After two days of competition, top5rocket have emerged as the winner, beating Les Éperviers Furibonds in the grand finals 2-1 (Snakewater 5-0, Process 2-3, Badlands 5-0) to become the champions of Gamers Assembly 2016.
Poitiers, France was the host city for the annual French LAN, and over the course of the weekend, eleven teams flocked to the event to fight it out for a share of the €2700 prize pool and to become the victors of GA 2016. But in the end, it was top5rocket that blasted their way to the top to become champions.
Before the bracket stage, the teams first had to fight it out in the group stage, where each team would play each other once, and would earn points based on their wins/losses. top5rocket went undefeated in the group stage dropping only two rounds, while other squads such as Karibou.tf REBORN and Les Éperviers Furibonds were able to make it to the top six as well.
The top six teams from the group stage then advanced to the playoffs in a double elimination bracket, with top5rocket and Les Éperviers Furibonds receiving a first round bye. In the first round, Karibou.tf REBORN and Team Infomax were able to sweep up netCut.tf and HOSTILE Gaming respectively to move to the next round, but were dispatched by the two top seeds and sent to the lower bracket.
Knocked down to the lower bracket, Team Infomax and Karibou.tf REBORN both moved on by defeating netCut.tf and HOSTILE Gaming respectively, setting up a showdown between the two to move into the top three. In this matchup, Karibou.tf REBORN took a decisive victory to ensure the top three was all French.
In the upper bracket finals, top5rocket faced off against Les Éperviers Furibonds to earn a spot in the grand finals. top5rocket started very strong on Snakewater, gaining four rounds in a row in quick succession. Les Éperviers Furibonds then finally managed to get a round on the board, but it would be the only one they took as top5rocket takes two more rounds to close out the map. top5rocket then took another dominant victory on Process to book their spot in the grand finals.
The lower bracket finals matched up Les Éperviers Furibonds and Karibou.tf REBORN. Les Éperviers Furibonds came out strong on Snakewater with a 5-0 victory to put themselves a map up. However, Karibou.tf REBORN were not discouraged, stringing together 3 rounds to start Granary. Les Éperviers Furibonds would finally respond with 5 rounds of their own to ensure their victory and move on to the grand finals.
Thus, the grand finals was a rematch between top5rocket and Les Éperviers Furibonds. On the first map of Snakewater, top5rocket took four quick rounds in stunning fashion. Les Éperviers Furibonds tried to mount a comeback in a slow fifth round, but top5rocket proved resilient and managed to break the stalemate to win the round and map. top5rocket looked to repeat their previous victory on Process to close out the tournament, but Les Éperviers Furibonds fought valiantly and managed to force a 2-2 tie in regulation. In overtime, Les Éperviers Furibonds took the midfight and rolled the round to take a map win, tying the series. The tournament would be decided on Badlands, where Les Éperviers Furibonds attempted to continue their momentum. However, top5rocket regained their strength, stringing together five straight rounds to secure their place as champions of Gamers Assembly 2016.
The final standings for the Gamers Assembly 2016 LAN are:
- 1st: top5rocket (€1500)
- 2nd: Les Éperviers Furibonds (€900)
- 3rd: Karibou.tf REBORN (€300)
- 4th: Team Infomax
- 5th-6th: netCut.tf, HOSTILE Gaming
- 7th-11th: BackGet Foolery, Big.tf, orKs eSport, K-BINET eSports, Triple-V