CCT South Europe Series 1 playoffs begin **

16 teams will be duking it out in a single-elimination bracket for their chance at taking home the $22,000 grand prize.

---

Update 18:37 : Bad News Eagles have also withdrawn from the event "due to commitment to other tournaments and IEM Rio Major."

---

Update 12:02 : A previous version of the article said that ENCE would be participating in CCT Central Europe Series 1. The European mix have since withdrawn from the tournament, stating that their focus is now on practicing and preparing for the Major, and have instead been replaced by Sangal.

---

The knockout stage of CCT South Europe Series 1 has officially begun, pitting eight invited teams versus a further eight squads, who successfully made their way through the group stage portion of the tournament, in a single-elimination, best-of-three bracket.

Spirit and ENCE are the highest-ranked teams in the final stage of the tournament, with both teams accepting direct invites to the playoffs, where they will do battle to be in with a chance at taking home the lion's share of the $50,000 cash prize. The two teams also both locked in Legends Stage berths at the Major in Brazil, and will take advantage of any opportunity of reaching peak form before the $1,250,000 event.

Another notable team to be gifted a playoff berth is Eternal Fire, whose packed schedule continues after they were only eliminated from the BLAST Premier Fall Showdown late on Wednesday after a laborious 1-2 affair versus Astralis. The Turkish quintet will be looking to get back on track after they recently parted ways with Engin "⁠MAJ3R⁠" Küpeli following an unsuccessful campaign through the IEM Road to Rio Europe RMR.

Read more

MAJ3R removed from Eternal Fire: "For them, I was not enough and the problem"

Joining the Turks in accepting an invitation are FORZE. The Russian side narrowly missed out on clinching their own spot in the IEM Rio Major, finishing in 9-11th place at the Europe RMR following a 1-2 defeat Bad News Eagles in the 2-2 pool. The team's downward trend in form has been reflected in the world ranking too, with the Russians falling out of the top 30 for the first time since April 2021 in spite of a first-place finish in CCT Central Europe Series 2.

Rounding out the event are teams who made their way through the swiss stage of the tournament, with Copenhagen Flames and HAVU both waiting to start their playoff runs with opening round matchups versus Entropiq and Falcons, respectively.

The tournament also awards points to the Central Europe regional rankings leaderboard, with the teams who secure a top-three finish by the end of all four online competitions clinching a spot at the Southern Europe studio finals; the date of which is still set to be announced.

The opening-round playoff matches of CCT South Europe Series 1 are as follows:

Thursday, October 20

10:00 Eternal Fire vs. Websterz
13:00 Falcons vs. HAVU
16:00 Entropiq vs. Copenhagen Flames
19:00 FORZE vs. IKLA

Friday, October 21

10:00 ENCE vs. Monte
13:00 TBD vs. ALTERNATE aTTaX
16:00 Endpoint vs. Tricked
19:00 Spirit vs. ex-SKADE