With the play-in stage now over, the 16 remaining teams now know who stands in their way on their road to the knockout stage.
The draw took place soon after AGO ROGUE’s 2-1 victory over aNc Outplayed as the Polish squad became the last to qualify for the main event. Now all teams will now have until Monday, August 30 to prepare for their group stage foes.
France’s first seed, Misfits Premier, start their EUM journey in a tricky group alongside the respective SuperLiga and Ultraliga spring winners UCAM and AGO ROGUE. The three are set to battle it out for the two knockout spots, with the Spanish and Polish outfits likely relieved to have been grouped with France’s first seed rather than the surging second seed, KCorp. Anorthosis Famagusta is also in the running, but faces a rocky road ahead.
A group with no minor region teams, group B’s contenders all have a lot of work to do. PDW, PENTA and Tricked have all exceeded expectations in their home regions, with PENTA being one of the stars of the regional leagues in 2021. Despite coming in as the lowest seed, Spain’s Movistar Riders will be no pushovers and jungler Maxlore will be looking for a strong run to push himself back into LEC contention.
Including their EUM win in summer 2019, this will be the fifth appearance at the tournament for the Prime League’s first seed, BIG, and they head into this iteration having won both PL splits this season. Poland’s Illuminar make their return to EUM after three years away and are expected to battle NLC runners up Fnatic Rising and Balkan champions Zero Tenacity for the second knockout spot.
Perhaps a cursed group at this stage, group D has once again become the “Group of Death” in this installment of EU Masters. Reigning champions Karmine Corp were surprisingly beaten by Misfits in the LFL final and enter as second seeds as a result. Spanish champions Vodafone Giants are the group’s top seed after taking down UCAM 3-1 in the final, while bottom seed mousesports has a history of stepping up in EUM events. Despite not being the bottom seed, Italy’s Macko Esports are thought to be the weakest team in the group. However, recent import changes in the ERLs, which Macko have smartly taken advantage of, means that their roster has players from talent-rich countries and they have not been limited to their own national player pool.
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