One of the many in a series of tournaments hosted by The Esports Club, the Western Digital Black Open Cup is closely approaching its climax. The Prize Pool is a massive 4,00,000 INR, which will be fought for by the remaining 3 teams in the competition. The Tournament follows a double-elimination style knockout stage, like most TEC tournaments.
The run-in form check of GE, TM, and GodL
The Indian scene continues to show off its competitiveness and consistency with Global Esports, Team Mahi, and Godlike Esports making another Top 3 in the tournament so far. GE has beat Team Mahi yet again to reach the Grand Finals of the tournament, whereas Team Mahi drop to the lower bracket Finals against Godlike Esports.
Global Esports have been in fantastic form lately
Global Esports have of course been in fantastic form, coming off #1 finishes at ESPL Valorant Power Up and TEC Invitation Season 2. They have had a 100% win rate in their recent games and are looking unbelievable with players like skillz and hellranger stepping up to win them games along with the ever-present aura of SkRossi. They have booked their place in the Grand Final beating Team Mahi yet again, the third time out of their last 3 meetings.
Team Mahi have only lost to GE that too very closely
Team Mahi are on a run winning all 8 of their past 10 games, both the losses have been against Global Esports. Team Mahi are on the bootcamp right now though, so we can expect their results to get better surely, but they have slipped themself as a #2 in the region so far, battling for that first place with GE. Team Mahi haven't looked as strong as they did earlier on in the scene's life-span but if there's any chance to deny that, it's this.
GodLike Esports are looking strong with Haivaan's arrival
Godlike are the dark horse team for every VALORANT tournament in the region, being the ‘best of the rest', of the teams that aren’t GE and Team Mahi. Godlike have also been on an 80% win rate in their last 10 games, with their only two losses coming against Team Mahi. Poetic. Deathmaker and Flexx, the obvious stars of the team, with the addition of the Haivaan’s CS experience and calm look dangerous.
The Match-ups
The only team locked in, for now, is of course GE, having won the Upper Bracket Final to reach the Grand Final. They beat Team Mahi 2-1 across Ascent, Haven, and Split. A pretty strong performance all across the board for GE, with skillz topping the leaderboard. The road to the finals wasn't the hardest for GE, knocking out some decent names like TempesT and Reckoning Esports.
The other spot for the finals will be determined by a face-off between Godlike Esports and Team Mahi, the undisputed top 2 and 3 teams respectively. Godlike and Mahi have the same 80%~ win rate in their previous ten games, but with GL’s losses coming against Mahi, whilst Mahis losses come due to GE, this matchup is looking to be very spicy indeed, and this is the stage where GL want to challenge Team Mahi for a chance to be the second-best team in India.
This matchup, as well as the one after this, is looking to be very interesting indeed. Godlike take on Team Mahi at 6 PM IST, today, 20 March 2021. Catch the stream live here.
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