Star Series league wrap-up

Due to It's GoSu not being able to attend the offline finals, Moscow5 will replace them.

The SLTV Star Series league stage has concluded and the top four teams have been determined. Na'Vi, Darer, CLG, and It's Gosu took the top spots respectively, and as such are qualified for the offline finals in Kiev, starting on the 26th of April.

The story of the tournament so far has been Na'Vi's undefeated run through 15 consecutive best-of-one matches. The world champions started the tournament as the best team in Europe, and so it is no surprise they find themselves at the top of the table on their march to Kiev. In contrast to Na'Vi, the rest of the top four were far from sure things when the Star Series began.

After dropping their first two games, and having shown anonymous results in other tournaments, Darer found themselves with a lot to prove and a host of questions to answer. The Russians eventually found a foothold in the third round and turned that into a thirteen game winning streak to close out the tournament. They will be going to Kiev with a great deal of momentum, having finally hit their stride, and look nearly as dominant as their eternal rivals Na'Vi.

The Swedish CLG entered the tournament as darkhorse candidates, and largely flew under the radar due to the presence of teams like EG, Quantic, Na'Vi, Darer. The super-experienced Swedes showed their class throughout the tournament, earning a 12-3 record and putting lightyears between themselves and fourth place. While the odds are not great for a first-place finish in Kiev, Loda and company have at the very least earned themselves top billing in Europe.

About a week ago, It's Gosu found themselves in the highly contested battle for fourth place with Dignitas and M5; in contrast, the top three teams had already basically clinched their spots at this point. But the Americans pulled through by virtue of their opportunistic record. It's Gosu impressed greatly with their ability to snatch games from the very best in the world, and proved to be the Absolute Legends of Star Ladder by consistently playing well despite their sub-optimal conditions. The biggest question mark for this team is not whether they can win the finals in Kiev (the odds aren't great, but the potential is certainly there), but whether they can attend the finals at all.























The tension of the final week of games revolved around the matches of the 4th place contenders M5, Dignitas, and It's Gosu. M5 in particular seemed in prime position to make it to Kiev after defeating It's Gosu in their head-to-head match, but let themselves down by losing their final three matches -- the final match to the last place PR squad. Dignitas suffered at the hands of the league's top three in their final games; an understandable result, but the talented Romanians will be kicking themselves for wastefulness in the earlier rounds.

The results for the rest of the Star Ladder rounds can be found on SLTV's official site.

VODs can be found on their Twitch TV channel.







































The offline finals in Kiev will take place on the 26th of April and will conclude on the 29th. The fourth place team are guaranteed a $2000 prize, while the third, second, and first place finishers will receive $2500, $3000, and $6000 respectively.

At the moment, It's Gosu are still not confirmed to be attending the event. It currently seems very unlikely the Americans will make the trip to Kiev, and we are waiting for further developments from Star Ladder.

Sources: Star Ladder