Tournament:Luminosity Invitational 2: Back to School

Luminosity Invitational 2: Back to School
Dates	September 27th-29th, 2024
Address/City	Miami, Florida
Attendance	16
Results
winners	Kola
Staff
Organizer(s)	Luminosity Gaming

Luminosity Invitational 2: Back to School was an invitational held in Miami, Florida from September 27th-29th, 2024.

Players invited/qualified

The following players were invited by Luminosity Gaming:

The following player qualified by being the highest-placing non-invited player at Supernova 2024:

Asimo

The following player qualified through the Luminosity Invitational 2 LAST CHANCE QUALIFIER:

TM7_ZAP

Tournament summary

Following criticisms from the first invitational, several changes were implemented for this event that made it more in-line with a traditional, Summit-esque invitational. Initially scheduled for September 14th-15th, the tournament was delayed by two weeks due to conflicts with Umebura SP 11 and Ultimate Fighting Arena 2024. In addition, additional side events took place on the 27th, extending the event by an additional day.

The first two seeds Sparg0 and Sonix underperformed in their round robin pools, with #1 Sparg0 losing to #9 MkLeo (Upset factor 6) and #8 Zomba (UF 5) 0-3 to place third in his round robin and #2 Sonix losing to #10 Light (UF 5) and #7 ShinyMark 1-3 (UF 4) and losing the head-to-head tiebreaker with ShinyMark to place fourth in his round robin. As such, the two ultimately faced off on the losers side of bracket, with Sparg0 defeating Sonix with Roy 3-2 for 13th, the first time Sonix placed outside the top 3 since he finished 25th at Super Smash Con 2023. Conversely, Sparg0 tore through the losers bracket, defeating Maister 3-0, Light 3-1, Asimo 3-0, Zomba 3-1, and Shuton 3-0 to enter grand finals. Finally, the fourth seed SHADIC also underperformed, losing to #5 Asimo 0-3 and #12 Maister (UF 3) 2-3 to place third in his round robin before being eliminated at 13th by #14 Marss (UF 4) 3-2, tying Get On My Level X as his worst placement in 2024 so far. As such, the two finalists of the previous Luminosity Invitational, SHADIC and Sonix, finished at last place, alongside Dabuz and TM7_ZAP.

On the other hand, following strong performances in Japan, both #12 Maister and #9 MkLeo were able to overcome some of their demons during the event, with Maister defeating #13 Dabuz 3-1, his first win on Dabuz since Frostbite 2020; and MkLeo defeating #11 Glutonny 3-1 and #7 ShinyMark 3-0, his first win on the two since Pound 2022 and Smash Factor 9, respectively. Maister is also the only other player, outside of Zomba, to have a 3-0 record in his pool. Ironically, MkLeo was ultimately eliminated by Zomba (both in group stage and in loser's quarters for 5th), a player who he had defeated in their last three encounters prior to this event.

After entering winner's side by placing first in his round robin despite a rough pool, #15 Kola entered grand finals defeating MkLeo 3-1, #5 Asimo in a reverse 3-0 (UF 3), and #3 Shuton 3-1 (UF 5). Although he lost the first set of grands to Sparg0 3-1, getting reverse 3-stocked in the final game, Kola was able to defeat him 3-2 in the reset (UF 7), winning his first major since CEO 2021 and becoming the lowest-seeded player to win a major invitational, as he was seeded 15th.