First big surprise of this round, minipeace lost 7/0 7/0 5/0 against TNT! For the record they were only 4 players but still, they could have won a round or two in the whole match...
The next round will be decisive for minipeace, but we honestly don't see how they can win against Replica and TNT cannot win 3/0 against Speed|Up...
In the other match, Speed|Up forfeited against Replica.

SPW managed to resist in the first map, then they collapsed against the favourite 711: 7/5 5/0 7/0.

No more matches in this group.

The russian team iF made a very good operation by beating Saw 3/0 after an extremely close match on every map: 5/4 7/6 7/5.
The french players must be really disappointed as they saw their chances of qualifications vanishing with this really severe defeat. If they still want the qualification, they have to win 3/0 against dacSP with a large round difference (>=9) and pray that iF loses 3/0 against RtA.
RtA is going on with its landslide victory 7/2 7/0 5/0 against dacSP [1], from whom we expected quite more.


 

Insight and WOS fought for the second place of the group, and the french team eventually won this tight match: 7/4 7/6 5/2 and is now almost sure to go in play-offs, as they will meet FOXSkill in the last round.
And the portuguese team didn't show up, defwin for Lions...

Only one match here, and one forfeit of TOX... Saphire will finish 1st.

Two matches, two defwins... Demon defwin vs RAGE and moreDimension defwin vs MaDrivers. Notice that Demon forfeited its two matches and MaDrivers didn't play a single match because of defwins.

3DMAX made quick work against Worm, 7/1 7/0 5/0.
The interesting match in this group was SL vs eXclamation!, and after their demonstration against the french team, eXclamation! punched down the favourite again: 4/5 7/1 7/3. SL just managed in extremis to take the multilap map.
Now, 3DMAX has no other choice than winning against SL if they want to go in play-offs. It is going to be a really hard task.

Remake of group 7, two defwin. We already knew that eVolutions retired, but eQ showed up with only 3 players against [GL].

mX slaughtered WIRC 7/0 7/0 5/0, and vms retired of the tournament, defwin for eE. The last match between eEriness and WIRC will decide which team is going to the play-offs.

Easy win for eSuba against tr., 7/0 7/0 5/0. The polish team is thus eliminated, and the last match eSuba vs gOd will be the decider for the 1st place.

Only one match, and one defwin of pro, which is out of the competiton now, against Infused. Like in the previous group, the last match Infused vs  dacSP [2] will be the decider for the 1st place.

Both matches are delayed, Dementes vs DFF tonight and DDp vs wX wednesday, we will update this article as soon as the results are known.
Up: Dementes couldn't gather enough players for tonight's match, defwin for DFF.
Up2: Same thing in the other match, DDp had just one player...

The one and only match of the group will take place in round 3.

The match for the second place between IR: and ANE was undecided until the very end, 1 map for each side and 5/4 in the last map for IR:! Final score: 0/7 7/5 5/4.

Both teams wanted to play their match in this round instead of round 3 as planned. Logic result, 5/0 7/1 7/1 for acer.

11 defwins in 20 matches!! WTF?! We really don't get it... Because of the MTT and TMA? Because of a serious lack of motivation of the smallest teams?
Come on guys, if you want to improve your level, you must participate in this kind of tournament and play against stronger teams than you. It's not by doing fun matches with teams of the same level that you will level up your skill...
Sure it's reassuring and good for the mental to win matches, however if you want to reach a nice level you can't stick with this attitude. Be brave, face the destiny and the hardest defeats, you will only be more motivated after!

GER vs BEL: Belgium put on a good show only until the end of the first map: 7/4 7/1 5/0 for Germany.

FRA vs BRA: The french were completely merciless: 7/3 7/0 5/0.

We are now 99% sure that France and Germany will finish at the first two places of this group. Belgium can take the opportunity to beat Brasil and reach the 3d place even if it seems highly unlikely.

PL vs AUT: Forfeit of Austria...

FI vs UA: The Finnish team is back! 7/1 7/0 5/1 against Ukrainia. Poland be worried about the 3d place!

SVK vs CZE: THE match of this round between the best teams of this group, fighting for the first place! With players really trained, as we saw during the ESWC Cup, it was very intense.
The deadly duo tween/ HakkiJr eventually gave the victory to its team after a really close match: 5/7 7/5 5/3.

Our pronostics last week were quite wrong, and after two rounds, we can now tell that the first two places will probably be for Slovakia and Czech Republic, if they keep the same level of motivation. And the third place is still undecided between Finland and Poland.

NOR vs NED: Weird match, because the best Dutch players were not able to show up for this match, due to ESWC Qualifications ( Spam won it btw). Norway had thus the opportunity to take advantage of the situation by taking 2 or 3 points. Indeed, they won 7/1 5/7 5/2 and are now totally back in the running for the 2nd or 3d place!

PT vs LT: What are doing the Portuguese?! Lithuania is supposed to be the less better team of this group, so Portugal had to take the 3 points if it still wanted a place in relegations.
However, Etu and his teammates claimed the first map 7/6, caughting the Portuguese off guard. Even if they won the last two maps easily, wh1sper and co. only have themselves to blame for not going home with 3 points. 6/7 7/2 5/0.

ITA vs ESP: We expected a battle for the win between both teams, but it was a one-way match for Italy. Having three players ( Beppo, Extreme, Remix) extremely trained for the ESWC Cup the afternoon before the match must have helped them: 7/1 5/0 7/2.

Spain and Lithuania are out for the relegations, and it is going to be difficult for Portugal to take the 3d place since Norway beat the first seed. At the top, Italy and Netherlands are really above the average level of the group.

EE vs TUR: After their good show against Russia, we were expecting a Turkish victory. But heyneken and his teammates dediced otherwise and won this match 2/1: 7/3 4/7 5/0.

HUN vs RUS: The big game of this group with both candidates of the 2nd place, went the way of the Hungarians despite a strong resistance of Gamble and co.
The result is severe: 5/3 7/3 7/6, 0 point for Russia which was however slightly favourite.

SWE vs CAN: The Swedish steamroller again and again: 7/2 7/4 5/1.

With Estonia and Turkey neutralizing each other, Russia and Hungary should respectively take the 3d and 2nd place.