After two nights packed with brilliant Counter-Strike from the ESL UK Premiership, the first two teams for the offline tournament finals at the MCM Expo in May have been confirmed. After a historical 127 round two map loss to Team XENEX and sending home Perilous RAGE with a relatively simple 2-0 victory, the hype surrounding the former Lime Goblins side only amplified as they head into the Lower Bracket Final.

Team XENEX went on to play against the MALIK eSports side that entered the upper bracket final after knocking down Perilous last night, and with a straight forward victory, XENEX secured themselves the first of two slots in the ESL Premiership finals. Although on paper Team XENEX were obvious favourites for the top spot, nobody could have predicted the struggle they would encounter against the team that would eventually go on to qualify alongside them.

Moments ago Group A came to a fantastic close with the invited team exceL eSports taking a 2-0 win over their favoured opponents MALIK eSports, who despite replying with some close scorelines on de_nuke, eventually fell victim to the ever surprising exceL side with a crushing defeat on de_cache. Worth reiterating is exceL eSports’ unsuccessful attempted to gain a premiership slot through the three online qualifiers, and their selection as an invited side was also met with some controversy. The team have now successfully shown their worth amongst the UK’s finest, and will be looking to continue their string of good form heading into the tournament finals in May.

Therefore, currently the qualified teams are as follows:

Team XENEX – RattlesnK, Puls3, JT, SHEEKEY, mole

exceL eSports – resu, Andrew, Victor, Boaster, chron1c

The second set of games for Group B kick off next Monday at 7pm, so make sure to mark the date in your diary as to not miss any more top quality UK CSGO action. If we’re lucky, we could even see seven overtimes?