The final eight for EPICENTER LAN event have been confirmed, with the conclusion of the wild card competition earlier today.
Newbee, Fnatic, compLexity Gaming and No Diggity won their regional battles at the end of March to qualify for the wild card competition, where the last two spots in the main event at EPICENTER were up for grabs.
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Born out of the high ambition of becoming one of the best tournaments outside Valve’s sponsored circuit, and not just in terms of the $500,000 prize pool, EPICENTER is on track to deliver just that. Day one production went smoothly, and for the first time in a very long period the games started on time and the day progressed without any significant delays. Players and personalities alike present in Moscow had praise for the organizers, and judging from the first pictures shared on their social media, the main event will be a blast. Which makes it even more of a pity for the two teams eliminated today at the end of the GSL group stage of the wild card that they won't be there.
The recently rejigged Fnatic played today for the first time since the Shanghai Major with their captain Chai 'Mushi' Yee Fung in the carry role, but couldn’t claim victory in any of their best of three game series. They first tasted defeat at the hands of No Diggity having started the series with a 1-0 game score lead, and then lost again to compLexity Gaming, which puts them at the bottom of the group.
No Diggity were the second team eliminated from the group and will have to watch the main event from the spectator’s seats. Their adventure in Moscow started with a series against Fnatic that ended with a 2-1 score in favor of Troels 'syndereN' Nielsen’s squad. However, in the next matchup they had to face a reinvented Newbee roster that had no issues securing the clean 2-0 win.
Fighting for the last qualifying spot, coL and No Diggity faced each other in the last series of the day, where the NA squad had a very strong performance to emerge victorious.
Newbee and compLexity will continue their EPICENTER run starting tomorrow with the group stages. The final eight teams have been divided into two groups of four and will be playing in a best of three GSL style to determine the seedings for the playoffs bracket. Top two teams from each group will start from the upper bracket slots while the bottom two will fight from the lower bracket.
The Invincibles from Newbee, who broke the winning streak record for official games today, have been placed in Group B and will face off against Team Secret in their first match.
Group stage matches are set to commence tomorrow, 10th of April at 09:00 CEST and will still be played behind closed doors. Both groups will start simultaneously and the entire series will be broadcast live.
Group A day one schedule:
09:00 CEST OG vs Alliance
13:00 CEST Team Liquid vs compLexity
17:00 CEST TBD vs TBD (group A winners match)
Group B day one schedule:
09:00 CEST Evil Geniuses vs Virtus.Pro
13:00 CEST Team Secret vs Newbee
17:00 CEST TBD vs TBD (group B winners match)
title image courtesy of EPICENTER
