At each and every tournament in each and every sport on planet Earth there are teams that defy the odds and ‘upset’ their way through to a stage they shouldn’t have. EPIC 43 has been no different with 10th seeded mix, PENJYMIN, beating Annex and Belfast Storm to make the top six or 20th seeded Coalesce Odyssey narrowly missing out on playoffs. But one team especially stands out from the crowd: One Point Six.
The team of experienced players with careers dating back to, you guessed it, Counter-Strike 1.6 are all in their 30s or above and went into the tournament with very few expectations. But through some impressive results and even more impressive gameplay the ‘old boys’ were able to secure a spot in the playoffs.
By achieving this feat, One Point Six became the only team that were not seeded within the top 16 to make the playoffs, which consisted on 16 teams, replacing Stanoski (a mix including former UKCSGO writer Matthew “meffew” Godsell) who were the 16th seed. It was not that One Point Six had an easy road to the playoffs, as in their first game they took top four team, 8Sins, to a 15-15 draw and even beat Stanoski 13-8.
The 25th seed came into the LAN “[just] for fun, [didn’t] have any expectations” as Michael “SPK” Man told UKCSGO in an interview on the first day of competition.
EPIC 43 stands as the largest EPIC.LAN to date with 44 teams signed up, and as such the format for the group stage was changed by Lead Admin, Finn “Mischief” Farrer just prior to the event. Instead of the usual round-robin groups the teams was given a difficulty rating which has been generated according to the teams’ seeding, which is what helps determine matchups. The aim behind the change was to accommodate the increase in teams and, hopefully, make for a more balanced playoff bracket.
In practise, 15 of the top 16 teams that were expected to make it, did which led to some complaints about the format being voiced. This is in contrast to a sport such as as tennis if the seeds are proven correct, people celebrate how healthy the ecosystem is as the top players win the matches they should. This is not to say an underdog run is frowned upon, but accurate seeding is usually a good sign.
So was the run due to the new format, the level of competition or just because some skilled gamers who came to EPIC and clicked some heads?
Regardless of the reasons it is impressive to see a group such as One Point Six come out of nowhere to complete a fairy-tale run and go against the grain as the only team seeded outside the top 16 to make playoffs.
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