TROOPERS Take April

April was the first month without BaosLittleBuns or E-KING in the bracket. The two teams that have shared every previous trophy sat the month out, leaving the field wide open.

TROOPERS took the trophy. They dropped two maps across the entire playoff run. Noob Esports didn't lose a single series until the grand final.

Eight teams. Three days. $500 on the line.

Performative and Clueless tied for third after losing in the semifinals. Finishers, Error 404, Malice and FOREVER bowed out in the quarters.

Single-elimination playoffs after a four-group GSL stage. Every quarterfinal ended 2-0. The semifinals split: Noob Esports cruised a 2-0 over Performative, TROOPERS went the distance against Clueless and took it 2-1.

The grand final went three maps. TROOPERS took the series 2-1, the only team to beat Noob in any series this tournament.

The path mattered. TROOPERS were taken to three maps in both their semifinal against Clueless and the grand final against Noob. Noob, by contrast, dropped zero maps before the final. By the time both teams arrived at the trophy round, one had already been forced to win on a decider; the other had never had to. That gap showed up in the third map.

Top fragger on the winning team. arcto played duelist on Phoenix and Raze, and controller on Viper, switching role depending on what the comp asked for.

A season-end list of the best players in OCE is coming, weighted by overall VLR stats. arcto is a strong name on it.

The MVP usually goes to a winning-team player. The rest of the bracket put up numbers that need a column of their own anyway.

Shinon carried Noob through every series until the trophy round. Reegan one-tricked Raze for FOREVER, a quarterfinal exit, but he won't be flying under the radar long. NOVAE put up the best individual rating of any quarterfinal-exit player.

Two clean 2-0s in the bracket on the way to the final. Noob didn't lose a map until the grand final. TROOPERS were the only team to take a series off them all tournament. They walk away with the season's strongest individual player and a deserved second place.

Patch 12.07 settled the duelist meta into one name. Neon was on basically every map.

Viper at 56% and Omen at 54% on smokes confirms what most teams have settled on for the controller slot — a fast-cycle two-character pool that flexes between Lotus and Bind. Fade at 48% as the lead initiator tracked the bracket's preference for slower retake rounds. The interesting number is Chamber at 42%; sentinels usually share the slot in a healthy meta, but Chamber alone clearing two out of every five maps suggests the post-12.07 numbers are still settling.

Lotus led the picks at 8 selections, then Haven at 5, with Bind and Pearl tied behind it at 4 each. Fracture and Split tied for most-banned at 18 bans apiece.

With 42 matches across the weekend and 36 first-phase bans against Fracture and Split combined, those two maps were effectively removed from the active pool. The bracket converged on a Lotus-Haven-Bind-Pearl rotation, which favours teams with strong Lotus C-site executes — a shape worth carrying into May prep.

That's a wrap on April. See you for May.

The TXG Team