UK Masters — Playoffs
After 4 Qualifiers, 7 weeks of league games and 2 days of playoff games, we finally have the two teams that will play in the Grand Finals of the Counter Strike: Global Offensive UK Masters live from Insomnia58!
The top 4 teams from the league headed into the playoff weekend with hopes of advancing into the Grand Finals and the lions share of £5000.
Orgles5, CAZ Esports, Reason Gaming and FM Esports would play in best of three series’ across the weekend, in a double elimination bracket, giving teams that dropped to the lower bracket another shot at the finals.
The Matches
Orgles5 vs. CAZ Esports — Saturday
Saturday saw Orgles5 vs CAZ Esports and Reason Gaming vs FM Esports in two best of three series. The losing sides from these matches would drop to the lower bracket games on Sunday.
Saturday got off to an explosive start for the former Working Men team. They secured a very quick lead on Mirage and controlled the entire game all the way through. Orgles5 would never find their footing on Mirage and would only get 2 total rounds on the board as CAZ steamrolled to an easy win.
Orgles5, who had provided us with some incredible games throughout the duration of the league didn’t look comfortable and would struggle against a very well organised CAZ side on Cobblestone, they would eventually fall to the CAZ side with a 0–2 series loss, dropping to the lower bracket.
Reason Gaming vs FM Esports — Saturday
Reason Gaming faced FM Esports in the second series of Saturday. The best of three series saw Overpass picked first with Reason as the T side and FM as the CT’s. Reason took an early lead with some impressive site takes and bomb plants, but FM didn’t let this affect them as they took a run of rounds eventually levelling up the score 7–7 as we hit the half. The second half gave us some incredible rounds from both teams as the game never saw more than a 4 round difference in score. It would be FM to eventually prevail as they took Overpass 16–14, and we headed onto Mirage.
Mirage gave us another great game from these two sides, and Reason would show some amazing plays throughout the map, never giving FM the chance to edge out a lead. Reason took the map 16–7, tying the series up 1–1 and taking us to map 3, the ever popular Dust 2.
Reason would lead Dust 2 all the way into the second half but after a discrepancy was discovered with the side, FM was defaulted the win and finishing the series 2–1.
Reason Gaming vs. Orgles5 — Sunday
Sundays games kicked off with the lower bracket, and Orgles5 vs Reason Gaming.
Map 1 saw an exciting game, with Reason holding an early lead on Train and Orgles5 trailing into the end of the first half. All was not lost as Orgles5 put on one of the best comebacks we’ve seen this season and would eventually reverse the scoreline, taking Train 16–14 over Reason.
Map 2 saw Mirage as the battleground, and a close game between the two sides. Trading rounds back and forth between the teams made it hard to predict who would come out on top, but the game would eventually fall in Orgles5' favour, granting them a 16–14 score over Reason in the second map. Orgles5 would take the series 2–0, knocking Reason out of the competition.
FM Esports vs. CAZ Esports — Sunday
The upper bracket final of the UK Masters playoffs saw FM Esports come up against CAZ Esports, the winner of this series would be named as the first Grand Finalist of the UK Masters.
Overpass was picked as the first map in the series and saw a very close game between the teams, with only a single round separating them as we ended the half. The first map would remain close throughout the rest of the map, and saw CAZ edging to victory, finishing the game 16–13 over FM.
Map 2 was Mirage, and another extremely tight game between the teams of CAZ and FM. Again we saw only a single round difference by the time we reached the halfway point of the map, with CAZ leading 8–7. FM fought back in the second half, and took the fight to the CAZ Esports team. They would see out the game victorious and took us to map 3, Dust 2.
Dust 2 once again would be the deciding map for the series, and saw an exciting game. CAZ would fair far better on this map than the FM team and would easily secure the win 16–3 and the series 2–1, making them the first team to advance to the UK Masters finals.
FM Esports vs. Orgles5 — Sunday
The lower bracket final would give decide the team to join CAZ in the Grand Finals of the UK Masters season at Insomnia58.
FM would lead the charge on Train, seeing themselves with a sliver of a lead over the Orgles5 by the half, with only one single round separating them. Orgles5 would fight, but ultimately fell to the FM Esports squad in map 1 with a 16–9 scoreline to the FM side. Map 2 would be Dust 2.
The second map saw Orgles5 struggle to find a rhythm which gave FM the opportunity to capitalise, heading to an early lead and maintaining control of the game right the way through.
FM Esports would knock Orgles5 out with a 2–0 series score, giving them the second spot in the UK Masters Grand Finals!
Grand Final @ Insomnia58!
The Grand Finals of the UK Masters will take place live from the Esports stage at Insomnia58 on Friday 26th of August.
Be sure to keep an eye on our Twitter accounts @MultiplayEsport &@UKMasters, our Facebook, and our website for more news.
Thanks for reading and we’ll see you in the playoffs!
