Match-ups for Europe & NA qualifiers for FunSpark ULTI announced

31-7-2020 15:00

The qualifiers will begin on August 8 in both regions, with three spots at the $300,000 LAN event on offer.

FunSpark and 5EPlay have released the schedule and the initial match-ups for the European and North American qualifiers for FunSpark ULTI, a $300,000 LAN tournament that will be held in China. The qualifiers will kick off on August 8 in both regions, with two spots on the line in Europe and one in North America.

The European qualifier sees 16 teams split into two double-elimination groups, featuring a best-of-three format after the initial round of matches. The two group winners are qualified for the main event and will compete for a $15,000 prize in the grand final, scheduled for August 20.

Cloud9 headline the North American qualifier

The North American tournament will feature eight teams in a double-elimination playoff bracket, with the winner securing a $7,500 payout in addition to the ticket to the LAN event.

FunSpark ULTI is scheduled to take place from December 1-6, but the event is likely to be pushed to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The final dates will be announced once it is safe again for international players to travel to China.

Beijing, Hainan and Chengdu are the three options on the table to be the host city for the event, which will feature four invitees and four qualified teams. FURIA and TYLOO are the first teams confirmed for the tournament, with the last two invitees expected to be announced in coming weeks along with the match-ups for the Asian qualifier.

Europe

Participating teams:

Group A

Group B

Initial matchups:

Saturday, August 8
13:00 Dignitas vs. Giants
14:30 Secret vs. Syman
16:00 FORZE vs. Nordavind
17:30 Endpoint vs. Movistar Riders

Sunday, August 9
13:00 North vs. x6tence
14:30 AGO vs. Illuminar
16:00 Sprout vs. Winstrike
17:30 Nemiga vs. c0ntact

North America

Participating teams:

TBD

Initial matchups:

Saturday, August 8
20:00 TeamOne vs. Cloud9
21:30 Ze Pug Godz vs. Yeah
23:00 Levitate vs. Chaos
01:30 New England Whalers vs. TBD

ez dubs for c9

2020-07-31 15:02

Can't wait for Chaos to win against Yeah and Team one!

Alright T2 tourney.

2 replies

LAN tho

2020-07-31 16:42

1 reply

Best T0 Lan

2020-07-31 16:48

Secret and giants??? How many teams do you need to get by to invite those two?

27 replies

fox is GOAT so his team is invited of course

2020-07-31 15:04

3 replies

Fox only known for being in faze otherwise nonamer guy

2020-07-31 15:16

He played for SK and reached semifinals in a major as well

2020-07-31 15:20

Sk was always trash and they lost to VP xd

2020-07-31 15:22

Considering very few big teams are going to be announced (at most two more invited), my guess is that some teams don't want to sign up for a big LAN that might not happen at all. Most of the EU teams are also ones who didn't play much/at all during the break. Other teams might have said no to the qualifier because they've been playing during the break.

2020-07-31 16:30

17 replies

Dig is ranked 50, secret is ranked 75 Are you saying all EU teams between those two said no? What about the 50 teams between dig and giants? Only secret said yes?

2020-07-31 16:40

16 replies

To be entirely fair to Giants and Secret, their organizations are more established than, say, AGF, HONORIS, KOVA or Lilmix. For sure it's still unfair to better teams, but it's understandable that a TO would rather target the well-known organisations.

2020-07-31 16:44

15 replies

Sure, but it just seems weird that they go for lesser teams than the ranking. Don't they want the best competition?

2020-07-31 17:56

10 replies

It's the TOs, man. Like dracø said below I would imagine it's got to do with money. All these organisations are somewhat wealthy. As for NA I'd assume they got anyone they could get, thus Ze Pug Godz.

2020-07-31 18:04

9 replies

Yeah, this is not nearly as bad as ESL inviting MIBR to Cologne EU over ENCE, Godsent and whatever the third one was

2020-07-31 19:19

8 replies

Not sure about the ESL rankings but according to HLTV rankings Spirit and GODSENT should have had that invite. ENCE are probably above them in the ESL ranking as well.

2020-07-31 19:47

7 replies

They were smart enough and point toward a 2 week old ranking which plebs can't see. I talked to journalists with more knowledge in the matter and they agree with me and have asked ESL staff for an explanation, but with no reply My tin foil hat theory is that they do it so they can get MIBR points in ESL, can let Gaules stream without the biggest fanbase going nuts. Most likely a bitch move just for money but done in a way so most people can't see the issue

2020-07-31 19:54

6 replies

Maybe they are trying to win MIBR over to an ESL Partnership rather than Flashpoint?

2020-07-31 20:01

5 replies

They can have both gold and bad reasons but so far they said they invited them due to rankings but unless 3 teams declined, they got an invite they didn't deserve

2020-07-31 20:44

4 replies

Yeah, I guess ESL don't really care about the competition at their events. They'd probably rather have MIBR be there at any cost and considering they were in EU that was the price.

2020-07-31 20:52

I am not buying that at all Why would MIBR let their players leave US if they knew they weren't allowed back in time?

2020-07-31 20:57

Good point. I guess it's just some sort of behind-the-scenes bullshit between the organisations.

2020-07-31 21:13

We'll see. I wait for DeKay or RLewis to write about it

2020-07-31 21:14

So how come HONORIS got the North spot?

2020-08-04 09:56

They did? I've been thinking about this a bit more. It's understandable that orgs wouldn't want to potentially sign up for a fly-away LAN that they might not be able to afford. As SPUNJ explained in HLTV Confirmed, just because it's possible to host closed LANs because of the viral situation, doesn't mean that it will happen. Teams and TOs won't have a lot of money for a long time going forward. I'd say the same goes for these teams. Why would a less rich organisation sign up for an expensive fly-away LAN in this financial situation? As for why HONORIS got the spot instead of North, I'm not sure. Might be that they got the call and jumped on the chance for the sake of getting the in-server hours. Maybe there was some behind-the-scenes agreement to soften the financial blow, or they are richer than we know of. Or maybe they know their chances of qualification are slim, so they might as well play the online officials to rack up the hours.

2020-08-04 19:17

Yeah, it just seems weird. If Honoris get invited it isn't for money, it isn't for exposure. It just seems like the TO got no clue who is between 50 and 75. The travell cost (hotel and flight) is usually, not always, paid by the TO. I agree with SPUNJ in that case, but I don't really get why we don't get something like SEF as a LAN where the SEF top teams get to play against Fnatic, DIG and NiP in a LAN environment. I am not even sure whether or not HONORIS got financial backing or not. But it is possible since TaZ have been getting sponsors for 2 years, and with VP leaving Poland, TaZ and Neo should be able to get some sponsors. Not sure but I think Kuben, TaZ and Neo are close friends with the Kinguin CEO. Still don't get it. Why go for Honoris? I know some teams between DIG and Honoris might have turned it down, but all of them? I doubt it. Could also be a VISA thing. You need 3-4 players with previous VISA to China perhaps?

2020-08-06 10:51

Probably the visa-thing. It's all weird but it's the type of BtS crap we won't understand until (if) it's made public.

2020-08-06 11:49

It's all about the €€€. Giants might be shit but they have good sponsors.

2020-07-31 17:18

Yeah, and viewers But what do they get from inviting punching bags?

Unless orgs paid for the invite.. idk. It's pretty pointless to have decent teams and then just trash to fill up the spots.

2020-07-31 18:01

Yeah, imagine if they talked to some new teams or Orgless rosters.would be great for any young squad that is 50-70

2020-07-31 19:18

So why HONORIS as the substitute for North?

2020-08-04 09:57

Go DIG!

2020-07-31 15:03

2020-07-31 16:26

who

Watafak even is that event men)))

EZ for Ze Pug Godz

$300,000 LAN event on offer. cool story bruh

Yo les noobs, À bit sad that they only got 4 top 30 teams over the two qualifiers. Seems like the prize pool will be disproportionate given the quality of the teams participating in it. But it's a Chinese organizer so guess it's got money to splash around... And mibr not even I vited to the Qualifier kkkkk

2020-07-31 15:08

2 more teams will be invited to the LAN and Furia is already invited. Let's assume none of the teams in this qualifier will play the LAN Grand final

2020-07-31 15:27

ce post manque de culture. And MIBR doesn't deserve invites lmao (i'm glad Furia is invited) you are found guilty of imitating culture, pls pay 1 btc to Internet Police ty. we also take mastercard

2020-07-31 20:17

ofc polish team vs polish team hahah

+1 XD

Yo le noob, Tbh none of them should have been invited to compete in the first place...

Then who should be invit3d? Tell us surr master

2020-07-31 19:04

Why not put 1 Danish and PL team into group A retarded matchups tbh

2020-07-31 15:07

can’t wait for Endpoint to dominate this entire tournament

Hahahah

2020-08-01 18:33

LAN?

2020-07-31 15:09

Inshallah

2020-07-31 15:10

G00dluck c0ntact

Let's Go Giants #WEAREGIANTS

2020-07-31 15:13

ez riders!

2020-07-31 15:21

I wanna see chaos wins 2 games on lan very sad aimlock team

2020-07-31 15:25

300k lan with just trashteams, they will not pay like chinas in 1.6 lel

2020-07-31 15:28

EU - Dignitas and c0ntact. NA - Cloud9 Asia - TIGER (i hope)

2020-07-31 15:36

Dicknitas kekw

2020-07-31 15:44

EU - Nemiga, Endpoint NA - Cloud9

2020-07-31 16:02

sprout > nemiga

2020-07-31 16:23

I can see Sprout making it, I just chosen Nemiga because they are longer with each other and they are great aswell.

2020-07-31 17:13

endpoint XDDDDD

2020-07-31 16:55

Endpoint is a really good team, I don't know what are you making fun of.

untill c0ntact destroys EU

2020-07-31 18:37

I don't think c0ntact is going to qualify, there are a lot of better teams than them.

2020-07-31 21:06

You don't think so they beat complexity and only lost to fnatic cuz of 10min brake not even 30min when serbia and lithuania was on heat waves after 3h match so they going to qual for sure even with 1 weak with Snappi they managed to do that wait and see this ez qual for c0ntact

2020-07-31 21:21

c0ntact will not be better than teams like Nemiga, Endpoint or even Sprout.

2020-07-31 23:36

You'll see my guy.

2020-08-01 10:42

Excatly, you will see.

2020-08-01 11:21

how did suck ass levitate get here....chaos gonna kick that ass quick....2-0

LETS GO DIG #DIGWIN

2020-07-31 16:25

Legend fox vs rest of legends!

2020-07-31 16:57

Ez 4 Riders!!!

2020-07-31 17:00

Everyone will throw to not play in China

2020-07-31 17:04

wtf why would you invite Giants Secret and Illuminar lol who made that decision $$ i guess

2020-07-31 17:06

let's go DIG!

2020-07-31 17:09

Bruhhhh... Tier 3/2 teamssssss

2020-07-31 17:11

At least it's LAN..... Where's gen.g though. I want to see Bntet beat Tyloo

he cant beat tyloo. Especially on 5eplay's tournament

2020-07-31 17:23

Naaah, i think 7/10 Gen.G still be able to win....

2020-08-02 23:38

dude u dont understand what i am talking about. I said on "5eplay tournament". I dont know exactly but its proven (search captainmo matchfixing screenshot) that theres a some kind of cheat/advantage for chinese teams on china tournaments.

2020-08-03 06:40

im pretty sure tyloo will win this. Just because its 5eplay's tournament

2020-07-31 17:24

lmfao,actually tyloo's boss plays a part in 5eplay's running

2020-07-31 17:30

That's why they only got mostly tier 3 teams lol I see

2020-07-31 20:06

north tier 2 team kekw ez 4 dignitas hopefully

they are not even tier 2 r.n

2020-07-31 17:26

Ez for the boomers AKA Team Dignitas #DIGWIN

Conflict of interest?? X6tence is owned by giants and they can play in the sam tournament lol good one

2020-07-31 17:35

I think that it's Volvo events only

2020-07-31 17:51

Ez4dignitas and c9

2020-07-31 17:36

If dignitas don't win this then they should disband

2020-07-31 17:53

Giants must suck dicks really hard so they are getting invites to these tournaments, where they will lose everything

Wish sAw could have gotten an invite , Surely they would do better than half of the teams there , but hey good luck to all the teams there and hey movistar be careful guys , you have a PT team in the group

2020-07-31 19:31