The group stage will be played with four groups, each consisting of five teams, first and second from each group will advance to the playoffs. The pools got announced last week and today ESWC reveal the groups.
Group AThe teams have been spread out nicely and group a should be counted as "group of death". It’s notable that only two teams advance from each group.fnatic
Made in Brazil
dimension4
Spirit of Amiga
roccat
Group BMYM
mousesports
nEophyte
Group Ce-STRO
Evil Geniuses
DCC
Group DHellway
x6tence
fnatic seem to put in a difficult group. Up against Spirit of Amiga, who eliminated them at Extreme Masters II finals, roccat the runner up at WGT DreamHack and Made in Brazil, last team is the French team dimension4.
Once again mousesports and Alternate ended up in the same group, which we have seen a few times before now, they be fighting against defending ESWC champs from MYM, aAa and nEophyte.
Last year's runner up from mTw ended up with e-STRO and Evil Geniuses, both of them quite unknown to mTw, as they have never meet. e-STRO latest shocked many by going to the final at Extreme Masters II, Evil Geniuses a rising star? At least if you ask the community, n0thing has grown to rock-star status with his "n0thing but headshots" video, the three will be gainst DCC and Get2Gev.
SK might have gotten the easiest(?) group. Paired with the WCG 2007 champions from emuLate, the remaining teams in group D doesn’t really have the high quality as the SK and emuLate. Will this be a walk in the park for SK and emuLate, or will one or more of these teams set a surprise?
You can find the group stage in our coverage section, which will be updated non-stop during ESWC Masters. HLTV.org will be in Paris to cover ESWC Masters 4-6th of July. So lock your doors and stay at home, we will be your home during the entire event with HLTV, scorebots, scores, standings, demos and photos.