The CS:GO Winner of A1 Adria League proceeds to the BGW Invitational qualifiers

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We’re always excited to bring good news, and good news we have! Besides being neck deep in the work around the LAN, we’re also working on helping teams proceed further in their esports careers after the LAN is over, most notably by establishing the next steps for the winners of the A1 Adria League.

That’s why we’re happy to inform you that the winner of this year’s CS:GO tournament will proceed directly to the closed qualifiers of the €50.000 Bucharest Gaming Week Invitational tournament that’s taking place at the Bucharest Gaming Week in December this year.

The tournament will be held one day after the ESL Southeast Europe Championship in the same venue, and will feature four teams. It will be a single-elimination, best-of-three format and will see the winner of the SEC league will joined by two invited teams and the winner of the online qualifiers that will be held for the tournament. The qualifiers themselves will be held in two stages, with two open qualifiers being held in November, followed by the closed qualifier and lastly, the LAN.

The winner of the A1 Adria League will skip the open qualifiers and join straight into the closed part of qualifying. The closed qualifier will see the best 6 teams from the Europe-wide open qualifiers, plus the winner of the A1AL, the second invited team to the closed qualifier is the winner of the Hungarian National Esports Championship (MNEB). After this round we will get the teams that will participate in the LAN in December.

It’s important to note that the open qualifiers for the tournament are indeed open to everyone, and we encourage all of the regional teams to apply and try their luck themselves. Who knows, you might earn a LAN spot and a piece of the €50.000 prize!

Open Qualifier 1 – November 10

Open Qualifier 2 – November 17

We wish the best of luck to all the teams, and are awaiting to see which team from our League will play in the second phase of qualifying!

Top 4 Teams Confirmed

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We’re Extremely thrilled to inform you that all the matches in the online CS:GO part of the League are now over, including both the open qualifiers, the group stage and the playoffs, with the last match being played yesterday between Valiance&Co. and Game Pub.

CS:GO really did end up very well, and the group stage for the Counter Strike part of the tournament saw wonderful action and upsets from every team. This is all now behind us, and we can turn our heads towards the future and the LAN finals that will be played on the Reboot InfoGamer this month. Yes, there’s less than a month between us and the LAN finals!

The finalists of the CS:GO League are KlikTech and Locastic who earned their places in the LAN finals directly through the group stage by placing top 2. The other two places were fought for in the online playoffs between Zagreb 360, Valiance&Co., GameZone and Game Pub in two rounds. The first rounds saw Valiance winning against Zagreb360 and Game Pub taking the W against GameZone.

Valiance was sure and steady and played decisive against Zagreb360 on Dust 2 and Cache, thus securing their spot in the next round with a comfortable 2:0 victory and pushing Zagreb360 into the lower bracket to fight for the third place in the playoffs. In the matches between GameZone and Game Pub, it was the latter team taking the win on Train and Inferno.

That was not the end of the online playoffs, though. The second round served as to show us who will take which seed and let teams prepare the tactics for the main stage. The matches on the LAN finals will be played as follows:

  • Valiance & Co. VS Locastic
  • Game Pub VS KlikTech

The third place match was also played, with GameZone winning against Zagreb 360 and securing their spot if any of the teams fail to show up to the LAN. It’s a bittersweet achievment, but an impressive one nonetheless. Valiance&Co. secured a fight against Locastic, a matchup that went in favor of the Croatian team two times during the course of the group stage.

This leaves us with arguably the biggest surprise in the group stage, Locastic, old winners and favorites with an updated roster Valiance&Co., a steady and always dangerous KlikTech that played extremely well and Game Pub that has a great combination of star players and great talent. It all remains to be seen now, and we’re itching to see who will the teams that will take the W at the LAN be. Yup, we rhymed that, deal with it.

Make sure you follow our social media accounts for the latest info and updates about the League, and make sure you grab your ticket for the Reboot InfoGamer to watch both the LAN finals and one of the best gaming fairs in Europe. See you there!

Interview: Hrvoje Jugec, KlikTech

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With only a few short days between us and the online playoffs, we’re eager to find something to get us through, and we found it in Hrvoje Jugec, one of the co-founders of KlikTech. After the team played both great CS:GO and LoL and secured the LAN in both games, we sat down with Hrvoje to talk about the League, KlikTech and predictions for the LAN.

Hrvoje notes that both the organization and the players are feeling extremely proud and happy after the group stage, and notes that it’s a great pleasure to be part of the LAN final for the second year in a row. After the last year’s extremely successful LoL roster KlikTech will have some tough shoes to fill, though, and Hrvoje agrees.

I think that was the heaviest stone on our shoulders, due to great last season we had a lot to prove and defend. Personally I think patience is a very important factor, after our first well known roster separated we obviously wanted to build a new one that will stay in regional top tier teams, but like in every competitive game when you are rebuilding or creating a new team you need time and that mentioned patience until your team finds perfect sync. That was our only gamble with the new team, how long will they need to play until they reach desired sync/team play, we were lucky cause that came pretty fast. They are all very young and their potential is off the charts, we are excited to see how far they can go as a team.

We’ve seen some of that potential in the LoL group stage and are sure that the LAN will bring with it some great games. KlikTech’s opponents are still not familiar, but they rely on their teamwork and experience to be a tough nut to crack for any regional team.

Considering the team participated in both seasons we asked Hrvoje what does he think are the main differences between the seasons 1 and 2:

Well we have completely different rosters both in League of legends and in Counter Strike so we can say everything is different, league itself changed a lot with rules and formats so everything was/is kinda new. What stayed is success from last season so that was a good motivator for this one.

Hrvoje tells us that CS:GO is great this year, and he was left with the impression that any team can take the LAN win if they string a couple of good games together. Still, confidence and experience play a huge role in the LAN finals, and that’s where they plan to shine the most. When it comes to LoL, the story is a bit different:

Competition wise League of legends still has pretty big quality gaps between teams so when it comes to bo3 I don’t think that teams like Asus, x25 or us can be surprised by weaker teams, it was a good decision to make bo1 games in group stage but even with that format we see a loop between 3rd and 4th place. One of three mentioned organisations will definitely win this year.

When it comes to predictions, Hrvoje says:

For qualifying phase in Counter Strike I can definitely see Valiance winning it, and for the 2nd team I would love to see GameZone cause they are playing aggressive and fun to watch Counter Strike. In League of legends i can see Esport Arena advance, they have some well known names and I think their experience will play a big factor in qualifies, Future Fighters showed they can know how to play so i’ll say they will advance to. As far as picking champion I just have to go with Kliktech in both games

When it comes to planning the rest of the year, KlikTech is focusing on both regional and European tournaments:

In League of legends we have a spot to defend in Esports Balkan League, we kinda had a bad season there, it was time when we just assembled our roster and we didn’t have any time to adjust, now is a different story and we have to step up there. In Counter Strike we are currently playing in Winners league and with 2 wins ( over PKDynamics and Zalgiris esports ) we are 1st in our group. There are well known teams in that league like Vodafone Giants, Royal Bandits, x6tence and K1ck esports so we are excited to see where will we end up.

We wish KlikTech the best of luck, and are looking forward to seeing them in the LAN finals!

Group stage is done – what now?

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The group stage of the second season of the A1 Adria League is officially over, and after 14 mathch days in each game we can now look forward to the next step in our journey this year: the playoffs!

Of course, we first need to congratulate Locastic, Asus Rog Elite and KlikTech for the direct placement to the LAN finals. KlikTech is the overall winner of the qualifiers without a doubt, as they took both the 1st CS:GO spot and the 2nd LoL spot to go to the LAN worry-free. Valiance surprised everyone with their somewhat weaker performances this year, and coming as favorites they struggled to keep up with some of the newer teams in the League, namely Locastic.

The Croatian team is truly the surprise of the year, with solid plays and wins when it counted, although they did string a few losses near the end of the group stage. Be that as it may, Locastic will surely have quite the crowd at the LAN finals and they have more than enough time to practice now. KlikTech is again on top of their game, and after qualifying directly in both games the organization has quite a lot to be looking forward to.

The utter dominance of Asus Rog Elite set the tone for the LoL group stage, and after only one loss Asus is pacing steadily towards the title of the biggest favorite of the entire League this year. That one loss came from Paradox, the last placed team that actually won only that one game. We should also note that the CS:GO group stage saw some immense plays and twists, and the teams that would advance to the LAN weren’t known up until the very last match day.

Just like the last season, the teams that placed 3. to 6. in the regular group stage are going to be part of the online playoffs to determine the two teams that will be joining the LAN finals. The matches will be played in a single elimination BO3 format, with the timing as follows:

CS:GO

Semifinals – 30.10. at 18:00

Third place match and final – 3.11. at 18:00

LoL

Semifinals – 31.10. at 18:00

Third place match and final – 4.11. at 18:00

Follow it on our Youtube channel!

The third place match is essential because the team that wins third place in the playoffs will be invited to the LAN finals if one of the top 4 qualified teams don’t manage to come, which we hope won’t happen. The teams will be seeded as follows:

1st seed: group stage winner (KlikTech and Asus Rog Elite)

2nd seed: group stage runner-up (Locastic and KlikTech)

 3rd seed: online playoffs winner

4th seed: online playoffs runner-up

On the CS:GO part of the LAN, KlikTech will play the second placed playoff team, and Locastic will play the playoff winner. In LoL, Asus Rog Elite will play against the second placed playoff team and KlikTech will play against the winner of the playoffs. Basically, the rules are here to provide an enjoyable and fair experience for all the teams and to eliminate any possible confusion between the teams and the League. We’re looking forward to watching the online qualifiers and see who the remaining teams will be !

CS:GO Week Recap 1-3

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Time flies when you’re having fun, boys and girls. The League is up in full swing, and we’re going strong towards the LAN finals at this year’s InfoGamer. During this last few weeks we had great matches and a ton of plays we can reflect back on, so let’s do just that, starting with CS:GO.

After six match days the table looks like this:

Valiance leads the pack with only one loss in 5 games, but Locastic are hot on their heels. It’s fair to say that Locastic has one match more, and Valiance is yet to play their sixth game, so everything is still very much possible. The leading teams are followed closely by GamePub and KlikTech, with 9 points each and GamePub also having one match less.

The bottom half of the table is led by Gamezone and Project Lunacy, with Zagreb 460 and UltiCoin rounding it up. It’s interesting to say that the last 4 teams all have 6 points so theoretically, a nice streak could shuffle the entire table, and there are surely no 100% win chances here, no matter who plays against whom.

The first 6 match days were defined by the dominance of Valiance, which is not at all unexpected, but the performance of the leading regional team leaves much to be desired. Valiance performed solidly and lost only one match in the season so far, against GamePub in the second match of the group stage. Valiance’s performance would need to be much better in order to win the League for the second year in the row, nothing is set in stone at the current stage.

The second placed team is Locastic, who are described by our analysts and casters as the surprise of the year. The team consisting of the best 5 players from Croatia put up some excellent matches and even held the first place for a while. Locastic has their work cut out for them, because everyone will surely be breathing down their neck as they aim to secure that spot in the playoffs. They will need to perform even better if they want to play some CS:GO at the LAN finals.

The bottom of the table is contested by 4 teams of equal points, and we can surely say that every single one of these teams can beat every other team in the League. Upsets and turnarounds are happening every match day. For example, Zagreb 360 won against Locastic 16:10, and Ulti Coin lost both games in round 4.

We will have a clearer idea of the standings when all the teams play the equal number of matches, but as of now everything is still very open. Still, some players are able to carry teams out of any trouble, and a highlight play from NyX, Lobanjica, Hunter or any other star can turn a match around.

We’re looking forward to seeing how the rest of the League will play out, and we hereby invite you to follow the next matches and see who will take the spot in Zagreb at the LAN Finals!

Group stage less then a week away!

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The group stage is upon us! It’s been exactly 158 days since the League was announced, and to be honest, it’s really been an eventful 5 months. But now, we’re ready to take it to the next level! All of our CS:GO and LoL qualifiers are done, and the stage is set for the next step in our journey, the group stage!

But first, let’s remind ourselves who are the teams that will be competing. In the CS:GO part of the League we have Bajini Puleni and Valiance&Co. as the invited teams, who were joined by Zagreb360 (ex ESK Gaming), Game Pub, GameZone, GIANT5, KlikTech and Project Lunacy through 4 rounds of open qualifiers, followed by 4 days of double elimination groups and a wildcard qualifier to round it all off. When it comes to LoL, we’ve invited x25 and Crvena Zvezda, and got Future Fighters, Zagreb360 (ex Zajcije Tacke), KlikTech, eSport Arena, Asus Rog Elite and Paradox through the qualifiers.

There’s just one more thing to do now, and that is to invite you all to join on the action when it starts this Tuesday, when the first LoL matches will be played. The League will be formated as follows:

  • Every team will play every other team in a double BO1 series
  • CS:GO matches will be played every Tuesday and Saturday starting at 19:00 CEST, and LoL matches will be played on every Wednesday and Sunday

The group stage will be exclusively streamed on our Youtube channel. As per usual, more information is available on our Facebook page, but for now – sit tight; the League is right around the corner.

CS:GO Qualifiers Summary

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CS:GO qualifiers are over, the group stage is set!

Oh, boy. After months of waiting, we’re finally here. The qualifiers for the CS:GO part of the League are done and behind us as we’re looking up to the group stage in front. This last weekend marked the end of all qualifying, and we are pleased to announce that we have the 8 teams that will participate in the season 2 of Vip Adria League!

In a thrilling wildcard qualifier played last Saturday we saw KlikTech and GamePub enter the League. This ends the rollercoaster of emotion that saw KlikTech first qualify for the double elimination groups, then leave them, and then again qualify, and then lose in the DE matches. It’s been pretty weird, and pretty turbulent but now they’re (hopefully) here to stay. GamePub also secured their place in the League even with the loss at the hands of KlikTech in the wildcard finals.

This being said, we’re pleased to announce the CS:GO teams that will participate in the second season of Vip Adria League:

  • Valiance&Co. and Bajini Puleni as the two invited teams.

  • GIANT5, Project Lunacy, GAMEZONE and ESK as the DE group winners, and

  • KlikTech and GamePub as the wildcard qualifier teams.

We would like to wish everyone the best of luck in the League, and we’re itching to see which teams will find their place in the offline finals at Reboot InfoGamer this fall.

The group stage for both CS:GO and LoL will start in early September but don’t worry – we’ll keep you posted.

P.S. speaking of LoL, the LoL qualifiers are starting ASAP, so don’t think that this was all we had prepared for you! Make sure you follow our social media and get the latest news.

 

Only two spots left in the League !

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This high risk, high reward setting is perhaps something some teams will enjoy, and we’re sure to see some great action in the wildcard qualifier. It’s coming your way on Saturday, 9.6.

The groups are upon us !

Oh, yes. This has happened. After four days of intense CS:GO action, we’re proud to announce that all of our double elimination groups are finished, and we have our group stage teams! Well, sort of. There’s still one more chance for everyone, but hear us out for a second first.

The last weekend brought us the C and D groups of the DE brackets, and the two teams that qualified are Project Lunacy and ESK Gaming!

The C group saw some of the best teams we saw in the online qualifiers, with both Mischievous and Vilay eSport joining Project Lunacy and PointClick to find out who gets to go to the group. After some intense matches, Project Lunacy managed to beat Vilay two times and secure their place in the League. Vilay eSports got so close to the group stage after beating Mischievous and are ready to play against Valiance and GIANT5 in the League.

Croatia’s first football club with an esport team, NK Rudeš, failed to qualify for the League last weekend after getting edged out by GamePub in the upper bracket final of the DE group D. It was there where GamePub faced ESK Gaming, a team that managed to defeat the cheekily named Smećari (trashmen) in the lower bracket and advance all the way up to the final. ESK turned out to be better in the grand final, and won 2:0 against GamePub, who will be certain to try and find their place through the wildcard qualifier. Speaking of which, even though the League is almost full, there’s still some space for teams that want to participate. Sure, they first need to advance through one more qualifier, but this is a winner-takes-all wildcard qualifier which means – if you win, you’re directly in the League.

This high risk, high reward setting is perhaps something some teams will enjoy, and we’re sure to see some great action in the wildcard qualifier. It’s coming your way on Saturday, 9.6., and after that we’ll finally know all the names of the teams that will participate in the League.

 

GIANT5 and GAMEZONE are our first 2 qualified teams

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Boys and girls, we’re approaching a new milestone for the League, and we’re slowly approaching the double elimination groups!

The action is getting ever so thicker here in the League, as we’re approaching the final days of our CS:GO qualifiers.

Last weekend we saw some amazing action from the group stage of the qualifiers as we watched teams from groups A and B dish it out to see who secures their place in the League. In the end it all came down to GIANT5 and GAMEZONE, and they will be joining Valiance and Bajini Puleni in the group stage!

After surviving the open qualifiers to qualify for the double elimination groups, these teams had to fight for their place in the group stage of the tournament and the chance to play at the LAN finals this year. Of course, it was not all sunshine and rainbows, so let’s see how was the road for our first group winners.

GAMEZONE were the winners of the first open qualifier played on the 21st of April, where they were incredibly solid and worked their way to the final by first defeating LACASADEPAPEL in the round of 32, followed by wins against Wicked Skills in the round of 16 and GIANT5 in the quarterfinals. BHGODS were their adversaries in the semis, and KlikTech waited in the finals. Fortunately for them, they were able to edge out every other team in the qualifiers, and secure their spot in the DE group.

It is there where they were met by Dual Desetkas, ex Represent Gaming and KlikTech. This was not the same KlikTech they played in the first qualifier, as KlikTech qualified through the additional qualifier after the original KlikTech team was disbanded. The first match was played between GAMEZONE and ex Represent Gaming, where GAMEZONE won 16:12 on Cache. KlikTech won their first game against Dual Desetkas and second one against ex Represent Gaming and waited for GAMEZONE in the upper final, where they lost 16:8 against the winners of the first open qualifier. The victory was confirmed in the grand final with a comfortable 2:0 victory, making GAMEZONE a group stage team!

1v3 clutch juanflatroo | VAL S2 CQ

GameZone Prizren juanflatroo s prekrasnim 1v3 clutchom za pobjedu💪 Dečki su se kvalificirali za drugu sezonu lige, što znači da nas očekuje još ovakvih poteza odličnih 🤩🤩

Gepostet von A1 Adria League am Montag, 28. Mai 2018

GIANT5 also had an interesting story behind them. After participating (and being knocked out) in the second qualifier, they managed to find their place in the DE group B by putting on a better performance in the fourth open qualifier. They ended up fourth after being defeated in the third place match by Dual Desetkas. To get there they got past Exorcism in the round of 32, INVICTUS in the round of 16, and KlikTech in the quarter finals. Mischievous defeated them in the semis, leading them to the mentioned third place match. The group qualifier placed GIANT5 with BHGODS, HEJT, and Screamstars, and the Croatian team played solidly and won all three of their matches, thus earning the place in the League by winning against Screamstars 2:0 in the final. There’s been a lot of great action this last weekend, and we’re still waiting to see who the next two qualified teams will be. Will Mischievous go through group C where Project Lunacy is waiting, and will the much talked about Rudeš manage to secure a spot in the League against Fortnite, Smecari and GamePub? We’ll see soon enough.

Join the action this weekend and find out!

Closed qualifier groups are upon us!

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Boys and girls, we’re approaching a new milestone for the League, and we’re slowly approaching the double elimination groups!

After the additional qualifier round that saw KlikTech take the last spot in the Closed Qualifier Double Elimination groups left vacant by the disbanding of, well, KlikTech. We’re confused, too, but the boys earned their place fair and square and we’re all set to start the action!

KlikTech beat LACASADEPAPEL 2:0 in the additional qualifier and will join Dual Desetkas, ex Represent Gaming and GAMEZONE in the group A of the DE qualifiers. Group B will see GIANT5, HEJT, Screamstars and BHGODS while Mischievous and Project Lunacy will be joined by PointClick and Vilay eSport Academy in group C. The final group, D, will consist of Fortnite, Rudeš Esport, Smecari and Gamepub.

The matches will be played in the standard double elimination format, and you can check out the matchups on the cup microsites:

  • Group A – played on Saturday, 26.5.
  • Group B – played on Sunday, 27.5.
  • Group C – played on Saturday, 02.6.
  • Group D – played on Sunday, 03.6.

The stream will be starting @ 16:00 every closed qualifier day, follow you favourite team through their road to the group stage, cheer for them and you will get a chance to win some of the prices that Vipnet has prepared for all of you.

After the groups for the closed qualifiers are finished, there will be one more, additional wildcard qualifierplayed on 09.6., that will bring us the final team that will compete in the group stage of the League. Everyone who feels bad for missing the abundance of qualifiers until now will need to wait for the wildcard qualifier, or wait for the next season, so practice a bit more and be ready for the wildcard!

Of course, we’d like to congratulate all of the teams that managed to find their way to the DE brackets, and wish them the best of luck in the groups. We’re eager to see who finds their way to the League!