KCP Chronicles: Quiktrip Pioneers Place Top 4

KCP Chronicles: Pioneers finish Open Qualifier four in a top four spot.

Written by Trey Donovan

The Pioneers are back in action fighting for a spot in the London Major coming up. With a roster change and a competitive first Open KCP put together a run that saw them place in the top four with a lot of potential for growing. After a day one that saw KCP not drop a match, they went into the Swiss stage with momentum.

The Swiss stage portion of the qualifier saw the Pioneers take three matches with a 3-0 sweep of Ginji, then they faced the Gremlins. In game one, the Gremlins came out swinging putting up a whopping eight goals on 18 shots. That match saw the Pioneers not have a ton of control of the ball and while they had eight saves to try to stay in it, it wasn’t enough. Game two saw the Pioneers get control and never really lose it again. After game one it seemed that the team was all on one page and Superlachie began to take over.

In the series against the Gremlins, Superlachie put up half of the 12 goals scored by the Pioneers with a five-goal game in game four. He also assisted on three goals and had the most saves on the squad to round out the second match of the Swiss stage. After a 3-1 series over the Gremlins, it was time for the Scrub revenge match.

In the third match of the Swiss stage for the Pioneers they faced Kibbgang and it was a competitive series. Game one was the Scrub show to start the series as the former Pioneer put up two goals, assists, and saves along with five shot on goal leading to a 5-2 win for Kibbgang. Game two was a team effort from Kibbgang as everyone did everything in the match. In these two games the Pioneers were stuck on defense as they didn’t get a ton of opportunity in the first two games.

Game three onwards, however, saw Superlachie and Amphis take over as Amphis started the reverse sweep with a two-goal game in game three. This series was very offensive with goals scoring left and right, but game four saw the Pioneers getting a goal from both Fiberr and Superlachie and playing great defense for a 2-0 shutout in game four. Game five was the same as game four where the Pioneers scored twice, from Amphis and Fiberr, and the team saved seven shots to complete the reverse sweep and the Swiss stage.

Next up for the Pioneers was the Playoff stage with a matchup against FIZ6 Gaming. The Pioneers began the stage with a sweep of FIZ6 as Superlachie did a bit of everything scoring six goals, assisting on three more goals, and saving eight in the series. Fiberr provided five goals in the series and Amphis was the setup man for the goals with five assists. After the sweep of FIZ6 Gaming, the Pioneers faced off against the former number one seed PWR.

The series against PWR started off strong for the Pioneers as they scored six goals in game one with two hat tricks from Superlachie and Fiberr. After that the series became very defensive heavy as the max number of goals in a match after that was four. Game two saw Fiberr put up two goals and three saves to put the Pioneer up 2-0 over their rivals. The Pioneers had a chance to start the series 3-0, but in overtime of game three PWR got a goal from Bananahead to get some momentum going for PWR.

Game four saw Bananahead take over, providing a hat trick for PWR tying the series 2-2. The Pioneers answered back as Amphis and Fiberr provided the offense and the defense with three goals and eight save between the two. With a 3-2 series lead, the Pioneers needed one more match to beat PWR to move on to the Grand Finals. The issue in those last two games was that the well went dry offensively for the Pioneers getting shut out in games six and seven.

That ended the Open for Pioneers as they got a top four spot alongside Kibbgang. They got 12 RLCS points and still hold on to OCE’s number two seed, but Chiefs Esports Club made up some ground on them getting second. The next time the Pioneers take the pitch will be on May 11 for Open Qualifier five and they will look to keep hold of the two seed in the OCE.