European Teams Struggle at CoD Champs

It’s no secret that North American teams have been more dominant compared to the rest of the world when it comes to CoD eSports, but people expected more competition from European teams at the World Championship. Unfortunately, not one European team finished in the top eight at the event.

The following breakdowns will discuss only four of the most well-known teams from Europe that participated at CoD Champs. 

Epsilon eSports:

After their win at the European Regionals and strong start to the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare season, Epsilon was expected to make it out of their pool and into Bracket Play, even if it was by the skin of their teeth. Unfortunately for Epsilon and their fans across Europe, this was not the case as they struggled to get things going at CoD Champs.

Epsilon faced Strictly Business in their first match of Pool Play, but were only able to take one map off the North American lineup, as the underestimated sB team took the series 3-1. With their vast amount of experience, many people across the competitive Call of Duty scene expected the European power-house to put that game behind them and a deliver a good performance against Team Kaliber.

Espilon did just that, and they took a 2-0 series lead over Team Kaliber. With their destiny in their own hands, Epsilon just needed one more map to take the series. Team Kaliber was also fighting for their spot in the championship bracket, and they weren’t going down that easily. Behind the hype from their fans and owners, Team Kaliber came back to win the series 3-2, essentially knocking Epsilon out of the tournament.

Epsilon did have to play one more series and hope for a miracle three-way tie. They barely beat Integral Nation, by a series score of 3-2. However, Team Kaliber won their next series, preventing any possibility of a tie in the pool. Epsilon did would not place in the top 16 at CoD Champs.

TCM Gaming:

From the beginning of European Call of Duty eSports, TCM and Epsilon have had one of the largest rivalries, especially over the recent years as they have been going back and forth with championship wins in the United Kingdom. The TCM Gaming lineup was another team that were expected to go through to the next round of matches at the Call of Duty World Championship 2015, but it wasn’t to be as another team from across the pond did.

TCM started off strong in their group and it looked like they would be advancing to the Bracket Play section of the Call of Duty World Championship. TCM Gaming came up against French squad, Ascentia Gaming where they would go onto defeat them 3-0 in a dominating fashion.

After their victory over Ascentia Gaming, TCM went onto play the expected winner of Group G, FaZe Black. The TCM Gaming lineup undoubtedly knew that this would be the hardest game of their group and would almost secure them a place in Bracket Play if they won the series. FaZe Black proved to be TCM’s toughest competition as they only managed to take one map off the North American squad as the series finished 3-1.

After their loss, TCM had to win their next matchup against DA.Below Zero if they were going to qualify for Bracket Play. Everybody knew that the DA.Below Zero was a decent team after their World Championship Qualifier performance, but nobody expected what was about to happen. DA.Below Zero eliminated European giants after they swept them 3-0 in the series and guaranteed their spot in Bracket Play.

Team Infused:

Team Infused was undoubtedly the underdog team from the selection of European lineup’s as we went into the Call of Duty World Championship 2015. They had to make a last second roster change when one of their players was banned from CoD Champs for conduct reasons. Infused had to play teams like Team Revenge, who went onto take second place at the event, and their UK rivals, Aware Gaming.

Infused had matches against all of the other teams in their group, but only managed to win one map throughout their three matches. Their first match of the group was up against UK rivals, Aware Gaming. They won one single map in this series, losing to Aware 3-1.

Team Infused’s second match was against one of the ‘unknown’ teams at the Call of Duty World Championship 2015, 3sUp Enterprises. The Europeans failed to win a single map in the Best-of-Five series.

The lineup still went onto play one more matchup, but even if they had won it, they still would not have qualified for Bracket Play as Team Revenge won all of their matches, and Aware Gaming only lost one.

Aware Gaming Plays Well:

Speaking of Aware Gaming, they seemed to be one of the only bright spots from European teams at the World Championships. They made it to Day 2 by finishing second in their group. In their first match in the Championship bracket, they defeated the powerhouse squad of Team EnVy in a shocking 3-1 series win.

They played a very close series against Automatic Reload, but ended up losing 3-1 and going down to the lower bracket. There they struggled against PLT.Mindfreak, losing that series 3-1. They were eliminated from the tournament at that point and finished 9-12th at CoD Champs, the highest for any European team.

—

In comparison to the Call of Duty World Championship 2014, this year’s performance from the selection of European teams was much worse than what many people had expected. Will we ever see a step up from the European scene, or will it be the same news year after year?

TCM Gaming recently purchased a spot in the second season of the MLG Pro League for Advanced Warfare. They have moved to the States in order to participate and practice as a squad. Some people think that their time in the region will help them progress to be a formidable opponent. Time will only tell if they can take advantage of their opportunity.

---