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The Malta Vibes Knockout is a series of online CS: GO tournaments started in August 2021, when the first series of the competitive event was played — Eden Esports Malta Vibes: Knockout #1 championship.
The Malta Vibes series is organized by Eden Esports company, a subsidiary of Eden Leisure Group, which is located on the island of Malta, in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea.
Besides other sponsors of the event, the tournament series is accompanied by the VisitMalta campaign, which is a marketing initiative, promoting traveling and various tourist activities on a trip to the island.
The Eden Esports company was founded in 2014, and started organizing LAN and online competitions and producing diverse esports content on a global landscape in 2017.
The online CS: GO tournaments of the Malta Vibes series can now boast of a prize pool of $50,000. Here is a quick recap of two CS: GO tournaments in the online Knockout series so far.
First event
During the first tournament of the Malta Vibes series, the pool of 40 teams participated, forming the huge playoffs bracket, and playing it out in the single elimination format, using Bo3 series.
Participants
There were a lot of invited CS: GO teams, including a few well-known esports organizations, such as Team Dignitas, ENCE, Endpoint, Entropiq, O PLANO, SKADE, featuring Bulgarian flag, Sprout, Team One, Apeks, Copenhagen Flames, Izako Boars, Team K23 (Syman Gaming), Lyngby Vikings, Nemiga Gaming from Belarus, Spirit Academy CS: GO team, and Wisla Krakow.
Entropiq vs ENCE
Team Entropiq, the esports organization originating from Czech Republic, managed to clutch the win in the final match of the tournament against their opponents — the Finns from ENCE.
Team Dignitas vs Copenhagen Flames
US‘ organization Dignitas, with their legendary Swedish–Norwegian roster, managed to make it only to the quarterfinals of the championship in Malta, where they were defeated by the Copenhagen Flames team from Denmark with the 1:2 score.
The round score was 11:16 on the final Vertigo map, but the first two maps of the match were somewhat close. Nuke and Ancient finished with the scores of 16:13 and 14:16, for Dignitas team and CPHF, respectively. The team from United States lost their match and dropped out of the tournament.
CPH vs Entropiq
Copenhagen Flames moved on to the semifinals of the Malta event, where they were, in turn, defeated by the future champions of the tournament — the Russian CS: GO squad Entropiq, with the 1:2 score on three maps, in a Bo3 match.
The third map, Overpass, was very close and winnable by both sides, as the game and the match managed to finish only in the overtime. Entropiq won 19:16, they moved on to the grand finals of the online event.
Izako Boars vs ENCE
In the second semifinal match of the first Malta Vibes Knockout series championship, the Polish squad Izako Boars managed to overcome Finnish team ENCE, with the 1:2 score in favor of the dangerous Poles.
In this match, there were two really close maps, which decided the series. Ancient finished with the 16:14 score in favor of the Polish Boars, while ENCE replied on the second Vertigo map with the 16:14 win of their own.
The third map of the semifinal series was Nuke, and it was dictated by the Finnish team. 11:4 score in the first half for them, with them starting on the T side, and a 5:5 finisher — 16:9 score, and ENCE finish the match and move on to the finals of the Eden Esports Malta Vibes: Knockout #1 championship.
Entropiq vs ENCE
When it came to the finals of the first Malta Vibes Knockout event, in this match, team Entropiq was fighting against ENCE.
Team ENCE honestly looked like a favorite in this confrontation. The team from Finland was in decent shape, they were demonstrating good form in their ESL Pro League matches at the ESL Pro League Season 14. The EU-based CS: GO organization were also lucky enough to get themselves a favorable set of maps during the map voting.
Speaking of maps, it was a very exciting Dust2, which was the first map of the series. This was the map, where Entropiq managed to clinch the victory in their favor during the overtime — 19:16. The 16:13 score happened on the second map, Ancient, and this time, it was in favor of the Finns.
Vertigo meant to be the third and deciding map of the series. The game finished with the 16:8 score in favor of the team Entropiq, as both teams managed to play the first half with the equal 8:8 score, but the second half was dominated by the winning Russians — they showcased an immaculate defense, playing on the CT side, and grabbed 8 rounds against only one of their opponents.
The Russian-speaking Entropiq CS: GO team won the grand finals of the first online championship in the Malta Vibes Knockout series against the Finns, and grabbed $24,000 prize money for first place. ENCE got $8,000 for finishing second, and CPH Flames with Izako Boars finished 3rd-4th, taking home $4,000 as a prize.
Second tournament
The first tournament of the series finished at the end of August, and the second part of the online CS: GO series started soon, in about two weeks — on September 13.
The circumstances in the second Malta Vibes Knockout series championship were much the same, compared to the first event of the series. Forty CS: GO teams from all over the world competed online in the single elimination bracket of Bo3 matches, for the identical prize pool of $50,000.
The Malta Vibes Knockout Series #2 tournament was aired live on multiple streaming platforms and channels. The official broadcasts were produced using six different languages.
Teams
Attending CS: GO teams from world’s top 50, and the esports organizations to especially look out for, included various stri squads, such as Team Spirit from Russia, FURIA Esports from Brazil, the previous Malta champions — Entropiq, and Team Sinners from Czech Republic.
The other invited teams were the British organization Endpoint, Russians from 1WIN, French team LDLC, mouz NXT from Germany, Danish Lyngby Vikings, Swedes from Young Ninjas, Brazil’s roster of Norwegian 00Nation, Kazakh squad of Team Unique, Swedish Galaxy Racer roster, and other strong CS: GO squads.
On the road to the finals, in the quarterfinals stage of the event, FURIA defeated Sinners — 1:2, Danish Vikings played 2:0 against Swedish Ninjas, champions Entropiq fought well against new Turkish superteam — Eternal Fire, 2:1, and finally, team 1WIN defeated Brazilians from 00Nation with a confident 2:0 score.
Entropiq vs Eternal Fire
One of the most interesting games of the quartefrinals stage was definitely the match of the Turks against the Russian champions of the previous championship. The strong Turkish team featured players, such as 26-year-old Ismailcan Dortkardes, known as XANTARES, a former member of BIG, and also Ozgur “woxic” Eker, who played for CIS–Ukrainian HellRaisers, mousesports, and America’s Cloud9.
The game between both squads looked incredibly close in the full Bo3 series of maps. The first map of this quarterfinal match was Overpass, picked by Entropiq team. Vertigo was the pick of Turks, and Nuke was left as the third map. Team Eternal Fire came ahead in a very close fight for the win on the first map of the match, Overpass — 7:8, 9:6 and the final 16:14 score in favor of the XANTARES’ squad.
Vertigo was second, and here the Russian team felt themselves incredibly confident, as they took the victory in their hands with the 16:6 score.
The third map in this exciting matchup was Nuke, and again, Entropiq managed to clinch the victory with the very close 16:14 score in favor of the Russian CS: GO team. Even though Turks made more clutches during the map, team Entropiq managed to win 10 rounds on the attacking side, and managed to close the map and the match in their favor after the sides switch.
Sinners vs Lyngby Vikings
At the semifinals stage, there were two interesting matches. In the first game, Sinners Esports, who previously managed to overcome FURIA, fought against Danish CS: GO team Lyngby Vikings. The match ended with the 2:0 score in favor of the Danish squad.
First map, Inferno, was not that close, finishing 16:4, but the next Nuke was quite exciting. The EU team managed to defeat their opponents only in the last moment — 16:14. Vikings fell, and Sinners went to the finals with the 2:0 score in the match against the Danes.
Entropiq vs 1WIN
In the second semifinals, Entropiq played against team 1WIN. It is interesting that, coming to this stage, the Russian CS: GO squad, just like their opponent in the grind finals, as mentioned previously, also managed to win their match against the likes of another Brazilian team, 00Nation.
This was kind of a close game between the two teams, especially on the first two maps. But by winning with a confident 16:5 score on the final Dust2 map, 1WIN took the series with the 2:1 score in their favor, and moved on to the finals of the second Malta Vibes Knockout Series tournament.
1WIN vs Sinners
The grand finals of the tournament featured the abovementioned 1WIN vs Team Sinners. Thiese grand finals were played as Bo3 series, similar to the other matches of the online event in Malta.
First map of the series was Nuke — the 1WIN’s pick. They outplayed the opponents, showing better T side, with the 9:6 in the first half and finishing the game with 7 rounds to only three of the Czech CS: GO team after the switch.
The Russian team showcased three clutches against the opponent’s one, including the highlight 1v2 episode after planting the bomb, starring Denis ”deko” Zhukov and happening in the first half. The final score of the map was 16:9 in favor of the Russians, as the series moved on to the second map of the grand finals.
On Ancient, which was picked by Sinners, the closer game turned around in their favor — 16:12.
And the final map of the match and the tournament was Vertigo. The Russian CS team won the first half playing as the Counter-Terrorists — 9:6, and finished the set in their favor due to grabbing 7 rounds to 3, as the T side after the switch.
The outstanding showcase happened, when the same player from the previous highlight, nicknamed deko, managed to clutch again, this time against three opponents. During the round, the score was 12:8. The opposing player — Max “SHOCK” Kvapil, managed to grab 4 kills, before he was eventually shut down by deko. The Russian player then was left 1v2 with the bomb, and won the round by himself. Great morale boost for the Russian players. Final result on this final map of the tournament was 16:9 in favor of the CIS team.
In the final standings, 1WIN became the champions of Malta Vibes Knockout Series 2 online CS: GO championship. The Russian team won $24,000 for their first place finish. Team Sinners Esports contented themselves only with the second place and $8,000 prize. Danish Lyngby Vikings and previous winners — Entropiq, managed to place 3th-4th place, taking away only $4,000 and $3,000, respectively.
Future of Malta Vibes
The organizers of the series are planning at least 3 more similar CS: GO championships, with the last event taking place up until the middle of March 2022.
The third series of the Malta’s online CS: GO tournament is starting soon. The first games of the third stage should start on November 11. The changes to the rules or tournament’s format, as well as the list of invited and participating teams were not announced yet.