Electronic Sports World Cup 2014 will start on Thursday, October 30th and will continue until Sunday, November 2nd. The CS:GO event will feature 24 teams fighting for the purse of $50,000 prize pool.
| Map pool: | Prize pool: |
|---|---|
| de_dust2 | 1st: $20,000 |
| de_inferno | 2nd: $15,000 |
| de_nuke | 3rd: $10,000 |
| de_mirage | 4th: $5,000 |
| de_cache | |
| de_cobblestone | |
|
de_overpass
|
Group Phase
The Group phase will feature four groups with six teams in each. Teams will play a best-of-one round robin where the top two will move on to playoffs. Group phase is scheduled to start on October 30th and will span until October 31th.
Playoffs
The playoffs will be played in the standard single elimination format, where eight teams will be seeded into the quarter finals. The matches will be played in a BO3 format, and the winner of each match will move on to the semi finals, while the losers will be eliminated from the tournament. The playoffs is scheduled to start on November 1st and will end on November 2nd.
Location
The Electronic Sports World Cup 2014 will be held at the Paris Games Week in Paris, France. This is the same location used the previous ESWC. Paris Games Week is a trade fair for video games held annually at the Parc des expositions de la porte de Versailles in Paris, France. Live broadcasting will be provided on ESWC Dailymotion and ESWC Twitch.
Schedule
Day 1 - October 30th
09:30 CEST - 19.00 CEST - Group A and Group B
Day 2 - October 31st
09:30 CEST - 18.30 CEST - Group C and Group D
Day 3 - November 1st
09.30 CEST - Quarter final matches 1 and 2
12.00 CEST - Quarter final matches 3 and 4
14.00 CEST - Semi final match 1
16.00 CEST - Semi final match 2
Day 4 - November 2nd
10.30 CEST - Third place decider
15.00 CEST - Grand Final match
Hightlights
1. KQLY and apEX got a chance for the double title
The last year's edition of ESWC had Clan Mystik emerging as champions. KQLY and apEX were then part of the team, however now they are playing for Titan who qualified through ESWC France and they will have a chance to defend their title. Titan had a recent slump in their performance after Dreamhack Stockholm, but ESWC will be a real chance for them to get back on track and show once again that they are capable of winning against anyone.
2. NiP's chance to shine once again
One of the best teams in the world, Ninjas in Pyjamas, have been struggling ever since they won ESL One Cologne. Their results have been arguably below their level and people are now wondering what is going with the team who has the oldest untouched line-up in the current CS:GO scene. GeT_RiGhT, f0rest, fifflaren, Xizt and friberg will have to man up and bring in some real results at this event, otherwise their line-up could possibly suffer changes in the near future.
3. Fnatic looking for a second consecutive LAN title
Probably the best performing team currently at the scene, Fnatic, who just won the FACE IT title last weekend in Milan, Italy, will be looking to extend it with another title, this time in Paris. They are part of group A, where the only team able to challenge them on paper is Natus Vincere. However, the Swedes have shown that they are afraid of no one and their consistent results only point to a top group finish without any problems.
4. iBUYPOWER's time to prove that they didn't only have a good day at FACE IT finals
The biggest surprise of FACE IT Lan finals last weekend was iBUYPOWER. The North American team has overcome odds definitely being against them and without any expectations got themselves qualified into the Grand finals. They defeated Team Dignitas and Team LDLC on their way to the finals and in the end they put up a good fight against Fnatic. This time they will have a chance to prove that it was not just a "good day" at FACE IT finals, and that they have what it takes to challenge the best teams in the world.
5. The Danish teams with their new line-ups at this event
After failing to perform at the expected level, Team Dignitas decided to make a roster change. They brought back cajunb instead of aizy which has already proved to be a good move, as the Danes beat Natus Vincere last night in the Fragbite Masters playoff which earned them a spot at the LAN Finals. Team Dignitas are also known as 'group stage masters', since they always performed extremely well during group stages, but unfortunately failing to take the title at the end. Now, they are looking to change that at ESWC in Paris.
Three weeks ago we reported that CPH Wolves have finalized their roster by adding Nichlas "Nille" Busk. Ever since then they have shown an improvement in their play which resulted in the win against HellRaisers in Fragbite Masters playoffs. Last night they played a match against NiP off stream where they got beaten 2-1. However, they lost on NiP's strongest map - de_nuke, with a score of 16-14. They will be going with full confidence at this event and they will have a chance to once again go up against HellRaisers and Ninjas in Pyjamas.
6. Mousesports finaly attending a LAN event
Mousesports have surfaced as one of the best online teams, however whenever it came to the LAN event, they either underperformed or didn't show up. This has raised a lot of discussion in the community whether they have something to hide at LAN or not. This time it will be interesting to watch an AWP battle between ChrisJ and Skadoodle. Will Mousesports deny all the rumours recently spread about their team?
Who do you think is going to win Electronic Sports World Cup 2014? Let us know in the comments below.
NiP image by Kelly Kline and ESL, CPH Wolves image by Patrick Strack and ESL, ChrisJ image from his facebook.
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