EPS Nordic III: week 1 recap

The third season of EPS Nordic started last week and we now bring you a recap of the 1st week, so if you missed some action, this is where you can get yourself up to date. Four matches were played out of six scheduled, and in the mean time fnatic dropped out and then back into the league.

The 2nd season of EPS Nordic hasn't yet been completed, as fnatic and mTw still need to finish their match in the Final, but that didn't stop season 3 from starting on its scheduled time. Although, even before it started, trouble seemed to hit as fnatic announced they will not be taking part in the league this season, but then retracted that statement two days later, meaning they will be competing as expected.

First week's matches were played on de_tuscan, a map that is known for providing upsets. But it seems that that's a thing of the past, as the favorites didn't allow themselves to be surprised on this map.

SK was one of the teams to record an expected victory against Cheap Times, and they did so without much trouble as the 16-5 result suggests. They had a great first half as T winning 13 rounds, which left little space for a comeback by Cheap Times, and SK quickly took the needed 3 rounds.

Season two finalists mTw also made a positive start to their new campaign, as they were better than their compatriots from dakarma. However, the newly promoted dakarma didn't just show up and lay their weapons down, but instead they put up a solid fight and took 9 rounds showing that they will not give easy points to anyone.

A newly formed team Swedish Housemafia got off to a great start by defeating Danish team No Problem! in a manner that their opponent's name speaks best about. SH controlled the match from the start with aggressive CT play, not allowing NP to even start their attacks, which gave them a 13-2 lead. It took only a few more rounds in the second half and they brought the match to a close with a 16-4 score.

The fourth match was perhaps the only one with a surprising outcome, as the former Lions squad, now Online-Kingdom, lost to teamteam. This match was probably the most exciting one result-wise, as OK had the lead at halftime of 9-6, but the newly promoted Danish team overrun them in the second half with a 10-1 score. teamteam therefore grabbed a 16-10 victory and their first 3 points of the season.

Two other scheduled matches, Lions against Playzone and fnatic versus ArcticNova, were postponed to a later date, due to the MSI BEAT IT tournament in which Lions and fnatic took part this weekend, as well as ArcticNova wildcarding.

You can see the standings after first matches here.

Results from Playday 1 - de_tuscan

SK vs Cheap Times	16-5	Demo	Stats
mTw vs dakarma	16-9	Demo	Stats
Swedish Housemafia vs No Problem!	16-4	Demo	Stats
teamteam vs Online-Kingdom	16-10	Demo	Stats
fnatic vs ArcticNova	Postponed
Lions vs Playzone	Postponed

Player performances

With only 4 matches to choose from, there weren't many great individual performances, in fact the 5 best rated players come from only 2 different teams. Top rated player this week is recently released from H2k, Markus "pronax" Wallsten who found his place in Swedish Housemafia and lead the way to their first 3 points against NP. He topped the scoreboard in the first half with a 21-4 score as CT and finished the match with an impressive 1.91 rating.

His teammate Samuel "Zyppe" Martinsson was just a couple of kills behind, although he boosted his stats a little with a few well played anti-eco rounds. Nevertheless, Martinsson had a fine showing, most notably winning a 1vs2 situation in the last round of the match.

Following are two experienced SK members, in-game leader Robert "RobbaN" Dahlström and Dennis "walle" Wallenberg. They both had over 20 kills in the 16-5 victory over Cheap Times and they showed in what kind of form they were before SEC, which they ended up winning.

The 5th highest rated player this week is another member of SH who contributed significantly to their win over NP, team captain Faruk "pita" Pita. Like both of his aforementioned teammates, Pita played well on the CT side and had some good moments that won some rounds for his team.

Top player performances of the week

#	Player	K-D	Rating	Demo
1.	Markus 'pronax' Wallsten	23-8	1.91	POV
2.	Samuel 'Zyppe' Martinsson	21-9	1.79
3.	Robert 'RobbaN' Dahlström	21-11	1.50
4.	Dennis 'walle' Wallenberg	22-16	1.46	POV
5.	Faruk 'pita' Pita	17-9	1.45	POV

Team performances

Swedish Housemafia really dominated in their match, so they are as expected the top rated team this week. Behind them is SK, who also won convincingly against Cheap Times, and then mTw who found solid resistance from dakarma.

Top team performances of the week

#	Team	Result	Rating
1.	Swedish Housemafia	16-4 vs  No Problem!	1.49
2.	SK	16-5 vs Cheap Times	1.26
3.	mTw	16-9 vs  dakarma	1.19

Worst performances

Worst player performance of the week

Player	K-D	Match	Rating
Ali 'Bazooun' Asadi	6-18	NP! vs SH (4-16)	0.36

Worst team performance of the week

Team	Result	Rating
No Problem!	4-16 vs Swedish Housemafia	0.55

Check out the rest of the stats from the league here, and have a look at what other POV demos we have here. Stay tuned to HLTV.org for complete coverage of the 3rd season of EPS Nordic!