GLOBAL GAMES EVENT COVERAGE HUB
China’s struggles continue, Germany get on the scoreboard.
They might be a few games away from winning the Ferrari in back-to-back years against Europe, but in Global Games (HGG) teams China isn’t doing so hot.
The red flags began the league with a five-game loss against Sweden, following it with a recovery victory against Brazil in week three, but their third match earlier on Tuesday was anything but convincing. China’s opponent was Bulgaria, the team that has been swapping top spot in Group A with Indonesia and which delivered one of the quickest series in the league so far.
With a fairly aggressive line-up, led by Kaloyan “BestUdyrEU” Petkov’s aggro Rogue, blanked China in about 30 minutes, reclaiming the top seed in the group and all but securing its spot in the next stage of the tournament with one more match remaining. China, on the other hand, desperately needs another win, and they might just get it against Switzerland in two weeks’ time. A 1-3 score before playing Indonesia in week ten would mean almost certain elimination for China, one of HGG’s undisputed favorites.
READ ALSO: CN and EU equally represented in playoff stage of region clash
Italy took the top spot in Group E after their third straight victory in the league, this time against Finland. The team has now bested the three on-paper best teams in a group without clear-cut favorites, including also Norway and Japan, and are looking forward to a possible perfect record ahead of Chile and Israel match-ups. All of Norway, Finland and Japan are in the same boat as China. Down 1-2, the next wins for these teams will be crucial to prevent a deadly tie-breaker, a situation that would be very fitting for such a balanced group.
In Group H, Germany got their first win, just in time to maybe make a miracle comeback and vie for the round of 24. The “eagles” had a surprisingly shaky start in HGG, losing to both Ukraine and the Philippines, the latter being a 0-3 sweep, but easily overtook Croatia on Wednesday. With 0-3 record in series and 1-9 in games, Croatia are almost certain to face elimination, while Ukraine and Czech Republic (3-0 each) are guaranteed Ro24 spots.
RELATED: There's nothing stopping Ukraine in the Global Games
In Group F, Canada lost their first game in three series, though still took a convincing third victory. Denmark’s Frederik “FreddyB” Bohe was the one who managed to at least temporarily shake the dominance of the maple leaves, but Denmark’s triumphs was shortlived. At 3-0 record and 9-1 in games, Canada is set for the Ro24.
List of 3-win teams (likely/certain advancement)
Bulgaria (3-1)
United States (3-0)
Argentina (3-1)
Italy (3-0)
Canada (3-0)
Ukraine (3-0)
(3-0)
List of 3-loss teams (like/certain elimination)
Romania
Kazakhstan
Croatia
