After over a year and a half, the inaugural season of the Counter-Strike 2 Champion of Champions Tour concluded with a bang as 16 titans of the Esports world clashed in the Global Finals for over a week.
Squads from around the world poured everything they had into the tournament to be crowned the champion of champions. By the end, one team stood above the rest and emerged victorious: Turkey’s Eternal Fire.
Eternal Fire ran through the group stage of the Counter-Strike tournament. They won a total of four matches between two sets beating Parivision and Saw on their way to a playoff birth.
Denmark’s Astralis shared in this early dominance as they too went perfect in the group stage, sweeping both Big and BetBoom (BB) to advance to the next stage. Liquid Alienware was not too far behind, dispatching each squad they played easily en route to the next stage.
Gamer Legion sweat out both their sets with Fnatic and Gamin Gladiators but ended up victorious in both and advancing. Despite each losing a set, Amkal, Aurora, ENCE and BetBoom, bounced back and finish second in their respective groups.
This allowed the teams to punch their ticket to the tournament's playoff stage as they competed for the CCT title.
In the first round of the playoffs, BB gave Eternal Fire a scare by winning the first game of their set. This match thus handed the Turkish team their first loss of the tournament.
However, Eternal Fire responded to that adversity and stormed back. They would win two straight games in convincing fashion and advance to the semi-finals. Similarly, the other group stage giant Astralis was waxed in their first game against Aurora.
They subsequently fought back and defeated the Russian-based team in back-to-back games on their way to the next round. Conversely, Gamer Legion won the first game of their quarter-final set before falling to Amkal in game two.
Then, with everything on the line, Legion pulled out the victory to advance to the semis. Liquid, dominated ENCE winning by a combined 26-12 in the first two matches to advance to the second round.
In the semi-finals, Eternal’s amazing run continued as they swept Gamer Legion winning the first game 13-10 and the second 13-7. Liquid Alienware versus Astralis was a different story as the set would be an arduous challenge for both teams.
The first game went into overtime with Liquid Alienware emerging victorious 19-17. In the second match, Astralis responded with a sound 13-10 win.
However, in the third match, Liquid would come out swinging and advance to the finals on the back of a 13 to 3 demolition of Astralis.
Only one set and three victories separated Eternal Fire and the title of Counter-Strike 2’s Champion of Champions. Eternal came out strong in the first game gaining a 1-0 series lead with a 13-5 victory over Liquid Alienware.
Liquid would make Eternal Fire sweat some in game 2 as they would close the gap and only lose the match 13-10. Then with their backs against the wall, Liquid Alienware would respond with a gruelling 16-14 overtime victory.
However, this desperation would only get Liquid Alienware so far. In the next match, Eternal Fire shot back closing out the series and thus the tournament in their own 16-14 victory.
This victory marks the end of the first season of the Counter-Strike CCT. However, it will not be the last. The second season started last month as they have begun to host qualifiers for regions all over the world. Eternal Fire holds the CCT title for now as they celebrate with the $250,000 in tournament winnings. But, if they want to keep that title, Eternal Fire’s preparation for next season starts now.