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Dark at 6 o'clock? That can only mean one thing, its November and the Southern Esports Conference Fall Split is entering into the playoffs! It's been a long couple months with a lot of VALORANT having been played, now its time to wrap it up and crown the kings of the 2024 Sol tournament. After six weeks of competition, its time to see how the regular season shook out and take a look at our six finalists.

First, the results from Lux division. This was arguably the most competitive division within the Sol Tournament. No team went undefeated and at best they had two losses. Taking the top spot and first round bye was The Western Kentucky (WKU) Hilltoppers with a 4-2 record. Initially starting with two back to back losses against Texas and North Carolina State (NCSU) (spoilers: these two took the top spots in the Nox division) WKU bounced back with four straight weeks of dominant outings. Since that second week loss to NCSU Western Kentucky is 4-0 with 8 maps won to 0 maps lost. If there was ever a time for them to flip a switch it was exactly when they did.

In Second was the University of Central Florida (UCF) Knights who also held a 4-2 record at the end of the regular season. UCF began the year with an 0-2 loss to Clemson and quickly regained their footing winning the next two games against Louisiana State and Texas Tech with a combined 4-0 map win/loss ratio. They then ran into the buzz saw that was the Texas Longhorns and dropped their second game in an 0-2 fashion. Outside of that the Knights were perfect in every single game they played winning 8 maps to 0 lost in all four games they put in the win column.

The last team qualifying from Lux was the University of Tennessee (UTK) Volunteers with a record of 2-4. With a season to forget the Vols just barely snuck in above Kentucky and Oklahoma State, who both also had a 2-4 final record. UTK had somewhat of a season to forget winning just six maps all season and losing 9. While it may not have all been golden in Knoxville the Vols are going dancing starting their playoff run against UCF on November 4.

Flipping Sides to the Nox division things are a lot more straight forward as far as who's in and who's out. At the top was a name that should be familiar to all SEC fans, Texas (UT). The Longhorns ran the gauntlet this year remaining a perfect 6-0 throughout the entire season and earning them the first round bye in the playoff bracket. How perfect were there? UT dropped just one map out the entire year way back in week one against Western Kentucky, the top seed in the Lux. Texas is hungry to defend their title and repeat here in 2024, they will face the winner of UCF and Tennessee on November 9th.

The second seed in the Nox goes to the North Carolina State (NCSU) Wolfpack who ended the year at 5-1. Truly a dominate first year for NCSU that saw tons of success from the newcomers. The Wolfpack dropped a total of 3 maps all year and only lost a single series to the UCF Knights, the second seed in the Nox. A lot of that success comes from Fast and Generic whom both were inside the top 10 of all players based on their average combat score (ACS). Fast was the teams iniator and Generic the duelist. NCSU will start their post season campaign with a first round matchup against Clemson November 7.

The last of the qualified teams is the Clemson Tigers with a 3-3 record. Much like the Lux there was a three way tie for the third seed with Clemson, Louisiana State, and Auburn all finishing 3-3. Clemson narrowly made it in and now has the chance to go dancing. The tigers finished with 8 total maps won and 6 lost. Clemson had a year with decent success and in fact only dropped one series in a 2-0 fashion, that being the last week of competition against Western Kentucky.

Just a quick note on format. Six total teams qualified for the playoff bracket. Of those six, the top seeds from both divisions get a first round bye, meaning they play the winnings of round one and get a guaranteed spot in the upper semi's. Each series is best of 3 with it being a double elimination bracket. Losers go to the bottom bracket and get one more chance to stay in the dance.