The Road to Minor Championships

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In the middle of December, Valve announced that they with various other third party event organisers would be hosting Regional Minor Championships which would help create a path to the MLG Offline qualifiers for the Major later in the year in Columbus. Each of the Regions were split which included Europe, CIS, Asia & The America’s. The other stipulation was that any players who featured in the Cluj-Napoca Major could not play for any team in the Minor Championships as these were designed to help elevate the rest of the scene and help progress players who don’t usually get the chance to feature at bigger LAN events in the CS:GO calendar.

Of course, this perked up the UK Scene, as it was a chance to create a name for themselves, and perhaps try and battle it for the split of $50k in prize money too. PGL who partly ran the Cluj-Napoca Major are the team of people behind the European Regional Minor Championships and when they had announced the qualifiers being open to 256 teams, there was an outcry when they filled within minutes. Since then they have opened them up to 512 teams (which then filled up quickly).

Of course since the initial announcement, we then had every roster shuffle under the sun in the UK, as every single team that competed at insomnia56 had to endure a horrific overhaul of their rosters, whilst even teams who weren’t in attendance at insomnia56 ended up folding. December will be known as the month the UK Scene truly collapsed in one foul swoop. This has meant that teams looking to compete in the Minor Championships this month, have been scrambling around to get a suitable set of players. Please note the lack of presence from the winners of insomnia56, CeX opting not to participate either forced through missing out on slots in the qualifiers or due to the roster overhauls.

What we wanted to do here at UKCSGO.com is highlight any potential UK teams who were featuring in the qualifiers over the next week or so. However it would be worth noting that the PGL website uses FACEIT’s tournament system which doesn’t specifically say what teams are from what country, so it has been a guessing game on what teams are participating with what line-ups. If we have missed your team off the list then we apologise.

Qualifier One

Dates: January 4th – 6th

• nerdRage – Sheekey, shaney, Roma, Lumji, Chris
• fm-eSports – Immi, Esio, MIGHTYMAX, Puls3, CRUC1AL
• Team Fntstic – redSNK, SPUdZ, REAZN, Peggyyyy, Boaster
• Team XENEX – Gizmo, L1FEL1KE, brad, dmg7, sHAWSHOCK
• EYE4 eSports – Ryback, Archer, Quartz, Anwix, Xrepel
• Team AD1OS – Big_H, Fletchhy, denobese, shein, unDa
• gris – Lil Wayne, anzium, myzz, ono, unK
• UPRIZE – joeboy, mcjspurs, olliethefirs, Swiis, WADDY

Qualifier Two

Dates: January 5th – 7th

• EYE4 eSports – Ryback, Archer, Quartz, Anwix, Xrepel
• Team AD1OS – Big_H, Fletchhy, denobese, shein, unDa
• nerdRage – Sheekey, shaney, Roma, Lumji, Chris
• myRevenge.UK – JD, JuSt_ChaD, Nashy, Chaltmr, ineq
• CS.GB – Windanski, ZED, Mole, mikeS, neilzinho
• fm-eSports – Immi, Esio, MIGHTYMAX, Puls3, CRUC1AL
• CAZ eSports – Kryptix, Surreal, depphhh, jakem, r0m
• Team Fntstic – redSNK, SPUdZ, REAZN, Peggyyyy, Boaster
• gris – Lil Wayne, anzium, myzz, ono, unK
• PK-UK – Hunnt, Hazzle, JP57, ProMexican, xXBabushkaxX
• UPRIZE – joeboy, mcjspurs, olliethefirs, Swiis, WADDY

Qualifier Three

Dates: January 6th – 8th

• EYE4 eSports – Ryback, Archer, Quartz, Anwix, Xrepel
• Team AD1OS – Big_H, Fletchhy, denobese, shein, unDa
• myRevenge.UK – JD, JuSt_ChaD, Nashy, Chaltmr, ineq
• nerdRage – Sheekey, shaney, Roma, Lumji, Chris
• fm-eSports – Immi, Esio, MIGHTYMAX, Puls3, CRUC1AL
• Team Fntstic – redSNK, SPUdZ, REAZN, Peggyyyy, Boaster
• Xplicit Gaming – PURE, willwsv, brianstorm, jfm2, womptromp
• Team UK BOYS – BeN_14, Blaxxy, CancerWins, Sudoku738, ithon
• Team XENEX – Gizmo, L1FEL1KE, brad, dmg7, sHAWSHOCK
• CS.GB – Windanski, ZED, Mole, mikeS, neilzinho
• gris – Lil Wayne, anzium, myzz, ono, unK
• TPO.eSports – MiKeZje, Sleezayy, WeeLoopy, cthreestar, w1LzeHHH
• UPRIZE – joeboy, mcjspurs, olliethefirs, Swiis, WADDY

Qualifier Four

Dates: January 7th – 9th

• EYE4 eSports – Ryback, Archer, Quartz, Anwix, Xrepel
• Team AD1OS – Big_H, Fletchhy, denobese, shein, unDa
• nerdRage – Sheekey, shaney, Roma, Lumji, Chris
• fm-eSports – Immi, Esio, MIGHTYMAX, Puls3, CRUC1AL
• Team Fntstic – redSNK, SPUdZ, REAZN, Peggyyyy, Boaster
• Xplicit Gaming – PURE, willwsv, brianstorm, jfm2, womptromp
• CS.GB – Windanski, ZED, Mole, mikeS, neilzinho
• gris – Lil Wayne, anzium, myzz, ono, unK
• myRevenge.UK – JD, JuSt_ChaD, Nashy, Chaltmr, ineq
• UPRIZE – joeboy, mcjspurs, olliethefirs, Swiis, WADDY

Minor Championships Qualifiers Schedule

Taken directly from the PGL Website:

Qualifier #1 » Register here

• January 4th: RO512 » RO256 » RO128 » RO64 | Best of 1
• January 5th: RO32 | Best of 1 » RO16 | Best of 1 » RO8 | Best of 3
• January 6th: Semifinal #1 @ 18:00 CET (5pm GMT) » Semifinal #2 @ 21:00 CET (8pm GMT) or immediately after (both streamed on Twitch) | Best of 3

Qualifier #2 » Register here

• January 5th: RO512 » RO256 » RO128 » RO64 | Best of 1
• January 6th: RO32 | Best of 1 » RO16 | Best of 1 » RO8 | Best of 3
• January 7th: Semifinal #1 @ 18:00 CET (5pm GMT) » Semifinal #2 @ 21:00 CET (8pm GMT) or immediately after (both streamed on Twitch) | Best of 3

Qualifier #3 » Register here

• January 6th: RO512 » RO256 » RO128 » RO64 | Best of 1
• January 7th: RO32 | Best of 1 » RO16 | Best of 1 » RO8 | Best of 3
• January 8th: Semifinal #1 @ 18:00 CET (5pm GMT) » Semifinal #2 @ 21:00 CET (8pm GMT) or immediately after (both streamed on Twitch) | Best of 3

Qualifier #4 » Register here

• January 7th: RO512 » RO256 » RO128 » RO64 | Best of 1
• January 8th: RO32 | Best of 1 » RO16 | Best of 1 » RO8 | Best of 3
• January 9th: Semifinal #1 @ 18:00 CET (5pm GMT) » Semifinal #2 @ 21:00 CET (8pm GMT) or immediately after (both streamed on Twitch) | Best of 3

This concludes all the qualifiers which feature UK teams playing in them. Hopefully we will be able to cover each of the teams progress through the qualifiers each day this week, depending on any GOTV ips given and/or streams that are casting any potential matches. The LAN finals for the European Minor Championships is being hosted in Bucharest, Romania on January 29th – 31st and we may see the potential of 1 of the 8 slots at the event filled by a UK team.

The twitch stream for the event can be found here from this handy link!

Make sure you stay tuned to UKCSGO.com for all the latest news and coverage surrounding the UK’s best and brightest teams over the coming months.