The group stage for the Americas finally came to a close last Sunday with the match between Quincy Crew and beastcoast. In a couple of days, we will be seeing the top two teams of this region battle it out to secure their slot in the grand finals. The lower bracket match will be held a day after the upper bracket matches, so expect a neck-and-neck battle as well between the third and fourth seed as their hopes of staying in the tournament will be at stake in this round.
Here are the final team standings of the six teams from the group stage with the top four teams keeping their quest for the title alive going into the playoffs.
| Teams | Win | Loss |
| CR4ZY | 5 | 0 |
| Quincy Crew | 4 | 1 |
| Evil Geniuses | 2 | 3 |
| business associates | 2 | 3 |
| beastcoast | 2 | 3 |
| Thunder Predator | 0 | 5 |
The top two teams, CR4ZY and Quincy Crew, advance into the upper bracket with the winner of the match heading straight into the finals to wait for the other finalist to emerge from the lower bracket, while the loser will still get another shot for the title by falling into the lower bracket. The lower bracket will be filled by the third and fourth seed Evil Geniuses and business associates respectively. The bottom two teams beastcoast and Thunder Predator have already been eliminated from the tournament.
See the match-up preview along with the schedule for round one to make sure you don’t miss the chance to watch the team you’re rooting for.
June 5, 2020 (Upper Bracket)
CR4ZY (5-0) 1.91 vs Quincy Crew (4-1) 1.69
Team CR4ZY (1.91) enter this match as the underdogs despite going undefeated the entire duration of the tournament and being the only team that gave the favorites Quincy Crew (1.69) their only loss during the group stage.
In their previous encounters, Quincy Crew swept CR4ZY (2-0) in the ESL ONE Los Angeles Online, and then won the match again in the BTS Pro Series but this time it took them 3 matches to determine the winner. However, in their most recent clash during the group stage, things took a turn as CR4ZY swept Quincy crew.
The first game took 50 minutes, the net worth and experience advantage went back-and-forth for the majority of the game. The scale tipped its balance when the supports of team CR4ZY got into their groove proving that the layering of their controls in the form of Ice Path, Torrent-Boat, Duel, and Root from Lone Druid’s spirit bear were more than enough stop Yawar’s Ursa in his tracks and win the game.
It took a shorter time for team CR4ZY to secure the win in game 2 as Bryle just took over and put on a show with his Storm Spirit. Despite being outplayed by Quinn’s Void Spirit in the early game, Bryle found a way to compose himself and regain momentum to give Skiter enough space to farm. When the cores of CR4ZY got enough items and went online, they never let up.
I am looking at the underdogs to pull-off a shocker here based on their previous performances. The team that is yet to taste defeat will probably remain undefeated in this match-up to claim their spot for the grand finals.
June 6, 2020 (Lower Bracket)
Evil Geniuses (2-3) 1.7 vs business associates (2-3) 1.9
The favored team, Evil Geniuses (1.7), look to redeem their loss from the hands of business associates (1.9). In their match during the group stage, EG won game one thanks to Arteezy’s perfect game on his Queen of Pain who was already on a monster kill streak just 19 minutes into the game, Arteezy willed his team to victory without suffering a single death ending the game with an impressive 18/0/7 KDA.
Business associates found a way to turn it around in game 2 completely with Moo returning the favor by putting on a show with his Gyrocopter who finished with an 18/3/16 KDA and an enormous net worth lead.
In game three, business associates completed a reverse sweep over Evil Geniuses by controlling the game right from the get go with Moo and Eternal Envy combining for the majority of the kills along with Sneyking’s masterful control of his Clockwork landing accurate hookshots and laying down timely and well-placed cogs.
Prior to their match during the group stage, Evil Geniuses won all of their previous encounters from ESL One Los Angeles Online, BTS Pro Series, up to the FVBet Show match. This match is definitely a toss-up, it will be up to the big-name players of their respective teams to come through and show up with their A-game come playoff time.
