We preview the Main Event of the Spring 2020 EU Masters tournament.

The Main Event of the Spring 2020 edition of the European Masters (“EU Masters”) begins on the 22nd of April and will run until the 10th of May. Several teams have already fought their way through the play-in stage for an opportunity to represent their regional league against Europe’s best and brightest. This is how the groups have been drawn ahead of the Main Event:

Group A

🇬🇧 BT Excel

🇫🇷 Gamers Origin

🇩🇪 Team GamerLegion

🇮🇹 YDN Gamers

Group B

🇵🇱 AGO Rogue

🇳🇱 Defusekids

🇫🇷 LDLC OL

🇪🇸 Vodafone Giants

Group C

🇩🇪 FC Schalke 04 Evolution

🇵🇱 K1CK Neosurf

🇪🇸 Movistar Riders

🇩🇰 Team Singularity

Group D

🇷🇸 Energypot Wizards

🇨🇿 eSuba

🇬🇧 Fnatic Rising

🇩🇪 Mousesports

Those of you who aren’t familiar with European regional leagues likely won’t know which leagues are the strongest and which teams to look out for. The tournament has run for four splits, and the past champions are Origen (EU-wide), Mad Lions (Spain), Misfits Premier (France), and Berlin International Gaming (Germany). In this article, we will look at the five teams best poised to take the title this year.

#1 – FC Schalke 04 Evolution

🇫🇮 Christian “Sleeping” Tiensuu (Top)

🇩🇪 Erberk “Gilius” Demir (Jungle)

🇩🇪 Lukas “Lurox” Thoma (Jungle)

🇩🇪 Daniel “Sertuss” Gamani (Middle)

🇩🇪 Nihat “Innaxe” Aliev (ADC)

🇸🇮 Matúš “Neon” Jakubčík (ADC)

🇪🇪 Risto “SirNukesALot” Luuri (Support)

The Prime League champions will be looking to retain the Masters title for Germany and the DACH region this split. They will also be hoping to redeem the Schalke organization after a poor LEC performance by its first team. The team qualified straight to the Main Event after following up a first-place regular-season placing with back-to-back series victories over Mousesports, winning the Prime League trophy in an efficient fashion.

Keen LEC viewers will recognize several of the names on this roster, as 5/7 of these players have played in Europe’s top league in the past. In fact, Gilius, Lurox, and Innaxe were active on Schalke’s LEC team during the Spring split.

All three players are still eligible to play in EU Masters as no member of the trio played more than thirteen games in the LEC. Schalke is the roster with the most LEC-calibre players in one package, and they’ll certainly be hoping to leverage some of the experience of members such as Gilius and Innaxe to gain a mental edge.

As a pool one team, Schalke was always going to be able to dodge some of their closest rivals. However, even considering their pool one status they were fortunate to be drawn into their group.

There’s no such thing as an “easy” group in EU Masters but it would certainly be an upset if Schalke were not to top their group. That being said, each of their opponents in Movistar, K1CK, and Singularity have the potential to cause Die Königsblauen trouble.