Season two of TBS’ ELEAGUE Counter-Strike competition is here, with the European closed qualifier kicking off yesterday.
The tournament sees some of the world’s best European teams compete against squads that qualified through the open qualifiers, to determine which of the 16 teams will earn one of the four spots in the $1.4 million league. Based at the Turner studios in Atlanta, the main league kicks off next month.
G2 Esports secured an easy victory over the ironically named Walkovers side. Walkovers secured their spot in the qualifier by defeating eSuba in the final European open on Monday, but the Danish side was clearly no match for the French team. G2 go on to face Polish outfit Kinguin today in a do-or-die match, to decide which side qualifies for ELEAGUE. Kinguin emerged with a 2-1 victory in their first round matchup against Tricked Esports. G2 are no doubt the favorites for today’s showdown, but they must be wary of the second-best team out of Poland behind Virtus Pro.
Team Dignitas also secured a victory in round one. The side took down Kazakh lineup Tengri 2-1, after a surprising performance from their relatively unknown opponents. Their relief from the win is only temporary as they prepare to face a high flying Gambit Gaming today. Gambit had no problems against Swedish side Passions and look to pick up where they left off earlier in the year, when they looked like potential tier one candidates at the majors.
Lithuanian side Xpresive Club gave FaZe Clan a run when they took the opening game in dominating fashion, but the heavy favourites FaZe came back to secure a victory, and to set up a fixture against Hellraisers. The Ukrainians haven’t been in the best form recently, and FaZe certainly go into the tie as favourites. New pick up Aleksi “Allu” Jalli will have to ensure he’s on form if FaZe are to progress without a worry.
The final matchup of the day featured what is perhaps now one of the best teams on the planet. Godsent, after their shocking roster swap with Fnatic, had no issues dispatching Norwegian side Deadweight and will look to ensure a quick and easy ELEAGUE qualification by toppling Alternate Attax. The German side took a surprise victory over Flipsid3 in the first round, but defeating Godsent will be an immensely tougher task.
