A few hours ago we saw the end of the second, and last, HCS pre-season two tournament. Today’s results could not be more different than last week’s. It is once again important to note that this tournament do not mean anything for the main HCS season, it serves as seeding for IG Atlanta. As usual this write up will cover the “professional” squads, as no amateur teams finished high enough.
This time all remaining top eight teams from last season made it into the quarter finals. The only difference is that now that Str8 Rippin has disbanded, Team Randa has taken their position.
One of the most surprising upsets in the quarter finals was Cloud9 taking out the aforementioned Team Randa to move on to the semis. Randa’s squad has been toted as “online warriors” and it was surprising to see them be taken down by a group of players that have seemed to have some difficulties meshing well together. Also during this round Noble Black was knocked out by Counter Logic Gaming, Denial by Evil Geniuses and Optic by Elevate. It’s worth mentioning that EG, Optic and C9 were all playing with “quad-host” due to LANing together at UGC Training Grounds.
In the semi-finals CLG obliterated Cloud9 while EG did the same to eLevate. Cloud9 picked it up and then won the third place match against eLevate to claim their bronze medal.
Finally the most exciting set of the tournament, not only because of it being the finals but also due to these two teams finishing first and second place last season. EG and CLG took it to a grueling max game best of five. After taking the lead over EG 2-0, CLG did something you wouldn’t expect from such a veteran group of players. They choked. EG returned and reverse swept them, securing the win and reclaiming their title as number one.
The top eight placings for the tournament are:
1st – Evil Geniuses
2nd – Counter Logic Gaming
3rd – Cloud9
4th – eLevate
5th/6th – Denial eSports
5th/6th – Noble Black
7th/8th – Optic Gaming
7th/8th – Team Randa
The full bracket for the tournament can be found here Remember to watch IG Atlanta for the season two opener and to check us out here at esportsblogger for all your HCS news and results!
~cowley
Cowley is new to eSports writing but is looking to improve his skills. He mainly follows Halo, Starcraft and League of Legends as well as several obscure games. He can be contacted using his twitter, @ggCowley.