The second group of UK Premiership takes place tonight, with two rather big hitting sides in this group, and two sides that have some sort of clout to boot. It has been since the groups were announced, called the “Group of Death”. Although realistically, a lot of people will have their bets on both Infused & fm-eSports moving through the group phase and making the LAN Finals in less than a month’s time.
However if you are unaware something happened last Tuesday night, which rocked the “UK Scene” a bit, after a certain coach from Team Infused poached a player from the said team, but not only did he poach from his own team, he managed to lure away mikeS from fm-eSports. With all that as well, Infused managed to lose another player through their talisman George “hudzG” Hoskins in which he confirmed yesterday that he was joining a new international team after spending a good year inside of Team Infused setup. Though it must be said that George is playing with Infused for the remaining games and LAN finals. This now leaves both Infused and fm-eSports in somewhat of a tough spot with both teams now on the look out for 2 players to shore up their rosters.
This does mean that whilst you could still potentially say that fm-eSports & Infused should make it through, both United Estonia & Good Looking Gamers will be licking their lips in anticipation of causing some massive upsets to the apple cart.
It is a wide open book now in this group, with a good blend of experience within the ranks of navigating such tough asks, but also a healthy blend of new blood in the scene. It should be a cracking group and hopefully it should deliver some of the hype it has established. Although my own plea to all sides, is that we don’t produce another 88 round marathon of a match.
Team Infused Vs Good Looking Gamers
When these two sides last met in the UK Premiership qualifiers, it wasn’t a one sided affair that people would have predicted. It went the distance with all three maps required, and at one point some people watching thought Good Looking Gamers could actually pull off a shock win against the heavyweights and instead qualify of Team Infused. However it wasn’t to be after being so close on map two, as Infused managed to snatch control and take the second map in a rather tight affair.
Strangely enough, whilst people have been quick to criticise GLG for being invited over some more “notable” teams that didn’t qualify, I actually feel this could be a rather intriguing match up. GLG’s roster looks far weaker than Infused on paper, yet I do feel that Kritikal for Infused could be a potential weak link, as we are unsure as to how much playing time he’s had on the game since he last played last year. I know Luke has bags of experience, it could be a variable to GLG pulling off a bit of a shock win. With star player CRUCIAL gone it means that someone will have to step up their game and be the fragger who puts up the numbers and that could be difficult if GLG put together a couple of big defensive plays.
On the flip side of the coin, I have spoken about how the roster changes could impact Infused and benefit GLG, however we shouldn’t forget that GLG have also come under some roster shuffles since the qualifiers finished as Marc “maaarc” Hammond has switched teams to join up with Luke “fearLess” Morris in the Italian version of EPS. This left a bit of a gap in the GLG roster, and they brought in Steve “cpr” Cooper in the hopes of making their roster a little more balanced.
I really feel this could potentially go either way and I hope it does go to three maps as it’d be nice to see the GLG boys do well in this group despite their disadvantage.
Predicted Result: Infused 2:1 Good Looking Gamers
fm-eSports Vs United Estonia
This fixture is potentially the most dangerous fixture on paper today, and that’s for a few good reasons. Firstly fm-eSports roster shuffle last week has left them vulnerable to being beaten at a pretty bad time. Most people should understand that they are currently there for the taking. Secondly, it should be pointed out that probably over the last year of ESL UK events, United Estonia have been one of those wild teams who literally come in and smash some heads in cups galore.
AÂ funny note to mention about this matchup is the fact that in Qualifier 2, United Estonia got dumped out in the second round, however had they not been dispatched so easily, they actually would have met fm-eSports in the Semi-Finals of said cup. That could have been a prelude to what we have here, however we don’t and thus recent head to heads between these two sides are quite rare.
United Estonia whilst technically can be classed as a pure “mix team” have not changed their roster at all since the qualifiers and thus go into this as slight favourites despite the firepower that fm-eSports have at their disposal. With Kryptix standing in for fm-eSports after reports had surfaced that he had left the team prior to the big roster move last week, I would hazard a guess that grasping UK Premiership glory and becoming the undisputed UK #1 team is something that really isn’t a priority for the two substitutes. Don’t get me wrong, everyone loves to win prize money, everyone loves to win trophies and everyone wants to become the top dogs in their respective country, however I truly mean it could be something that affects a player’s mental awareness in the fact that they aren’t too fussed either way what happens in the match.
This match should in theory go the distance and be a three mapper depending on map choices here.
Predicted Result: fm-eSports 2:1 United Estonia
With the rest of the group, it still seems like it will be a tough one to call overall, however I will stick with a somewhat safe prediction and say that both fm-eSports & Infused should make it out of the group and join exceL eSports and Team XENEX at MCM London in May. I just hope that this group delivers some shocks and high quality Counter Strike action like last week’s group did.
