The Jönköping Major already has one APAC South team confirmed; Dire Wolves defeated Elevate 8-7 last week to earn their spot.

A second team will secure their spot and join the third, fourth, and final APAC teams at the competition as the 2022 APAC season draws to an end soon.

Teams in the mix

After playing all six other teams once throughout this stage, Wildcard Gaming finished their Stage 3 campaign last week. As a result, they don’t have a game scheduled yet.

Wu #Reeps96 Weichen will not be participating in today’s game for Dire Wolves because he has already earned a spot in the Jönköping Major. Reeps96 was signed before Stage 3 began, and Huang #HARAM3E Chih-hang was promoted to an analyst and replacement role. Huang #HARAM3E Chih-hang will fill in.

Reeps96, a Chinese citizen, will return to China after moving to Thailand for Stage 3 in order to compete in APAC South. After serving a 10-day quarantine, he will then apply for a Swedish visa.

One of the two matches to watch for will be FURY’s matchup with Tyde in the second game. Tyde will want to finish their stage with at least one point, but depending on the outcome of the game before it, FURY may have a reason to go for all three points. If Gaimin Gladiators lose to Elevate, FURY will be eligible to play in the Jönköping Major.

However, there are more implications for that opening game between Gaimin Gladiators and Elevate than just the second Major berth available in APAC South.

Expectations for GG & Elevate

For both sides, the calculus is quite straightforward.

Elevate simply needs one point to pass Wildcard on the table and finish in the top four because they don’t have a game today. Due to the structure of APAC, only placing in the top four results awards SI Points that are used to determine eligibility for the Six Invitational at the end of the season.

For a 2022 total of 800 SI points, Elevate will receive an additional 145 SI Points for placing fourth. With that score, Elevate should be able to maintain their position in the top 16 of the SI Points standings even after the Jönköping Major is over, and they’ll probably be automatically qualified for the Six Invitational in 2023.

While Elevate is struggling, Gaimin Gladiators will be focusing solely on winning. They have a head-to-head advantage over FURY and are one point ahead of them, but they won’t want to take any chances in order to advance to the Jönköping Major.

Of course, Elevate and Gaimin Gladiators can both have happy endings. Due to their point and head-to-head lead over FURY, the Gladiators just need two points, or an overtime victory, to advance to the Major.

 Because of this circumstance, Elevate will lose, but only in overtime. Thus, they will likely receive the one point they need to guarantee SI 2023 qualification, and FURY will likely be the only side dissatisfied with the outcome of this match.