Northwood Blue Crowned CRL National Champions!

They’re nothing if not consistent! The CRL National champions  After being seeded straight into the upper bracket semi finals, Northwood Blue had a very successful run through the top US tournament in collegiate Rocket League, landing themselves a place at the CRL World Championship and a not-to-be-sniffed-at $10,000.

This certainly isn’t the first time the Northwood Blue team has found themselves at the top of their game. In fact, they’re one of the most consistently high performance teams in CRL. While they never had a perfect run, every opponent only managed to take 1 game of this team.

Upper Bracket Run - 2 Opponents for CRL National Champions

Despite competing in a tournament with 5 other teams, the CRL National champions only ended up having to face two of them in 3 series. While this may not have affected their performance or potential to win too much, it certainly make the road a little smoother. This is exactly why an upper bracket run is so advantageous: Northwood Blue claimed 1st place playing just 3 series but the second place team, Akron Zips Blue, had to fight their way through 6 series.

Akron Zips Blue

The unfortunate Akron Zips had the misfortune of playing Northwood Blue twice in this tournament. The first series in the upper bracket semifinals was very decisive:

• Game 1: 4 - 2 to Northwood
• Game 2: 5 - 1 to Akron
• Game 3: 3 - 2 to Northwood
• Game 4: 3 - 2 to Northwood
• Game 5: 4 - 0 to Northwood.

While they did put up quite a fight, it really felt like the wind had gone out of Akron’s sails by the end of the series and they weren’t able to secure a single goal in the deciding game 5. However, they came back swinging (or scoring!) in the grand finals but ultimately, Northwood Blue’s goal scoring skills proved too much.

Fisher College

Life was rough from the get go for Fisher College but they managed some incredible plays nonetheless. After going to the full 7 games in their very first series of the tournament, the race was on. They faced the CRL National champions in the upper bracket finals but managed very few goals overall:

• Game 1: 4 - 0 to Northwood
• Game 2: 2 - 1 to Northwood
• Game 3: 3 - 1 to Northwood
• Game 4: 1 - 0 to Fisher
• Game 5: 2 - 1 to Northwood

All of the games were surprisingly thin on the ground in terms of goals but that only added to the excitement when one was actually scored! Every game was close with both teams fighting their hardest but overall, Fisher couldn’t overcome Northwood’s style.

https://twitter.com/NorthwoodEsport/status/1635036531504345089?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Next up for the CRL National Champions

There are still a few months to go until the CRL World Championships in June but 9 of the teams have already qualified. Perhaps Northwood Blue will polish their winning strategies and continue their incredible run, but it’s not going to be easy. With a huge $20,000 prize pool up for grabs, Buddy, hockE and LionBlaze will have their work cut out for them!