This week will see the ESL Extreme Masters European Championship Finals kicking off in Bruehl, a place near Cologne. Twelve of the best known names in the Counter-Strike scene will be fighting it out for a $25,000 prize purse and the FnaticMSI.CS team will be there, hoping to kick off 2010 with a win.

With our boys just finishing a great 2009, they will be hoping to keep the run going at the Extreme Masters this coming week, as well as Bjorn "threat" Pers competing in his first tournament as an official FnaticMSI.CS player.
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The twelve teams will be split up into two groups to fight it out into the Grand Final for the chance to win $25,000.


Teams that lost their relegation match and failed to qualify for the tournament had a second chance when, Spirit of Amiga, a team that were supposed to compete in the European Finals, disbanded, meaning that a mini-tournament was hosted to find out who would take their spot, the victors being AGAiN who now take a spot in group A. With Power Gaming recently deciding not to play in the ESL event and later revealing the disbandment of their CS 1.6 team, it also meant that n!faculty didn't have to play their relegation match against them, giving them a spot in group B.

Group AGroup B
SK GamingFnaticMSI
MYMTeam ALTERNATE
AGAiNKerchNET
MilleniumoXmoze
Roskilde RavensmTw
mousesportsn!faculty

UPDATE: MYM replace H2k-Gaming in Group A.

Prize Money;
  • 1st - $25,000
  • 2nd - $10,000
  • 3rd - $5,000
  • 4th - $2,500
  • 5th - $1,250
  • 6th - $1,150
  • 7th - $1,100
  • 8th - $1,000
  • 9th-12th - $750
Total Prize Money: $50,000

The group stages of the tournament should bring us some brilliant and competitive games with all twelve teams capable of being dangerous and possibly causing upsets.


The event will start on Thursday, 14th of January and will run through until Sunday, 16th of January when two of the twelve teams will be competing in the Grand Final. Below is a comprehensive schedule of the tournament.

Thursday, 14th of January 2010
  • 11:00 CET CS1.6 Groupstage - Group A
  • 17:00 CET CS1.6 Groupstage - Group B

Friday, 15th of January 2010
  • 12:30 CET CS1.6 Groupstage - Group A - Playday 5
  • 15:00 CET CS1.6 Groupstage - Group B - Playday 5
  • 17:30 CET CS1.6 Relegation Match #1 & Game for 7th Place
  • 19:45 CET CS1.6 Relegation Match #2

Saturday, 16th of January 2010
  • 17:30 CET CS1.6 Semi Final #1
  • 19:45 CET CS1.6 Semi Final #2 & Game for 5th Place

Sunday, 17th of January 2010
  • 14:40 CET CS1.6 Game for 3rd Place
  • 16:55 CET CS1.6 Grand Final

The event will be organised in such a way that all games should be available for streaming by ESL TV.


Other related pre-IEM coverage materials: