With four groups of four, and remarkably evenly matched teams in some groups, everyone knew some of the groups were going to be tight, and every game was crucial. Some groups ended up tighter than others, with some of the more controversial invites not living up to their potential and crashing out of the cup. We had some great games and some big upsets over the group stage weeks - here is a roundup of how things ended up...
Group A
In group A, the first game of the cup saw zeroPoint! Gaming, fresh from their good but under performing 3rd place at PGA LAN, matching up with the relatively unknown, unrated Morrigu #GamersNation side. zP fought their way to a victory, but not before mQ could take a map. Were zP not as strong as people expected, were mQ simply better than many believed them to be? The buzz after the game was that the group could be more interesting than previously thought, but this didn't come to be, with zP cruising to straight maps wins in their games against The Netrunners and uQ.Gaming, while mQ were defeated with ease by both these teams.
NETR and uQ then, are left to fight it out for the group title. Despite needlessly using a wildcard which came back to haunt them in their game against zeroPoint (which they were forced to play without kot or gotti), NETR breezed through the game and secured the second place spot. Without the wildcard, and with their first team, would they have put up a sterner challenge for the group victory and zeroPoint's #1 spot? We'll never know.
Group B
Group B, meanwhile, initially looked pretty straight forward. All the predictions were that aMenti and cdap - Team pi would glide through while the game between these teams would be crucial as it determined which faced the monstrous idle side in the first round of the playoffs. This view was only reinforced in the first week, with both cdap and aMenti taking seemingly effortless wins against vib and one4one eSports respectively.
The second week, however, saw the big upset of the group - vib did what many expected, losing in straight maps to all their opponents. one4one, however, took a victory over cdap, making cdap's final game against an impressively strong aMenti side crucial - only a win for cdap would take them through to the playoffs. Win they did, in stunning fashion, seizing the first place spot in the group, relegating aMenti to second where they will now be forced to play idle in the first round winners bracket matchup and crushing one4one's chances of continuing in this EuroCup.
Group C
The winner of group C could hardly have been more predictable. idle.ee have only lost one 6v6 match in 2006, and that was back in February against the formidable Parodia side. Nobody was remotely surprised that they blew away Fear Factory X-Fi, Incomplete and #Murso SFX as if they were little more than slightly irritating gnats. This left the battle for the second spot in the group, and what a battle it was. FF started off with a narrow victory over Murso, but followed it up with a tight loss to the Incomplete side.
All Inc needed to finish out the group and progress was a victory against Murso, but it wasn't to be, as the sFx side rallied and took the group into a three-way tie. A tie-breaker series was required - a first in ET EC history - and Murso put their early slip behind them and were victorious over both Inc and FF to claim the 2nd place position in the group and the playoff spot.
Group D
The final group, group D, was another interesting combination of teams. The high-flying Team - Helix looked sure to qualify, while the other playoff spot was all to play for between Noll8, Abnormal Monkeys sFx and HighBot/rewind. Many people had their money on the parodia-based EC-medal studded amonkeys team, but their expectations were shattered by noll8's convincing win.
People then turned to back the victorious noll8 team, who faced a rewind side many were calling weak in order to claim the playoff spot. Rewind proved everyone wrong again, taking the victory and the position in the playoffs. Helix quietly glided through all their games to take the group victory, but the second place was a real roller coaster ride, ridden to the end by the rewind team.
The groups complete, half the teams are qualified for the playoffs while the other half must wait for next season. Next time we'll go over the teams that didn't make it, their games in the tournament and their plans for the future.
Group A
In group A, the first game of the cup saw zeroPoint! Gaming, fresh from their good but under performing 3rd place at PGA LAN, matching up with the relatively unknown, unrated Morrigu #GamersNation side. zP fought their way to a victory, but not before mQ could take a map. Were zP not as strong as people expected, were mQ simply better than many believed them to be? The buzz after the game was that the group could be more interesting than previously thought, but this didn't come to be, with zP cruising to straight maps wins in their games against The Netrunners and uQ.Gaming, while mQ were defeated with ease by both these teams.
NETR and uQ then, are left to fight it out for the group title. Despite needlessly using a wildcard which came back to haunt them in their game against zeroPoint (which they were forced to play without kot or gotti), NETR breezed through the game and secured the second place spot. Without the wildcard, and with their first team, would they have put up a sterner challenge for the group victory and zeroPoint's #1 spot? We'll never know.
Group B
Group B, meanwhile, initially looked pretty straight forward. All the predictions were that aMenti and cdap - Team pi would glide through while the game between these teams would be crucial as it determined which faced the monstrous idle side in the first round of the playoffs. This view was only reinforced in the first week, with both cdap and aMenti taking seemingly effortless wins against vib and one4one eSports respectively.
The second week, however, saw the big upset of the group - vib did what many expected, losing in straight maps to all their opponents. one4one, however, took a victory over cdap, making cdap's final game against an impressively strong aMenti side crucial - only a win for cdap would take them through to the playoffs. Win they did, in stunning fashion, seizing the first place spot in the group, relegating aMenti to second where they will now be forced to play idle in the first round winners bracket matchup and crushing one4one's chances of continuing in this EuroCup.
Group C
The winner of group C could hardly have been more predictable. idle.ee have only lost one 6v6 match in 2006, and that was back in February against the formidable Parodia side. Nobody was remotely surprised that they blew away Fear Factory X-Fi, Incomplete and #Murso SFX as if they were little more than slightly irritating gnats. This left the battle for the second spot in the group, and what a battle it was. FF started off with a narrow victory over Murso, but followed it up with a tight loss to the Incomplete side.
All Inc needed to finish out the group and progress was a victory against Murso, but it wasn't to be, as the sFx side rallied and took the group into a three-way tie. A tie-breaker series was required - a first in ET EC history - and Murso put their early slip behind them and were victorious over both Inc and FF to claim the 2nd place position in the group and the playoff spot.
Group D
The final group, group D, was another interesting combination of teams. The high-flying Team - Helix looked sure to qualify, while the other playoff spot was all to play for between Noll8, Abnormal Monkeys sFx and HighBot/rewind. Many people had their money on the parodia-based EC-medal studded amonkeys team, but their expectations were shattered by noll8's convincing win.
People then turned to back the victorious noll8 team, who faced a rewind side many were calling weak in order to claim the playoff spot. Rewind proved everyone wrong again, taking the victory and the position in the playoffs. Helix quietly glided through all their games to take the group victory, but the second place was a real roller coaster ride, ridden to the end by the rewind team.
The groups complete, half the teams are qualified for the playoffs while the other half must wait for next season. Next time we'll go over the teams that didn't make it, their games in the tournament and their plans for the future.
cdap
idle
helix
gogogogo gl to teams especially cdap (<3 tox & perfo)
But austrian? xD
1938 sry :<
edit: lol you are 5 days older :-(
kk?
You just confirmed what I said in the server.
You really are a retard LOLOLOLOL!
I'm sorry you lost, and I honestly expected you to be able to win at least one of your games this season, but you didn't.
1. mize still didn't get banned and that means he won't be able to play for around 8-9 months, while he will get banned for 6 months - that's what mize told me no clue if it is true. Point is, will get him banned 2-3 months longer then neccesary.
And yes, for everyone wondering. I agree that he should be punished for cheating but this takes to much time.
2. We get bad servers, huge lags vs uQ which takes around 40 seconds and the same in the game with team nl. Don't remember vs who but who cares.
3. Then you got those warreports, I still don't see them after 2 weeks, maybe even longer.
Then, did you watch the matches? In my opinion they didn't won with "ease".
Anyway, I just say "the admins" because I don't look everytime who the admin is and won't remember it from everytime!
AND GUESS WHAT?
Only 1 report found:
http://www.clanbase.com/news_league.php?nid=232460&lid=2830
Is it finished? Not even close. So what exactly do you mean that you put 1000% more effort in this years EC than last years?
Despite the numerous problems before the match and during the first round, both teams proved to be pretty evenly matched, but uQ-Gaming were just a touch superior on the day. They now have a chance at a playoff spot, depending on the result of their final game vs zeroPoint later this week.
You contradict yourself. You wrote this conclusion in the matchreport from mQ vs uQ.
i agree with pumu, progressing to the play offs with a negative record is abit lame and perhaps larger groups would have solved this problem, but perhaps not and then we have monkeys to blame. Group B/C were the best and tighest.
True, that game was pretty convincing, but then so was amonkeys' second game against [<<], showing that they had the potential to make a comeback. The shattering only happened when they forfeited, which you don't seem to mention. :)
maybe finish the fucking article before you put it online?
=x
was just saying my opinion
:O
i'm not gonna stop fanboying ex-parodia guys just because of couple losses =]
im i bugged??? cant see it ! help!!
EDIT: Up!
dan is de datum dat die adacore dat artikel post
If they beat idle they face the winner of NETR-hx, if they lose to idle they face the loser of NETR-hx.
The skill difference is mostly coincidence - aMenti and NETR (and rewind and murso) are classified as 'lower' seeded teams, since they didn't win their groups. The 'higher' seeded teams are the group winners and there are two group winners in each half of the bracket.
With hindsight it might've been marginally more sensible (knowing how the groups were created) to do the playoffs as winner A vs runnerup B, runnerup C vs winner D, etc. Can't change it now though.
EDIT: It's taking longer than I expected, and I was distracted by Finns... I'll finish it tomorrow afternoon, sorry expectant guys :(
that is some hell of a great work youve done here, adacore.
your english pissed me off once in a while but as a whole,
damn huge work here!! ..
nicely done job ..
MOVE MOVE MOVE adacore :P
Nice read tho ada.
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