What happened in groups C and D?
Perhaps the biggest upset in Group C was the elimination of team MOUZ, the defending champions from ESL Pro League Season 20. Given last year’s success as well as this year’s victory over BetBoom Dacha Belgrade 2024, almost everyone was confident in them being able to secure the #1 seed. The cracks in their performance had started to appear quite early as they conceded a map in their first match against Team Roosters, followed by a 0-2 loss to Imperial Esports and a heartbreaking elimination at the hands of Team Complexity in the Lower Bracket Final. Overall, apart from Team Complexity, M80, Imperial Esports and BIG secured their spot in the Playoffs.
On the other hand, Group D played out quite as expected, with Team Vitality blasting through the Upper Bracket, only conceding one map to Team Liquid in the final. After all, they won this year’s most recent IEM Cologne 2024 - with ZywOo in peak form, they look poised to win ESL Pro League Season 20 itself! Apart from Team Vitality, Team Liquid, Virtus.pro and FURIA Esports have bagged the seeds for Group D, also moving on to the Playoffs!
Looking Ahead: The Playoffs
With the top four seeds of each group in hand, the Playoff bracket was constructed as follows: First, the top seed of each group (Team Vitality, M80, G2 Esports and Natus Vincere), having been undefeated across the Group Stages, received byes to the quarterfinals and were placed in each of the four sides of the bracket at random. Then, the second seed of each group (Eternal Fire, MIBR, Team Liquid, Imperial Esports), having lost only one out of three matches in the Group Stages, was placed in the second round of the Playoffs, each side randomly.
Finally, the remaining teams, finding themselves in the third or fourth seed, were pitted against each other through random draws to battle their way to the top! The Playoffs will commence tomorrow on the 17th of September, 2024, and we will be there, covering all the major developments!
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