CCT Central Europe Malta Finals 1CCT Central Europe Malta Finals viewer's guide
The first Champion of Champions Tour studio LAN is set to start on Thursday.
CCT Central Europe Malta Finals 1 will finally bring the CCT Tour to LAN for the first time after almost six months of online competitions. The event will take place live in St. Julian's, Malta between February 16-19, and will host eight squads competing for the lion's share of a $100,000 prize pool and one qualifying spot in the $500,000 Global Finals set to take place in 2024.
Six of the participating teams have been directly invited by the organizers and include top 20-ranked squads Spirit and ENCE, as well as Movistar Riders, Bad News Eagles, Sprout, and Eternal Fire. The last two squads, FORZE and HONORIS, earned their spots through their performances over the four online CCT Central Europe events, being ranked No. 2 and No. 4 in the circuit's leaderboard, respectively.
The eight teams will be divided into two GSL groups of four, in which the opening best-of-one matches will give way to best-of-three fixtures. The top two placed squads in each group will advance to the playoffs where they will battle it out in a double-elimination bracket with best-of-three matches.
The list of teams attending the studio LAN is:
Spirit and ENCE will enter the event as favorites as they arrive in Malta as the two highest-ranked teams, placed No. 12 and No. 18, respectively. The Russian squad can count on Ihor "w0nderful" Zhdanov's incredible recent form which propelled them to a victory over BIG and a close match against Liquid at IEM Katowice 2023's group stage, which the young Ukrainian left with a 1.21 rating.
Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer's men, meanwhile, failed to advance from the Play-In stage as they struggle to reach the heights from last year following the departure of Lotan "Spinx" Giladi to Vitality in August. The new roster with Álvaro "SunPayus" García and Valdemar "valde" Bjørn Vangså failed to bring ENCE back into tournament contention and has fallen all the way down to the No. 18 spot, something they will look to change with a recent roster move and with ENCE Academy member Henri "HENU" Ylilehto in tow while in Malta.
Bad News Eagles come into their first LAN with coach Jonatan "Devilwalk" Lundberg and are fresh off their failure in the IEM Brazil closed qualifier, which HONORIS also attended. The Polish squad led by Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas was just one round away from sweeping BIG and securing a spot in the Brazilian event, but instead were brought to overtime before losing the series 1-2.
Sprout's attendance at the event comes during a period of instability for their lineup as they are yet to find a new in-game leader following Rasmus "Zyphon" Nordfoss's departure and Ismail "refrezh" Ali's desire not to captain the team any longer. Mikkel "Maze" Sparvath was briefly trialed as an IGL replacement, but was quickly shown the door and Danny "BERRY" Krüger has since stepped in to take his place.
Eternal Fire have also struggled to stabilize their roster in recent months with constant shuffles between Engin "MAJ3R" Küpeli. Yasin "xfl0ud" Koç, and Buğra "Calyx" Arkın over the last year. The current roster successfully qualified for ESL Pro League Season 17 in January, but crashed out at their most recent event in last place after losses to 9INE and Falcons at OMEN GWR Challenge 2023.
One squad to keep an eye on is FORZE as they tackle their new lineup's first LAN. Andrey "Jerry" Mekhryakov secured the services of Evgeny "r3salt" Frolov and Vladislav "Krad" Kravchenko over the last three months to reinvigorate a squad on the down from their failure to qualify for the IEM Rio Major.
Movistar Riders round of the list of teams attending and it's difficult to imagine the Spaniards able to lift the trophy due to their poor recent form, which has led them dropping out of the top 30. Their most recent results include losses to VOYVODA, LDLC, and Aurora while their last official map victory was in January 22 against Copenhagen Flames.
Schedule
| Date | Matches | |
|---|---|---|
| CCT Central Europe Malta Finals 1 | ||
| 16/02/2023 |
10:00
|
Match |
| 16/02/2023 |
13:00
|
Match |
| 16/02/2023 |
15:15
|
Match |
| 16/02/2023 |
19:45
|
Match |
| 16/02/2023 |
21:35
|
Match |
| 16/02/2023 |
23:15
|
Match |
| 17/02/2023 |
10:00
|
Match |
| 17/02/2023 |
13:25
|
Match |
| 17/02/2023 |
16:30
|
Match |
| 17/02/2023 |
21:10
|
Match |
| 18/02/2023 |
10:00
|
Match |
| 18/02/2023 |
13:30
|
Match |
| 18/02/2023 |
17:00
|
Match |
| 18/02/2023 |
21:30
|
Match |
| 19/02/2023 |
15:10
|
Match |
| 19/02/2023 |
20:00
|
Match |
Talent lineup
The talent list for CCT Central Europe Malta Finals 1 includes Jasmine "Veracity" Kanuga as the event's stage host while Pala "Pala" Gilroy Sen directs the discussion on the analysts' desk with Allan "Allan" Hender, Freddie "GrimyRannarr" Pritchard, and Cole "Xner" McHenry.
The action on the server will be brought by the commentary quartet of Adam "Dinko" Hawthorne, Brandon "BDog" Rawlings, Tom "SneakyBeaky" Taylor, and Henry "HenryG" Greer who returned to action last August after a two-year hiatus for EPL Season 16.
The complete talent lineup can be found below:
Stage host
Desk host
Commentators
Henry "HenryG" Greer
Analysts
Cole "xner" McHenry
Prize distribution
The $100,000 prize pool will be divided according to placement between the top-four teams at the event, with the champions earning a share worth $50,000 and an invitation to CCT Global Finals 2024.
The prize breakdown is as follows:
1. $50,000 + CCT Global Finals 2024 spot
2. $25,000
3. $15,000
4. $10,000
Valdemar 'valde' Bjørn Vangså
Lotan 'Spinx' Giladi
Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire
Ihor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov
Iulian 'regali' Harjău
Viktor 'Lack1' Boldyrev
Pavle 'Maden' Bošković
Rigon 'rigoN' Gashi
Keith 'NAF' Markovic
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis
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