The 17th edition of the ESL CPS had an early end for us and we can say that we didn’t reach our goal which was to win or at least get into the finals. Either way the team has been showing great results and is on track to win a future tournament!

Groupstage

MnM-Gaming vs. Easy.eSports
5 – 1

We started with an intense match against Easy.eSports, one of the ESL CPS 16 finalists and the reason MnM didn’t reach last season’s finals. We managed to grab a great result (5-1) from a close and long match. We won the 3 Vs 3 sub match with a 10-8 score and the 5 Vs 5 with a 7-5 score after being down three rounds with a score of 2-5.

MnM-Gaming vs. A New Era
3 – 3

Next up was A New Era, who are the newcomers to the Premier League, thanks to ‘big names’ such as JaviFlyer and Wally. It was definitely a close match, as its shown in the result (3-3). JaviFlyer took the win for ANE in the 1vs1, while MnM came back convingcinly for the 2vs2 with veT and Speedy. 3vs3 went MnM’s way, but we couldn’t complete our win in the 5vs5 with the Swedish player Lund missing due to internet issues.

MnM-Gaming vs. Q
5 – 1

The following match was against the swedish-based team, Team Q. We managed to take the victory with a 5-1 score which doesn’t really show the effort Q put in this match. In fact, the 1vs1 went MnM.Nevermind’sway with a 7-6 score against Q.Razer’, while the 3vs3 ended up as a 8-6 in MnM’s favour.

MnM-Gaming vs. Planetkey-Dynamics
2 – 4

Match 4 saw us fighting with our strongest rival in the group, with which we have a large history of super-close matches, the German organization Planetkey-Dynamics. In the previous edition, we managed to defeat them with a great 5-1 score, and we tried to do it again. Despite winning the 1vs1 and 2vs2, we lost the 3vs3 submatch in the tennis mode with a 8-6 result. Then we had a 2-2 score on the table, which meant that whoever was able to get the 5vs5, would be the victorious team this time. Then, it happened once again. We had an epic fight for the win, with a decent amount of 25 rounds played (1 draw) which ended in favour of PkD by 13-11. Safran was outstanding, as he managed to get 185 out of 240 points on the individual scores, which definitely helped PkD to success.

MnM-Gaming vs. MaDrivers
6 – 0

Last groupstage match was against the Polish team MaDrivers. They were having some problems with the matches and training schedule so it was kind of a soft match. During the games it was apparent that their performance indicated a lack of time spent on training the maps decently. With that we’ve been able to secure 2nd place in the group qualifying once again for the ESL CPS Playoffs!

Playoffs

MnM-Gaming vs. Team Dignitas
1 – 5

With a lower group seeding we had to face once again the higher seeded side Team Dignitas, who have always been the favourites going into any tournament. We already met them on the TMM TC16 Semi Finals, a match that didn’t go well for us, despite our thorough preparations. This time we trained as much as we could to finally get the upper hand. Yet we had to suffer from Core players not being focussed 100 %, as studying, missing motivation and technical issues gave us a rough time. Though Dignitas didn’t have their best week either with Carl Jr. missing. They still played true to their form, with Pac and Spam shining through the match. The 1vs1 submatch was simply epic, being 26:30 minutes long and ending up on a high-level win for Tween (playing for MnM) against the former 2012 World Champion Spam with an 11-9 score. After that, Dignitas did not let the loss affect them and stepped ahead of us convincingly on the 2vs2, 3vs3 and 5vs5 respectively.

The journey ends in the Quarterfinals, despite being sad and frustrated that it yet again wasn’t enough for a win, it was definitely a tournament to look back at as the most matches have been more than close and exciting. For now we have a break as we are awaiting the start of the next tournament, till then it’s time to give a big thanks to our Sponsors and Management for providing great support <3.

Written by Manuel “Habi” Blesa
Research and Images Alexander “Speedy” Köllner

The Submatch Scores

Groupstage

MnM vs. Easy.eSports: 5 – 1
1 vs 1: 5 – 7
2 vs 2: 5 – 3
3 vs 3: 10 – 8
5 vs 5: 7 – 5

MnM vs. A New Era: 3 – 3
1 vs 1: 0 – 7
2 vs 2: 5 – 2
3 vs 3: 7 – 5
5 vs 5: 4 – 7

MnM vs. Team Q: 5 – 1
1 vs 1: 7 – 6
2 vs 2: 4 – 5
3 vs 3: 7 – 2
5 vs 5: 8 – 6

MnM vs. Planetkey-Dynamics: 2 – 4
1 vs 1: 7 – 2
2 vs 2: 5 – 4
3 vs 3: 6 – 8
5 vs 5: 11 – 13

MnM vs. MaDrivers: 6 – 0
1 vs 1: 7 – 1
2 vs 2: 5 – 0
3 vs 3: 7 – 0
5 vs 5: 7 – 0

Playoffs

MnM vs. Team Dignitas: 1 – 5
1vs1: 13 – 11
2vs2: 2 – 5
3vs3: 2 – 7
5vs5: 4 – 7