With Insomnia63 concluded and with it the UK Masters CSGO event, Radix Esports owner Michael “afro” Todner looks back on how Team Endpoint claimed first place.
First off, it’s key to note that a number of EU teams that were rumored to be attending pulled out last minute, whether this was due to roster changes or perhaps the prize pool breakdown is unknown, but we have an interview with Imperial coach NeilM coming later that will break down everything on that matter.
Despite the usual group format, the decision to go with a Swiss format was taken for this event, meaning that teams had to win at least three BO1 games to make it to bracket play. Everyone played 6 games, with the matches at the latter end of the day determining seeds for the bracket.
BO1’s do have a tendency to lead to upsets and close games. That certainly happened with Fierce Esports taking down the Business 5 mix team, as well as almost taking down the Fnatic Academy team.
On a positive note, all of the one-to-watch UK teams listed in our i63 CSGO preview article made it through. In the end it was Team Unique however who took the perfect 6:0 record as well as taking 1st seed going into the bracket play.
You can find the final standings for the Swiss stage here.
For a change, the playoffs (excluding the first round) were on HLTV, which the Russian team Unique especially liked. Meaning you could keep up to date with the tournament a lot easier as well as being able to watch back the GOTV demo’s for the top 8, which we’ll break down here:
5th-8th: CeX, Fierce Esports, Cat345 & Devious
With no lower bracket to fall back on, we saw four hopeful UK teams bow out in the second round of the playoffs. Overall, the games in this round were quite one-sided on a surface level with everyone except Cat345 being 2-0’d.
However, it should be said that Cat345’s map was a default after Team Unique had the map taken away from them due to being found cheating. It was discovered that one of the players was monitoring HLTV while in game. This obviously gives an unfair advantage in terms of being able to get an exact understanding of the opponents’ economical state, as well as a multitude of other factors.
3rd-4th: Fnatic Academy & Team Unique
Despite the two European teams being strong favourites going into the tournament, they were both unable to make the final. Team Unique ultimately fell 2-0 to the UK powerhouse, Team Endpoint, who seemed to be in control of the series at all times.
The series between Fnatic Academy and the Business 5 was a bit closer, with Fnatic Academy taking a map from the Business 5. While a 3rd/4th place finishing is definitely respectable and something to be proud of, I’m sure both of these teams hoped to make the final.
Finals: Team Endpoint & Business 5
Having an all-UK final is definitely something we want to see at an event with EU competition and we got that in the form of Endpoint vs Business 5 in a BO5. It was a very competitive series with two maps going the entire 30 rounds.
However, Endpoint closed out the series with a huge 16-4 win on Mirage, ending the series 3-1.
Reaction: Endpoint player Luzuh
I managed to catch up with the Endpoint AWP player, Joe “Luzuh” Loose, after their win.
Afro/ENUK: First of all, congratulations on the win in the UKMasters CS:GO event. Would you say the event overall went as expected for you guys?
Luzuh: Cheers! Overall, I’d say it went well… we went into the event expecting top 2 at a minimum after our extended boot camp. Once we saw the bracket and our route to the final, it gave us lots of confidence as we were very sure we would make the final.
Would you say there were any standout performances from the event in terms of other teams or just individuals?
In terms of individual performances it probably doesn’t come as a surprise that KioShiMa topped the stats for the event as a whole and was a huge factor for their success. In terms of teams, I feel as though there weren’t many upsets and the results went mostly as I would have predicted before the event, other than maybe CAT losing to Unique.
Moving on from this event, what are your plans for the team? Both online and LAN?
Our current plans are to make sure that we secure Mountain Dew League (MDL) and to play out the season with the aim of playoffs but a minimum of keeping our spot for the next season. Alongside MDL we will just play HLTV cups and events we get invited to.
Lastly, is there anyone you’d like to thank or shoutout for helping with this weekend?
Firstly I would like to thank Team Endpoint for supporting us throughout and of course I would like to thanks the sponsors that made all of this possible: ASUS ROG, Overclockers, noblechairs, NAU and Raven. Special shoutout to Soylent for providing us with the use of their products, dietician and performance coach.
Read more: Team Endpoint interview after i63 win: ‘Having a dietitian and performance coach is a huge asset and I hope it eventually becomes the norm’
Read more i63 coverage from Esports News UK here
Image source: @jakhowardphoto / Flickr
