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    Jared Brown
    Jared Brown
    Jun 5, 2024, 23:14

    The finals of the CBJ Gaming 6v6 NHL 24 tournament will take place tonight, with ninth-place seed CapsGaming facing off against fourth-place seed Team Starstruck.

    The finals of the CBJ Gaming 6v6 NHL 24 tournament will take place tonight, with ninth-place seed CapsGaming facing off against fourth-place seed Team Starstruck.

    Credit: Via @CBJGaming on X.com - CapsGaming vs. Starstruck for the NHL 24 CBJ Gaming 6v6 Finale

    The Grand Finals of the CBJ Gaming 6v6 NHL 24 ESports tournament go down tonight. The No. 4 ranked Starstruck club will face off against the No. 9 ranked CapsGaming, led by the EA Sports NHL 24 World Champion, Ethan "Polgz" Kerr-Polgar.

    The Starstruck organization's best finish came back in 2021 when they won the ESHL Kings Coast Cup. They finished top eight in the SJSharks Gaming Pacific Cup earlier this year, but didn't participate in the last NHL 24 6v6 event, the CapsGaming Showcase.

    The Never Unlucky organization did not partake in this event, and three members from that club moved over to the Starstruck franchise — Defensemen Odie and Nuge, and star left winger, KosmicEA, who won the Washington Capitals Club Championship earlier this year.

    The organization also recruited CapsGaming's goaltender Vaynx, who has been terrific in the crease for his new team.

    Their road to the finals started against Team Origin (ranked No. 22) in the first round of the playoffs where they made quick work defeating them in four games. 

    Round two drew a much tougher opponent in Unknown Talent (ranked No. 7) and their best-of-five went the distance, but a three-goal third period by the Stars led them to a quarterfinals berth.

    In the quarterfinals, they had to go up against the No. 2 ranked team, Legends Never Die. They trumped the second-best team in four games and then had to face the No. 1 ranked team, and the CapsGaming Showcase winners, The Underdogs

    Their semifinal series against The Underdogs needed Game 5 to decide who would play in the finals. Overtime was needed and despite The Underdogs leading in time on attack, Starstruck closed it out to notch one of their biggest wins in the last three years.

    Starstruck has been led by their centerman MarcoGoes5HOLE (16 goals and 32 points in 18 games) and left winger KosmicEA (13 goals and 28 points in 18 games). Their goaltender Vaynx has posted five shutouts in 18 games with a 1.55 goals-against average.

    CapsGaming's run to the finals had a lot more hurdles that the boys needed to leap over, and it started with a complete roster reconstruction. 

    As mentioned, they lost their netminder Vaynx and the NHL 24 All-Star Open Champion, CadCooks, who moved to play for Team Knight Shift. Cad recruited a few of his CapsGaming teammates to join him on Knight Shift — Centerman Ethancy and defenseman Desyd19.

    The organization luckily did retain the EA Sports NHL 24 World Champion Polgz, and the Maple Leafs Gaming Champion, Geimer. CapsGaming too picked from Never Unlucky's team, recruiting centerman Fussy, who won the NHL 24 Stadium Series Open in February, and right winger Erikeu1989. 

    All four of the team's playoff series went to a sudden-death Game 5. The Caps almost had a scare in the first round against the No. 31 ranked team 9thhh, but prevailed with a 4-1 win in Game 5.

    In the second round, they went up against Team Instinct (ranked No. 10) where they closed out that series with a 4-2 Game 5 victory. They faced IslesGT in the quarterfinals (ranked No. 11), which featured an overtime winner in Game 5 by their leader, Polgz.

    Then in the semifinals, they went up against the CapsGaming Showcase runner-ups, Team One Nation (ranked No. 3). The Caps went down 2-0 in the series before winning back-to-back one-goal games in Games 3 and 4. 

    Just like it was for Team Starstruck, CapsGaming booked their ticket to the finals off an overtime goal, which was scored by Fussyy.

    Polgz leads all players in playoff points with 39 and 19 goals. Fresh off that glorious win at the EA Sports NHL 24 World Championship, he's showcasing his desire to win and be the best chel player. 

    Tune into the CBJ Gaming 6v6 NHL 24 Grand Finals tonight at 9pm EST on twitch.tv/nhlbluejackets. The winning team will take home $5,000.