The Playoffs are Coming › Groups Overview

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.