After four pulsating weeks of action on Monday nights, last night marked the fourth week that was played which means we have a good feel of what teams are going to make the finals. Remember only four teams will make it to the finals which will be held at MCM London on October 23rd – 25th. You can still purchase tickets to MCM for the weekend, here if you wish to go.

Let us first take a look at the current standings after Week 4 of ESL UK Premiership:

Position Team Name Pld Won Lost RD Points 1 CSGOCasino 4 4 0 +29 12 2 Choke Gaming 4 3 1 +21 9 3 Team Infused 4 3 1 +18 9 4 fish123 4 2 2 -3 6 5 United Estonia 4 2 2 -8 6 6 fm-eSports 4 1 3 -4 3 7 CeX 4 1 3 -19 3 8 Good Looking Gamers 4 0 4 -44 0

Matches:

Vs fish123 16:7 (dust2)

Vs United Estonia 16:2 (dust2)

Vs Choke Gaming 16:13 (overpass)

Vs Good Looking Gamers 16:3 (cache)

Stat Leaders (taken from HLTV.org):

Lumji: +38

b3n: +34

Sheekey: +24

shaney: +15

ashhh: +11

CSGOCasino have been the surprise this season so far. They have dominated fish123, United Estonia, & GLG and beaten Choke Gaming so far. Their run hasn’t been that difficult, but they have showed some absolute pure brute force despite only really being formed two weeks prior to the season start. They have a good balanced duo with both Lumji & b3n putting up staggering statistics throughout the group stages so far. All of the side thus far have played incredibly well and they are one of the few teams in the Premiership who haven’t swapped players throughout this season.

In theory they should need one more win from their remaining three games to secure a Top 4 finish and a place at the finals, but they have Team Infused, fm-eSports & CeX remaining to play which means that is incredibly doable considering fm-eSports have been poor this season due to a pure mix roster. They could rack up at least two more wins, however the Team Infused matchup could be a rather intriguing match to watch but with that match being last for them, then a little gloss may be lost on that match if they had already qualified by that stage. It should be noted however that CSGOCasino will then once qualified be playing purely for position in the table and a favourable bracket heading to the Finals at MCM London.

The question is really can they be potential Champions elect at the finals?

Race for the “Finals”:

Vs fm-eSports (Monday 14th – 7pm)

Vs CeX (Monday 21st – 7pm)

Vs Team Infused (Monday 28th – 7pm)

Matches:

Vs Team Infused 16:8 (overpass)

Vs fm-eSports 16:12 (inferno)

Vs CSGOCasino 13:16 (overpass)

Vs CeX 16:4 (inferno)

Stat Leaders (taken from HLTV.org):

Peggyyyy: +25

Powell: +21

Esio: +6 (3 maps)

Immi: +5

MIGHTYMAX: +2 (3 maps)

For a little while Choke Gaming have secretly been my favourites to win the whole of this UK Premiership season, they have been incredibly solid and have a great cohesive team chemistry and have displayed this throughout the league season thus far. They not only beat Team Infused in Week 1, they absolutely demolished them. All of their players have put in really good performances over the weeks, Powell put up 24 – 16 against Infused, with MightyMax bringing 22 – 10 to the scoreboard, whilst Immi performed incredibly well against fm-eSports with a blazing score of 26 – 17. It would be harsh to judge them on the match against Sheekey’s CSGOCasino because as pointed out before, they had only just returned from insomnia55 after an incredibly tiring weekend of performing at a high standard. They put up a good fight and were leading at some stages, but in the end tiredness kicked in, and they eventually slumped to a 16:13 loss against them.

The loss maybe disappointing as a whole, but it shouldn’t affect them too much, especially as CSGOCasino have a couple of tough matches to play which means first spot (and first seed at finals) is incredibly doable.

Looking ahead though, Choke Gaming will square up to whipping boys Good Looking Gamers, fish123 & United Estonia, so whilst I say first spot is doable, they do have the potential of dangerous opponents in the form of fish123 & United Estonia. We’ve seen both of those sides when they play to their strengths, and we’ve certainly seen some lows. Choke now have to remain focused and nail down the final three games, and secure their spot at MCM London. It certainly won’t be easy, but they can achieve it at least.

Race for the “Finals”:

Vs United Estonia (Monday 14th at 9pm)

Vs Good Looking Gamers (Monday 21st at 9pm)

Vs fish123 (Monday 28th at 9pm)

Matches:

Vs Choke Gaming 8:16 (overpass)

Vs Good Looking Gamers 16:1 (cache)

Vs fish123 16:11 (overpass)

Vs United Estonia 16:10 (overpass)

Stat Leaders (taken from HLTV.org):

robiin: +26 (2 maps)

CRUC1AL: +17 (2 maps)

Whindanski: +10 (3 maps)

KritikaL: +6 (3 maps)

ZED: +6

redSNK: -14

Since the first game, Team Infused have strung together some solid performances and most importantly three fine wins which keeps them in the hunt for a place at MCM London, and would see them as the second timers to the event in London after qualifying last season in May. They surprisingly got swept aside by Choke in the first match of the season, after earlier beating them in the ESL One Cologne online qualifiers. The addition of Whindanski has been an added bonus to their side, considering with ZED they have two formidable players in their line up. As we understand it, Kritikal has been ditched from the lineup since insomnia55 which is an intriguing move, as it sees CRUC1AL rejoin his former team mates after Team Orbit quickly fell apart.

Statistically we can see that all players bar redSNK are fragging in the positive (Sorry James), but I’m fairly confident that the team will qualify for the finals, and all of their players should be able to find their rhythm by the time that the finals roll around. I’m also pretty confident that Team Infused who were sweeping LAN tournaments left right and centre in the UK in 2014 will not enjoy being the third best team in the UK currently and will be looking to make a case that they are arguably the best team out there in the UK. They haven’t won a LAN this year, as they were beaten by Obscene eSports at epic.FOURTEEN in February, and then were beaten by XENEX at ESL UK Premiership finals in May. They ended up as forth at insomnia54 and were third at insomnia55.

Despite their lack of confidence at LAN, and trying to find the right lineup to compete domestically and abroad, their run in for the finals, now gives them current table toppers CSGOCasino, fm-eSports and CeX. Bar the CSGOCasino match which could go either way currently (on current form in the league) then they should be able to secure their spot at the finals with two wins against fm & CeX.

Race for the “Finals”:

Vs CeX (Monday 14th at 8pm)

Vs fm-eSports (Monday 21st at 8pm)

Vs CSGOCasino (Monday 28th at 7pm)

Matches:

Vs CSGOCasino 7:16 (dust2)

Vs CeX 16:11 (cache)

Vs Team Infused 11:16 (overpass)

Vs fm-eSports 16:10 (dust2)

Stat Leaders (taken from HLTV.org):

Joee: +14

keita: +5

Puls3: 0 (3 maps)

batham: -10 (3 maps)

miNi: -20 (3 maps)

fish123 have been incredibly mediocre throughout this season, they got demolished by CSGOCasino, then beat a poor CeX, lost out to Team Infused, but put up a “respectable” fight, and beat a very poor fm-eSports side in the battle of mix teams. They haven’t filled me with any confidence, and whilst boasting Puls3 on their line up for a few maps, he hasn’t been putting up the numbers over the course of the season. Only Keita & Joee are in positive scores whilst both batham & miNi have been subpar at best.

Their season, and whether they want to qualify for MCM London, comes down to one big match between them and United Estonia. Again, it’s make or break and will mean whoever wins that match is most likely going to secure their place at the finals. Both teams have GLG in their final three games, but fish123 do have Choke Gaming to contend with in the run in, and this could pose some serious issues for fish. They beat Choke, they can get to London, but realistically they are generally expected to lose that match and would mean that the UE match is the pivotal game in the season. Of course, this all entirely falls down to other results in the league season (mostly from fm-eSports who could nab a spot at the finals in theory).

I’m not sure how much stock to put into fish’s basket to be quite frank. Their “mix team” culture will only get them so far, and one could feel that whoever ends up in the fourth spot for the finals, will just get absolutely smashed come finals match days.

Race for the “Finals”:

Vs Good Looking Gamers (Monday 14th at 10pm)

Vs United Estonia (Monday 21st at 10pm)

Vs Choke Gaming (Monday 28th at 9pm)

Please turn to Page 2 for the other four teams “review”.