The groups started at 10.00 CET already with Group A where mTw and MYM were the big favorites. Not much happened as all the matches were played really quickly until the big clash between mTw and MYM on de_train. MYM couldn't really convince yet with their new lineup looking a bit uncoordinated sometimes losing with 12-16, but still advancing.

Group B featured SK Gaming and with GamePlay canceling their participation, two teams from the BYOC tournament were thrown into this group. blank qualified the day before with the BYOC tournament and are also trying out their new player Jimmy 'Jumpy' Berndtsson for the future. The first upset was caused here with the EvilZone mix team beating blank on de_inferno with a close 16-14.

Shortly after SK devastated EvilZone on de_nuke 16-0, qualifying for the play-offs. But, they were still up to play blank on de_train and to quote Andreas "bds" Thorstensson, "Snajdan can read SK very well probably" and it turned out in their favor. blank played a great Terrorist side leading with 10-5 and finishing SK off with 16-7. SK, however, advanced as the first placed team with only one round difference to blank.

Group C followed at 18.00 CET and was almost as exciting as Group A with the two favorites being fnatic and Giants slaughtering their opponents. The Norwegian team of Spelarenan didn't get a single round losing 16-0 twice to fnatic and Giants and then gave up to PlayZone afterwards. PlayZone didn't stand a chance either against their Swedish rivals so it was down to the final match between fnatic and Giants. With the map being de_train it was thought to favour fnatic more, but Giants (former LANKLAN) have been strong in the recent months, already defeating fnatic earlier this year.

It was a really close match but fnatic won with 16-13 in the end, advancing to the play-offs from the first place and facing blank while SK will play Giants.

Group D was a bit more exciting, as expected, with mousesports and Made in Brazil as favorites, but also K1ck from Portugal and ESC Gaming which qualified from the BYOC tournament having experienced EPS.de players in it. Mousesports and mibr won both of their opening matches against ESC and k1ck. In the second match, ESC gave mibr a hard time as the Germans lost with only 14-16 on de_nuke. Again it was down to the big match between mousesports and Made in Brazil which delayed for more than an hour due to computer problems.

It was a pretty fast match caused by a great Counter-Terrorist side of mibr on de_train. Mousesports didn't seem to get into the game, even losing an eco of mibr and not getting a single round afterwards going into the second half with 2-13. Made in Brazil executed a delayed inner rush where only one mousesports player was, leaving the mice unable to retake the site. Being very low on money after an eco, mousesports had lost the last round overall losing with 16-2.

Play-offs on Saturday, 10.00 CET

mTw vs mousesports
fnatic vs Blank
SK Gaming vs Giants
Made in Brazil vs MYM

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Photo by Fragbite