PLG Grand Slam groups drawn

10/12/2018 - 11:53

Power League Gaming has revealed the groups for the upcoming $100,000 event.

PLG Grand Slam will take place on December 13-15 at the du Forum in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, with 16 teams competing for the $50,000 first-place prize.

The competition will begin with four GSL groups, each featuring four teams. The opening and winners' matches will be best-of-ones while the elimination and decider games get played as best-of-threes. The top two sides from each group will qualify for the single-elimination, best-of-three playoffs.

fnatic will be in Group A

As a result of the group draw, fnatic ended up in Group A alongside 5POWER, Sharks, and Energy while HellRaisers found themselves in the same group as INTZ, Chosen5, and BOOT-d[S].

Here is the full group draw:

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Good!

2018-12-10 11:53

7 replies

Ez for xizt <3

2018-12-10 12:06

5 replies

Fnatic vs G2 hype!

2018-12-10 12:11

4 replies

Fnatic will destroy them

2018-12-10 12:12

3 replies

2018-12-10 12:27

I hope they add ex6tenz back to their roster for bodyy

2018-12-10 13:47

yep

2018-12-11 13:40

Ez for middle east s1mple explosioN

2018-12-10 12:38

energy ez . win

1 reply

EZ for BOOT-d[S] - polish power

2018-12-10 14:03

2nd

lol u mean 3rd

2018-12-10 11:54

2 replies

I can only count to 2

Nt Gaben

2018-12-10 12:34

fas

Qua?

2018-12-10 13:14

Fnatic has a pretty good chance to win

16 replies

t5 event

2018-12-10 11:55

2018-12-10 14:50

they should win or atleast reach finals.

2018-12-10 11:58

They need to, only other dangerous team should be HR

2018-12-10 12:08

12 replies

avangar and intz also has the loose playstyle and the firepower to beat fnatic.

11 replies

OMEGALUL

2018-12-10 12:13

9 replies

ill see you after the event is over. fnatic only had that chicago run when teams didnt knew how they played(because they got invited even tho they were like #22) they still almost got relegated from epl. avangar has been good for a long ass time. and intz while a shitty team still got individual prowess. so avangar and intz are underrated. fnatic is overrated.

2018-12-10 12:15

8 replies

Turk bringing up online results LUL

2018-12-10 12:18

swedish guy going after ethnicity. check. name includes twist. biggest onliner since 2012. check. favorite player: brollan check. ignored.

2018-12-10 13:35

i just find it funny because SS = biggest onliners in the world

2018-12-10 22:59

then apparently you are a newfag and never watched lgb twist. what do i have to do anything with ss other than being turkish? you are retarded.

2018-12-10 23:10

LMAO 1. Online results dont mean a flying shit you newfag 2. Almost beat the best team in the world at their first LAN tournament + beat the second best team in the world which means fnatic achieved more in one tournament that these teams combined will ever do 3. Avangar and INTZ arent underrated at all , they never achieved shit and will never do so, as a result theyre the definition of tier 3 team

2018-12-10 13:20

1- newfag? im old. and have been in the scene longer than you. online results matter if you are on the brink of relegation you dumb cunt. top 10 teams that attend events every other week doesnt care about online results because they have the luxury to do so because they attend every other event there is. fnatic is not one of those teams. even the invite they got to chicago was undeserved because they were ranked in t 2- almost doesnt count for anything. mibr also almost beat them. hr also almost beat them. nobody knew nothing about how fnatic played with 2 new players and nobody prepared for them because they were irrelevant for the top 10 before chicago. 3- astralis is ass when they dont know what they are up against and dont know how to prepare against them which showed when they had to play liquid on train. hich was what fnatic was as a new squad. and they didnt beat them so it doesnt count for shit. 4- 2 of intz players individually achieved a shit ton before. chelo has achieved as much as brollan and twist did. avangar has ben a team onger than the fnatic roster and their epicenter semi finals is comparable to fnatics chicago run. which was also recent. if they are t3 team then so is fnatic lol. you think 1 result changes a thing? renegades had a similar run to fnatic this weekend. they are the same caliber of teams. 5- lets talk after the tournament.

2018-12-10 13:50

Lol better to think of why no one wants to sign ex-ss till now

2018-12-10 14:22

make sense?

2018-12-10 14:25

its true

2018-12-10 12:14

ez fnatic

G U C C I Pog

BTW why some pros started include this in their in-game name?

2018-12-10 16:32

Hope HR win this

scream playing ?

2018-12-10 11:56

No. Why would he be playing?

2018-12-10 13:04

check gucci squad

2018-12-10 13:27

Ahh, didn't know he plays on that team :p My bad

2018-12-10 13:46

Ez 4 twist

fnatic ?

What ?

2018-12-10 16:36

Fnatic should be able to win this one if they want to start 2019 on a high

What fak you on about

2018-12-10 11:59

6 replies

he means that the teams here are fucking shit and if fnatic don't win then it will be embarrassing af

2018-12-10 12:00

hellraisers are the favourite to be fair

2018-12-10 12:07

Yeah either them or fnatic. I didn't say them because I haven't had time to see the new roster play.

also g2 and avangar as potential underdogs

2018-12-10 12:09

If avangar is a potential underdog, INTZ is, too.

2018-12-10 12:58

Fanatic is definitely the favourite , considering their run at Chicago. Would love a final between these two teams

2018-12-10 13:09

T3 tournament

2018-12-10 11:57

EZ FOR TYLOO TYLOO YONGYUAN ZAI WO XIN ZHONG <3

2018-12-10 14:20

GuccixD

RIP G2

superteam

Why do i get the feeling they aint gonna pay the prize money

Paid out in oil barrels

Nah it's in UAE not South Asia. Oil money OP

2018-12-10 12:01

Sand people are easily frightened but will return in great numbers

2018-12-10 12:03

Just give this event to fnatic already

Fnatic vs HR final

hr lul nt

Ez for fnatic

2018-12-10 12:02

Fnatic sharks tylul gray avangar forze hr intz ez win for intz

Might seem weak field but if we only take 8 best teams from event seems better event than some dreamhack open's so not like it is even that bad for the prize money despite overlapping with EU and NA minor closed qualifiers.

2018-12-10 12:05

also blast

2018-12-10 12:25

lol NO

2018-12-10 14:12

what? plg,blast and minor closed qualifiers are almost together.12-13 qualifier,13-15 plg and 14-14 blast.

2018-12-10 14:27

I thought you said it's better than Blast nvm

2018-12-11 06:04

Fnatic resorting to t3 tourneys for competition. As much as I hated that brand through 1.6 and csgo, it hurts to see this. This is some low level shit. Drop jw, and pick up a proper igl. Sometimes having a bot like a pronax is worth more than having a beastly fragger on a team of capable fraggers. I.e. : zeus, karrigan, gob b, ex6, and... Wait for it.... PRONAX

32 replies

50k for winner tho, how many 1.6 events had that xd

23 replies

Quite a few actually. But I do remember the days when we were creaming ourselves at a chance of making it to wcg finals, for a chance at that whopping 50k. Damn times were rough, how far we've come :p

22 replies

Well just saying that would have been considered big event back in the day. Also one thing to remember is Fnatic might not be that bad honestly, at very least they did really well in only event with this new line up so could be they are soon back in bigger events if things work out for them.

21 replies

Yeah but it's 2018. People don't have to buy specialized back-packs that can carry their massive towers and 19" CRTs. 50k split between 6 people, and food expenses while abroad pays less than a waitering job in a 1st world country. Edit: I know they have salaries, but I'm pretty sure this isn't what they're getting paid for.

2018-12-10 12:20

20 replies

Salaries is for food. Prizepool may be considered a "bonus" for them. So, no.

2018-12-10 13:01

19 replies

I have no idea how their contracts are structured, but I'm pretty sure prizepools are that of a tiny benefit if any at all to the surplus of their income. Hence the word salary.

2018-12-10 13:10

18 replies

Even with this, the salary without the tournaments´ prizepools is for food and common things in the life of everyone. Prizepools are "bonus".

2018-12-10 13:12

17 replies

No idea what you're on about. But if you're trying to make this conversation about finance, I'll oblige. Do you know how much it costs to fly 6 people with return flights, and a 3 night stay to another country, whilst covering their eating budget? Now I'm not going to assume you're clueless, but I get a feeling you are having never been a part of a large business let alone running one. Let's say the bare minimum would be 2grand, not including labour for management and running said company, which in man hours which would usually equate to 15% of total cost. Then you cover insurance, and you're take which would again run roughly 15% of sum of initial expense. So let's do some basic maths. 2k x 6 = 12k 12k x 0.15 = 1.8k 1.8k x 3 = 5.4k 12k + 5.4k = 17.4k $17,400 is the bare minimum such a trip may cost to an organization, and the best case scenario is the prizefund of 50k. 33.5k profits discluding probabilities of losing said event since nothing is a sure thing. Now you cover taxes of taking said prizefund (gonna assume 30% as this may fall under gambling laws) = 23,450 remaining. Now on to players share of let's assume 15% (which seems fair, again no idea about their contracts) of total prizefund over 6 bodies. .15 x 23,450 = ~3,500/6 = ~$600 per player+coach. That's what an average income of 3 days of work of waitering at a half ass restaraunt would amount to. Granted the players get to travel, and do what they love. But that hardly seems beneficial on a marketing standpoint for their employer if the vast majority of their income comes from sponsorships. And let's just say a 50k tourney isn't gonna be turning any heads or garnering attention.

2018-12-10 13:39

You know that travel and accomodation are paid by event organizers and not by organization, in this case fnatic, right?

Yep, I think this guy is new on cs, omfg.

2016-11-09 Please take a \_

2018-12-10 14:17

Appreciate that now you know how it is.

2018-12-10 14:48

Imagine nonamers of Asia, Africa, with no rich orgs paying for travel to Abu Dhabi. wtf

2018-12-10 13:52

I doubt they would even attend this event with no chance of winning any prize money to pay for a trip. But maybe they could make a nice holiday in Abu Dhabi. There are a lot of things to visit there

2018-12-10 13:55

With event organizers paying it´s excellent. Million of people would like to travel to Abu Dhabi.

2018-12-10 13:57

I guarantee you this is hardly the case. Flying someone in from Zimbabwe is vastly more expensive than someome from Europe to a European event. Though you do make a good point, they probably cover accommodations as that can be gauges equally between all teams.

2018-12-10 14:16

Do you know how much it costs to fly 6 people with return flights, and a 3 night stay to another country, whilst covering their eating budget? Dude, I can be wrong, but the majority of this tournaments give all this you said. I remember that I heard/read something about this.

orgs only take about 20% of the prizemoney, players get around 80%. as you said yourself, the vast majority of their revenue comes from sponsorships. the revenue distribution is roughly 85% sponsorships, 10% prizemoney, 5% merchandising. some orgs also get rev-share from the leagues they play in. that's where the money for the trip comes from, not the prizepool. also, why would cs:go fall under gambling laws? legally it's a hobby, nothing more. the player contracts are service contracts. as to the "bonus" argument from the other guy: the prizemoney is retirement fund for the players. think about it: how long does an esports career last? how many ex-players become coaches, analysts or streamers? the rest need to live from something. most have foregone secondary education too.

Yep. Of course prizepool is needed for players, mainly the players on "medium" teams. "Bonus" I mean not money for common things like food, clothes, etc. This is paid with salary.

2018-12-10 14:01

Actually that's a curious question if they would fall under gambling laws. Cs:go isn't actually qualified as a sport. Hence it's not money earned via competition under those regulations. This example is way off tangent, but winning a lottery ticket in a foreign country puts you under gambling tax laws. As you are simply investing for a chance to win, hence gambling. But if all competitors are sponsored through and through I guess you can bypass that bylaw. Honestly I really don't know, but I do remember valve stating they paid the difference in tax laws after the first international for dota 2, so that Na'Vi could receive the full 1 million prizepool. So clearly there's some nuance.

2018-12-10 14:15

as far as i know, the usa recognize esports as sports. the players can get p1 athlete visas there. we would have to go coutry by coutry and check. the lottery in a foreign country is a bad example since it literally is gambling, cs:go is a competition. i could hold a math competition in my house and pay out millions to the fastest, is that gambling? you could have a point for card games like heathstone and artifact, they could be classified the same as poker. also, valve paid the taxes, but it doesn't say which, could be income tax for example.

2018-12-10 16:57

Only LoL has that license. I have no idea why it's not realized for cs and d2. Unless I'm uninformed and these games have now been added.

2018-12-10 16:59

that's just a pr-spin by riot games, they didn't pioneer shit. starcraft players had p1 athlete visas years before riot existed. ;)

2018-12-11 03:29

Just looked it up, you can how plead your case for your p1 visa via your sport genre. So it's no longer black and white when rockstar made that a possibility. My apologies, seems I was wrong on that end. Still unsure on the tax cut on the prizefund, but there is still definitely one in effect. Dunno if it's as steep as the 25% lottery one

2018-12-10 17:09

They only gone for this event because they failed to qualify for epl and ecs and didn't got invite to blast.Nip and Faze,C9 got invite to blast hence they go to that event. This is like fnatic's 3rd small in event in last 3 years after wesg and dh summer. They only go to big events generally.This is just exception.Compare it to mibr who had gone to 4 small events this year alone.

2018-12-10 12:17

I know this, hence why I'm saying its painful to see them at this t3 event instead of a real one. I mean, "fnatic failed to qualify"... Is enough said already. Then you mention it's the 2 biggest tour events in CS and it makes it even more painful.

2018-12-10 12:16

Faze,Nip and C9 also failed to qualify. They will fine just these other teams. Both faze and Nip had stable teams during the online leagues and still failed to qualify. C9 and Fnatic played of the games with standins and new squad. So all of these teams will turn out fine next year.

2018-12-10 12:22

NiP and FaZe have promise. C9 was always garbage, regardless of how big an esports brand they are in other gaming genres. Fnatic just straight up went from top3 to garbage in the span of 6 months. Mind you this is the team that was the most well known and dominant team through out 1.6 along with Na'Vi and whatever VPs name was back then (tipsy rn false memory). Then they were till this day the most dominant team outside of NiP in csgo history. Now they're competing against south American, Chinese, and t3 Brazilians to get out of groups.

2018-12-10 12:28

You know fnatic had lost the core of flusha,lekro and golden who were part of top 3. So they lost all points before xizt joined. Thats why they were so low ranked. before flusha left,they were still ranked top 10. Till major,they were only losing to top teams like astralis,faze,navi,liquid and mouz.Sometimes beating faze and so.They beat all teams below top 5 before major even with 2 roster changes. Then they crashed on major and flusha too left.Now they are in a rebuilding phase when golden and lekro joined last year.Not bad considering the circumstances of 5 roster changes in 6 months.

2018-12-10 12:44

Bro I don't need a summary of what happened to their team. Everyone knows. But the fact you're contempt with them losing to literally every single top team doesn't instill confidence to what the fnatic brand stands for. Xizt isn't the reason the team fell apart, it's straight up jw being trash (honestly one of the dumbest players to play this game perhaps only second to Stewie) and the toxicicity coming out of krimz when they don't succeed. At least krimz is a beast, a whiny bitch beast, but a player nonetheless. They need olof back, him and krimz were a duo made in heaven. Their playstyles compliment each other like no other. Olof was YOLO first man out, and krimz was passive and the best bombsite holder. Krimz had CT on lock, olof had T on lock, of course they also had flusha who was cheating before eswc 2 years ago, but he wasn't what made the team great. The last piece was an in-game leader that saw these strengths and knew how to engage them. I'll give you a thumbs up for still being loyal to your team even when they are these new unreached levels of trash though. Plastic fans are the worst (astralis), I'll give you kuddos for backing your team through thick and thin.

2018-12-10 12:49

your arguments are full of shit, olof isnt the same as he used to be, they already tried to bring the krimz/olof duo and it didnt work, no way he gets back now that he is in a team that pay as much as faze where he can have good results without doing much. JW isnt quite the problem in this team , he is still average at WORST and can be a playmaker in key moments, at least let this team some time before making such comments, they did pretty fucking good at their first ever tournament with the team.

2018-12-10 13:28

Glad to see you refuted my arguments with a basic statement. Now let's also be frank, jw at BEST is an average player. At WORST as you say, he's a carpfish. Second, I'm not arguing. I'm stating facts. The team brand that was top3 at the start of this year is now not even in the conversation of tip teams. The same team that 3 years ago was deemed unbeatable. Lastly, olof and krimz were half the puzzle, as I said initially having a good igl was in fact the key. Good day novice.

Ez Fnatic Brollan top10

So ez for fnatic

Fnatic in 2018 ?

2018-12-10 16:37

I expect some upsets this event! A: Fnatic 5power B: Tyloo NASR C: Avangar g2 D: HR Boot

good prediction

2018-12-10 16:38

rip fnatic

Ez groups: A - Fnatic,eNergy B - TyLoo,Grayhound C - AVANGAR,G2 D - HR,INTZ

2018-12-10 12:29

fnatic,sharks

2018-12-10 12:40

Sharks is almost same level of Bravado. Bravado dismantle eNergy on WESG. No way Sharks lose to eNegy.

2018-12-10 13:05

Yeah,well but their stats at Dreamhack are telling that they are more then a good African team,i know that this is just a one good tournament for them but still i think that they will prepair for this event aswell.

2018-12-10 18:29

nvm i just realized that i mixed up by mistake energy and bravado XDD

Yep. I didn´t answer you cuz I was thinking, trying to understand your statement, dude. haha

2018-12-10 23:04

Sorry for that actually XDD .Really just a typical stupid HLTV User >yes

2018-12-10 23:06

np bro. It´s ok.

2018-12-10 23:08

ez for hr

Ez for guccixd

ScreaM playing for guccixd POGGERS

OMG ScreaM :o ez for guccixd

2018-12-10 12:19

bo2 or bo1's for group stage ?

Read the text, dude. But, I´ll help u, lazyguy! bo1´s in the opening and in the winner s´matches. BO3 on elimination and decider´s matches.

2018-12-10 13:06

Sorry I had only 8 min to eat this noon so, I have read fast.. Thank you :)

2018-12-10 17:18

You´re welcome mafriend.

2018-12-10 17:47

Ez 4 gucci

2018-12-10 12:23

G2 or HR.

Asia vp will wjn

scream?

2018-12-10 12:26

Fnatic vs HR

2018-12-10 16:39

Yes

2018-12-10 18:44

>Grand final yes

l3tsgo

2018-12-10 12:41

Fnatic needs to disband if they fail to win this tournament Hellraisers also needs to disband if they fail to win

Disbands all around then? I like your style my friend

2018-12-10 12:56

Liquid fan talking about not winning a tournament AAHHAHA

2018-12-10 13:22

A: Fnatic (5power, sharks) B: tyloo, grayhound C: G2, Avangar D; hr, intz

2018-12-10 12:55

A: Fnatic and probably Sharks B: tyloo, gucci

2018-12-10 13:07

Hopefully an easy t3 win for fnatic!

2018-12-10 12:57

Needs to be a Grand Final for HellRaisers

2018-12-10 13:16

eNergy in group A is going to be destroyed! OMEGALUL!

2018-12-10 13:29

$100,000 event ?????? let's chock !

2018-12-10 13:30

haylaman dodging lan?

2018-12-10 13:37

easiest tournament for fnatic since WESG

2018-12-10 13:44

Return of the Groupstage2

fnatic will win final vs g2/hr boring to watch

2018-12-10 14:11

Tier 9.2

2018-12-10 14:13

Time for FNATIC :D if they will play like they did in Chicago ez win :D

2018-12-10 14:18

EZ Fnatic

2018-12-10 14:19

Hahahahahaha tier478333257743211125799

2018-12-10 14:44

EZ4TYLOO

2018-12-10 14:47

guccixD best

2018-12-10 15:06

Group A Fnatic Sharks Group B TYLOO Grayhound Group C G2 AVANGAR Group D HellRaisers INTZ

2018-12-10 15:21

fnatic ez win?

2018-12-10 15:52

ez for shoxieJESUS and CarryS

2018-12-10 16:03

I love Alan Smith

2018-12-11 05:15

haha

2018-12-11 07:00

G2 can win this

2018-12-10 16:05

leggo fnc

2018-12-10 16:30

Shame eNergy

if thats not easy for fnatic, i don't know what is. they should disband if they don't win this semi pro tournament

2018-12-10 17:03

Ez for docc

2018-12-10 17:12

Docc on lan nice

2018-12-10 17:13

ez d0cc

2018-12-10 17:20

nice event for arabs, scream playing too he very popular there

2018-12-10 17:22

EZ FOR TYLOO

2018-12-10 17:25

They are still using someone else's copyright logo... what a shame..

2018-12-10 17:55

G2 will be last

2018-12-10 18:19

ScreaM for Gucci

2018-12-10 19:11

The playoffs will be interesting!

2018-12-10 20:19

G2 has a chance to win at least one and last event of the year .. Let's see how it goes. I'm excited for HAVOC tho... From.NASR ..hope not another forsaken

2018-12-11 05:14

Go woof woofs ;)

2018-12-11 06:21

Kng will be the MVP

2018-12-11 12:24

ez for fnatic

2018-12-11 15:41