The action in Kettering is in full swing. Keep up-to-date with all the playoff action with our live updated page. Our coverage team has all the updates from the ground as the competition heats up in the KCC!
Round 1: 2-0 matches dominate the first round of playoffs.
One Point Six fades to legend
The surprise success of an old guard of UK CS in the form of One Point Six fall to the Dreams To Legends squad in their opening round of playoffs in the lower bracket. The 2-0 in favour of DTL ends the underdog run that was brewing in the group stage. Despite having guaranteed playoffs by the time the final match of the group stage rolled around, whether One Point Six would end up in the upper or lower bracket was dependent on whether they were able to take down Liam “m1n1mal” Reynolds’ squad in Viperio Academy. The loss to Viperio Academy doomed the Cinderella run to the lower bracket where they ultimately fell to Dreams To Legends in a swift 2-0 affair. The victory over One Point Six rewards DTL with a match against The Last Resort.
Cyphers stack takes revenge
“Verdant Fe,” not to be confused with the org Verdant, take revenge against The Last Resort. TLR were the only team in the group stage to hand Cai “CYPHER” Watson and co. a loss but a rematch in the upper bracket first round allowed “Verdant Fe” to exact their revenge taking a 2-0 victory over TLR. CYPHER‘s impressive mix of UK talent moves onto the second round of the upper bracket with a match against Dripmen awaiting them tomorrow.
Viperio Academy don’t get a drop
Dripmen take a convincing win against the Viperio Academy side dropping only six rounds over the course of two maps Dripmen move onto the second round of playoffs with the wind in their sails. Unfortunately unlike the rematch between “Verdant Fe” and TLR, this group stage rematch went just as it did in the group stage. Viperio Academy only have two losses this event with both being to Dripmen. Fortunately, Viperio Academy’s Success in the group stage affords them a second chance as instead of elimination they’re granted the opportunity of a lower bracket run, kicking off with a match against Flowstate.
Flowstate live up to their namesake against The Fanclub
Byfield’s pre-LAN prep has clearly paid off as they reach the second round of the lower bracket after taking a convincing win over “TheRealBenForder Fan Club.” Similarly to the Viperio-Dripmen match the losing team managed to only win 6 rounds across the 2 maps that were played. The loss handed to the Fan Club eliminates them from tournament contention whilst Flowstate are going to be hopeful they can maintain their form moving onto the second round of the lower bracket where they are set to meet “Bravefart”
CTRL Esports lose control of the match
After a decent run in the groups, CTRL Esports miss out on the upper bracket and are granted a lower bracket run where they met “Bravefart.” Unfortunately for CTRL TheDombox and his mix team take the victory with a convincing 2-0 victory. The first map of ancient wasn’t close and whilst the second map of nuke was closer, with CTRL winning 7 rounds instead of the 4 of ancient, that still wasn’t enough for CTRL to advance through the bracket.
Verdant continue their undefeated run
Widely considered a dark horse by many the squad coached by Freddie “grimyrannarr” Pritchard were unable to post a map on the board against the tournament favourites of Verdant. Belfast Storm had an impressive group stage dropping just one game against The Last Resort, earning them with an upper bracket spot. Unfortunately a match against tournament favourites and undefeated team Verdant is always going to be an uphill battle, the hill proved to be a mountain the Belfast Storm couldn’t climb. The 0-2 loss relegates the Northern Ireland-based organisation to the lower bracket.
Annex make it close but the strength of sin prevails
Annex did a commendable job in their 2-1 loss to 8Sins, being the only team to take a map off their opponent in the first round of playoffs Annex did their best to make the match close. This match too was a rematch of the group stage with Annex demonstrating a newfound resolve in the rematch, the initial encounter between these teams had ended in a one-sided victory to 8Sins. Unfortunately, the new strength LAN veteran Joe “Godku” Fawkes’ team was able to muster wasn’t enough to take down 8Sins despite making the rematch a lot closer. This loss relegates the Annex squad to the lower bracket.
Penjymin keep it clean against the Frosty duo
The two Frostys that Chucklestorm strikers had on their roster weren’t enough to fend off the Penjymin side. Penjymin took a clean 2-0 victory over the strikers, keeping it fairly straightforward in the lower bracket match to keep themselves alive here at Kettering. With the loss to Penjymin, Chucklestorm are eliminated from title contention at EPIC 43 and their opponents live to fight another day, however their upcoming match against Belfast Storm will truly test their mettle.
Round 2: The lower bracket spectacular
Round 2 of play offs kicks off with the early games this Saturday morning. The lower bracket games happening at 10am see 4 more teams eliminated from EPIC.LAN 43 title contention.
The battle of initialisms
The Last Resort (TLR) did battle against Dreams To Legends (DTL) which saw the former take the victory. The 2-0 scoreline misrepresents how close the game was. With both maps going to a 13-10 scoreline TLR just edged it out and crushed the dreams of DTL sending them out of the tournament. TLR advance further in the lower bracket and earn themselves a match against Viperio Academy.
Flowstate’s run comes to an end.
Byfield’s prep pre LAN proved to be successful to get him to the playoffs here in Kettering and things were looking promising after taking a win in the first round of the lower bracket. Unfortunately for Flowstate, Viperio Academy proved to be too big a hurdle to jump over, but its tough to say that Byfield’s boys didn’t give it their all after taking both maps of the 2-0 loss to the maximum amount of rounds in regulation. Viperio Academy continue their advance to their next lower bracket match where they are set to meet The Last Resort.
Penjymin weather the storm
In a victory that many would consider an upset, Belfast storm fall in a thrilling 3 map affair to Penjymin. Heartbreak for the Belfast storm side, with their expectations for the tournament undoubtedly higher, they are forced to watch the rest of the tournament from the sidelines as they go out in the lower bracket quarter finals. Penjymin advance through to the lower bracket semis with a match against Annex up next.
Annex complete the reverse sweep
Annex maintain their composure after dropping the first map of the series against ‘Bravefart’ and go on to win the next two maps on the bounce to see themselves through to the lower bracket semis. Annex answered back with a convincing map two after a close loss on map one of play, the final map of the series went the full distance with Annex just closing map 3 without letting ‘Bravefart’ force overtime closing the series with the maximum amount of rounds in regulation. With Annex advancing to the lower bracket semis, we say goodbye to ‘Bravefart,’ Annex have a date with Penjymin in their next match.
Round 3: Upsets in the works
Round 3 of was something spectacular with the hall hearing shouting, screaming, sounds of passions echoing the whole time. Eyes were on the favourites, and EPIC42 winner, Verdant who are looking to take on 8Sins in the upper bracket semi final.
CYPHER and “Verdant fe” continues to strike the counter
In a thriller of a match between “Verdant fe” and Dripmen, all guns were out for both teams in this close match-up that ended in 13-11 on Dust 2 and 13-11 on Mirage. Dust looked like it was going to be over fairly quickly with a 12-5 lead for “Verdant fe” until dripmen pulled off an unimaginable comeback, overtime was secured for dripmen but the lack of a defuse kit despite over $4,000 in the bank costed them the map. The mirage started well for dripmen with back-to-back rounds for both teams throughout the match but ultimately ended in another 13-11 sending dripmen to the lower bracket against Penjymin. On the other hand, CYPHER and Verdant fe is looking to clash against the, not associated with, original Verdant.
The Last Resort survives against Viperio Academy
As the same suggests this matchup was the last resort for both teams, TLR annihilated Viperio Academy in a very dominant showing from Rhys “Rhys” Stumbles and the team. The young academy had a very dominant run at EPIC43 with their only other loss being against Dripmen however they will be finishing their run 7-8th in the debut LAN event for the squad.
Penjymin continue to upset
Annex was close to elimination multiple times now throughout the event, but proceeded to show their best under pressure and keep their cool. However, the EPIC42 quarter-finalists will be finishing their run here in round 3 of playoffs with Penjymin continuing to cause upsets after eliminating Belfast Storm, this time barely scraping by in the first map finishing 13-11. The second map was more clean for Penjymin with a 13-4 scoreline sending Annex packing to watch the rest of the LAN from the shadows.
Verdant survives scare
Verdant who are the favourites to win the tournament, once again are looking to continue their undefeated run after surviving a scare against 8Sins who go down to the lower bracket. Nuke looked like a comfortable win for Verdant with a 13-8 scoreline but Anubis did not go their way with 8Sins converting the map. All eyes in the hall were on Verdant with a back and forth ancient which ultimately ended with Verdant barely scraping by, winning the map 13-11.
Round 4: Clash of the Verdants
Verdant vs Verdant fe: The promised match delivers
In his interview with UKCSGO, Gizmy said the idea behind the Verdant fe name was that it would look funny on HLTV when they inevitably played Verdant. Well the prophecy came true as the two dominant teams of the event clashed in the Upper Bracket Final – a pulsating 3 map affair. The match demonstrated a higher standard that was previously shown in the tournament. After taking Ancient 13-11, CYPHER and Gizmy’s mix looked on course for the victory, but a 13-9 victory on arTisT‘s signature map of vertigo saw the series levelled. A tightly contested inferno saw neither team give ground for free, but Verdant finally wrestled control of the map in the dying rounds to win the tense series 2-1.
Dripmen show dark horse potential
Dripmen swept aside the PENJYMIN side that had previously eliminated Belfast Storm and Annex. A 13-6, 13-3 2-0 victory saw them through to the Lower Bracket Consolidation final. Despite a surprisingly strong showing from the PENJYMIN boys, frazehh’s men proved to be too strong. Dripmen see themselves in the lower consolidation final, guaranteeing a top 4 finish in their first LAN in two years.
8Sins and TLR play out marathon match
Long after the other matches of round 4 were concluded, The Last Resort and 8Sins were fighting bitterly for their tournament survival. Onlookers huddled around the PCs of the respective players trying to get a glimpse of the match that would decide the team that would be awarded the final HLTV place for the event. The two experienced rosters fought a bitter series, which ended in heartbreak for The Last Resort who showed strong form at times at the event but ended up falling at the final HLTV hurdle.
Round 5: No consolidation for Dripmen
8Sins ended Dripmen’s hero run in style with a 2-0 victory on Anubis and Nuke to guarantee a place in the Lower Final against Verdant fe. William “wfn” Maskrey started the series in style in an outrageous 1.72 HLTV rated map one. A dominant CT-side on Anubis led to a 9-3 half lead for 8Sins. With the map being heavily T-sided, converting the map was no issue for Matthew “moz” Gelderand Co.
Nuke was a tighter affair. Led by a strong fragging performance from Josh “JAUSTERE” Philpott, Dripmen fought back to get 5 rounds on their T-side. However, they could not contain an 8Sins side who clearly had set-plays prepared. Those carefully calculated rounds were enough to circumvent Dripmen’s defenses enough times to get them over the line in a 13-10 victory.
Round 6: Lower Finals
It’s an early start here on Championship Sunday as Verdant fe took on 8Sins in the Lower Final. Fighting for a place in the grand final, the Verdant fe’s star-studded mix wasted no time as they got off to a strong start on the Anubis T-side. 8Sins showed their fighting qualities by bringing the map back to a tight scoreline, but Alex “f0cus” James dynamic rifling showing wasn’t enough to save the map as they fell 13-10.
Dust2 was in many ways the reverse. An even 6-6 first half, followed by a comfortable second. wfn‘s impact was felt as the AWPer proved to be a thorn in Verdant fe’s side in their T-side efforts, but their CT side proved to be unstoppable. An ace round from William “dobbo” Dobson early in the half stopped the possibility of any 8Sins momentum. However, it was Rory “cryths” Ursell who really stood out on the map, boasting a 22-10 record as Verdant fe closed it out 13-8.
Verdant fe will now play Verdant in the GRAND FINAL! Stay tuned for our Grand Final coverage from 1pm!
