Another week means another set of 2k tournaments, and teams from the APAC and EU regions were ready to get their fill of pro points this weekend.
Here’s a breakdown of the action for both the APAC tournament, held from Saturday into Sunday EST, and the EU tournament.
Asia/Pacific CWL 2K
With one tournament behind these sides and a long way to go until their first LAN to shine, the APAC region had a rather interesting 2k, especially with the new Tainted Minds squad ready to pounce.
Speaking of that squad, it was a very tough tournament to be a fan of the side if you don’t like having heart attacks, as it took three straight game fives for this side to be crowned the champion of the APAC region.
Other than that, the tournament was all chalk by the time the semifinals happened, but there was an interesting side story to note…
And before we look into that, because of the lack of teams in this 2k (under 40 teams were involved in total), we’ll be looking at the action solely from the quarterfinals onwards.
Notable Teams Out of the Top-Eight
Both UnVeiL NoVa and Diversity, two top-nine teams heading into this tournament, were knocked out by a semi-pro side under the name “Esdhee is a Host Lord” in the second and third rounds respectively. While Diversity was closer to the top-eight, they were swept out of the tournament by this semi-pro side, while NoVa had to be taken to a game five before they went down.
UnVieIl NoVa will still get 200 pro points per player, and Diversity will get double that, however this upset definitely put a huge hole in the gap between these two sides and RamPaGe Gaming in seventh place.
I unfortunately did not have time to get Esdhee or his side for a quick comment, but this is how I imagine they felt after taking down two ranked APAC sides in one tournament:
The Problem With the APAC Tournament
While this does feel like a feel-good moment for an amateur side, there is one huge issue with this entire storyline:
Remember how every pro, and their mothers, were complaining about under-18 players in matches? Well guess what? That Esdhee side had exactly that.
It was a stupid mistake playing the 2k today Never should’ve done it sry to all the teams that didn’t receive their pro points because of me
— Ben (@khaslz) January 15, 2017
Now I’m not going to knock the skill of this side. For being U-18, they clearly showed that they can hang with the best of them, and I honestly would have enjoyed seeing them in more tournaments if they were of the legal age.
However, this entire situation once again exposed a fatal flaw with the current pro point system that needs to be fixed by MLG. Having no way to enforce an age rule leads to not only players receiving illegal wins that bolster their pro points, but it also has them missing out on pro points if they lose to an U-18 side in a 2k tournament.
This U-18 issue definitely has to be explored in a seperate article, but make the age issue in Call of Duty a takeaway from this tournament rather than a side getting a few pro points.
Quarterfinals
#1 Tainted Minds 3 – 2 #9 The Chiefs eSports Club
#4 Mindfreak 3 – 0 #5 Awafi
#3 #soon (Ex-Tainted Minds) 3 – 2 #6 RamPaGe Gaming
#2 eXcellence Gaming 3 – 0 #26 Esdhee is a Host Lord
Semifinals
#1 Tainted Minds 3 – 2 #4 MindFreak
#2 eXcellence 3 – 1 #3 #soon
Finals
#1 Tainted Minds 3 – 2 #2 eXcellence
Final Standings
1st Place (2000 Points)
- Tainted Minds
2nd Place (1200 Points)
- eXcellence Gaming
3rd/4th Place (800 Points)
- Mindfreak
- #soon
5th-8th Place (600 Points)
- The Chiefs eSports Club
- Esdhee Is A Host Lord
- RamPaGe Gaming
- Awafi
European CWL 2K
With the GFinity cut-off period approaching quickly, the best EU sides are grinding like no tomorrow to qualify in one of those 16 spots. In the end, it was all chalk that wound up in the top-four, with Elevate upsetting #1 team Orbit, and Splyce taking home not only the 2k title, but the new #1 spot in the EU.
Here is the full action from the round-of-16 onwards.
Notable Teams out of the Top-16
Millenium Esports – Lost to 2k Pickups in the round-of-32
PuLse – Lost to FAB Games in the round-of-32
Solution Gaming – Lost to Cyclone in the round-of-32
Round-of-16
#1 Orbit 3 – 1 #16 Toto & Harry
#8 Aware 3 – 0 #9 hey hey (endurAAA’s team)
#5 4v4 (Skrapz’s team) 3 – 1 #21 2k Pickups
#4 Elevate 3 – 0 #13 FAB Games
#3 Infused 3 – 1 #14 Cyclone
#11 Epsilon 3 – 0 #6 Supremacy
#7 >Nice (Niall’s Team) 3 – 0 #10 Black Forest
#2 Splyce 3 – 0 #18 2k2k (Swanny’s Team)
Quarterfinals
#1 Orbit 3 – 1 #8 Aware
#4 Elevate 3 – 1 #5 4v4
#3 Infused 3 – 1 #11 Epsilon
#2 Splyce 3 – 2 #7 >Nice
Semifinals
#4 Elevate 3 – 1 #1 Orbit
#2 Splyce 3 – 1 #3 Infused
Finals
#2 Splyce 3 – 0 #4 Elevate
Final Standings
1st Place (2000 Points)
- Splyce
2nd Place (1200 Points)
- Elevate
3rd/4th Place (800 Points)
- Orbit
- Infused
5th-8th Place (600 Points)
- Niall’s Team
- Skrapz’s Team
- Epsilon
- Aware
9th-16th Place (400 Points)
- Swanny’s Team
- endurAAA’s Team
- Black Forest
- Supremacy
- Cyclone
- FAB Games
- 2k Pickups
- toto & harry
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James Mattone is a journalist for GAMURS and can be contacted on Twitter –@TheJamesMattone.
