Five months, six weekends, dozens of hopeful players and only one team could win it all. While it should come as no surprise to us now that Five Fears have clinched their spot at the Paris Major, as well as the World Championship, had you told us five months ago that this would be the case it would have been a topic of much debate. Now however, with the curtain having just closed on Open 6, it feels almost as though we should never have had any doubt at all.

Saturday

Open 6 began as every open before it did - with the lower bracket elimination games. Team HSK and Death Cloud Esports (DCE) were no strangers to playoffs, but making deep runs unfortunately wasn't on the cards for them. The first match of the day saw DCE taking on Le Passion (LEP) - a pick-up team made up of some of the premier talent in the region. Despite the pedigree of players on the LEP roster, they were heavily underestimated, and they came out the gate swinging - a dominant 4-1 victory saw them advance to the quarterfinals.

In game two, Synthesis took down Team HSK in a close but decisive six game series, forcing all who doubted them to finally admit that they were on an incredible upward trajectory and were making a case for themselves as a top team in the region.

We then moved to the upper bracket for the final two matches of the day. First up, KCP against a ROUNDS team who had quietly but consistently been improving their placements. Finnish import Jesse "Renshiro" Rissanen had even flown to Cape Town earlier in the split to ensure he could perform at his absolute best, sinking hours of time into practicing and leaving very little for being a tourist - he may have been in a foreign and beautiful city, but he came to do a job. In a stunning seven game series, ROUNDS defied the odds and knocked KCP into the lower bracket, advancing to the semifinals and securing their very best performance to date. Special mention went to Réunionese player Maxime "onizumaa" Hoarau for his spectacular individual performance, and he was recognised at the end of the broadcast as the Driver of the Day, as voted by Twitch chat.

In the final match of the day, Five Fears would take on a revitalised BroCroCros - the core of Jayden "Jeff" Dunford and "Ravi" being signed to BTF, and rounded out by Kylian "Teschow" Dally as the newest member of the team. There was a lot of uncertainty because despite the success of BroCroCros in previous opens, it seemed there were a lot of questions around how strong of a replacement Teschow would be, and indeed in the first few games potential issues had already begun to arise. What makes this player so impressive is how quickly he was able to recalibrate in the wake of a few mistakes made on the server. Before the first series had even ended, we had already begun to see adjustments being made - improvement made in real-time. Where many players may become flustered by their own performance not meeting expectations, this is someone who was able isolate issues in his game on the fly and make the necessary adjustments quickly enough to let it become a detriment to his team. Despite this, when faced with an opponent like Five Fears it will take much more to emerge victorious - you need to be firing on all cylinders from the moment of kick-off until the final whistle blows and BTF could not hold their own. With their victory here, Five Fears had officially secured enough points to lock in their place at the Paris Major, and the World Championship thereafter - even if they didn't win another game this open, no matter the result anyone else got, no one could overtake them in points. They had well and truly cemented themselves as the very best in the region.

With KCP's loss to ROUNDS, and Five Fears' win against BTF, the unthinkable had happened - assuming KCP won their match against LEP, for the first time in the 2026 split Five Fears and KCP would have to face off in the semifinals, and we would be guaranteed a brand new grand finalist appearance. It was a lot to digest, and so the players left their lobbies, the stream went offline, and everyone went to consider the repercussions of such an unprecedented turn of events.

Sunday

It would be easy to say that the first match of the day was an incredibly important one, but indeed every match would carry with it some very important results. Synthesis were still fighting tooth and nail to prove the naysayers wrong, LEP were trying to beat the allegations of being "just a pick-up team," KCP were in the lower bracket and on a collision course with being knocked out early, and BTF had been in the conversation for weeks as a possible top 3 team in the region and they were going to make sure that wasn't forgotten. Even if BTF beat Synthesis, ROUNDS were still waiting in the wings, yet one more stepping stone to glory. It didn't matter that the spot at the Paris Major and beyond had already been confirmed, this is a region that never stops fighting to grow and improve. With all of that hanging in the air, the day began.

LEP put on an incredible performance, but ultimately it was a KCP with something to prove that ultimately took the win. In game 2, it was a tale of two Cinderellas but only one would be allowed to attend the ball - Synthesis was sent packing and BTF would move on to play against ROUNDS.

The semifinals were at last upon us, and the first would be the grand final come too soon - Five Fears vs KCP. In the last two opens, both grand finals had been complete sweeps with Five Fears claiming victory both times. With KCP's recent form burning in the back of our minds, it seemed almost a foregone conclusion that this would end in much the same way. It was a gruelling back and forth affair, including on overtime of almost four minutes, and by game 7 we were all tied up and 3-3 and it was impossible to separate these two teams, but as they took to Champions Field, something in Five Fears came alive. They took the game in a dominant 7-2 scoreline, securing themselves the match and advancing to the grand finals. It was a devastating day for KCP as their journey in open 6 was cut short.

In light of such an intense first semifinal, viewers were convinced that the second would be just as exhilarating. Both ROUNDS and BTF were making solid arguments for themselves - ROUNDS with very strong recent results, just coming off of a victory against KCP; and BTF with a bit more longevity and consistency behind them. It was a tough one to call, and it could only be decided on the pitch. Despite a strong performance from ROUNDS earlier in the weekend, they failed to keep up their momentum, and an invigorated BTF reinforced by a tenacious Teschow swept ROUNDS away and took the win without losing a single game. After so many attempts, this Cinderella was finally going to the ball, and grand finals lay before them. This victory marked something truly wonderful - a team fully composed of SSA players, and not a single import, had finally made the finals.

The twenty minute break before the grand final flew by, and soon BTF and Five Fears were in the server and ready to mount the final showdown of the RLCS SSA 2026 season. The air was electric, Twitch chat was abuzz, and I can only imagine that those watching on SuperSport were just as entranced by what could be. The first game had everyone on the edge of their seats as BTF came out the gate swinging and snatched the first game of the series. Excitement swelled, but that bubble would soon burst as Five Fears would not allow themselves to lose now. It was tough to watch as Five Fears did what they had done for four opens before this - utterly dismantled their opposition.

Five Fears ended their season with five out six open wins, the Boston Major under their belts, and the Paris Major and World Champions on their horizon. A hearty congratulations to Brayden "gunz" Keith, Gareth "Snowyy" Spiers, and Óscar "tehqoz" Arco - the SSA region stands behind you and we will be watching as you take to the international stage once more!

The Future

While the RLCS split and qualifications for the majors might be over, there is still so much more Rocket League action for you to look forward to! Alongside the 1v1 and 2v2 tournaments set up by RLCS, there is also the VS Gaming LAN which takes place every year at Comic Con, not to mention the RSC which is a community-driven draft league which welcomes players of any and every skill level.

To find out more about how you can get involved and what tournaments are coming up, or just to make some friends to play games with, make sure to check out ACGL's community page to keep up to date with everything Rocket League in SSA!