Following four days and twenty-four matches, the stage has been set for the Grand Finals to take place on Saturday and Sunday. After group play, the Top 8 teams automatically qualified for the Grand Finals, but any team placed 9th - 24th returned for the Elimination Stage on Friday.
The Elimination Stage presented teams with their last opportunity to re-join the previously qualified teams, waiting in the Grand Finals. Once again, the Top 8 teams after the best-of-six matches escape this Elimination Stage and advance to the Grand Finals. This gives us our 16 teams for the Grand Finals, where scores will be reset to zero and the two-day, 12 match final will commence.
First, let’s look at the teams that qualified with their extraordinary performance during group play. After three days of group play, these were the Top 8 teams that qualified directly for the Grand Finals.
Over twelve group play matches, NIP was one of two teams that collected three chicken dinners. Displaying a 25% win percentage isn’t a bad recipe for success, being a team that can frag on top of that is even better. I’m very excited to see how NIP does in the Grand Finals, with scores reset to zero it will be interesting to see if they have another fast start.
The pride and joy of every North American fanboy put together an impressive first day during group play. Grabbing back-to-back wins in Rounds 3 and 4, paired with 16 and 10 kills in each round, catapulted the squad into first after day one. WIth my NA bias aside, I really like the attitude STK has entering the Grand Finals where I expect them to keep things rolling.
A team that is naturally under the radar for anyone who primarily keeps up with NPL and PEL teams, really demanded everyone’s attention during group play. Displaying an aggressive yet organized playstyle, VSG’s first day could be summarized with “feast or famine”. They placed in either the top three or dead last through their first six rounds. They found consistency during their group’s second day, placing ahead of both Team Liquid and Ninjas in Pyjamas.
Afreeca Freecs Fatal or AAF displayed a solid and consistent performance in back-to-back days. AAF earned themselves a spot in the Grand Finals with 46 points in day one and 51 points in day two. The team appears to prefer circle positioning over chasing kills, and it’s hard to argue that it isn’t a great strategy. I’ll be paying more attention to their movement during the finals.
Team Liquid, for whatever reason, starts off strong and then begins fading as the day proceeds. After grabbing the first victory of group play, they placed 11th, 5th, 7th, 16th, and 16th in the remaining rounds. During day two, they began the day placing second with eleven kills. In the second match, they were able to grab another victory along with fifteen kills. After two monster rounds, they finished the remaining rounds as follows: 6th, 14th, 9th, 15th. Now, they still managed to make it to the Grand Finals, placing fifth overall. But, if they are somehow able to maintain their early success, I like Team Liquid to take it all.
A familiar team to most competitive PUBG fans, Four Angry Men placed sixth overall after two days of group play. In day one they were able to win two of the six rounds played, which is impressive considering Four Angry Men is a team that always finds kill points. Day one carried the team for the most part because their second day of group play wasn’t as great. Apart from their massive final match during Round 12, the team didn’t place higher than 7th. Thankfully, they're a team you’ll find in the kill feed constantly.
The NPL Phase One champs found themselves coming up just short of a first-place finish multiple times during group play. Fortunately for them, the team is compiled of four aggressive players willing to make up the points with kills. Points from Kills accounted for 66% of the team’s point total. Of course, it would have been nice to see Tempo Storm win a match through these twelve rounds, but with the high placements and kills combined they had no issue claiming a spot in the Grand Finals.
I was excited to learn more about Armory Gaming during the tournament, but honestly, I wasn’t expecting to see them in the Grand Finals. The Thailand team qualified for the Global Summit as one of the three teams from the South East Asia region. They proved themselves during day two of group play after a rough start on day one. For example, Armory Gaming exited their first day near the bottom of the scoreboard with only 18 points. The next day they flipped a switch, winning one round and placing in the top three, four times. This was good enough for 59 points, practically erasing their rough first day.
The remaining teams began play on Friday to decide who would advance into the Finals, with everyone aiming to place within the top eight. After six matches, the leaderboard presented the remaining teams to appear in this weekend’s Grand Finals.
Here’s a look at those eight teams that escaped the Elimination Stage:
After a strong start in group play, many expected 17 Gaming to be one of the eight teams avoiding the Elimination Stage. Sadly, they were unable to continue their momentum and struggled in day two. This resulted in the team barely missing the cut by three points, sending them into the Elimination Stage where they proceeded to dominate the remaining teams and advance to the Grand Finals. There wasn’t much concern that this team would be eliminated, but they really put on a show during Friday’s matches.
We all know Envy has the firepower to compete with the best of them, they’ve proven during NPL that their one of the premier NA squads. So it was relieving to watch them remind everyone what their capable of during the Elimination Stage. They began Friday’s matches with back-to-back chicken dinners quickly launching themselves atop of the leaderboard.
Entus Force turned it on late to climb up the leaderboard on the back half of matches, winning Round 4 and placing third in Round 6. They are another team that loves to third party fights, stealing kill points adding to their solid placements.
Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi! The boys representing the only team from the Oceania region grabbed a win in Round 5 to go along with a solid performance otherwise. It was great to see the team move on into the Grand Finals, and see as to how they’ve traveled across the globe for this opportunity, I wouldn’t count them out during these finals.
The OP Gaming Rangers were a team being watched throughout the final match of the Elimination Stage. They were essentially a team on the bubble heading into the sixth and final match of the day. The PUBG gods were kind enough to give them a Military circle after they decided to drop there, and OP Gaming took full advantage of this. They quickly looted Base and moved into a great spot as teams stormed the bridges and beach. While they could have remained relatively quiet with this circle luck, they decided to aggressively pursue other teams, quickly gaining the Kill Points necessary to surpass ENCE and other teams around the elimination mark. They won the final game, solidifying their spot in the Grand Finals.
Cloud9 started the Elimination Stage towards the top of the leaderboard, sitting relatively comfortable considering there were ten other teams closer to elimination. The team seemed to struggle to put themselves in favorable positions, but that didn’t stop them from getting their kills. Of their 34 points scored during this stage, 28 came from kills. That’s 82% of their points, strangely they found placement points in one one of the six matches. It wasn’t an ideal day, but they had to be more worried about making it to the finals, where all scores will be reset anyways.
Largely due to a solid final game, Winstrike was able to put themselves into the finals by consistently placing above that crucial eight place position. Today they weren’t a team that racked up a ton of kills, but instead placed just good enough to outlast the late push from teams on the bubble.
Aerowolf 1 was a team moving in the wrong direction throughout the six matches Friday. It shouldn’t have been this close for the team, but credit to the teams around them for making it interesting as the games dwindled.
The Elimination Stage came down to a final chaotic match, intensified by the teams sliding in and out of qualification around the eighth-place position. One team that many were surprised to see not qualify, was ENCE. A team that burst onto the scene during PEL Kick Off, dominating the talent-packed lobby, grabbing an invite to the Global Summit, and also took home the first place prize of $75,000. Whereas Winstrike, the fourth and final team invited from PEL Kick Off, managed to evade elimination and sneak into this weekend’s Grand Final. Unfortunately, ENCE fell victim to a horrendous final circle, as did many other teams. The first phase popped Military causing the early game scramble to either cross via boat or roll the dice on one of two bridges. It may have been this final match that decided their fate, but the opportunity was there in the previous five matches. While I wouldn’t have predicted this premature elimination, I can’t say there is any cause for concern.
Another team with high expectations was OMG, the Chinese organization that claimed victory at the first-ever PUBG Global Invitational last year, where they raked in $430,000 in prize winnings. Knowing this team had been successful on the global stage previously, many expected a similar performance in London. After the Elimination Stage, OMG placed 16th with the lowest point total across all 24 teams. It will be interesting to see if any changes are made before the next phase because while they were strong enough to make it to London, things couldn’t come together when they needed it most.
Saturday acts as a fresh start for each of the sixteen qualified teams, tune into the FaceIt: Global Summit to see who will be crowned the new world champion.
