Sprout defeat UoL to win ESL Meisterschaft Spring; qualify for IEM Cologne Play-In

16-5-2021 12:19

The German squad also secured a spot at ESL National Championship Global Playoff later this month.

Sprout bested Unicorns of Love in a three map series in the ESL Meisterschaft Spring grand final on Saturday to qualify for the upcoming IEM Cologne Play-In.

Following a 16-4 record in the regular season and a clean 2-0 victory over NLG in the tournament’s semi-finals, Josef "⁠faveN⁠" Baumann and company kicked off the grand final giving up Unicorns of Love’s map pick, Inferno, but struck back with a convincing 16-5 on Dust2 before sealing the deal on Nuke with a 16-11 scoreline to claim the title.

The top spot in the German national league also grants Sprout access to the ESL National Championship Global Playoff, where they will face other national champions such as Endpoint, LDLC and Movistar Riders later this month with spots in the IEM circuit up for grabs.

Sprout secured spots at the IEM Cologne Play-In and ECN Global Playoff

The IEM Cologne Play-In is scheduled to take place on July 6-7 in Cologne, Germany, where the 16-team precursor for the main event will have eight spots up for grabs. Competition will be fierce for the Germans, with teams of the caliber of Complexity, Spirit, Ninjas in Pyjamas and Evil Geniuses already on the roster.

More immediately in front of them, Sprout have a do-or-die match on Sunday in the Flashpoint 3 lower bracket, where they are set to meet FaZe for survival in the Regional Major Ranking tournament following an initial loss to HEROIC.

The IEM Cologne Play-In team list is currently:

ESL World Ranking

ENC Global Playoff

ESL World Ranking

2021-05-16 12:20

3 replies

i wonder why BIG dont play in this tournament to get a free spot in Cologne

2021-05-16 14:55

2 replies

I was wondering as well, but based on the current ESL world ranking BIG is the highest rated team that is not invited yet.

2021-05-16 15:00

think BIG will get their spot anyway

2021-05-18 09:38

Faven to big asap

Good for them but sadly probably wasted spot

2021-05-16 12:21

Probably, but looking at some other qualified teams they could do some damage.

2021-05-16 15:22

1 reply

lol shit looks like a tier3 event whats mibr renegades team1 and vici doing there ok rainerle you're right, sprout might even win a game or two

2021-05-16 15:25

wait, weren't they in flashpoint already?, i thought teams were only allowed to play in one tournament at a time.

2021-05-16 12:22

4 replies

No????

2021-05-16 12:28

Why would you think that

2021-05-16 12:30

I was thinking that a team should only attend one tournament at a time and not join any other tournament when they are already attending one since usually it's like this on other things. but now i know

2021-05-16 13:14

why should anyone to allow only one tournament? this is absolutely against Valve politics... They made that clear when ESL 2018 or 19 tried to make a close league.

2021-05-16 13:02

Having a direct spot to Cologne just because they are germans... fucking repulsive. ENC Global isn't enough? you can qualify to cologne and iem summer there

2021-05-16 12:25

11 replies

Play-in

2021-05-16 12:27

I know

The winner of the polish esl championship also get a play-in spot for the iem in katowice. Its basically the same

2021-05-16 12:35

So it is also repulsive.

2021-05-16 13:31

That is play-in not a direct spot in Cologne. The play in spot for a German team is kind of understandable if you think about the event.

2021-05-16 12:36

you should know its common for tournaments to always have one regional participant, in most they are even invited to the main event instead of a qualifier for it... Btw its not just a german cup, ESL Meisterschaft is a cup for the whole D/A/CH Region!

2021-05-16 12:37

it's pretty much only for D/A(/Lie) as Switzerland has their own ESL Nationals

2021-05-16 12:57

Since when? German EPS has always been for players from Germany /Austria/Switzerland without any restrictions

2021-05-16 13:20

idk since when, but I assume since the creation of the Swiss league, but the rules (cdn.eslgaming.com/misc/media/lo/ESL-Meis..) clearly state in point 1.10 and 1.10.2 that a team can never have more than 2 player from abroad, and abroad being defined as anywhere else than Germany and Austria

2021-05-16 13:32

hm true... weird. i remember when you were eligable to play in german league from germany,austria,switzerland,liechtenstein und luxembourg. but i feel like the league has been shit ever since they decided to rebrand it as "Meisterschaft" instead of EPS. zero development, just some money farm for hobby gamers and scammers.

2021-05-16 13:40

why cry? Blast invited SAW in Portugal. It is normal that you do it. Australia always got Reneaged when an event was there. And with ESLM they invited the best "national" team. They worked for the spot.

2021-05-16 13:05

to be fair, UOL played really well and showed their potential.

I really wanted to see them win but it is what it is.

2021-05-16 14:09

sick

Now they just need experience against not trash teams lmao

UoL bestest wtf

2021-05-18 09:41

So ez

2021-05-16 13:08

MIBR Renegades TeamOne ViCi ???????? watafaaaak? lobby matches?

2021-05-16 13:22

Meister Shaft

2021-05-16 13:46

2021-05-16 15:23

Nt Python, WonderKids forever

2021-05-16 16:11

Sprout is making to much stupid mistakes to qualify for IEM Cologne in my opinion. UoL is just a really really bad team, I have no idea how they got to the grand final.

2021-05-16 16:29