The IEM VI Kiev European Stage 3 qualifier finished with Moscow Five , Lions swe, SK Gaming , fnatic and WinFakt Fi having qualified for the Ukrainian LAN event. The IEM VI Global Challenge Kiev will be held from January 19th-22nd at the Cyberarena in Kiev, Ukraine.



The qualifier was held in a double elimination Bo1 format online and with a map selection system whereby teams tossed maps until one remained, which was then played. There were a few significant cases of teams, especially in non-Nordic matchups, having a significant ping disparity with their opponents in matches.

The qualifier saw WCG champions ESC Gaming Poland and reigning IEM V World Champions Natus Vincere failing to reach the coveted top five spots. Since neither attended either of the previous two IEM VI Global Challenges, in New York and China, both will not be able to qualify for the IEM VI World Championship either, meaning the reigning champions will not get a chance to win a third title in a row or defend for a second time.

WCG 2011 champions frustrated ( ESC)

ESC saw themselves dropped to the lower bracket in the second game of their campaign, losing an overtime nuke game against Moscow Five. Despite coming back from 7:15 to reach overtime and then going up 4:1 as CT on the first half the Polish time lost all five second half overtime rounds. This all came despite the Poles having roughly 10-11 ping each in comparsion to the Russians, who had 33-35 ping.

In the lower bracket ESC beat eSahara but then fell 6:16 to Anexis on inferno. The entire qualifier was a shambles for last season's IEM World Championship runnersup as even their first round victory in the upper bracket was a 16:14 win over TBH. They had also, along with Na`Vi, failed to make it out of the Dreamhack Winter 2011 qualifier, but got a spot due to EG dropping out prior to the LAN.

Na`Vi unable to play at their home Global Challenge

Na`Vi had already missed out on an easier route to their home Global Challenge as they fell to domestic rivals DTS in the Ukrainian qualifier. In the main European qualifier they lost a dust2 game vs. Mousesports 11:16 in the upper quarter-final. In the lower bracket a win over ALTERNATE setup a match with SK Gaming, meaning the loser would not make it to the Kiev event. SK stomped the Ukrainians with a 16:7 mirage performance that included a conclusive 12:3 CT first half.

Ups and downs of the others ( fnatic, SK Gaming and WinFakt)

Moscow Five and Lions were the teams who impressed the most online, both qualifying without a loss. After beating ESC the Russians squeaked past rullestolracers (ex-ESC.swe players) and mouz in 16:14 and 16:13 games. The latter could easily have been much more authoritative, as the Russians put a monster 11:4 terrorist first half on the new-look mouz side but were unable to clinch the deal early as CT.

Lions beat up fnatic 16:8 on dust2 and then rolled WinFakt 16:4 on tuscan, with 11 T rounds first half. The Swedish side used MODDII in place of FYRR73 for the qualifier.

fnatic, SK Gaming and WinFakt were the teams who had to do the dirty work and qualify by battling through the lower bracket. WinFakt began the event with a shocking double overtime mirage win over SK in the second round of the upper bracket. They then beat up Anexis on train in the next round, with zE- having a disasterous -1 kill performance as T on train in the second half.

Losing to Lions meant the Finns had more work to do in the lower bracket. A 12:16 train loss to SK, after a 14:1 first half as T, meant WinFakt would have to win the 5th place decider to get direct entry. They did just that as they defeated mouz on tuscan 16:11.

fnatic fell to Lions in the upper bracket but wins over Anexis and mouz in the lower saw them through to a top 4 spot. SK Gaming lost early to WinFakt, as mentioned above, but beat the same Finns in the lower along with Na`Vi to make it to Kiev.

The forgotten failure ( mouz)

mouz seemed to be on a roll with their new lineup, taking down Na`Vi in the upper bracket. Their loss to M5 in the upper bracket though, one map short of Kiev, saw them spiral out of the qualifier without grabbing a top 5 spot. In the lower bracket they lost to fnatic and then WinFakt in the 5th place decider. zonic's first LAN for the German team will apparently not be the Kiev event, unless the teams from the USA or Asia drop out. He will however be at the World Championship, being as mouz were runnersup in Guangzhou.






Source: HLTV.org