MCS #4 Recap - the CS:GO Tournament's Iconic Upset

This morning I thought I'd review a select tournament from the event which just passed, the Malta Cyber Series #4, and discuss its implications for the rest of the year. With so much content to choose from, and a wide variety of titles, I've decided to delve into the CS:GO Gold tournament in an attempt to become more familiar with the local scene. With ten of the most talented Maltese squads placed against each other, the tournament was bound to be a memorable one, but not for the reasons which people may expect. 

The teams involved were as follows: Iconic Cinco, REKTANGLE, aNarchyMT, Valid, Unknown, Project Eversio, Euphoria Gaming, Gamers, Adrenaline Gaming and Divine Gaming - an assortment of new teams and familiar names. It was a pleasure to witness so many teams stepping into the fray. Out of the bunch, just from the names themselves, the favourites were REKTANGLE and Project Eversio, with Eversio aiming to take first place. We'll see how that actually turns out; starting with the group stage. 

Placed into two groups of 5 teams each; the action quickly escalated as teams found their spot in the seed; with the bottom-placed team being placed in the Silver Tournament and the others placed in the Gold Tournament as expected. Group A's reign jockeyed between the control of Project Eversio and Euphoria Gaming, with PE edging out with a win over their toughest competition to gain them the full 15 points. Divine Gaming placed last in the group and was eliminated, even though they only lost 3 games - we encourage them to practice further and bring it next time around.

Meanwhile in Group B, the race for first place was incredibly tight while scraps were left for the bottom two teams. Iconic Cinco, REKTANGLE and aNarchyM were all situated at 12 points by the end of the matches, with Iconic edging to the top thanks to the highest Round Difference. Every round mattered by the end of the group; Iconic was already beginning to surprise. Unknown were eliminated from the group, and again, we recommend some more practice on their behalf even though it was a tough group. 

Hence, we can move on to bracket play. Here's what happened: 

Right off the bat, the top seeds made short work of the lesser seeds as Eversio, Iconic, REKTANGLE, and aNarchy progressed with almost clean records except for Euphoria almost clawing back in their matchup against aNarchy(16-12 in the final game). In fact, the rest of the tournament would consist of a few sweeps, with a trend being one incredibly close map paired with a dominant performance to quickly end the game. In no time, the top 4 teams were Eversio, Iconic, aNarchy and REKTANGLE. 

The semi-final matchup between Eversio and Iconic was absolutely incredible - one map going Iconic's way in a reasonable manner while the first map of Mirage hosted a scoreline of 23-25 in favour of Iconic. After that first map, the guys of Iconic were really stirred up and carried this momentum into winning the second map - Project Eversio tried to claw their way back into the map, but simply couldn't. However, Project Eversio would be back for a rematch in the grand final as they fought through aNarchy and REKTANGLE in quick fashion. In order to win, Eversio would have to win 2 BO5 series back-to-back against the toughest competition they've had in a while. 

The first and only series all boiled down to the final map. Iconic clenched map 1, while Eversio responded with a close win on Cache - this pattern repeating until map 5; Nuke. Here, it seems that Iconic had had enough of the boys in blue, as they whipped out the anti and finalised it all with a dominant 16-3 scoreline, leaving Project Eversio demoralised. Perhaps one of the largest upsets of the event, Iconic Cinco are now officially the top local CS:GO team following this victory.  How?

Sporting the following roster: "Zelli0n", "Nax", "zED", "oxley" and "KilleRa", the team had a mix of Maltese and European players which are relatively new to the local scene; bringing new talent and ideas. To learn more, we'll be reaching out for an interview regarding their team dynamic and thoughts on the passing event. 

Tell us what you think of the recap below!