Today saw the rest of the group stage of the tournament take place continuing on from yesterday’s first-round games. Here, the 12 invited teams and 4 BYOC victors were split into four groups of four to decide the teams that will make tomorrow’s playoff finals.
Group A
Teams: Vitality, EnD Gaming, PENTA Sports and Trust Gaming
The first game of the groups saw the French side of Vitality face the Italians of EnD Gaming in an intense matchup in which Vitality took a strong lead with a 6-0 in the first map, EnD would strike back and take the 2nd map in a close scoreline 6-4 but Vitality would show their experience in the final map by taking it 6-3 winning the series and moving on to the winner’s bracket, while EnD would fall to the losers bracket. An early Friday morning would see the titan that is PENTA facing Trust Gaming coming from the BYOC. This experience gap was evident as PENTA would take Coastline in a strong fashion with a 6-1. The 3 time Pro League champions wouldn’t let the lead go and would end up taking the second map 6-3.
The 3rd game of the day for this group brought us a Pro League matchup between Vitality and PENTA.
In an incredible and unexpected upset Vitality would edge through PENTA in a 2-0 win to get through the groups and secure their spot in the Quarter Finals. (This is the 3rd time that PENTA loses a Bo3 game. 0-2 vs Black Dragons S6, 1-2 vs Team Liquid S7 and 0-2 vs Vitality DH Valencia). In the losers bracket EnD and Trust would put an insane battle and in a 3 map game, the Italians would pull through while Trust would see themselves out of the tournament.
In the deciders match it was do or die, PENTA with all of their experience and talent wouldn’t let themselves lose in the group stages and with a 2-0 victory they would kick EnD from the tournament and secure their spot in the Quarter Finals.
Vitality vs EnD Gaming - (6-0, 4-6, 6-3) This game was played on Thursday
PENTA Sports vs Trust Gaming - (6-1, 6-3) stats
Vitality vs PENTA Sports - (6-4, 6-4)
EnD Gaming vs Trust Gaming - (6-7, 6-3,6-4)
PENTA Sports vs EnD Gaming - (2-0)
1st Place: Vitality
2nd Place: PENTA Sports
Group B
Teams: Ninjas in Pyjamas, I Don’t Know, Mock-It Esports and x6tence
In the first match of the group we would see the most expected game of Group B as IDK tied #1 in the EU PL leaderboards and having secured their spot in Paris earlier that week, would face NiP the always strong Brazilian team that placed Top 4 at the last Invitationals. NiP would take the Clubhouse but barely as they win 6-4. The second map was better for the European side as they bounce back in Border with a strong 6-2. But in Oregon, things would have to go all the way to Overtime Match Point and with great plays from the Blitz of Julio, NiP would edge through IDK and take the series 2-1. IDK would fall to the losers bracket and NiP waited in the winner's bracket. The French side of Mock-It faced off against the team that came out of the BYOC x6tence, in a tough first map Mock-It would barely take it home in a 7-6 win. The French would show their experience and on the second map, they would strongly take the series with a 6-1 victory.
NiP vs Mock-It in the winners bracket surely looked like a great game and with Mock-It taking the first map 6-2 things started to shape up for an upset but the Brazilians wouldn’t let this happen and with 2 strong performances, 6-2 and 6-4, they would send the French to the losers bracket and fins themselves clear in the Quarter Finals.
I Don’t Know vs x6tence would start with a map that through and through was for the PL team but in the second map x6tence would wake up and take IDK all the way to overtime where IDK would prove once again why they are at the top of the EU leaderboard.
In the deciders match we got another Pro League encounter as Mock-It faced IDK but the Britsh and French team of IDK wouldn’t waste their time and in two strong maps, (6-3,6-1) they would assure their spot in the Quarter Finals and kick Mock-It out of the tournament.
Ninjas in Pyjamas vs I Don’t Know - (6-4, 2-6, 7-6) This game was played on Thursday
Mock-It Esports vs x6tence - (7-6, 6-1)
Ninjas in Pyjamas vs Mock-It Esports - (2-6,6-2,6-4)
I Don’t Know vs x6tence -(6-1,7-5)
I Don’t Know vs Mock-It Esports - (6-3,6-1)
1st Place: Ninjas in Pyjamas
2nd Place: I Don’t Know
Group C
Teams: Charity Nerds, ENCE Esports, Rogue and Le Sous Marin
In Group C’s first matchup we could have gotten a closest game with the 3 maps going to overtime and only the first one not going to the full 13 rounds but Charity Nerds would step up and win 2-1 against an ENCE team that started to look revitalized. Rogue would start their Spanish endeavour by facing the BYOC team of Le Sous Marine and in two quick maps (6-2,6-1) they would send them to the losers bracket and push themselves to the winner's bracket.
Rogue vs Charity Nerds promised to be a close game but Rogue would let the German team nowhere near a victory and once again in two quick maps (6-1,6-1) they would secure their spot in the Quarter Finals and send Charity Nerds to the deciding matchup. Right after this game was finished ENCE faced off vs Le Sous Marine and the BYOC would receive the same treatment as Rogue gave them and with the same map scoreline, they would be sent home.
ENCE and Charity Nerds would play a rematch from the first game of the group but now looking for a place in the playoffs. Charity Nerds would take Map 1 by a (6-3) score but ENCE would hit back harder taking Map 2 with a (6-1) score. Map 3 went all the way and in a 13 round marathon ENCE would get revenge on the Germans and earn their spot in the Quarter Finals, while Charity Nerds would find themselves out of the tournament.
ENCE eSports vs Charity Nerds - (7-5,6-7,7-6) This game was played on Thursday
Rogue vs Le Sous Marine - (6-2,6-1)
Rogue vs Charity Nerds - (6-1,6-1) stats
ENCE eSports vs Le Sous Marine - (6-2,6-1) stats
ENCE eSports vs Charity Nerds - (3-6,6-1,7-6)
1st Place: Rogue
2nd Place: ENCE eSports
Group D
Teams: Chaos, Cloud9, Millenium and T3H eSports
Group D would start off with Chaos vs Cloud9, the Swedish team would have a strong showing and would take the series 2-0 (6-3,6-2) while C9 looked underwhelming. Chaos moved to the winner bracket and C9 to the losers bracket. Following things up Millenium vs T3H would be a 3 map game with the French taking the last 2 maps to move up to the winner's bracket and T3H down to the losers bracket.
Chaos vs Millenium would be a really intense game in which once again Millenium would lose the first map but take the last two to earn themselves a spot in the Quarter Finals and push Chaos to the deciding game. T3H vs Cloud9 started with a close first map in Consulate having T3H taking it in 13 rounds but the second map would be all the way for T3H winning the series 2-0 and the map 6-2. Cloud9 would be eliminated from the tournament and T3H would move on to the deciding game vs Chaos.
This game once again was a 3 map marathon with the first 2 maps going back and forth but Chaos, in the end, would show their experience and would take the deciding map 6-4. Chaos would move on to the Quarter Finals and T3H would see themselves out of the tournament.
Chaos vs Cloud9 - (6-3,6-2) This game was played on Thursday
Millenium vs T3H eSports - (3-6,6-3,7-5)
Chaos vs Millenium - (2-6,6-4,7-6)
Cloud9 vs T3H eSports - (7-6,6-2) stats
T3H eSports vs Chaos - (6-2,5-7,6-4)
1st Place: Millenium
2nd Place: Chaos
In just a few hours the playoffs will be played and the bracket looks like these:
Only 1 Quarter Final game will be streamed and it will be the Vitality vs Chaos game. We will be updating you on the results for the non streamed games on our social media.
The 2 Semi-Finals and the Final will be streamed.
The action starts at 10 am CEST and 4 am EST. You can catch all of it on: www.twitch.tv/Rainbow6 and the official Youtube channel.
This article was made in collaboration with: @Louie and @Magiic