Counter-Strike

LAN events with tournaments like the Sunny Broadband CS:GO Tournament are very similar to actual sporting events, especially at the start. Everyone believes they can win, because all teams start on the same footing, with zero points and all the chances to push to greater heights. Whilst this isn’t the Counter-Strike Majors, this is still something for teams to get on board with and start their esport careers.

The seeds were announced, and teams knew roughly who they would face early on, and thus could make plans to quickly prepare for the tournament. The team leader briefing came around with a crowd of enthusiastic CS players all ready to take to the battleground known as Counter-Strike. The group stages are sometimes the straightforward parts of tournaments, with many stomps happening as the skill divisions are always so wide.

The biggest mishap in the early stages of the day, was where ‘Lifts?’ Who were seeded fourth in the tournament managed to draw against the Revilo fan club, who were a dark horse covered in our preview on PhoenixUK on Thursday night. It was quite a tense affair, but both sides managed to see the positives from it and exchanged the post match handshakes, however, would that cost the fourth seed later down the tournament?

As matches continued to plow on, we were getting close to the finishing stages of the group tournament. For teams it was crucial making the top 4 in the groups to secure themselves into the double elimination bracket. This was to be severely tested by some teams, as it was the Jack Peters mix team of Rat Pack who managed to upset the apple cart somewhat as they managed to give a good game to the Revilo fan club.

In round 5, it was the turn of the number 1 seeded team Fierce Esports to see whether they could withstand the pressure from others in the LAN hall. They were up against the team called Gingers and Ganja, where they went the full distance as all thirty rounds were played in the match, but it was Fierce who came away unscathed.

There were a further two draws that happened later in the day, again another one happened in Group D, between Rat Pack and eighth seed Madeeka, whilst OMEN and Osterity shared the spoils of war in their Group C match. Exillium Esports were soon becoming the story of the group stages as they were punishing a few of the seeded teams in their group as they were unseeded. In back to back matches, they took down Genetics who were fourteenth seed whilst they went on to beat Barons Money Crew who were sixth seed 16:10.

Exillium Esports were also subject to a very tight affair as they went on to draw against tenth seed KDR, thus keeping an unbeaten record against the three lower seeds in their group and only losing to their top seed, Team CeX in the first match of the day. It was quite the story and secured them second place in the group and a place in the upper bracket of the tournament.

Next up for all the teams was the elimination bracket which began at 8pm on day one. This time for epic25, we added a bit more of a twist to the tournament and went with the International preferred format, with the top 2 of each group progressing to the upper bracket whilst the third and fourth placed teams would immediately go into the lower bracket.
In the upper bracket it was the following:

Fierce Esports Vs Aircon
Gumpster’s Fan Boys Vs Madeeka
Ferrari Peekers Vs Exillium Esports
Osterity Vs Team CeX

In the lower bracket it was the following:

Buzzkill Vs Lifts?
Gingers & Ganja Vs Rat Pack
IGI eSports Vs KDR
OMEN Vs Barons Money Crew

The majority of the matches went the way most pundits would predict, although Gumpster’s Fan Boys ended up losing in a three match thriller to Madeeka. Fierce, Ferrari and Team CeX all picked up their respective 2:0 wins. It was a very similar story in the lower bracket as all games ended 2:0 to those in the higher seeded positions, however IGI eSports managed to overcome a resilient KDR, with a 19:17 & 16:12 win. Meanwhile, Lifts managed to sneak past Buzzkill Esports with a 19:17 & 16:10 win and secure their place in the top 12 teams at least for now.

What would be in store for these teams on Day two of the Sunny Broadband CS:GO Tournament?