Round one of the group stages kicked off with a bang, seeing numerous seeds meet within the first game resulting in exciting openers and a loud atmosphere in the LAN hall. The majority of the results have gone the way expected, albeit with the scorelines potentially close in some cases – see Team CeX vs Ghost for an example of that. Another close opening game came between the London Lynx, a team who has recently acquired the talent and experience of Luke “fearLess” Morris, and The Goose House.
Group A currently sees the Enclave side out in the lead with a 16 – 3 win over the Rasta side. Right behind them is the ninth seed, The Goose House who managed to topple the Lynx side on de_train just moments ago. From the offset the Lynx side were on the back foot, at one stage finding themselves down almost into the double figures before putting points of their own on the board. At one stage it looked as though it could go either way, and the final score of 16 – 13 demonstrates just how close the game was in the end.
The second group, being the only group with the full six teams in place, sees tenth seed Crpytick in the pole position due to their 16 – 1 defeat over unseeded team Fragging 4 Artur. Tied in second is the CeX team who seemingly let a number of rounds slip through the net and the unseeded OBN.Mix side who managed to beat the other CeX team at the event. At one stage, Owen “smooya” Butterfield could be heard saying “I didn’t even expect to lose 12 rounds in the entire group stage, let alone one game!”
A tied game sees the mYinsanity side and A Spliff in Coventry in joint second place in Group C. eDen esports have already managed to complete an extra game seeing them way out in front of the group until the other teams catch up. The OMEN eSports side are currently holding up the rear of the group after losing their first round game 16 – 8 versus eDen.
The final group has their top seed out in front with Project X executing the perfect game against bottom seed Enraged dropping not a single round. The most surprising result sees unseeded team Opulent take the win over the Madison Ivy side, who only managed to take four rounds for their troubles.
Games are still underway with results coming in thick and fast. We will try to keep our group standings post up to date as and when we can.