NA Stage 2 wraps with all four playoff seeds set
All spots locked in, next stop: the Playoffs.
With the final week of the Stage 2 Regular Season now complete, the top four teams have all earned their place in the playoffs for the three tickets to the Midseason Championship. With an ever-evolving meta and ambitions at their peak, only the best will board the planes to represent North America in Paris.
Game of the week: Spacestation Gaming 3 - 0 Team Liquid
“Even though we think we are Number one in [North America] right now, that’s a little ways away from being respected internationally.” - Xander "Hawk" Domecq
Entering the final week of Stage 2, Spacestation Gaming have been on a hot streak. They had defeated every team and only dropped a single map in the process, even toppling the reigning regional champs in the Dallas Fuel with a swift 3-0 in Week 1.
This stood in stark contrast to their opponents, Team Liquid, who continued to struggle to integrate their two new import players. In their previous match during Week 2, they lost against the Fuel 1-3, showing brief glimpses but ultimately falling short in many engagements. Kamden "Sugarfree" Hijada commented on Liquid’s struggles, arguing that the team looked better with their Stage 1 emergency sub, Yasser "Escanor" Alotaibi.
Despite their recent troubles, Team Liquid had begun practice for the final weekend of the stage with a bootcamp in Canada, uniting the western and Korean players under the same roof. With the team now more familiar with each other, the players remained optimistic about their chances against Spacestation Gaming.
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Right off the bat, Team Liquid opted to run Boston "Infekted" Fine on Mauga, an old comfort pick that brought lots of success in their 2025 campaign. And this pick seemed to bring more life to their strategy, as Team Liquid was able to force much closer engagements on Illios, which was further supported by Elliot "TR33" Chu on Shion.
They may have been caught off guard by the Mauga, but the firepower behind the Spacestation core was more than prepared to handle any changes. Xander "Hawk" Domecq was able to outplay Infekted with his D.Va, while both Benjamin "UltraViolet" David and Oliver "Admiral" Vahar made the necessary adjustments to ensure Spacestation wouldn’t falter. SSG won Illios in a 2-0, standing tall despite TR33 and Infekted looking much cleaner than weeks past.
This energy continued in New Junk City, where Team Liquid routinely found success with the Mauga and brought the map to all five points. Similarly to Illios, it was all TR33 and Infekted keeping things close and finding the necessary clutches to push Spacestation to the brink. But once more, Spacestation clutched up when they needed to. Hawk made the swap to Orisa to help anchor against the Mauga, while Sugarfree and Denis "Lethal" Tari got the best of their counterparts when it mattered most, winning the map 3-2.
Now down 0-2, Team Liquid substituted in Kim "Attack" Jun-hwa to better execute their strategies on Circuit Royale. And while TR33 continued to deliver heroics on Shion, Attack struggled on the Zarya against Lethal and Admiral’s Cat/Bastion. Team Liquid pushed the cart all the way to Point C and was halted from a full map completion, while Spacestation swiftly came back to win the map and take the series 3-0.
Spacestation Gaming continue to dominate in this new meta, showing how their recent internal restructuring, combined with their flexibility, has truly paid off. As they complete their final matches of the stage, they are now firmly focused on international competition, as Hawk touched upon their recent scrims with the EMEA Region.
Team Liquid, on the other hand, played against every top team and only managed to beat LuneX. While there is some leeway given the difficulties with their roster, the season format makes time of the essence to lock in a playoff spot. With their record after this match, Team Liquid would need to beat The Kafe or be eliminated from playoff contention for Stage 2.
Player of the week: Kim "Kellan" Min-jae
Since their rocky Stage 2 start, the Dallas Fuel have been consistently growing stronger. A lot of the success of their return to the top has revolved primarily around one person: Kellan.
As other teams in the region have relied on the standard meta, Kellan’s hero pool has allowed the Fuel to create their own unique vision that has brought lots of success for this roster. Other teams in the region have had to rethink their own strategies if they hope to take down the Fuel.
With playoffs just on the horizon, the Dallas Fuel are looking to take another regional crown and return to international competition. Kellan has proven time and time again this year just how important it is to play to one’s strengths and find success despite what the meta dictates.
Shion becomes more dominant as Mauga hints at a return
Week 3 has seen some slight developments to the meta, but has largely remained along similar lines and picked up from Week 2.
With Lucio being picked less and less, support lineups have gotten creative. Teams now opt to play around individual strengths and compositional adaptation, rather than defaulting to the once-dominant Lucio/Kiriko. While the tried-and-true support line is not unplayable, teams who experiment with their support players have since found more success.
The biggest adaptation has been Shion. Despite seeing some slight nerfs to her Execution ability, Shion has remained a dominant pick in many different scenarios across many map types. The newest addition to the hero roster also continues to blur lines between the traditional DPS roles, and many teams have experimented with Shion in place of a Tracer, or sometimes pairing the speedsters together. The most common lineups have been Shion paired with Cassidy, Sojourn, Reaper, or Tracer, with some teams experimenting with heroes like Genji and Pharah.
Tanks have also continued to rotate primarily around Sigma, D.Va, and Zarya, with teams like the Dallas Fuel maintaining their niche with dive heroes. Orisa has also steadily seen an increase in playtime outside of LuneX games, with Hawk spending more time in official matches on the Omnic hero. Interestingly, teams have also brought out the Mauga for the first time across the entire stage, which differs from the EMEA and Korea regions, which have been using it much more. While it saw mixed success this week, keep an eye out for how the Samoan tank fits into the North American meta.
Week 3 in review: Repeat playoff competitors
Dallas Fuel 3 - 0 Disguised
“I think going into future international tournaments, we should just do better and better with more time.” - Coach Eric "Wheats" Perez
With their backs against the wall, Disguised entered into their weekend gauntlet needing to find a win against the two strongest teams in the region. If they could not find a win against Dallas in this series, they would be heading towards another Promotion/Relegation tournament.
Disguised played well, and even got the better of Dallas in a few engagements while also keeping Runasapi close, but ultimately they fell short. While this match was certainly closer than the scoreline suggests, Disguised consistently remained unable to clutch when it mattered most. This loss was heartbreaking for DSG fans, as it also meant Disguised would miss out on another playoff.
For Dallas, while they did need to work for this win, their resurgence continues after starting the stage with an uncharacteristic loss. They have continued to refine their own dive style to better fit within this new meta, with Shion and Kim "Kellan" Min-jae swapping tank heroes whenever necessary. This victory against Disguised locked in Dallas for the playoffs, joining both Spacestation and LuneX.
As Coach Eric "Wheats" Perez mentioned in the post-match interview, this team has high ambitions of returning to international competition. But as Wheats said, there is more work to be done to better perform against the other regions.
Team Liquid 3 - 0 The Kafe
“As time goes on with our new roster, we’re really investing in the future. I really do believe it’s only up from here for our team.” - Xavier "zeruhh" Zambrano
In Stage 1, The Kafe core caught Team Liquid in a slump due to their roster troubles and brought the series to five maps, falling just short of winning, but stunning the region nonetheless. If there was ever a moment to repeat the past and find a way into the playoffs, it would have to be here.
But despite Ryan "ryan" Lawless continuing to surprise on Shion, Team Liquid proved that even though Kafe has talent, the gap between their skill levels is too great. Kafe was thoroughly outgunned. With this loss, The Kafe headed for another Promotion/Relegation alongside Disguised, once more outside of the Top 4.
Team Liquid quickly shook off the loss against Spacestation and silenced those who doubted their capabilities. TR33 and Xavier "zeruhh" Zambrano took over the lobby, proving further that they are truly one of the strongest DPS cores in North America. Both Attack and Infekted rotated playtime, with Infekted taking Illios and New Junk City, while Attack played on Circuit Royale, playing more to the strengths of his hero pools.
With this victory, Team Liquid guaranteed themselves a spot in the Stage 2 Playoffs. With international ambitions on the mind, now is the time to truly lock in and prepare to make it to Paris.
Spacestation Gaming 3 - 1 Disguised
“We were a bit laid back, but [Disguised] were actually shooting back, which was impressive. They definitely changed…they played good.” - Denis "Lethal" Tari
With both teams having secured their slots in either the playoffs or promotion/relegation, this match between Spacestation and Disguised didn’t hold much stock. For Disguised, this was their last opportunity to secure a win and avoid going winless in the stage, while Spacestation was already locked in for the playoffs as the #1 seed.
And despite the circumstances, Disguised put on a show. Right off the bat, DSG came out swinging by winning Illios and bringing King’s Row to extra innings. Evan "PGE" Ngo and Julian "Rokit" Pizana looked more alive than they had all stage, and Alexander "Tred" Madgwick-Smith was seemingly getting the better of Hawk on many different points.
Sadly, while Disguised did take an early lead on Runasapi and almost fully capped the map, Spacestation’s skill gap overwhelmed the inexperienced squad. As Denis "Lethal" Tari hinted at in the post-match interview, Spacestation wasn’t taking Disguised seriously, but quickly needed to focus up due to them showing much improved gameplay. But for the DSG fans, they will once more face another heartbreaking stage, this time ending without any wins.
Spacestation’s efforts all stage long have proven effective, as they only dropped two maps the entire way and secured an uncontested top seed. Heading into the playoffs, they will have the opportunity to select their opponents and chart their return to international competition.
Dallas Fuel 3 - 1 LuneX Gaming
“I think we’re just so good that we run people over.” - Christopher "Cjay" Smith
With all teams decided, this match between Dallas and LuneX would only determine seeding. This would be an opportunity for both teams to enter the playoffs on a high note, and possibly work out some compositions to get an edge over the rest of the region.
LuneX initially began the series on a hot streak, with xten’s Reaper overwhelming Park "SeonJun" Seon-jun’s Pharah, allowing them to win Illios 2-0. But any momentum generated from that map victory was quickly discarded in Dorado. LuneX was unprepared at handling Dallas’ compositions, and experimented with Alexander "Zeb" Shepard on Mauga to no avail.
This match was yet another example of LuneX having the power to punch up against the top teams, but ultimately still lags behind their opponents. Heading into the playoffs next week, they will have to overcome these obstacles if they hope to finally take down Spacestation, Dallas, or Liquid.
Beyond Illios, this series was dominant for Dallas, as Kim "Kellan" Min-jae died only five times throughout the series. The Fuel convincingly won every other map in the series, securing the #2 seed for themselves in the playoffs. As Cjay mentioned in the post-match interview, this team knows international competition is in their future, and they hope to quickly overcome the woes of their loss to Spacestation and start preparing for the other regions.