EPS Spain IX reaches playoffs

After three weeks of group stage matches, ESL Pro Series Spain's 9th edition has reached the playoff phase and the quarter-final pairs were drawn today.

The 9th season of ESL Pro Series Spain started three weeks ago with 16 teams split into four groups. After three best-of-three matches for each team, top two from every group secured a spot in the playoffs.

Reigning champions x6tence had no trouble securing the first place in Group A in front of myRevenge, same as the last season's runner-ups SFTO eSports (formerly known as 34united) who finished ahead of Inet Heroes in Group B.

Group D's battle for first place was the most interesting one where the fresh lineup of DN-Gaming defeated some seasoned players of Spanien after three maps. Newly announced organization Karont3 still hasn't selected its full team that will be led by Arturo "sukitRon" Gil, so fielding mixed lineups resulted in dropping the first place to SNEAKY in Group C.

The draw for the quarter-final took place today, producing the following match-ups:

x6tence	vs.	Spanien
SNEAKY	vs.	Inet Heroes
SFTO eSports	vs.	Karont3
DN-Gaming	vs.	myRevenge

These matches are scheduled for Monday, June 18 and will be played in a best-of-three format. The teams have the right to use a wildcard in order to postpone their match if they need to do so.

Semi-finals will take place during an Intel Friday Night Game event on July 6-7 at FNAC Castellana, Madrid. All four participants will receive bonus money in form of 400€, as well as an additional 100€ for the winners.

The grand final will also be played on LAN, at the Tenerife Lan Party which is scheduled for July 17-22, and the finalists will have their trip and accommodation expenses paid in full.

Prize distribution for ESL Pro Series Spain IX:

1. 2,100€
2. 1,000€
3. 600€
4. 300€

HLTV.org will continue covering EPS Spain IX throughout the playoffs with hot matches. You can check out the progress so far on our event page which contains all of the results and demos, and also make sure to check out our stats page for the tournament.