This weekend, the second qualifying tournament for the Tampa Bay Rays Sunburst Invitational Tournament concluded. This tournament concluded in an epic best-of-three series that saw AlexGaKill come out victorious over cafelovesbr. AlexGaKill has now secured the second of four spots in this year’s Sunburst Championship in St. Petersburg, where players will compete for their share of the $10,000 prize pool.
Road to the Finals
After the first day of the qualifier, the field was down to the final eight players. Seven of the final eight players advancing to Day 2 were top ten seeds. In the winner’s bracket, PopularJoJo took out reigning champion Zazzi, while cafelovesbr sent AlexGaKill to the loser’s bracket. AlexGaKill and Zazzi would eventually make their way to the semifinal of the loser’s bracket, where AlexGaKill outdueled Zazzi to win 8-7 and eliminate the reigning champion.
In the winner’s bracket, cafelovesbr defeated PopularJoJo 6-4 to secure his spot in the finals. It was now down to AlexGaKill and PopularJoJo to see who would get a shot at revenge in the finals. AlexGaKill was on a mission, as he blew out PopularJoJo 10-1 to get his shot at cafelovesbr in the finals.
Game 1
The first game was a high scoring affair. No matter what one player did, the other answered right back. Going into the bottom of the 8th, AlexGaKill held a slim 13-12 lead. However, cafelovesbr had a few more runs up his sleeve. A three-run homer from Randy Arozarena got things started as he rattled off seven runs in the inning. That was more than enough to secure the Game 1 victory 19-13. cafelovesbr was now just one win away from going to St. Petersburg.
Game 2
Game 2 proved to be just as, if not more exciting compared to Game 1. This game was so good, that 9 innings was not enough for it. Despite being down to his final strike at one point, AlexGaKill was able to tie the game up on a Richie Palacios automatic double in the bottom of the 9th to send the game to extra innings.
cafelovesbr smacked an opposite field two-run home run with Richie Palacios to start the 10th inning. In the bottom of the 10th, AlexGaKill got an RBI single with Jose Siri to make it a 16-15 game. An error two batters later allowed the tying run to score. AlexGaKill now had the winning run on third base with only one out. The very next batter lifted a sacrifice fly into deep center field, which allowed the winning run to score. AlexGaKill survived 17-16 to force a decisive third game.
“I was completely drained and still shocked as to what had just happened since so many crazy things happened from the 9th inning onwards,” AlexGaKill said on his comeback victory. “I needed like 15 minutes to regroup after that game, but I was sure in my mind that after a win like that I was going to have ALL of the momentum going into game 3…”
Game 3
Game 3 was not the competitive back and forth battle that the first two games were. AlexGaKill hit two solo home runs in the 2nd inning to get the scoring going early. A three-run home run from Josh Lowe in the third then made it a 5-0 lead for AlexGaKill. AlexGaKill would go on to mercy rule cafelovesbr 11-1 to take Game 3 and win the second Sunburst Invitational Qualifier tournament.
“Somewhere around the 4th inning when I had I think around 6 runs I started to relax a little bit. Most of it was because he was getting a little bit unlucky with some of the good swings he was making so I knew that he was starting to lose his composure, but also because I was still hitting really good every inning. I just didn’t see myself losing that game after Eflin had shut him down through 5.”
Florida Bound
AlexGaKill will now move on to compete alongside Frostie in the Sunburst Championship later this summer. These two, along with the winners of the two remaining qualifier tournaments, will battle it out to see who can win it all, and walk away with the $8,000 top prize. The Sunburst Championship will take place at Coastal Creative in St. Petersburg, FL in August.
When asked what he was most excited about on the trip to St. Petersburg, AlexGaKill said, “I’m really looking forward to the actual venue and competing, but what I’m most excited for is meeting all the people of the community that I’ve never met before in person like Frostie, Dimmu, Scuffy, Yuki, and the 2 other players that are going to qualify soon.”