SK Gaming

The ESEA invite Season 9 playoffs are underway this weekend and there is a $10,000 first prize awaiting the last team standing of the five in attendance. Since this is ESEA de_lite is included in the map pool, though it was only mandatorily used in upper round 1.

The first match took place this morning as

eMazing Gaming faced Full Gaming NA, while all the other teams received BYEs. The latter took the victory in two straight maps, dropping only 10 rounds total.

Matches will be broadcast with commentary via ESEA's twitch.tv channel. There will of course be the usual HLTV servers for those who wish to watch via that method.

ESEA-invite S9 playoffs schedule (all times in CEST)

Saturday, September 24

17:30 Upper Bracket Round 2,

Ultimax Gaming US vs.

backfire (de_mirage, de_train)
20:00 Upper Bracket Round 2,

Evil Geniuses vs. Full Gaming NA (de_mirage, de_train)
22:30 Lower Bracket Round 2 (de_tuscan, de_inferno)
01:00 Lower Bracket Final (de_dust2, de_mirage)
03:30 Upper Bracket Round 3 (de_dust2, de_inferno)

Sunday, September 25

17:00 Consolidation Final (de_train, de_nuke)
19:30 Grand Final (TBD by teams)

Prize purse distribution

1st $10,000
2nd $4,000
3rd $1,750
4th $1,250
5th $1,000

As usual EG are the favourites headed into the LAN playoffs but the organisation who has won the majority of the ESEA-i titles in history comes in with a drastically different lineup than in the past, with fRoD and Storm no longer a part of the team. UMX us live in the same house and recently attended e-Stars Seoul, placing 9th-12th.

backfire have arguably established themself as the USA's second best team, and should be expected to challenge EG for the title. Finally, rounding out the teams is a Full Gaming team who have added a few players and skillwise should be able to match up with the other teams here.

Source: ESEA

Thorin

@Thooorin on twitter.
http://www.facebook.com/Thooorin

Esports journalism

Professional:
2001-2002 Pro-cybernews (Editor-in-Chief)
2002-2003 Gamers.nu (Lead Editor)
2004-2005 ESportsEA (Editor-in-Chief, Consultant)
2006-2008 ESportsEA (Editor, Community feature host)
2008 TAO-CS volume 1 (Co-author)
2008 TAO-fRoD (Co-author)
2008-2009 WinOut.net (Editor-in-Chief, Consultant)
2009-2012 SK Gaming (Editor-in-Chief)
2012-2013 Team Acer (Editor-in-Chief)
2013-2014 OnGamers (Senior eSports Content Creator)

Pro bono publico:
2001-2002 XSReality (Site administrator)
2003-2004 Team3D (Editor-in-Chief, Consultant)
2012-2013 fragbite (Blogger)
2013-XXXX [POD]Cast (Co-host)

CS movies:
2005 Down with the s1ckn3ss
2006 T01_natu
2009 fRoD Quick and nasty (part 1)

Events attended for coverage purposes:
2001 CPL London (Pro-cybernews)
2001 WCG Qualifier (Pro-cybernews)
2002 CPL Summer (Gamers.nu)
2002 WCG Qualifier (Gamers.nu)
2002 CPL Oslo (Gamers.nu)
2002 CPL Winter (Gamers.nu)
2003 CPL Cannes (Gamers.nu)
2003 Clikarena (Gamers.nu)
2004 CPL Winter (ESportsEA)
2009 WEM (SK Gaming)
2010 IEM IV European Championship (SK Gaming)
2010 IEM IV World Championship (SK Gaming)
2010 Arbalet Best of Four (SK Gaming)
2010 Arbalet Cup Europe (SK Gaming)
2010 e-Stars Seoul (SK Gaming)
2010 WCG (SK Gaming)
2010 WEM (SK Gaming)
2011 IEM V European Championship (SK Gaming)
2011 Assembly Winter (SK Gaming)
2011 IEM V World Championship (SK Gaming)
2011 Copenhagen Games (SK Gaming)
2011 Dreamhack Summer (SK Gaming)
2011 SK vs. FX showmatch (SK Gaming)
2011 e-Stars Seoul (SK Gaming)
2011 ESWC (SK Gaming)
2012 IEM VI Kiev (SK Gaming)
2012 IEM VI World Championship (SK Gaming)
2012 WCS Europe (Team Acer)
2012 Dreamhack Open Valencia (Team Acer)
2012 Dreamhack Winter (Team Acer)
2012 IPL5 (Team Acer)
2012 HomeStory Cup VI (Team Acer)
2013 IEM VII World Championship (Team Acer)
2013 MLG Winter Championship (Team Acer)
2013 LCS Europe Spring Week 10 (Team Acer)
2013 WCS EU S1 Ro16 (Team Acer)
2013 LCS Europe Summer Week 9 (Team Acer)
2013 WCS EU S2 final / LCS Europe Summer playoffs (Team Acer)
2013 Riot S3 World Championship (Team Acer)
2013 Battle of the Atlantic (OnGamers)
2013 Battle of the Atlantic (OnGamers)
2014 LCS Europe Spring Week 5 (OnGamers)

Esports commentary/analysis

Professional:
2010 IEM IV European Championship (ESL-TV)
2010 IEM IV Asian Finals (ESL-TV)
2010 IEM IV World Championship (ESL-TV)
2010 IEM V Shanghai (ESL-TV)
2011 ESEA-invite S8 (WinOut)
2011 GameGune (WinOut)
2011 SEC (WinOut)
2013 Dreamhack SteelSeries CS:GO Championship (DH-TV)
2014 Dreamhack Steelseries CS:GO Invitational (DH-TV)
2014 Dreamhack Summer (DH-TV)
2014 Gfinity G3
2014 Dreamhack Stockholm CS:GO Invitational (DH-TV)

Pro bono publico:
2010 ESWC (lvl^)
2010 Arbalet Cup Dallas (lvl^)
2010 GameGune (lvl^)
2010 fnatic PLAY (lvl^)
2010 WCG Nordic (SK Gaming)
2011 Dreamhack Winter BEAT IT (whisenhunt)
2011 EPS Winter (whisenhunt/ESL-TV)
2011 WCG (whisenhunt)
2011 IEM VI Kiev EU qualifier (SK Gaming)
2013 FACEIT Sunday Cup April 28th (FACEIT)
2013 Prague Challenge (District)
2013 FACEIT Sunday Cup September 8th (FACEIT)
2013 FACEIT Monday Cup September 9th (FACEIT)
2014 ESEA Invite S15 LAN finals (NiPTV)

Miscellaneous:
* Winner of the Heaven Media 'E-sports Journalist of the year' awards for 2012 and 2013.