Lessons learned from the Giant Slayer Series 3 Finals

The biggest North American Teamfight Tactics duos event wrapped up its month-long campaign this week, with the Giant Slayer Series 3 Finals. 16 of the best TFT players in the region brought along a partner for the three-week-long group stage, that culminated with an exciting final for the top four teams. Here are the lessons we learned from the event.

Robinsongz extends Tournament dominance

Team Liquid’s Robin “robinsongz” Sung has a deep history of performing well on ladder and in tournament play. Over the past three seasons, robinsongz has managed to win a big tournament each set. He won the Team Liquid Galaxy Qualifiers back in set 3, was victorious at the second TFT NA Qualifier in set 4 and now he has captured the Giant Slayer Series 3 championship in Set 5.

Although robinsongz did win this event, it wasn’t without the help of his partner, “Ramblinnn.” In the first two weeks of the group stage, Ramblinnn picked up robinsongz’s slack and managed to be the top-performing player in their Week 1 group, while finishing second overall in their Week 2 group. Robinsongz bounced back in Week 3 with three top fours in four games, to secure their spot in the finals.

During the finals, robinsongz and Ramblinnn picked each other up when their partner had a bad game. But at the end of the day, it was robinsongz who won the final game to lock up the championship. Robinsongz might not have been the best performing player at the event overall, or even on his team, but he more than pulled his own weight. With NA Regional Finals coming up, robinsongz looks to extend his elite tournament play to the event that matters most as he tries to get to Worlds for the first time in his career.

Bertasaurus is among the early favorites for NA Regionals

Although the challenger scene recognizes “bertasaurus” for their masterful play on ladder, bert has not yet become a household name. At Giant Slayer Series 3, bert turned heads, especially in the finals. From the start, the finals were just a two-team race between “Ramblin Robin” and bert’s team “We are going 8th.” In fact, after the end of the six games, the second-place team ended up a full 11 points up from third. Although bert’s team grabbed the silver medal, bert was the MVP.

Over the course of the six games, bert managed to grab top-four finishes in five of them. Half of the games played, bert finished in the top two. Overall, bert managed to rack up 43 points, the highest among the eight individuals in the final lobby. Bert’s performance in the finals was impressive, especially since their group stage performance was lackluster. In two of the three weeks, bert finished in the bottom four of their group. However, when the games mattered the most, bert performed.

Not only is bert’s finals performance a good momentum boost before this weekend’s NA Regional Finals, but their performance was also on the same patch that the Regional Finals will be played on, further cementing bert as one of the best players on this patch, and therefore, an early favorite to win the NA championship.

Soju has work to do

The ever so confident, Michael “k3Soju” Zhang came into the Giant Slayer Series 3 tournament with eyes on the prize. He even went out and  posted some banter on social media, claiming his victory. But even though his team made it into the finals, they were humbled. Soju had a rough day on the convergence. Out of the six games played in the finals, Soju only managed to grab a single top-four placement, and that placement was a six-point fourth-place finish in Game 5. Out of the eight players in the finals, Soju finished in seventh with a measly 20 points. His average placement over the course of the finals was a, frankly poor, 5.8. He didn’t even end the event on a good note, finishing eighth place in the last game of the series.

Soju, who looked like the best player early on in the mid-set update, has historically been a poor tournament player. After a poor performance just days before the biggest event of the season, Soju is going to have to dig deep to rebound in time for the NA Regional Finals.