We are now only a few days away from the UK’s biggest event, The UK Premiership Finals at MCM London, where four teams have battled their way through 9 long weeks of a group stage to make it here. Three games, and two wins will see a team become the UK’s #1 team for a short period, earning themselves a further £2,500 on top of any other potential prize money they have gained from the group stages and/or Promotions tournament.
In this article I will look over the two matches that we have in front of us and make a guess as to who will make it through to the Grand Final, and who will win the entire event. It will be a tough ask but it certainly is something I am prepared to do. As always if you feel you can make some hasty predictions, make sure you comment below and see if you beat me in the predictions for this weekend.
Unlike Spring Season, there are actually some intriguing storylines heading into these Finals, which I’ll go over briefly prior to my predictions and looking the match-ups.
Notable Storylines
Can Choke Gaming overcome their mini slump?
One of the biggest questions here running into the UK Premiership Finals, is this one. Choke Gaming probably had the best Summer LAN season of all UK teams, they won epic.FIFTEEN in July, they then managed to back that win up, with a runners-up spot at Summer iSeries in August in arguably the toughest route possible for any team there. Meanwhile online, they had incredibly solid results through June/July/August with nearly making the Cologne Offline qualifiers for the ESL One Major, and were 3:0 in the early stages of UK Premiership group stage after winning the Promotions tournament prior to the group stages.
Choke Gaming at epic.FIFTEEN
The night after their triumphant run at iSeries though was a massive game changer for them, they had a crunch match against Team XENEX (who had also gone unbeaten to that point), in the UK Premiership. Choke cited they were tired from travelling, and had hoped that ESL would be willing to reschedule matches to the Tuesday, but alas due to budget reasons/studio reasons it wasn’t to be and therefore Choke were made to play. It started off well for Choke, but it progressively got worse and worse with each round passing, eventually XENEX got past Choke Gaming 16:13 and left Choke to wonder where to go next.
With that said, MightyMax unfortunately had to step aside for a short period as he had jetted off to University, and thus freshers was an ample opportunity to take a break, it did mean that onscreen had to step in and help the guys, but ultimately Craig really couldn’t step it up a level to play the best that the team required. Choke did ease past CeX the week after their loss against XENEX, but it ultimately didn’t help, as they went on to play ever so sloppy against United Estonia, and then lost 10 rounds against the “whipping” boys in Good Looking Gamers, whilst they finished off the normal season with a loss to fish123 who really were up against it in qualifying for the finals.
Suffice to say Choke Gaming have made it, and that is something, they obviously went on to winning a best of three against fish123 in the decider match, and for them it gives them a chance to redeem themselves from a poor group stage and hopefully finish on a positive note.
Can Sheekey make back to back wins?
I was going to write this as a “Team XENEX” focal point, but alas I had realised that of course only Sheekey had survived somewhat under the “XENEX” banner. This is going to be a bold claim, but you would be foolish to think that XENEX weren’t considered a favourite at present for the finals. On paper you could argue that Sheekey has assembled some of the best and brightest talent that the UK could find outside of the “established” players.
They beat everyone in the group stages bar Team Infused on the final week, which meant that despite a great season, finished second on the group through round difference. They didn’t just beat some teams though, they absolutely crushed the likes of United Estonia & Good Looking Gamers.
My biggest issue though with Team XENEX as a whole currently, is the fact that they have little to LAN experience as a team. All the players have mountains of LAN experience but they passed up the opportunity to attend epic.LAN because according to some sources “it’s beneath them” and of course, they didn’t attend iSeries, as they had only recently just properly formed specifically for the UK Premiership. This could potentially play a massive part in their LAN performance, because we know LAN is not the same to dealing with teams online, and the fact that as a player you are on an entirely different set up to what you would be accustomed to as well as the atmosphere and other mitigating circumstances.
Can Sheekey help XENEX reclaim the crown?
Do Infused have what it takes to win the UK Premiership?
Team Infused….. where do I start? You know I have a soft spot for James and his band of merry men, pulling in Whindanski from fm-eSports was a bold move and it massively paid off until Phil decided to break his jaw and get done in for a few weeks which meant robiin had to step in for a few games. Preparation is key and despite sending a mix team to epic.LAN earlier this month, they managed to win said event and breeze past Reason over three maps.
It will be a boost to their confidence considering LAN wins seemed so far away since last winning a LAN event back in 2014. Team Infused are a variable this tournament, their win at epic.SIXTEEN was a big boost, but their run of form is interesting, and if we head back to August, their iSeries showing wasn’t world beating. Let’s be honest, they have a team that has some incredible talent at their disposal and they have the potential to really take the crown here, but playing Choke in the Semi’s will be a tough ask despite Choke’s recent slump in form, it will always be a tough match up.
There is no question Infused with CRUC1AL & Whindanski on the team can win this event, but they have to be on point straight away tomorrow.
United Estonia – Their first LAN showing, how will they fare?
Over the last couple of years ever since United Estonia started appearing in UK only cups with their Estonian background and a few random UK players, many top players have made some pretty hilarious and sarcastic comments on whether United Estonia would “attend LANs” and “prove themselves”. Maybe they would never have attended a LAN were it not for qualifying for the UK Premiership finals, and who knows, this may end up being their only showing at a LAN event.
The Stage at ESL UK Premiership Finals
However they have indeed qualified for the LAN finals, and have a pretty decent chance of making some extra cash in the process. It is a surprise nonetheless considering the position they were in earlier on in the group stages, but wins against both Choke Gaming & fish123 managed to seal the deal and edge them ahead of everyone else. United Estonia are a rather unique side, and it will certainly be interesting to see how they cope on a stage in front of fans, the pressure will certainly be on them, and XENEX must be rubbing their hands together thinking this could be a great opportunity to actually reach the finals.
Turn to Page two for all the predictions.
