It's about halftime in the qualification for the US$250,000 CS:GO tournament at EMS One Katowice. The first round of qualifiers in all regions are finished, with only the second set of qualifiers in CIS and Poland left before we know 50% of the regional finalists. Let's take a look at what happened in Germany and the United Kingdom this weekend and who managed to shine next to favorites like mousesports and fm! TOXIC.
Germany: mouz to pass their first test
As the new ESL Pro Series 2014 has not yet started, many of the lineups and teams in the first German qualifier were completely new. Three teams made it through the first cup without losing a game to join mousesports. These teams have some players you may be familiar with, such as 10 with stavros and TORNADOTONI, Wild Fire with qk-Mantis and mnL or EYES ON U with KRAEUTERHUMPEN and four of the former EnRo players.
"What about Team Alternate, Playing Ducks e.V. or EnRo GRIFFINS?" you may ask. Well, they didn't do too well in the first qualifier. Both Alternate (vs. MTF) and the ducks (vs. mouz) got eliminated in the third round while EnRo (vs. vin), fielding a completely new team, dropped out in round two. All of them really need to play a perfect second cup or lose the chance to be part of German Finals. With MTF, dotpiXels and some other rising teams, this could be much easier said than done.
German Qualifier #1 - Brackets
United Kingdom: fm! TOXIC made it
UK's favorite team fm! TOXIC qualified for the regional finals, bringing down all their rivals. As such, their focus can now shift towards preparing for the Finals. Other teams were not so lucky. TLM beat out Rasta.Xd in the second round while wilzooo and RattlesnK will have to prove themselves in the second cup if they want to take the stage at the regional finals. Joining the teams who qualified are CRG and myXMG, who can take the regional finals as a chance to prove their skills and maybe surprise the bigger names.
The EMS One Katowice Qualification continues!
Tonight the signups for the second qualifiers in Poland and CIS are closing, with the cups starting tomorrow evening. We'll give you the updates on which teams are taking part and what streams to watch tomorrow afternoon!
