We are now into Week Four of UK Masters, the penultimate week before we see which four teams will head into the playoffs. It has seriously been heating up in UK Masters, with teams pushing each other for some big results. With eight teams in action, there has been plenty of action, drama and folds to keep the UK Scene entertained. Those eight teams will be swallowed up and chewed out until we find four teams to head into the playoffs, once the playoffs conclude, two teams will stand, with their places confirmed at Multiplay’s insomnia60 for the finals, and they will then play for the giant’s share of £15,000.
Last week, we saw some rather intriguing results. Despite the rumours being true, that exceL eSports after recruiting Owen “smooya” Butterfield, had seen their team crumble like a pie, they had completely folded, they did manage to put up some what of a fight against mix team fish123 losing over two maps but making it close in the scores. Current reigning champions fm-eSports managed to secure a vital victory against Imperial, with two equally close maps in that series.
On the Wednesday, it was the biggest twist of the season as Team Infused who claimed they were “out of practice” managed to secure a massive 2:0 victory over reforming Team Endpoint, one that Ian and co really couldn’t find any answers to, and despite some great performances from Alex “Snodz” Byfield in the two maps, they struggled to get the map needed to secure a tie. Meanwhile Team CeX were left lusting for an important victory to take them off the bottom, as they ended up drawing with a team who continue to draw this season, newly found Team XENEX.
Thursday saw only one match go ahead as folded exceL eSports couldn’t “field a team” against Team CeX which saw CeX find their first victory of the season. Infused couldn’t continue their winning form from Wednesday and ended up losing in an entertaining second map against Jake “jakem” McCausland’s Team Imperial which went to overtime. It meant they ended up with a draw as the final match of the week concluded.
It leaves fish123 clear leaders currently with Endpoint sitting three points behind them. A point behind Endpoint, is current reigning champions fm-eSports, who do have a slight advantage as they have a series in hand over Endpoint that if they were to win, would put them two points clear of Endpoint. Infused & Imperial are tied on five points, which means either side needs some vital wins to secure their Top 4 place. Team CeX & Team XENEX are next on the list with four points each, whilst exceL eSports who should be considered a dead team now, are routed at the bottom of the table with just the one point so far.
XENEX have made roster changes since last week. Does this mean the roster will fare better this week?
With all the shuffling of rosters outside of any potential locks, and the league still in play currently, it leaves our panel scratching their heads on how they can possibly predict the matches going forward, but they will certainly try. Here is all the information you need including rosters (that we know currently), last week’s results, current standings and our panel’s results. You can read the previous prediction articles in the following links.
UK Masters Spring Season: Week 1 Predictions
UK Masters Spring Season: Week 2 Predictions
UK Masters Spring Season: Week 3 Predictions
Teams
fm-eSports: nEiLZiNHo, weber, fre1, Puls3, stan1ey
Team Endpoint: Immi, Esio, MightyMax, Snodz, pt
Team CeX: resu, BrodyC, LS, Astroo, JDD
Team XENEX: Spectrum, FiLLeR, DUKK, Hawkins, MMuffin
Imperial: Jakem, conoR, Whindanski, Boaster, REAZN
fish123: keita, Sliggy, robiin, batham, tsack
Team Infused: SHEEKEY, shaney , Lumji , Ozzy , Snakey
exceL eSports: Jenko, Mole, Kryptix, Smooya, Jesp
Week 3 Results
fm-eSports 2:0 Imperial (16:12 de_mirage & 16:13 de_overpass)
exceL eSports 0:2 fish123 (11:16 de_mirage & 13:16 de_cbble)
Team Endpoint 0:2 Team Infused (14:16 de_cbble & 11:16 de_mirage)
Team CeX 1:1 Team XENEX (14:16 de_mirage & 16:13 de_train)
Team Infused 1:1 Imperial (16:11 de_cache & 19:21 de_train)
Team CeX 2:0 exceL eSports (Default Win)
Current Standings
Panel
Michael “Duck” Moriarty – UKCSGO Journalist
Michael is one of our journalists here at UKCSGO, he has written for many different organisation websites including Team Acer, Ninjas in Pyjamas and Reason Gaming. He currently writes for ESL with some IEM posts he has done over the last few months. His CS knowledge is relatively restricted to recent times as he has no prior knowledge or playtime in the UK Scene from either CS: Source or 1.6 and therefore his opinion should be treated as a relatively new to the scene. However he is starting to build on his awareness of the UK Scene in CS:GO and has valid ideas of what teams should be doing what. Michael will be taking on Tuesday night matches in UK Masters.
Ryan “Flakes” Oliver – UK Scene Commentator
Ryan is one of the UK’s leading stars when it comes to commentating. Having started at epic.LAN last year for epic.SEVENTEEN, as an admin, he ended up going to Dreamhack Summer last June on behalf of CAZ eSports, then shortly after that he dived into casting, and got to cast events such as UK Premiership, UK Masters, Starladder, and WESG. He has an in depth knowledge around the UK Esports scene, and continues to thrive on casting events. Ryan will be taking on Wednesday night matches in UK Masters.
Callum “skuxz” Bristow – The Last Resort Captain
Callum has been working himself through the ranks over the last year, having won epic.NINETEEN back in October last year, he has the insight to help the panel come to some better conclusions on what should happen in the matches from week to week. Callum currently plays for Chrome Gaming who narrowly missed out in UK Masters and didn’t quite make it to the ESL Premiership either, but he knows how competitive the scene really is. Callum will be taking on Thursday night matches in UK Masters.
Week 3 Panel Results
Duck
fm-eSports Vs Imperial Predicted: 1:1 Actual: 2:0
exceL eSports Vs fish123 Predicted 1:1 Actual: 0:2
Result: 0/2 (0%)
Flakes
Team Endpoint Vs Team Infused Predicted: 2:0 Actual: 0:2
Team CeX Vs Team XENEX Predicted 1:1 Actual: 1:1
Result: 1/2 (50%)
Skuxz
Team Infused Vs Imperial Predicted: 1:1 Actual: 1:1
Team CeX Vs exceL eSports Predicted: 1:1 Actual: 2:0
Result: 1/2 (50%)
Week 4 Predictions – Tuesday
fm-eSports Vs Team CeX
With FM performing strongly over the past few months, and their form not letting up to this week of games, they’re easy favourites to take out CeX. With CeX not winning a game, barring the default from exceL, their position isn’t that strong. FM will be looking to take a win to place themselves in a strong play-offs position to make their way to the finals at i60.
Prediction: 2:0 FM
fish123 Vs Team XENEX
With fish still being an extremely strong side, topping the current table as well, they have an obvious edge over XENEX. However with the change XENEX have made to their IGL, they’ll still be consolidating their tactics. But they should still be able to craft a draw from this matchup.
Prediction: 1:1
Week 4 Predictions – Wednesday
Team Endpoint Vs Imperial
Endpoint are easily the stronger side, but still getting used to their new players. Assuming they don’t make some minor slip-ups, they’ll have another win in the bag here.
Prediction: 2:0 Endpoint
Infused Vs exceL eSports
As we’re still not sure exceL will show up, or the lineup they’ll have, it’s a difficult game to predict. With Infused brining in Pickles recently they’ve got more firepower to use against exceL. But, assuming exceL turn up, it’ll be a draw.
Prediction: xL DFL / 1:1
Will Shaney and co be able to get Top 4 this season? Answers on a postcard please.
There are no Thursday matches this week, which means Callum gets a week off from predicting. However next week, Callum will return to predict the final week of matches alongside Michael & Ryan, before we head to playoffs.
Don’t forget you can visit the UK Masters hub to keep an eye on all fixtures and live tables of the event on a weekly basis, which you can find over at Multiplay’s mini website, by clicking on this relevant link.
Want to re-live the action from previous weeks, go and check out Multiplay’s Youtube channel, where you can catch all the VoDs from this season here.
We will have more coverage of the UK Masters over the coming weeks, including statistical breakdowns of all the major players in the league, interviews, and more prediction articles on a weekly basis. Make sure you keep yourselves posted to UKCSGO as we continue to cover the top tier of UK Counter-Strike. You can follow us on Twitter and like our page on Facebook for further updates so you never miss a beat in the UK Scene.
