The group stage of ELEAGUE Major finished yesterday. Eight strongest teams moved on to quarterfinals of one of the most long-awaited championships. And of course there is Gambit among them! To advance to the playoffs the teams had to acquire three victories, respectively, those, who have the same number of defeats are eliminated from the tournament yet at the group stage.  

On their way to the quarterfinals our guys outplayed the strong opponents. Most teams, which we've already faced during four days, are also pretending for the championship title: Danish North, Polish Virtus.pro and Europe's FaZe Clan. GODSENT was just one step from playoffs. They left the Major with the score of 2:3.

At this Major the main highlight of the group stage obviously was the system under which it was held. The spectators followed bo1 matches, which were even more intriguing owing to the Swiss-system. The first time Counter-Strike fans had the opportunity to oversee such a format was at the last Major qualifiers - ESL One Cologne 2016 Main Qualifier. The same year apart from the qualifiers we could also enjoy it during the group stage of the main event. From 27 to 29 of January we're expecting traditional bo3 matches. In the interview for RuHub Abay "HObbit" Khassenov shared his opinion about the unusual group stage format: "Generally, I like the system, there is place for randomness. You lose once by chance, you can give up to another team one more time, but you can't do it accidentally three times in a row. Either your game is poor or there are other reasons. I mean I like that nothing is random and accidental, everything is just. But there is always a "but", I’d like the matches to be bo3. I understand that'd be too long so bo1 is okay as well. So I'm personally completely satisfied."