This article is part of our Call of Duty series.
After surviving Group C and advancing through to the Championship Winners bracket, Rise Nation appeared to be on the ropes, falling down to Team EnVyUs 2-0 in the first round of the best-of-five upper bracket matchup. A miraculous reverse sweep, which included a tremendous 12-11 Round 3 Uplink win, gave Rise Nation the series win.
Their run through the upper bracket would surprisingly end in the next round thanks to OpTic Gaming. OG, who won its first Championship Winners bracket match over Ground Zero 3-1, appeared to be heading into its climatic battle versus Rise Nation hot, dropping just four rounds total throughout pool play and the championship bracket. However, after both Round 1 Hardpoint (250-204) and Round 2 Search and Destroy (6-4) went the way of Rise Nation, it appeared as if OpTic Gaming would be forced to navigate the rest of the tournament from the losers side of the bracket.
OpTic Gaming rallied behind the performance of Ian "Crimsix" Porter to claim the next three games. Whether it was his near perfect last second game-winning toss on Round 3 Uplink or his clutch kills during Round 4 Capture the Flag and Round 5 Search and Destroy, Crimsix's play was a huge reason why OpTic Gaming advanced to the semifinals.
Also in the semifinals is none other than Team eLevate, who managed to take advantage of a weak Pool A to post a 2-1 record, placing them firmly in the winners portion of the Championship bracket. eLevate would take care of FaZe Clan, who had won every series at MLG Orlando up until that point, 3-1 in the first round of the upper bracket before facing off against Luminosity Gaming in the quarterfinals.
eLevate earned by far the most convincing win of Day 2, silencing Luminosity 3-0 on the heels of an utterly dominant 13-5 Round 3 Uplink win. Whether it was Ulysses "Aqua" Silva, Tyler "Felony" Johnson or Brice "Faccento" Faccento, Luminosity had no answers for Team eLevate throughout the series.
The action will conclude Sunday with the winner of OpTic Gaming and Team eLevate facing off against one of the four remaining teams in the lower bracket: Luminosity Gaming, FaZe Clan, Rise Nation or Team EnVyUs. To get to either OpTic Gaming or Team eLevate, those four teams must play two, winner-take-all matchups to advance to the Grand Finals, with the winner needing to take two best-of-five series against its opposition in order to claim a first place finish at Orlando.
