Mod_rewrite entire domain except /stats/ directory

I am on Ubuntu 16.04 with Apache2.4, PHP7, ISPConfig 3.1.11.

--What I am wanting to accomplish is to setup a domain called example.com in ISPConfig that can track visitor statistics in AWStats (so we can know how effective marketing campaign was) to the domain. This URL will be example.com/stats/
--My understanding is this domain won't be an actual website, it will simply redirect visitors to an existing website hosted somewhere else, we will call this event.example2.net (this sub-domain is not hosted with me if that matters).
--I want all visitors to any sub-domain or path of example.com to be redirected to event.example2.net EXCEPT FOR example.com/stats/ (so I can still view the AWStats page).

I believe mod_rewrite is what I am going to need for this but I can't seem to get it to work properly.

Visually this is what I am trying to accomplish with mod-rewrite:
*.example.com/*/ --> event.example2.net
*.example.com/stats/ --> *.example.com/stats/

This is what I have right now in the Apache directives. The redirect works but my attempt at excluding the /stats/ directory gets ignored and I am redirected anyways:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} /stats/
RewriteRule (.*) $1 [L]
RewriteRule (.*) http://event.example2.net [L,R=301]

I have been using this site to test my rules so I don't have to refresh apache a million times for testing: https://htaccess.madewithlove.be/
According to it what I have should work but my exclusion for /stats/ is ignored and I am still redirected to event.example2.net!

Some other rule sets I tried that did not work (found through Google and modified to try and fit my needs):

#This is supposed to be able to work whether the / at the end is present or not, one condition for each.
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/stats/.*
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/stats$
RewriteRule .* http://event.example2.net/ [R=301,L]


In all of these the redirection works, my problem is always excluding the stats directory.

I seem to recall reading somewhere that apache2.4 changes the way mod_rewrite rules are formated, could that be my issue?


EDIT:
Checked the system log and noticed this from the IDS. I don't believe the rule is being blocked as the score is lower than the admin block setting in security_settings.ini but figured I should mention it for the sake of complete disclosure.

Code:

[INTERFACE]: PHP IDS Alert.Total impact: 12<br/> Affected tags: dt, id, lfi, xss, csrf, rfe<br/> <br/> Variable: POST.php_open_basedir | Value: /var/www/clients/client4/web12/web:/var/www/clients/client4/web12/private:/var/www/clients/client4/web12/tmp:/var/www/example.com/web:/srv/www/example.com/web:/usr/share/php5:/usr/share/php:/tmp:/usr/share/phpmyadmin:/etc/phpmyadmin:/var/lib/phpmyadmin:/dev/random:/dev/urandom<br/> Impact: 5 | Tags: dt, id, lfi<br/> Description: Detects specific directory and path traversal | Tags: dt, id, lfi | ID 11<br/> <br/> Variable: POST.apache_directives | Value: RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} /stats/ RewriteRule (.*) $1 [L] RewriteRule (.*) http://events.example2.net [L,R=302]<br/> Impact: 7 | Tags: xss, csrf, id, rfe, lfi<br/> Description: Detects unknown attack vectors based on PHPIDS Centrifuge detection | Tags: xss, csrf, id, rfe, lfi | ID 67<br/> <br/>

 

I verified that the config was being written, just wasn't sure if the IDS blocked execution of flagged rules or anything like that.

I was given this project with a 1-day deadline so I had to do something to get the analytics working ASAP (yay management). I ended up building a splash page with the Google Analytics JS library in it to do the visitor tracking on the redirect but I would still like to figure out why my rules didn't work as expected.

Being able to accomplish this with mod_rewrite would have been way faster and less work on my end. Do you see anything wrong with my mod_rewrite rules?

Does the apache directive in ISPConfig perform any different than if I were to put these rules in an actual .htaccess file in the /web/ folder?