A busy weekend is ahead of us! With multiple different events, pro league play , and tournaments, this will be one of the busiest weekend in recent memory when it comes to Gears of War. We are back in full swing and have a lot of information to dive into for the upcoming weekend and days that follow!

Friday : January 24th

5:00 PM

Kicking it off today will be Blaze’s Podcast known as the Hot Seat, which will have Fatalstryke (Coach of Reciprocity), Colin Fogle (Former Epic Game Developer), and Jippery McCloud (hey, that’s me!). We will be discussing multiple topics across Gears 5 and the Esport Circuit live on stream. So get those questions ready for those of us on the show and let us rip some answers for you all! You can start watching this Podcast at 5:00 PM Eastern at Blaze’s Twitch Channel at www.twitch.tv/blaze.

6:00 PM

After the Hot Seat, make sure you don’t miss out on the newest episode of Gears Unlimited with your host Guy Blaze (doubling up on his work to bring you all great content) as he has special guest Lucy Mae on set. This will be the fifth episode of the series and you can catch it at 6:00 PM Eastern at www.youtube.com/gearsofwar.

Saturday: January 25th

3:00 PM (Local Time)

Welcome back to the Mixer Matchups held at your local Microsoft Store. Make sure you grab your team or in most cases, some capable or new players to the scene, and head down to your local store to play in a Gears 5 Escalation tournament that yields prizes including 6 month, 3 month, and 1 month subscriptions to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Subscription. These tournaments are a fun way to get not only some of the best players from the scene to come and play with fans, but also a great way to bring in new blood to the scene and show your local area why Gears competition is amazing to participate in.

Sunday: January 26th

2:00 PM EST

All across the nation, your favorite amateur teams will be playing the weekly PGL Sunday tournament for seeding points, a long term chance to participate in the qualifier for the Arlington Open, and possible travel accommodations to the Mexico Open in March. Make sure to hop on Twitch or Mixer around start time to see some high paced action from the amateur scene and drop a line in their channels. Being able to have viewers and an audience watch them as they on the come up is valuable and important to all involved, so come out and support the teams fighting to make a name for themselves.

3:30 PM EST

The time has come, for the Winter Pro League to make it’s return. One major change for this upcoming quarter is that all of the matches will be streamed and cast on the Gears of War Twitch and Mixer channels. So get ready to root for some familiar faces and new blood as the pro league teams of North America play their first matches of the quarter. Multiple interesting match ups are ready to roll including NRG vs. Reciprocity (the reigning champions) , Vision vs. Mazer, Rise vs. Goated, and Hive vs. Treyway (formerly Oxygen Supremacy).

Monday: January 27th

6:00 PM GMT

If you didn’t have enough of the Pro League, now it’s time to sit back and watch the International teams face off. From across the pond, the European teams will face off in epic showdowns that are always riddled with intensity and upsets. Be prepared to see some of your favorite players on new rosters and also your old favorites fighting it out to be the King of Europe. Currently, that title belongs to Regal Reserve, but both EU’s Finest and Rated R are looking to make that a short lived experience. Meanwhile, Obey is ready to come out of the gate and cause some upsets to fellow teams in the region.

6:00 PM CT

Then we move on to the LATAM community. Fresh off an amazing outing in San Diego, Estral Esports is looking to continue dominance over their rivals Ghost Gaming as they just came up short in the first LAN of the Gears 5 Esports circuit, by losing out to Reciprocity. They’ll be in the region with longtime fan favorite Fire n Ice, as well as the new team to the Pro League: Unstoppables.

Tuesday: January 28th

6:00 PM EST

Another weekly staple, the UMG Emergence Day Tournaments  will continue their broadcast with some of the best teams out in the circuit currently, competing for a prize. These tournaments have always come with intense play, upsets, and close matches, so you don’t want to miss any of the action. While we are on the topic of UMG Gaming, let’s talk about the following day and another new weekly stream they hold for Gears of War fans, which you can catch at www.twitch.tv/umggaming.

Wednesday: January 29th

UMG Gaming presents the final matches to the Challenger Series matches. This past week we got to watch Incontrol and Soaked battle it out to see who would be crown the champions of the first week. Soaked was able to walk away with the victory and will look to continue momentum heading into the next tournament that starts this upcoming Sunday. You can catch all of this action at www.twitch.tv/umggaming.

Thursday: January 30th

Before we wrap this part of The Debrief up, we would like to also talk about the Gears of War 2v2 Astro Battles Series that is sponsored by Astro Gaming and is organized by Team Beyond. This past week, we got to see pro players Avexys and Inzem claim the prize as top team. Now we look forward to see what this upcoming Thursday will bring with the second week of the series. If you want to join in on the action, visit https://teambeyond.net/gears/ for more details and information on how you and your duo can compete in the next tournament.

NA Pro League Qualifier Week 2

Congratulations to the winners of the Pro League Qualifier for North America which included Oxygen Supremacy (now known as Treyway), which has the roster of Xysho, Gearries, Lanarchy6016, Abo, Aspire Lurpzy, and coach Ruthless. They will be participating in the North America Bravo division alongside Hive, Mazer, and Vision.

Our second winners of the tournament came in with a team that slipped into the Pro League Qualifiers, after one of the former Pro Teams (Gods) ended up splitting up and forfeiting their spot, they were the next team up for the position and made the best of it! So congratulations is in store for Goated, which is a roster that consist of HbM Perfections, ToXicTacTiX vZ, Birdy, SiahZ, RepTilian vZ, and coach LimiTs vZ. They will now enter the division for North American Alpha, which will include opponents in the likes of NRG, Reciprocity, and Rise Nation.

Lastly, you can’t live in the Gears of War world without some type of drama. After falling short in the Pro League Qualifier Tournament, it seemed Vision‘s luck was heading downwards. Not only did they lose close games to clinch a spot in the league, but they then ended up having a situation that led them to have a early disqualification in the Challenger Tournament the following day. However, it was noted earlier this week that Simplicity lost both Zerpting and Jerpy as players, as they were added to the Rebels Gaming roster. This would lead the reaminder of the team in Yogurt, Toti, Toysoldier, and coach Jackal in a bind that wasn’t able to be resolved in their favor, as this last second change was rather unprofessional from the players who left the team later rather than sooner. By those two prior players leaving at a later date, this was officially after the Sunday deadline for roster changes for the pro teams, which made Simplicity forfeit their spot in the Pro League. This officially led to the roster of Vision, being the third team from the Pro League qualifier to make it in. So congratulations to their team, their roster consist of Raidhn, Azuries, Homicide (Yughio), Pulse, Suhduceful, and coach Great. They will be participating in the North America Bravo division alongside Hive, Mazer, and Treyway.

NA Winter Quarter Week 1 (For Real This Time)

The prior week was in fact only a week filled with competition to get all teams back into the swing of things and had the winning prize money if you finished first. So as we head into the following many weeks of the tournament from here on out, just note that all of these teams will be receiving points for seeding for Mexico, could win travel to Mexico, and also a chance to be part of the Arlington Pro Qualifier for the Spring quarter. This is how the Top 16 teams looked, who defeated them, and their end results.

Results

1. Soaked (VitalTheOne, ProPeLLs 24, Kryo TYB, k3soto, TERMlNU5) Champions

2. Incontrol (Acells, HNC Precision, Exist JC, God Dazed, QG Rocky)(Coach Purpatrate) Lost to Soaked in Championship

3-4. Idk (REPSOLID, Flash Movez, Exceedingz, Bloodated, Heavy Bodies) Lost to Soaked in Semi Finals

3-4. #FreeBurger (Hudsonz, Eternity, Noxious, Speedy, Zenun) Lost to Incontrol in Semi Finals

5-8 Team ROCK (Emissive, VenomenaI, Death VViish, Subjec7ion, Vq) Lost to Idk in Quarter Finals

5-8 #THEGRIND (Advanced iP, Movemxnts, TraMa Said No, Hypertonicz iP, Verity v) Lost to #FreeBurger in Quarter Finals

5-8 Public Enemy (QG Pushyz, QG Reliant, Zizel, QG Zet, Vocabbz)  Lost to Incontrol in Quarter Finals

5-8 Atomic Esports (Gnashtee, Peace5690, CoolDame diddy, WATCH KILLCAMS, Jerries World) Lost to Soaked in Quarter Finals

9-16 Technique2 (CREA7i0N, Outsider Del, Matias Leonel Morales, Vo1kZ, OZ) Lost to #THEGRIND in Top 16

9-16 We Are Farmers (SinuateZ, Nate8130, MurkatronN, Kyng Switzer, Terminus7577) Lost to Idk in Top 16

9-16 Fire (Jahaad Morrison, Inflowes, Bokura, nipcy, HeardBuckle2390 (Kaio) Lost to TEAM ROCK in Top 16

9-16 GorillasOD (Ezinagi, BU Vibah, Bouncey Moves, lI Fusion ll, Arise Optimus) Lost to Incontrol in Top 16 

9-16 Grinders (Br KeNz, eden montes, Distract, Trillys, Kalamity) Lost to Soaked in Top 16

9-16 OneForAll (Scavzy, Yachtyy, FYC Flash, blastgod, Envyz4871) Lost to Public Enemys in Top 16

9-16 Anxiety Gaming (Ayato GhouI, N Anxiety C, Lord NightMare5, Kneel to me6898 (Coach: CCGs Juuzou)) Lost to Atomic Esports in Top 16

9-16 #StayDeviant (Abyss, BDG Vibiez, TD Poetic, Paranxrmal , WP Jippery (Elemxntals) Lost to #FreeBurger in Top 16

Now that we got the Top 16 out of the way, we can make a few cliff notes from all the action we caught from the weekend. So here we go:

Cliff Notes

Incontrol was one of only four teams that started in Round 1. They eventually finished 2nd.

Vision who is now in the Pro League played in this tournament originally, but were given a forfeit against Atomic Esports. Apparently, confusion between PGL Officials and Vision resulted in the team still being sent packing with a Top 32 finish. Although this is now nullified with them being in the Pro League

Out of the 34 teams that registered, 5 of the teams forfeit the game for not showing up. One of them being the cliff note above.

Rebel is a roster that consist of well known players (Krash, Sleepytime, Rezik) and they just added Zerpting and Jerpy. This team will have to dig out of an early hole, since they were knocked out of the tournament early last week in an upset by Incontrol, they are now likely going to be pit up against the hardest teams in the tournaments, as seeding goes from best to worst in a traditional bracket.

Fire finished in the Top 16, but we do know that nipcy is a Free Agent that is currently in The Trenches. So we are not sure who they will pick up for the next tournament, if they even participate at all.

Atomic Esports, Fire, and Anxiety Gaming are the three teams that finished Top 16 that are expected to be going into the next tournament as underdogs. It will be fun to watch them compete and see what they have in store as possible upcoming teams. If not, the community will start to sing the praises of the famous “blessed bracket”.

#CaseClosed

Update in the Last Seconds Before Posting: Huge congratulations to Identivezk, SleeaferMLG, ChaozoWn, Dezo6od, MonkyzMLG, and coach Demizevil with the new organization signing from Pittsburgh Knights! I wish your team the best of luck and can’t wait to see what you do with your new organization. On a bittersweet note, we would like to also say a huge thanks and send our love to Ghost Gaming. You’ve been a staple of our Esports for years through and we always want to make sure that we express our gratitude and respect we have for your organization. We wish the best for your organization in the future and please, continue being amazing and showing the world why Ghost Gaming is an amazing organization. Now back to the original ending!!!

That was a rather long Debrief. So I’m going to keep the ending short and simple. Currently, we are working on making some forums for the community to engage in on our website (we have some people testing it today and will be adding more context into it once we have all the kinks and bugs worked out). Secondly, we will start to work on our big project, which is making some type of match finding system from our local server that will allow us to host tournaments through our website. Now let me be honest, this won’t start off as a match finder like Gamebattles had or anything of that nature, but it will allow us to likely create Clan Wars or a place where teams can sign up to scrim one another and send their match results to us for data compression. Other than that, we got a lot more work to do here on the website and we can’t wait to build some more for the community. So without further to do….

#GETJIPPED!