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Having already brought you news this week of how F2Tekkz won the inaugural ePremier League tournament in London, let’s get you up to speed with some of the other key esports events last week.
StarSeries & i-League CS:GO reaches playoffs
Back in October, ENCE provided something of a shock in the last StarSeries & i-League CSGO Season 6 tournament. They landed the first prize in Kiev, pocketing the $125,000 first prize. For that victory, they earned one of the 13 invites to the seventh season of the tournament, which got underway last weekend in Shanghai.
While Danish aces Astralis had declined to take part, there is still a very strong complement of invited teams. These include BIG, FaZe Clan, Fnatic, MiBR, Natus Vincere, Ninjas in Pyjamas, North, NRG Esports, Renegades, TyLoo, Vici Gaming, and Team Vitality. Then, Team Spirit, Panda Gaming and paiN Gaming all came through qualifiers.
The tournament began March 30 with the Group Stage, a Swiss System format that would see the top eight teams progress into the playoffs.
Road to the playoffs
There were some big shocks in the first round. FaZe Clan and MiBR fell by the wayside. Both, formerly among the best CS:GO teams in the world in recent times, appear to be in bad slides.
Fnatic and Renegades were the two teams to earn the top seeds with perfect 3-0 records. Then, ENCE, Natus Vincere, and Team Vitality qualified as the joint No. 3 seeds at 3-1. NRG Esports, North, and Ninjas in Pyjamas all finished 3-2.
The playoffs begin on April 5. The quarterfinals are as follows:
- NRG Esports vs. Team Vitality
- Fnatic vs. North
- Renegades vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas
- Natus Vincere vs. ENCE
Currently, ENCE are the 3/1 favourites to retain their crown with Natus Vincere 7/2. Team Vitality are 5/1 shots with NRG Esports and Renegades both rated 6/1 chances. Fnatic and Team North are 8/1 with Ninjas in Pyjamas the 12/1 outsiders.
LoL Spring Series reaches playoffs
With many different Spring Series qualifiers taking place across the world in the new look League of Legends scene, we are now starting to get down to the nitty-gritty.
A strong showing in the Spring Split can lead not only to places at the Mid Season Invitational but also at Worlds.
Let’s take a look at how things are shaping up in the top League of Legends Spring Split events, starting in Korea.
LCK Spring 2019
The Group Stage of the LCK is now completed. Griffin earned the top spot in the league with a 15-3 record. That’s just one ahead of a resurgent SK Telecom T1, who improved on last year’s poor showing to finish 14-4.
Then, KING-ZONE DragonX, and SANDBOX Gaming both ended with 13-5 records. The final qualifying spot went to DAMWON Gaming at 11-7.
The first Wild Card contest has already been completed. DAMWON earned a 2-1 victory over No 4 seeded SANDBOX Gaming to move on to face KING-ZONE DragonX in Round 1. From now on, the Round 1, Round 2 and Final will all be contested over a best of five formats. SK Telecom T1 await the winners in the semifinal. Griffin are set to take on whichever of the three remaining teams reach the final.
LEC Spring 2019
In the newly franchised LEC, two teams qualified into the Winners bracket: G2 Esports and Origen. Four others qualified for the Losers Round — Fnatic, Splyce, Team Vitality, and SK Gaming.
The first slate of Losing Round games has been played. Fnatic beat Team Vitality, and Splyce defeated SK Gaming to progress into the second round. That’s where they will face each other before taking on the loser of the Winner’s Final between G2 Esports and Origen. The winner of those two games will then contest the Grand Final.
LCS Spring 2019
The LCS operates the same qualifying system as the LEC. The two teams that earned top seeds and a place in the Winners Final were Team Liquid and Cloud9. They both finished at 14-4, putting Team SoloMid into third place. FlyQuest, Golden Guardians, and Echo Fox also made it into the playoffs.
The playoffs in the LCS are slightly different than in the LEC. The two top seeds are seeded into the semifinals with the four other teams competing in the quarterfinals. Those matches have already been played. Team SoloMid won 3-1 over Echo Fox while FlyQuest progressed thanks to a dramatic 3-2 victory over Golden Guardians.
That means Team Liquid will take on Fly Quest, and Cloud9 will face Team SoloMid in the two semifinals.
All the winners of the Spring Split events will compete later on in the spring at the Mid Season Invitational, a series of events played in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and Taipei. These take place from May 1-19.
Image credit: NurPhoto / Contributor / Getty Images
