What an experience – we visitted our first ever offline event as an esports organisation, and it was none other than Insomnia 71.
If the previous editions were any indiciations, we were poised to compete for the Rocket League trophy in front of over 65 000 visitors.
The gaming festival took place from 7 – 10 september in it’s usual location: the NEC in Birmingham, England.
So much for starting small.
Our roster
Our approach for our first ever LAN event starts with finding the right team to represent us.
In true NXT fashion we’re all about handpicking skilled and talented Rocket League players to represent us at the biggest stage in the UK.
In the end we decide to go with the following roster:
nullaii
Hodge
Dylan
This roster offered us the perfect combination of veteran talent with young potential – and a chance to show ourselves to the English audience for the very first time.
Our run in Insomnia
With the roster locked and preparations ready, it was time to get to work and get the result we were aiming for.
We started out with a relatively succesful group stage, ending 2nd place after a close loss to Tranmere Vikings.
Nothing lost and everything still to gain we started the final bracket stage with the utmost confidence, rolling over BuzzKill 3-1 in the upper bracket quarterfinals.
Perhaps our confidence was eventually our undoing, because in the next matchup we were handed a heavy 0-3 defeat against tournament favourites Team HOSKY.
Having reached the top 4 teams in the upper bracket, we had our eyes set on a main stage finish.
If we had to make our hands dirty with a long lower bracket run to do so, then so be it!
Luckily we had plenty of boost left in our engine to fly through the lower bracket until we found a familiar opponent in Tranmere Vikings.
With the group stage defeat still fresh in our minds, we were set out for revenge.
It also helped to fuel our motivation when we found out that beating them would mean a guaranteed top 3 finish and a battle on the main stage of Insomnia.
Unfortunately we ultimately fell short, suffering our final 0-3 defeat against Tranmere Vikings to be handed 4th place.
The final result
We worked hard and in the end can’t really be unhappy about a 4th place finish for our first ever LAN event.
Regardless we managed to take some valuable lessons out of our defeats and are motivated to come back stronger than ever.
Insomnia72 – you better watch out!
Keep updated on our results!
Although it’s nice to reminisce about our wonderful time at Insomnia71 and other events, nothing beats being there in the front row cheering us on as we take down team after team!
You can follow our progress – meaning you won’t have to miss a thing – on our social media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GONXTGG
Discord: http://discord.gg/TSH5v2N65n
