It’s all eyes on the Knockout Stage now for the M5 World Championship, with the Group Stage now over and eight teams eliminated.
All images and photographs courtesy of Moonton
We have been watching the 16 teams in the M5 World Championship for six days now, but today saw the Group Stage come to an end – with some huge upsets on the last day which brought an interesting storyline for the Knockout Stage. December 8th, 2023 will give the remaining teams a small break before they enter the double elimination bracket, so let’s take a quick look at who is still with us, and which teams met an unfortunate and untimely demise from the tournament.
Group A
Although Group A was decided prior to the final day, with 
ONIC Esports dominating and unbeaten – with 
See You Soon just behind, today’s final series gave two teams a chance at a semblance of redemption. 
Triple Esports, the MENA representatives, were able to claim themselves at least one victory, as they took down 
Bigetron Sons. While the victory did not mean anything in the grand scheme of the tournament, it will do well to bolster the team’s spirits in their elimination.
Group B
While Group A was similarly decided already, the final series would see an interesting battle between 
Blacklist Internationaland 
Fire Flux Esports. It was the brilliance of Rosa, the FFE middle lane player, which resulted in a superb win for the Turkish squad to close out the Group Stage – with both his Lylia and Valentina creating chaos around the Land of Dawn. For 
Team SMG and 
RRQ Akira, the tournament was already over, leaving the two final challengers to head into the next round.
Group C
AP.Bren captured the hearts of the Philippines, once again, claiming the top spot in their group and going unbeaten too – matching ONIC. However, it was the rest of this group that created a magnificent final day. 
Team Lilgun, Mongolia’s champions which arrived through the Wildcard, needed a win desperately, as it would take them into the next round. Unfortunately, their loss to 
Burmese Ghouls just a few days ago made their path extremely difficult, and even with just a single series win, the Myanmar team moved forward, leaving Lilgun out in the cold with 
Team Flash.
Group D
What seemed destined to be a crazy three-way tie in Group D, ended in an even more shocking result, as Malaysia’s final representative, 
HomeBois, found themselves knocked out – losing to the North Americans from 
TheOhioBrothers. However, this miraculous victory would mean that 
Deus Vultand 
Geek Fam ID would be the two teams marching into the Knockout Stage, and everyone definitely wants to see more of the CIS squad, even AP.Bren’s Coach Ducky admitted that they could be the “darkhorse” team.
With that, we now head into a single-day break, where the teams will get to gather their thoughts, plan their strategies, and hopefully avoid elimination in the M5 World Championship Knockout Stage, which kicks off on December 9th and goes through to the Grand Final on December 17th. The bracket has already been released, with some extremely hype series in the first round.
