4 Anaheim! pic.twitter.com/6aC33rW6hq

— Call of Duty esports (@CODWorldLeague) June 17, 2018

Rise Nation continued their strong play into the Search and Destroy match on London Docks to collect the 3-2 series victory and secure a spot in the grand finals. 

Twin Galaxies was able to catch up with Loony of Rise Nation after the exciting winners bracket finals and get his thoughts on the victory. 

"Obviously it's a good thing we booked ourselves a trip to the grand finals. You always want to come out of the winners side so a team has to beat you twice in best of fives. Our feelings going into the match obviously were positive. We have been a really good team, but we knew it was going to be a tough match. Once we lost the first map we didn't get down on ourselves. We knew it was going to be a hard fought battle," said Loony.

"We knew that was their best map (Sainte Marie du Mount) and that the next map was our best, so it was going to be a back and forth battle. We then kinda threw away the Flak Tower CTF," continued Loony. "We were kinda frustrated at how the next map panned out with the tie, but we knew that we had a second shot and that we weren't out and just had to fix the mistakes we had the first playthrough, and we did that. Game five, we are all veterans, I mean Austin (Slasher) has played a game five on the biggest stage at Black Ops 3 Champs, so there were no nerves." 

(cover photo courtesy of Rise Nation)