UKTerrorist

Team 9 Victorious In SEL

Posted by Gryff at 15:30 30/3/2003.

Team 9 won the first season of the Swedish Esports League earlier this afternoon. Each team had to play nine matches and the top 4 went through to a slightly off playoff. The 4th ranking team played the 3rd, the winner of that played the 2nd ranking team, and the winner of that played the team that came 1st in the grand finals.

It came down to an undefeated in the group stage Team 9, Matrix, Gamepoint, and Highland Online. This meant Highland Online and Gamepoint was the first playoff match. HLO had already beaten Gamepoint in the group stage and there was no surprise when they did it again. This left HLO and Matrix battling for the place in the finals. The match was simply amazing going into overtime which Matrix eventually won 19-15.

The final was held on de_nuke between Matrix and Team 9. Oddly, this was the map Matrix and Team 9 had played on in the group stages and Team 9 had won convincingly 13-6. Team 9 were CT's first and took the pistol round, but Matrix managed to win 4 rounds as Terrorist. Matrix really should have got some more but they lost a few rounds to bad luck or bad skill. It all hinged on the pistol round of the second half. Unluckily for Matrix, Team 9 managed to win the pistol round and then proceeded to take the critical 4th round to win the match. Team 9 walk off with a cool 50,000 SEK or around £3000.

There were some other interesting results from the competition however. A-laget didn't manage to win a single game in the entire tournament, losing all 9 games. GameOnline also had a poor tournament finishing 7th. I think that this competition will drive forward the level of play in Sweden and I think as early as the Summer CPL we will see a lot more Swedish teams competing at a higher level.

Remember this is a monthly competition so tune in next month to see if anyone can defeat Team 9. There is a face noteable by it's absence, top Swedish team Schroet Kommando. Personally I don't understand why they are not present at this event considering the prize money is roughly the same as CPL Cannes and they don't have to travel. It's been rumoured they will join after Clikarena or CPL summer and I have to say if the likes of Team 9 and Matrix are playing regular tournament games against SK they can only improve in leaps and bounds.

Apologies for not updating during the event but UKT was under maintenance. Next time I will post the HLTV IPs and scorebot channels in a timely fashion.