i37: The group stages: the good and the bad!

With the group stages now finished we can take a look at the first day of action and see who performed and who didn't.

Group A

With fnatic and Arm3d in this group everyone expected those two teams to proceed to the playoffs. Fnatic are, together with TCM and Dignitas, favorites for the top 3 and as predicted they had no problems getting through to the playoffs. The Belgian formation of Arm3d, who are gunning for a top 10 placing, performed extremely well and had no troubles qualifying for the playoffs.

Going through: fnatic.MSI (1st) & Arm3d (2nd)

Group B

Group B had another one of the favorites doing exactly what they should - win all their matches. Dignitas managed to do this with ease but seemed to lack the thrive to make the scores count. Dignitas isn't on cruise speed yet but with the playoffs fast approaching they will need to pick it up if they want to win this event.

The battle for second place was a close one between auric and Rapid Esports, with auric coming on top after a 15-9 victory against their foes. Rapid probably expected more from this event but now find themselves eliminated in the group stages.

Going through: team dignitas (1st) & auric (2nd)

Group C

Group C was probably one of the most open groups with no real favorite for the victory here at iseries but still some good teams were present in group C. Dfiance did top the group but had some very close games along the way, winning with 13-11 from Vitrolic and 14-10 from Crack Clan EU and Infigo. The battle for second place saw Infigo, Vitrolic and Crack Clan EU facing eachother with in the end Vitrolic coming out on top.

Going through: Dfiance (1st) & Vitrolic (2nd)

Group D

YYT.AMD was a clear favorite to go through for group D and they also performed the way they should perform by winning all their matches. Infused female nearly outperformed their male counterparts and lost only two games to enmity eSports and YYT.AMD. Enmity on the other hand had a hard time against YYT.AMD but still managed to win their remaining games with ease making them the second best team and granting them a slot in the playoffs.

Going through: YYT.AMD (1st) & Enmity (2nd)

Group E

Element on top for this group who would have thought that? The match between Element and group favorites Infused has already been talked about on forums and comments but for me the biggest suprise might not even be the fact that they lost but more the final score with which they lost. 17-7 in favor of Element are quite hard numbers for any self respecting team who saw this iseries as an opportunity for a top 5 placing. The confidence of the Infused male team will certainly have been shattered and by finishing second in their group they will now face Crack Clan UK in the playoffs. Element on the other hand will look to continue their winning streak against Druidz.Qpad.

Going through: Element (1st) & Infused (2nd)

Group F

Group F was another group where there was no clear favorite to top the table but that only spurred on the lesser known teams to perform better. Druidz and Crack Clan UK managed to finish second and first respectively and will continue onwards, but a good performance from Die Indianer can also be noted as they lost just barely to Crack Clan UK and Druidz. With the slightest of differences in those two matches things could have gone completely different in group F.

Going through: Crack Clan UK (1st) & Druidz.Qpad (2nd)

Group G

With YYT.NL there was a clear favorite for group G but the upset of the day was when they lost to zatu with a 13-8 score. Finished the rounds off they managed to pull it back to 13-11 but the damage had been done. Closer investigation of this loss however saw that this loss was not solely based on a bad performance as luni's pc was unplugged and zatu didn't allow the timeout. This caused YYT to be forced to play with only four players for 7 rounds and the motivation was at an all time low to play the rounds seriously. Zatu on the other hand claim that YYT.NL never asked for a timeout and that was the reason they continued playing. With this being the only loss for YYT in the group and them beating second place finisher plusONE with a comfortable 16-8 score YYT still finished top of their group. PlusONE had a decent showing and will also advance with zatu not far behind with 19 points and just two points less then plusONE.

Going through: YYT.NL (1st) & plusONE (2nd)   

Group H

The last group was the group with Team Coolermaster, another clear favorite for the win here at iseries or at least a top three placing. The finalist of TEX had a good event so far beating every opponent with relative ease. Coming second in their group is fuZion, a team that stood out from the rest of the group and was clearly a class better then the rest of the teams bar TCM.

Going through: Team Coolermaster (1st) & fuZion (2nd)


This concludes the massive group stages and we are now advancing into the playoffs. The most interesting will be seeing whether the clear favorites TCM, fnatic and dignitas will make up the top three or not and whether we will see some more upsets from the lesser known teams. Stay tuned for more right here at TEK9!