Group Stage Concluded for the MRO Battalion 1944: Open

After these past two weeks of online competition between Malta's best Battalion 1944 roster, it seems that we're ready to dive right into the brackets. Before we do that, however, let's take a step back and look at how the tournament is going so far. Plenty of surprises and fantastic games have already played out, and we haven't even reached the LAN portion yet! Below is how Groups A and B concluded with the last games finishing on 5th April. 

Both of these sets of results were taken from our event page here: http://www.gamers.com.mt/event/17/the-mro-battalion-1944-open, a page we recommend you check out to stay up to date on the proceedings. Straight off the bat, we've got to take a look at Group B - nobody expected Anarchy to come out on top, but just like I said in our preface article, we cannot really predict anything for a brand new game. Anarchy managed to beat out Ephica by one win; an Ephica who seem on form and eager for the podium. Meanwhile, we can observe an underperforming Paradigm6 who held on to their single victory to tie for last with Delixx, both teams will need to step it up for the next stage. It seems that Ephica is dominating the rivalry between Paradigm6 and themselves, though there is still much Battalion 1944 to be played. 

If you thought Anarchy were playing well, think again. In group A, the boys in light blue of Project Eversio have soared to the top with a flawless performance stained with a single draw. Project Eversio collected the most points out of both groups. Group A also had some very strong contention mid-group, with EvH and dOUBTFUL Gaming at each other's throats - dOUBTFUL edging out thanks to their draw. These two teams also scored highly, with 10 and 9 points respectively; this is due to the underperformance from Anoxia. This is quite the understatement. With no wins or draws, Anoxia have had no presence at all in this event so far, giving away series to be the lowest scoring team. If there's anytime to start winning, it's now.

So what happens next?

With the placements from the groups ready, seeds have been drawn into a double elimination bracket. The first round of matches will go accordingly:

• Eversio vs Delixx
• Ephica vs EvH
• Anarchy vs Anoxia
• dOUBTFUL vs Paradigm6

These teams have been battling it out in the group stage as to have the easiest first round possible, as exemplified by Anarchy's matchup against Anoxia. It's those 2nd vs 3rd matches which will really get the fire going in this tournament. Will Ephica beat out EvH? Does Paradigm6 have what it takes to win against dOUBTFUL? 

Rocking a best of 3 format and a map style of MR12, these initial bracket matches will be played online between Monday 9th and Thursday 12th April and will be streamed on our Twitch channel https://www.twitch.tv/gmr_tv. To find out when your favourite match plays, head on out to our event page where all the details lie waiting - http://www.gamers.com.mt/tournament/116/stage/3/brackets.

This event is really shaping up to be one hell of a competition. Share your thoughts below in the comments section. Be sure to keep up to date with more news on the way.