The first round of the knockout stage is over with FirstFrag, Vaevictus, a4n and zeroPoint advancing to the Upper Bracket semis and the other four dropping to the Lower Bracket.

Along with GTR of HardKnocks we are going to take a look at the matches.

FirstFrag vs Peculiar
FirstFrag [ 11 : 0 ] Peculiar
Well here we had definitely the strongest team of this half year coming up against one of the most greatly improved teams in Peculiar. The match was won dominantly by FirstFrag on Argentan and Vallente with the challengers unable to take one capout. The force to be reckoned was obviously zg amassing over 120 kills in the match hour.

“As expected FirstFrag continue to show their dominance in Europe, beating Peculiar with an astounding 11-0 victory. Many already knew who the winner of this match would be, but the way Firstfrag handled this match shows us yet again that they are this season’s favourites to take the gold. Just like they did in the group-stage they keep on beating nearly every opponent with double figures. With the likes of Luk3 and zg leading the way for Firstfrag it will be hard to tell which team can stop this incredible force.”

Vaevictus vs deCerto
vaevictis [ 7 : 2 ] deCerto
France versus Spain here in this round one match with vaevictus (formerly 3DMAX) going in as favourites. The chosen maps were Lennon, ending 5 to 2 in vaevictus’s favour, and Vallente which vaevictus also took 2 to 0. The whole French side played well with Helz performing well with heavy.

"Although Decerto may have been favourites to win this match before the start, vaevictis proved us all wrong. Despite their somewhat dissapointing run in this season's groupstage with only 2 wins out of 5 matches, vaevictis came out stronger than expected in this match vs the spanish top team Decerto. Being classed as one of the top 3 teams by me before the start of this season, it was somewhat suprising that vaevictis didn't perform to their standards during the groupstage. However, they seem to be getting back into shape just in time to perform as usual in the playoffs, and lets be honest, that's what's it all about in the end. "

all4nothing vs Visualize
all4nothing [ 10 : 6 ] VYE
Played over Catania and Harrington, both cap-out heavy maps, the match ended 10-6 to the French side. Playing against heavies RiN and Piter will have been tough for a4n on a map like Catania where a dominant heavy can tip the balance being well placed to stop the double caps. Harrington comes to down to the middle cap and the control over this and ladder. The many line up changes for vye will likely have affected their team play giving an advantage to a4n.

"This was probably the most interesting match of this round. a4n did good during their groupstage, winning 3 out of 5 matches and managed to qualify for the playoffs without much problem. VYE on the other hand suprised everyone, beating 4 out of 5 opponents during their impressive groupstage campagne. The scales may have been slightly towards VYE's advantage, but unfortunately they met their supperior in a4n. Both teams have a great line up and have performed really well, however in the end there can only be one winner and this time it was a4n. It's a shame we didn't have the chance to take a look at the match-screenshots to get a better understanding of the match."

zeroPoint! vs Memento
zeroPoint! Gaming [ 6 : 4 ] Phenix
On first glance this would be an easy match to predict but Memento put in a good performance and worked zeroPoint hard in this close match. zP! took a close victory of 6-4 on Anzio and Argentan with players on both sides playing strongly.

"The result of this match isn't that suprising, although the score may indicate that this match wasn't as easy as zeroPoint would have expected in the first place. Memento, being this season's newcomers in the premier division, have proven that they belong in the premier division by beating both POD and Hardknocks in the groupstage. zeroPoint performed as expected and had a comfortable groupstage, winning 5 out of 5 matches. Although Memento's playstyle is oppertunistic and they have a very talented line up, they couldn't break through the defence of the very experienced zeroPoint line up. I believe that the extra experience that lies within the zeroPoint team has won them this game, looking at the result of this match."

Overall what do these results say about our remaining teams. FirstFrag is obviously strong and will most likely take the competition. Their next match against vaevictus, the last team they lost to though with different line ups, could be the deciding match with zeroPoint struggling against Memento. But that being said, all these teams have great players and many with vast experience so all is still to play for with three rounds of competition left.

Many thanks to GTR, our Professional Expert.