Recon 5 take second Phoenix Series qualifier over Valkyrie
The second portion of the three-part Community Gaming Phoenix Series event has concluded, with Recon 5, Valkyrie, and CENSRD claiming the three spots on the podium. The latter were the beneficiaries of a Third Impact forfeit in the third-place match.
GGPR also played in this event but ran into Third Impact in the quarterfinals and were bested 2-1 following a 30-round decider on Nuke. Valkyrie managed to upset Third Impact in the same fashion and used all thirty rounds to take their pivotal map and advance to the grand final, while CENSRD were swept by Recon 5 before they were gifted a place on the podium.
The event bracket in its entirety can be found here, while the FACEIT hub for the event can be found here.
Dust2.us knows that the event featured some drama however, as frustrations were tossed around between the players and the organizers when there was talk of pausing the grand final matchup mid-series after Recon 5's quintuple overtime, comeback win on Nuke and rescheduling the decider for a later time.
To get to that point, Valkyrie managed to steal Vertigo 16-13 from Recon 5, featuring Tyler "tweiss" Weiss as a stand-in, thanks to a 30-kill map from Christian "SuiteR" Sutter. Recon 5 bounced back and secured the aforementioned comeback win 31-28 in spite of Collin "CoJoMo" Moren's server-leading, 54-frag performance. After the discussion outside of the server Valkyrie forfeited the Overpass decider and took the smaller portion of the prize pool, though both finalists will be qualified for this summer's $10,000 Phoenix Series final.
The final event standings for the second Phoenix Series Finals qualifier are:
1. 
Recon 5 (SATURN, SLIGHT, AAustiN, Wilky, desi, tweiss) - $2,500 & Finals
2. Valkyrie (silas, k1, CoJoMo, KenZ, SuiteR - Coach: Noot) - $1,250 & Finals
3. CENSRD (Swahn, Delta9, kber, Noxio, Ghostii - Coach: rdb) - $750
4. Third Impact (DaneJoris, insane, brett, walker, grape - Coach: becker) - $300
5-8. HeadShotKings (Makzwell, Lemonz, Spoice, Talen, scar) - $50
5-8. UYU (tatmm, BobbyBarker, PoseidoNNo, TiCxara, niise - Coach: CooperTroopr) - $50
5-8. Revel (Jachro, Embl3m, KrakenS, Reaper225, RoundCubee) - $50
5-8. GGPR (lowrider, KmZ, BeaKie, Inseaniac, Sharkie - Coach: quick) - $50
The final $10,000 event remains unscheduled for later this summer and will feature RBG, Recon 5, and Valkyrie from the first two Phoenix Series events.
Dust2.us reached out to a representative from Community Gaming to inquire about the status of the spot previously occupied by the now disbanded Veloz roster, but no decision has been made at this time about its fate. Third Impact finished third in the first Phoenix Series event and would be next in line for that event's automatic bid to the finals.
