The first day of EPIC40 has come and gone, and a total of 111 maps have been played here, in the Arena Hall of the Kettering Leisure Village. 32 teams across four groups have taken to the server and delivered the first LAN action of CS2 for the UK Scene.
EPIC40 Group Stage
Group A
The biggest shock of Group A saw the top seed team, PufflePals, almost miss out on playoffs entirely. In just their second match they fell to The Book Club, a team that featured former Coalesce Director of Esports Sam “Kanny” Hollingrake and UKCSGO graphic designer Daniel “dbdan” Boyle, before drawing with fourth seed Frogians and taking a heavy loss to Granny’s Knockers, but good. However, thanks to results elsewhere, PufflePals managed to secure fourth place before their final group match, an overtime win against 4NR Disposal.
Granny’s Knockers, but good are appearing to be a bit of a dark horse this event. Barring a 16-14 overtime loss to eventual runner’s up 4NR Disposal, they would have gone flawless to the top of their group. Their reward for finishing top, however, is a match against definite dark horses Soul’s Land.
The group table finished as follows:
| Place | Team Name | Points |
| 1st | Granny’s Knockers, but good. | 19 |
| 2nd | 4NR Disposal | 18 |
| 3rd | Frogians | 13 |
| 4th | PufflePals | 12 |
| 5th | Flashing Somewhere | 9 |
| 6th | Algorithm | 6 |
| 7th | The Book Club | 6 |
| 8th | Litter Pickers | 0 |
Group B
Group B went, more or less, as the seedings portrayed them to go. With the top four teams all finishing exactly where they were seeds expected them to be, the bloodbath a few expected Group B to be never really came to pass.
That would be, until you look at the points. The top three teams all finished even on 18 points. So, despite head to head being the main tiebreaker, this was unable to come to pass. Especially as in that group of three teams, each of them had won one and lost one against the other two pair. So, round difference came into play and with K10 having some pretty dominant wins earlier in the group, which started with a comfortable 13-2 win over The Binmen (in a game where Joshua “Dweg” Nathan failed to record a kill), they finished ahead of Soul’s Land and I need more bullets! in the group standing. A result that those on the bullets! team could feel was a bit rough, as there being just two rounds in it between them and their second place foes.
Best of the rest, flowstate rounded out the teams headed to the playoffs, while they were six points behind the three ahead of them, they had significant daylight between them and The Binmen. While being unable to pick up wins against any of the top three, they picked up comfortable wins against the remaining group mates.
The group table finished as follows:
| Place | Team Name | Points |
| 1st | K10 | 18 |
| 2nd | Soul’s Land | 18 |
| 3rd | I need more bullets! | 18 |
| 4th | flowstate | 12 |
| 5th | The Binmen | 7 |
| 6th | VALIANCE | 6 |
| 7th | Temporary Fire | 3 |
| 8th | TESCOOL | 1 |
Group C
Group C was the only group where a seeded team failed to make it to playoffs. Team Invictum failed to make it through, and only realised that would be the case after all the matches were said and done when the admin team updated the groups to their actual results, as they had initially displayed the results on round difference. As such they missed out on their place in the next stage to left lean gang, who defeated them in that final group game 13-11.
Topping the group is the mix of former 7am players of MAKE A WISH. They came through the group stage with a perfect record, despite a rocky start in their first two matches that without a couple key moments could’ve changed the makeup of the group significantly. Elsewhere, Craig “onscreen” Shannon’s mix took the second place position, despite dropping two games in a regulation and overtime loss. The team recovered from that overtime shock against Ross Kemp Bald to go on a set of dominant wins, barring the MAKE A WISH loss, to secure an upper bracket placement.
The group table finished as follows:
| Place | Team Name | Points |
| 1st | MAKE A WISH | 21 |
| 2nd | The Bald, The Gothic and the Squid Nose | 16 |
| 3rd | Ross Kemp Bald | 14 |
| 4th | left lean gang | 12 |
| 5th | Team Invictum | 12 |
| 6th | The Last Resort | 6 |
| 7th | Tokugaywa | 3 |
| 8th | Diablo | 0 |
Group D
Reigning, and final, ESL Premiership Champions RAPTORS EC were the only other team to go perfect in the group stage, finishing a top of Group D. They did so in dominant fashion as well, as barring a game against Shuaib “shoobie” Saddique’s Weenie Hut Jr’s and Chuckle Storm Strikers, 13-9 and 13-7 wins respectively, the most rounds they dropped in a map was three. These results aren’t unexpected for a team who are widely regarded as being in pole position to lift the LAN title this weekend.
It would be Joseph “godkU” Fowkes’s Chucklestorm Strikers finishing in second place in their group, a result determined in their final group match against genetexe. 16-14 in overtime would be all they needed to secure a place in the upper bracket over Ben “ghil” Nicholson’s squad.
Jeffrey Rizzstein rounded out the list of teams heading to the playoffs, despite holding a negative record in the group. They were tied on points with I-I-I-_-I-I-I (Antenna Man) who, despite holding the upper hand in the round difference, were knocked out due to the head to head rule. This is due to their final match in the group being against each other, acting as that decider.
The group table finished as follows:
| Place | Team Name | Points |
| 1st | RAPTORS EC | 21 |
| 2nd | Chucklestorm Strikers | 17 |
| 3rd | genetexe | 16 |
| 4th | Jeffrey Rizzstein | 9 |
| 5th | I-I-I-_-I-I-I | 9 |
| 6th | Weenie Hut Jr’s | 8 |
| 7th | Sharp Dressed Men | 4 |
| 8th | Granny’s Knockers | 0 |
EPIC40 Playoffs
After the groups came to an end, and a short break to sort some technical problems at the venue, the first round in both the upper and lower brackets commenced. The results of these games are as follows. Teams that lose in the upper bracket will join the lowers tomorrow morning, whereas those that lost in the lower will head to the Inters tournament, if they wish.
Upper Bracket Round 1
Granny’s Knockers, but good 0 – 2 Soul’s Land (3-13, 9-13)
MAKE A WISH 2 – 0 Chucklestorm Strikers
4NR Disposal 0 – 2 K10 (7-13, 4-13)
The Bald, The Gothic and the Squid Nose 0 – 2 RAPTORS EC (5-13, 8-13)
Lower Bracket Round 1
Frogians 0 – 2 flowstate (9-13, 2-13)
Ross Kemp Bald 0 – 2 Jeffrey Rizzstein (6-13, 1-13)
PufflePals 2 – 0 I need more bullets! (13-11, 13-0)
genetexe 2 – 0 left lean gang (13-5, 16-13)
These results leave’s tomorrow’s playoff matches looking as the following:
Upper Bracket Semi Final
Soul’s Land vs. MAKE A WISH
K10 vs. RAPTORS EC
Lower Bracket Round 2
The Bald, The Gothic and the Squid Nose vs. flowstate
4NR Disposal vs. Jeffrey Rizzstein
Chucklestorm Strikers vs PufflePals
Granny Knockers, but good vs. genetexe
The EPIC40 action will recommence here at the Kettering Leisure Village at 10am tomorrow morning, for the second round of the Lower bracket, before the Upper bracket recommences at 1pm. As with today, results and the action can be found on twitter.com/UKCSGO, instagram.com/UKCSGO and twitch.tv/epiclan1.
