The First Match Week Continues!

Preview. The first match week of EuroCup XVI continues tonight with two group showdowns. Familiar names don a silly tag, players compete just for the heck of it, and stars hope to live up to the hype as the battle for a spot in the play-offs continues.


Although this season's EuroCup will be GMPO's last, humM3L and his diverse European blend do not seem determined to seize it as an opportunity to refine their posthumous reputations. Rather, the Russian has expressed a great deal of reserve regarding his team's ability to perform, and he has stressed that the object of GMPO's involvement in the tournament is not so much to perform as it is to simply have fun.

This manifesto does not exactly bode well for fans of the GMPO side, but a statement from drago of the megaProGaming side suggests that his team is dispositioned quite similarly. Citing the unavailability of the team's riflenader, the former pro5 player states that also his team feels short of practice going into tonight's match.

Whether the cited representatives of the two teams are simply both trying to influence the GBooky odds, or whether they are actually telling the truth, remains to be seen. As it stands, onlookers point to megaProGaming as clear favourites of the match.

A more in-depth preview of the match including the cited statements as well as community predictions can be found here.


The return of one of the most well-established names in contemporary ET was announced just under a fortnight ago, much to the confusion of onlookers. Not only had the EuroCup invites already been announced at this point, but included in the line-up of the team were also names that had appeared on the front page of Crossfire only a week earlier, as part of the now-defunct team Stercus Accidit.

However, in the wake of the announcement, amid bitter cries of disloyalty from former teammates, it was made clear that the move was to be interpreted as a merger between the two clans, for which reason Impact Gaming would participate in the EuroCup after all.

Tonight, the star-studded line-up of Impact take on the rising Frenchmen of muse-gaming, and the pressure is on for the stars to perform. Though the Frenchmen are being cheered, most players are expecting the match to be a fairly one-sided affair, and, at present, the odds are heavily in favour of Impact.

Nevertheless, muse might have an unconsidered edge that could see the team cause an upset tonight. In a pre-game interview conducted by Impact Gaming manager eVo last week, douille, the in-game leader of muse, stated that his team had practised actively since the beginning of September. In comparison, Impact has had little less than two weeks to prepare for tonight's match. Perhaps the Frenchmen might just have what it takes to belie the predictions.

Catching up with douille for a brief comment, however, the Frenchman dismisses any chances of his team causing an upset:

Quote

Well, we consider ourselves lucky to play radar and bremen, since they're both easier and more open versus good teams.
But still, we've no illusion about victory. We've done like 1 prac this week, since half of the team was busy in TEH real life. We have never played against the new Impact lineup, but maybe they're not that used to playing together and we'll be able to luck them a round.

In the Impact camp, Xpaz expresses full confidence in his team's ability to perform:

Quote

Even though we haven't pracced THAT much yet I'm confident we'll come on top. About muse, I only know 2 of their players by name, and I've never played them before so can't say much about them.