With the group stages of the CS:GO Champions League done and dusted, things once again reverted to normalcy as far as the standings were concerned. Team Virtus.Pro.CS from Poland, who had lost their number one spot to Natus Vincere, used their advantage of having played lesser matches than their counterparts from Ukraine to take the number one spot. As we mentioned earlier, Natus Vincere, although unbeaten in the group stages, went to the top of the table simply because Virtus.Pro.CS had played a lesser number of matches. Therefore, once the team from Poland played out their allotted number of matches, the number one spot was once again retained by the Poles. At the end of the group stages, the points table portrayed the following picture:
- No.1: Virtus.Pro.CS with 17 points (9 matches played, 5 wins, 2 draws, and 2 losses).
- No.2: Natus Vincere with 15 points (9 matches played, 3 wins, 6 draws, and 0 losses).
- No.3: HR.CS with 14 points (9 matches played, 4 wins, 2 draws, and 3 losses).
- No.4: FlipSid3 with 14 points (9 matches played, 4 wins, 2 draws, and 3 losses).
- No.5: Property CS with 13 points (9 matches played, 3 wins, 4 draws, and 2 losses).
- No.6: Gamers2 with 11 points (9 matches played, 2 wins, 5 draws, and 2 losses).
- No.7: dig.CS with 11 points (9 matches played, 2 wins, 5 draws, and 2 losses).
- No.8: CPH Wolves with 9 points (9 matches played, 1 win, 6 draws, and 2 losses).
*The bottom two teams, mouz.CS and PENTA Spor dropped out of the tournament deciding to concentrate their efforts on other tournaments. As per change in the regulations, the top 8 teams progressed to the playoffs as compared to the earlier top 6 team progression rule.
CS:GO Champions League: The Playoffs
As per the rules of the tournament, the top 2 teams progressed to the 2nd Round of the Playoffs while the remaining 6 teams had to compete in the 1st Round. The start of the playoffs had some really exciting match ups with no team allowing the other an inch of breathing space. Match 1 of the Round 1 of the playoffs was held between FlipSid3 and Gamers2 on the 2nd of June. The best of 3 contest saw the two teams battle it out first at
de_cache. Here, FlipSid3, playing as terrorists first, won the round 8 to 7. As the two teams switched, the gap between the teams increased and FlipSid3 comfortably won the second round 8 to 5, with a total score of 16 to 12.
The second match of the playoffs was contested between HellRaiser CS and SK Gaming CS on the 3rd of June. The first of the best of 3 game was held at de_overpass and what a contest it turned out to be. Team HR played as Terrorists first, winning that round quite easily with a score of 9 to 6. As the teams switched, however, the tables turned quite dramatically with SK winning the round 6 to 1. As no result could be obtained by then, the match went into overtime and SK gaming showed great nerve to come out on the top with
a score of 9(T) to 6(CT).
If the first game between the two sides was an evenly matched contest, the second game was anything but a vicious war. Played at de_dust2, Team HR, playing as terrorists first, lost with an embarrassing score of 3 to 12. As the match progressed, the 3 round wins that HR managed to obtain remained the same. The score at the end of the match read for a one sided contest at 16 wins (SK) to 3 wins (HR).
Rules and Prize Money
The CS:GO Champions League includes comprises of a total of 10 teams and a single group. The top 6 ranked teams progress on to the Playoffs. The teams ranked 1st and 2nd at the end of the group stages get to play in the 2nd round of the Playoffs. In the Playoffs, 6 teams compete with only the top 3 making it. The teams progressing to the Grand Finale play 5 matches in a best of 5 scenario, with a 1 map advantage.
The prize pool for the event is a $30,000; however, individual team pay-outs have not been revealed as yet.
Rankings:
Although the world rankings table continued largely in the same vein, with team Fnatic maintaining their position as the number 1 ranked team in the world, the race for the top spot has heated quite a bit. The Swedes are leading the table with a total of 1475 points, compared to 2nd ranked Team Solomid’s 1473 points. The tiny 2 point gap that exists between the two teams is down to Team Solomid’s series of excellent performances in June, which saw the Danes win 9 matches in a row before losing to EnVyUs.