The preview of BEYOND EPIC

The general staff

The championship BEYOND EPIC starts on June 15, which will be hosted online. 12 participants, 10 of which have received direct invitations, will be fighting for the prize pool of $200,000.

The format

12 teams from Europe and CIS will take part in the competition and 10 of which have received direct invitations from the organizers. The rest two slots were taken by the guys from the closed qualifiers.

All teams were divided into two groups where they will have to play bo3 matches and the four worst teams will be eliminated from the event on the outcome of them. In its turn, the top four rosters will advance to the playoffs from the upper bracket and the rest of the participants will proceed to the lower part of the playoff bracket.

The distribution of teams by groups:

NaVi
OG
Nigma
Secret
Unique
Vikin.gg

Group В

Alliance
FlyToMoon
NiP
Empire Hope
Liquid
Virtus.Pro

The playoff stage will be held in a double-elimination bracket with bo3 matches and the grand final will be the only one to be played in a bo5 format.

The prize pool will amount to $200,000, however, its distribution is unknown.

The favorites of the championship

The representatives of Team Secret are the obvious favorites of the championship because they have already achieved five championships in a row at the biggest events in quarantine. It is clear that the guys simply have no equals and they win every game without special issues, however, there are moments when Puppey starts testing something and the guys may lose to the obvious outsiders. By the way, it does not make any impact on the final result of the tournament.

Also, the list of the favorites includes OG and Alliance, which have gained good shape and made it to the finals of BLAST Bounty Hunt and ESL One Birmingham 2020 - Online: Europe & CIS, respectively, and they are united by the fact that they were not able to win a map against Team Secret in the final. Both teams do not stand out with their stability in group stages, however, it is normal for the online format.

The outsiders of the championship

Two teams from CIS in the face of Team Empire and Team Unique can be related to the obvious outsiders of the championship. This is the first championship of this scale for Team Empire and they do not have the experience of playing championships of this kind, so it is unlikely that the guys will pass the group stage.

In its turn, Team Unique participated in ESL One Birmingham 2020 - Online: Europe & CIS and were remembered due to the victory over Team Secret. Despite they were not able to reach higher than the 11th-12th place and the rosters, which played worse at that championship, were only OG, which have gained momentum recently and played in the final of BLAST Bounty Hunt. So it is not worth expecting high places from these guys.

The rest of the participants

Among the rest of the participants, we can detach only Liquid and NiP because they do not stand out with their stability and they can beat anyone and lose to anyone and also Virtus.Pro. The last ones have taken a small break from the competitive scene and it will be twice interesting to follow their play because they are coming back with new forces and they have already shown the championship play in quarantine.