Welcome to the first episode of Three Stars.
This is a new show where we will talk all things Clash of Clans Esports.
We will look back at what happened, what's ahead, a little bit of predictions
and a closer look at qualified teams.
I'm your host CarbonFin, and I'm joined by Ex-Pro player, Maxi.
Welcome to the show. How are you doing today?
Hello, CarbonFin. Thank you so much.
I'm doing great.
And I couldn't be more excited to talk about all of this
Clash of Clans stuff that we are going to focus on today.
We had already four qualifiers throughout this year and four teams
qualified for the World Finals in Helsinki.
One of those we're going to talk about later.
But CarbonFin, What else can we expect on today's episode?
We'll recap a bit of Stage 1,
How the format worked,
What made it so difficult, and our top picks of some notable teams.
that made it through.
We'll also look ahead at Stage 2 and beyond.
Some format changes are coming, so teams will need to adjust from Stage 1.
Lastly, we'll get to know the first teams to qualify.
X Team Esports. Who are they?
How did they qualify?
And what to expect from them in the finals?
Maxi, enough talking, let's just jump into it.
We've seen that Stage 1 was already very exciting
and the teams had to play 60 matches over the course of one and a half weeks
and this is a lot of matches, but 64 teams made it out of there.
Yeah, that's an incredible amount.
They had to play all those matches.
And the big thing is - do they stack
the matches in the beginning, playing at the start?
Or do they play at the end?
Plus some time zones can be interesting.
Like if you play in a certain time zone, you may know that some opponents
you don't want to match up against - like they're going to be difficult.
They might be sleeping.
So you try to adjust that as well.
So it's really interesting to see how the teams play through that.
But through the teams that have played, now that it's all over.
We now know the top teams, so which top teams are you kind of looking out for?
Yeah, that's a good question.
You talked about all the,
you know, different parts that you have to take into account.
But one team definitely did no mistakes at all
when choosing when to play their matches
how to play their matches
whatever. Cause they went perfect.
A clean 60-0 record for Spacestation.
And they made it out of Stage 1 as Number One of all the teams
so they're going to be a team to be looking at.
Another team I want to focus on got so close to beating them
I'm talking about the well-known team, QueeN Walkers.
They have just been so consistent throughout
the last seasons, also, and have been at several World Championships.
But this year they have fallen short all the time.
So now they made it to Stage 2 and I think that they are hungry
for one of the four remaining spots.
Carbon, what teams do you have in mind?
Well, you mentioned
two teams that the community for sure are expecting to get some Golden Tickets.
But two others that are going to be trying to fight for that is Marcos Gaming,
who came so close in the previous community tournament against STRUT.
They were one match away from taking it from them and don't even have to compete.
They would have been safe for the World Finals.
But the other team is Chasmac Gaming.
They also were competing in the same tournament as Marcos Gaming.
They also came pretty close to a Golden Ticket.
So this is their opportunity to try to get that.
But before we talk about more details on those teams, let's learn
all the 64 teams that qualified to Stage 2.
All right.
Since we've learned how the teams competed in the first stage.
Maxi, what are we going to see coming up?
Yes, the top 64 teams that made their way here
they have to play in an entirely changed format, basically.
It's going to be a double elimination system from here on where
the top 16 teams will make their way to stage number three.
So, Carbon, I want to ask you,
who are your top picks to make it into the next stage?
Well, I'm taking one of your picks as the top teams, earlier you selected...
I'm going with QueeN Walkers.
QueeN Walkers going to be my first pick that are going to be
coming out of this - one,
because all the viewers at home in the competitive scene definitely know
that they are expecting QueeN Walkers to make it.
And the reason why I'm saying that is
we've seen QueeN Walkers be runners up multiple times in the World Championship.
They've come so close to winning the Finals.
To not see QueeN Walkers in a World Champions setting is going to be something
that's completely different. No one's going to expect that.
We got Klaus.
We got STARs.
Two unbelievable attackers, especially under the pressure.
GAKU's amazing.
We've got Kazuma, the new player that's joined the team.
So they've got a little bit of a change, but they're still an amazing squad
to come through.
But another one is Time to Throw.
They are going to be coming in from Europe,
and they are a team that can go punch for punch
against any team in the world, even against teams
that have already qualified - like Tribe Gaming - like STRUT.
They have gone against them so many times.
And really, it's kind of a flip of a coin who's going to be winning those matches.
Those are the two teams I'm picking to make it out.
What about you, Maxi?
I'll have to focus once again on Spacestation.
We talked about them before - they were perfect.
So you cannot make your predictions without really talking about them for the next stage.
And they have already played in a lot of tournaments
that don't have this letter system.
So double elimination is not something new for them.
So I'm pretty sure that they will be able to perform very well there too.
But then another team I would like to focus on is VN Tompinai.
They are also a very well known team who have been at the World
Championships - have been successful at the World Championships
and they are known to be a tournament squad.
They always tend to perform well under pressure when the most is on the line.
And I think that they will be a very, very tough opponent in this second stage.
We've been talking about Stage 1 and Stage 2,
but now Stage 3 is next and that's going to be the Swiss Format.
How does it work?
You win three matches, you move on.
You lose three matches, you are eliminated.
It's as simple as that.
Then after the Swiss stage, we go back to double elimination
again to narrow it down even further.
And then that will finally get us to the four more teams that will be making it
to the World Finals, which is on September
23rd-25th in Helsinki, Finland.
Now that we know the process to earn the final
four Golden Tickets, let's go all the way back to the beginning and learn
who was the very first team to get the Golden Ticket this year.
Maxi, who was it?
It's as easy as that.
It was X Team Esports and we have actually made
their X Team dance so famous - everybody loved it.
Everybody loved seeing them - seeing XBB -
one of their most known players who does magic tricks on streams.
They have actually been a big surprise in the in the first tournament.
They won against Perumania in the Finals.
But before that, they also had to take on STRUT Esports, who,
as we've known, have already won the Golden Ticket by now.
So they are really on the level of the other teams.
Yeah, X Team Esports is a team that's going to be coming under the radar
for a lot of these teams.
Yeah, they were the very first team to qualify and definitely surprised
a lot of teams coming through, but they deserved it because of the meta.
They were able to exploit it because XBB loves to bring the Valkyries.
We've seen Homura bring the Hog Riders - they love to do different things.
But Maxi, you know
as being a player in this kind of scene that that changes, right?
The meta has got to be completely different
from when they played to when the World Finals is going to be happening.
Absolutely.
The meta is constantly shifting and teams are constantly developing new strategies.
But there are also some teams that are consistently at a high level
like say QueeN Walkers, Tribe Gaming, STRUT Esports.
All of those guys... But
X Team Esports, they have really come
out as a surprise with such an intelligent approach,
with the Valkyries, with the Hogs and so on.
But we're going to have to see if they can do it again for the World Championships.
This is actually something that...
For example, Tribe Gaming...
When I was playing with them last year, had done so well
in the World Championships - it gave us a lot of success.
And we also did it before the Last Chance Qualifiers last year.
So because we know that at this level teams really tend to prepare
for the exact team that they're going to be facing.
If you come in with something completely new that nobody's
going to expect, you can really win against an opponent
that maybe you, yourself, don't even expect to win against.
Absolutely. And we know the team...
we know X Team Esports have something in common.
XBB, essentially, with me and you, right?
So if we think back to 2019, which was really cool, me and you...
I was casting back in the 2019 World Finals in Germany.
You were playing back in the 2019
World Finals there, but XBB?
Where was he, Maxi?
That is so funny.
He was actually in the audience.
He came all the way to Germany to see the top players at the time,
to see the eight best teams in the world compete for the World Championship.
And that is actually when he decided to build a team of his own
to maybe one day compete there as well.
It's such a great story that they actually made it work
just three years after - and especially in the year
where we are going to be seeing the first live event again
at the World Championship in Helsinki at the end of September.
So that's really just a fairytale.
It is unbelievable.
It kind of feels like from 2019 to now
just went by so quick because all the other ones were online
and it's great to be able to see them in person.
I cannot wait to see what X Team Esports does as they're going to be trying
to come in and sneak through and take these teams down.
But other Gold Ticket teams are not going to be unprepared.
They are going to be preparing against the Valks, the Hogs,
Stuff that is crazy.
But we know X Team Esports is going to be a team to be reckoned with.
I cannot wait to see what they're going to do in the World Finals.
That's it for this show.
Thanks for tuning in.
And of course, Maxi, thanks for joining me.
Thank you so much.
CarbonFin, it was an absolute pleasure to do this first episode of Three Stars
with you today.
And to you viewers, I want to say make sure to follow us here
on all of our social media platforms
to stay up to date with everything related to Clash of Clans Esports.
I'm CarbonFin. I'm Maxi.
See you next time.
Clash on.