We now bring you an extensive recap of the first round of our very own Xperia PLAY 2011 prelude tournament. If you missed some of the action, you can read up on what happened, which players performed well, which didn't, and also see who you should have had in your Dreamteam.

The first round (1/8 finals) of HLTV.org Xperia PLAY 2011 prelude tournament took place on Wednesday and Thursday this week and we had a chance to see many interesting matches.

This online tournament is being played in single elimination best-of-3 mode, and 16 teams were invited to fight for a payed entrance fee (worth €385) at Xperia PLAY 2011 tournament at Copenhagen Games later this month.

Eight teams now remain, while three of those pulled out surprising wins as the lower seeds, while the biggest surprise that almost happened was in the SK vs gatherproffs match that went into 3 maps, as the young Danes gave SK a very hard time.

We will now recap each match separately and also check out the best performers as well as most profitable Dreamteam acquisitions.

If you wish to only check out a recap of a specific match, you can skip straight to it by clicking on a desired link below:

RAGE-Gaming vs face!

empty vs x6tence

munkka vs Cheap Times!

mTw vs Gamerzone

Moscow Five vs X

Deathwish vs dateam

Online Kingdom vs eSrael

SK Gaming vs gatherproffs

RAGE-Gaming vs face!

2:0

HLTV Demo

1st map - de_train (16:9)
2nd map - de_tuscan (16:10)

RAGE-Gaming announced their new lineup just one day prior to the tournament, when they brought in 4 former alchemists players. Despite being a relatively new team, they were given a 4th seed, which meant they would meet 13th-seeded Danish squad face. RG managed to win this encounter after two maps without much trouble by winning each half of each map, although face still managed to put up a respectable fight and win firstly 10, and later 9 rounds.

Match statistics:

RAGE-Gaming

Player	K-D	+/-	Rating
André "BARBARR" Möller	45 - 24	+21	1.38
Karl-William "kalle" Haraldsen	38 - 24	+14	1.27
Andreas "moddii" Fridh	36 - 27	+9	1.17
Markus "pronax" Wallsten	36 - 30	+6	1.12
Tommy "tacky" Mosgaard	33 - 28	+5	0.98

face!

Player	K-D	+/-	Rating
Christian "turkizh" Bindslev	28 - 39	-11	0.82
Christopher "noas" Terkelsen	26 - 37	-11	0.79
Martin "woodi" Holm	27 - 38	-11	0.76
Kim "zezuz" Paulsen	28 - 37	-9	0.76
Thomas "BEECK" Beeck	24 - 38	-14	0.66

RG was statistically the third best rated team in the first round (1.18 rating), as all of their members performed well, having more kills than deaths.

Overall their best player was André "BARBARR" Möller who had a 1.38 rating (7th best of all players; train POV; tuscan POV). Moller particularly excelled as an entry fragger, recording an impressive 11 opening kills in the two maps. He also paid off for many of your Dreamteams by earning €9,2k while being quite affordable at the start of the game (€106k).

Also, Karl-William "kalle" Haraldsen, runner-up for the MVP of WGF in February, continued with his great form this year, getting a 1.27 rating, especially thanks to his 2nd map performance (25-11 score; POV demo; pistol-round highlight).

The team's star player Andreas "moddii" Fridh didn't excel as much as we are used to, but he still put in a good performance (1.17 rating) and is perhaps saving his best for tougher opponents.

emptyvs x6tence

2:0

HLTV Demo

1st map - de_inferno (16:6)
2nd map - de_dust2 (16:10)

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the first round was the way 5th-seeded x6tence, who had an excellent display in their last international outing at DreamHack Winter, were eliminated by new Swedish lineup empty. The Spanish side made a change in their lineup for this match, playing with Borja "GuMmY" Fernández, which may have affected their performance as they ended up losing both maps in quite a convincing fashion.

On the other hand, the Swedish side displayed excellent play and deserved the win by all means. On de_inferno, partly thanks to some great tactics and mid-round decisions by their in-game leader Mattias "Snajdan" Andersen, empty gained a 13:2 lead as Terrorists and secured an easy win. The trend continued on de_dust2 where the Swedes were up 10:5 and then they closed the match with a 16:10 scoreline.

Match statistics:

empty

Player	K-D	+/-	Rating
Mattias "Snajdan" Andersen	41 - 27	+14	1.32
Viktor "vuggo" Jendeby	43 - 29	+14	1.25
Mathias "seAzon" Clausen	33 - 23	+10	1.15
Adam "adde" Sundlöf	36 - 31	+5	1.06
Glenn "backstreetglenn" Mellgren	31 - 32	-1	0.91

x6tence

Player	K-D	+/-	Rating
Josete "YuRk0" Anton	44 - 38	+6	1.19
Adrián "sioK" Rodríguez	31 - 39	-8	0.89
Borja "GuMmY" Fernández	25 - 35	-10	0.76
Jonathan "MusambaN1" Torrent	24 - 35	-11	0.74
Carlos "xhiroz" Puente	18 - 38	-20	0.50

In addition to leading the team tactically, Mattias "Snajdan" Andersen was also empty's best rated player (de_inferno POV; de_dust2 POV). On de_dust2 he recorded a 1.50 rating and led the scoreboard, while during the first map, his teammate Viktor "vuggo" Jendeby topped the charts.

Andersen and Jendeby were also two of some of the most pleasant surprises for Dreamteam players. Jendeby's €76k initial price made him probably the best bargain buy of the first round considering he earned €6.9k. Similar story goes for Andersen, who was also quite cheap at €91k, and his reputation caused many people to make the good decision and earn €7k with him in the team.

As far as x6tence go, their only bright spot was Josete "YuRk0" Anton, who put up a great fight on both maps, but it wasn't enough since the rest of the team didn't deliver. Especially disappointing was Carlos "xhiroz" Puente, who is considered to be the best Spanish player and maybe one of the brightest talents in the world. He only managed a dismal 0.50 rating throughout the 2 maps, which certainly didn't help his team, but it should be mentioned that he had some internet problems, and had by far the worst ping in the match.

munkka vs Cheap Times!

2:1

HLTV Demo

1st map - de_inferno (26:22)
2nd map - de_train (5:16)
3rd map - de_dust2 (16:11)

Match between 8th (Cheap Times!) and 9th seed (munkka) turned out to be as close as expected, while the lower seeded munkka came out as winners after 3 maps. This was actually the most even match-up of the first round, as the teams won almost the same amount of rounds overall (munkka 47, Cheap Times! 49).

On the first map, de_inferno, the teams were extremely evenly matches and they changed leads many times throughout the match, which ended up going into double overtime in which munkka triumphed 26:22. On de_train, Cheap Times! retaliated and won their T-side 11:4 which made their CT-side work very easy and the map ended 16:5. The deciding map was de_dust2, and munkka now took over on their hard side, winning the CT-half 8:7. After that, they still had some work to do, but they managed to win 16:11 overall, and secured passage to the next round.

Match statistics:

munkka

Player	K-D	+/-	Rating
Timi "aslak" Verkkoperä	80 - 60	+20	1.20
Alexi "allu" Lundberg	75 - 62	+13	1.13
Tomi "zabaz" Verkkoperä	61 - 65	-4	0.93
Juuso "fonex" Malvela	53 - 72	-19	0.75
Luukas "lukee" Paananen	45 - 63	-18	0.74

Cheap Times!

Player	K-D	+/-	Rating
Mikkel "ptn" Sørensen	69 - 59	+10	1.08
Simon "crapzn" Ørslund	73 - 64	+9	1.03
Daniel "dalle" Kjersgaard	64 - 63	+1	1.00
Taymaz "TAY" Babaiasl	56 - 61	-5	0.89
Kristoffer "krischjo" Schjo	59 - 68	-9	0.84

Statistics also confirm that this was the closest match, as these two teams had the most similar ratings. Despite their loss, Cheap Times! managed to have a higher rating of 0.97, while munkka had 0.95.

The best player from the winning team munkka was Timi "aslak" Verkkoperä, thanks to his performances in the 1st and the 3rd map, as he was top rated in both (de_inferno POV; de_dust2 POV). His best supporter was Alexi "allu" Lundberg, especially in the double-overtime encounter, helping out with 44 kills.

On the losing end, Mikkel "ptn" Sørensen and Simon "crapzn" Ørslund were the best of their team, playing consistently well, both having ratings above 1.00 in all 3 maps. Ørslund even managed to record an amazing highlight round in the final map which you can check out here.

Considering how close the result was, not many players had a chance to stand out for your Dreamteam, but a couple of them still did. Especially profitable could have been the purchase of Timi "aslak" Verkkoperä, who had a very acceptable initial price (€97k) and he earned an amazing €10k. His teammate Lundberg was also a good pick for your team, bringing you €6.6k.

mTwvs Gamerzone

2:0

HLTV Demo

1st map - de_inferno (16:3)
2nd map - de_train (16:9)

In one of the most one-sided matches of the first round, top-seeded mTw overran a young Swedish team, Gamerzone. The first map, de_inferno was like a walk in the park for mTw (16:3), while on de_train, Gamerzone managed to take both pistol-rounds which helped them get to 9 rounds in the end, although mTw still dominated the rest of the match.

Match statistics:

mTw

Player	K-D	+/-	Rating
Martin "trace" Heldt	41 - 17	+24	1.58
Oliver "minet" Minet	40 - 19	+21	1.52
Alexander "ave" Holdt	37 - 20	+17	1.39
Danny "zonic" Sørensen	35 - 21	+14	1.29
Timm "Arcadion" Henriksen	36 - 24	+12	1.27

Gamerzone

Player	K-D	+/-	Rating
Martin "mrtn" Sterley	24 - 36	-12	0.79
Alexander "brownie" Browne	27 - 39	-12	0.71
Samuel "decent" Oldenburg	20 - 39	-19	0.58
Fouad "fms" Mohamad	18 - 38	-20	0.53
Markus "lindwe" Lindwe	12 - 37	-25	0.38

mTw were one of the two teams who really destroyed their opponents (1.41 team rating).

All 5 members from the Danish squad played excellent, getting very high ratings, while their best rated player was per usual Martin "trace" Heldt (1.58 rating). Heldt played great during the first map (24-6; POV demo), while Oliver "minet" Minet was top rated in the second map (23-12 score), so the new danish super-pair continued their form which we saw during their LAN adventures at IEM5 European Finals and IEM5 WC earlier this year.

As far as Dreamteam is concerned, having any (and preferably several) mTw players, was quite fruitful as they each earned more than €5k. Heldt, as their most expensive player, justified expectations and earned the most (€11k), while Minet was probably the best choice from mTw considering value-for-money. He earned slightly less than Heldt (€9.7k), but was a lot cheaper at the start (€107k). Alexander "ave" Holdt was also quite a good choice to have in the team, since he earned €7.4k while initally costing only €103k.

Moscow Fivevs X

2:0

HLTV Demo

1st map - de_inferno (16:1)
2nd map - de_train (16:4)

In the first match on Thursday the best Russian team Moscow Five, who were seeded 3rd, played against a Danish team X. M5 recently made a change in their lineup when they brought in a competely unknown Alexandr "Twist" Sharipov instead of Alexander "xek" Zobkov. Danish squad X is on the other hand quite a new lineup altogether, formed particularly for participating in the upcoming Xperia PLAY LAN in Copenhagen, but they also made a change prior to this match, acquiring Søren "aneee" Runge as a stand-in.

From the very beginning, it could have been seen that this will be a very one-sided affair, as Moscow Five ran over the Danes. The first map ended 16:1 in favor of the Russian team, as they stopped almost every attempt X made to enter a bombsite. The second map was not much different, although the Russians now started on the harder side, as Terrorists on de_train. They amounted to a 11:4 lead and then rutinely brought the match to a close with a 16:4 score.

Match statistics:

Moscow Five

Player	K-D	+/-	Rating
Mihail "Dosia" Stolyarov	51 - 14	+37	2.27
Eduard "ed1k" Ivanov	36 - 19	+17	1.57
Roman "ROMJkE" Makarov	30 - 19	+11	1.29
Sergey "Fox" Stolyarov	31 - 20	+11	1.22
Alexandr "Twist" Sharipov	21 - 22	-1	0.91

X

Player	K-D	+/-	Rating
Brian "hpx" Christensen	26 - 33	-7	0.84
Mike "spx" Lützhøft	21 - 31	-10	0.73
Søren "aneee" Runge	20 - 34	-14	0.62
Flemming "zecer" Pedersen	13 - 35	-22	0.42
Jack "wazorN" Henriksen	14 - 36	-22	0.35

Moscow Five recorded the best rating of all teams (1.45) as they simply destroyed their opponents allowing X to only get 5 rounds in two maps.

M5's best player in this match and the by far best rated player of the entire first round of matches was Mihail "Dosia" Stolyarov. He didn't have a remarkable start of the year with subpar performances at IEM5 European Finals and IEM5 WC, but he did play excellent at ASUS Winter 2011. He repeated that form from ASUS Winter this week, recording an incredible 2.27 rating during the 2 maps, top rated in both of them.

His teammate Eduard "ed1k" Ivanov, who has been playing amazingly in the first 3 months of 2011, also continued by doing great in this match, especially in the first map when he had a 2.05 rating (POV demo).

Although quite expensive at the start (€117k), Mihail "Dosia" Stolyarov was the best investment you could have made in Dreamteam so far as he earned the most of all players (€20.3k). Ivanov was also quite a good choice as his price raised €9k after initially costing €110k.

Also worth mentioning is the most bought player of the first round, Sharipov, who due to having no previous matches in our database, had a very low price of €80k. That caused more than a thousand people to bring him in their team, but Sharipov didn't really deliver in his first official match, playing below average and even losing €1.8k of his value.

Deathwishvs dateam

2:1

HLTV Demo

1st map - de_inferno (16:4)
2nd map - de_train (9:16)
3rd map - de_tuscan (26:23)

After empty and munkka, another low seeded team managed to pull out a surprise win, when in a close matchup Deathwish defeated dateam in 3 maps. Both teams played with a stand-in, while the Norwegians went on to a much better start, outclassing dateam on de_inferno 16:4. On the next map, de_train, dateam came back and even though they didn't shine as CT with a 9:6 lead, they managed to finish the job as Terrorists with a 16:9 final score.

The third and deciding map de_tuscan, proved that there is very little separating these two teams, as Deathwish only clinched the victory after two overtimes (26:23).

Match statistics:

Deathwish

Player	K-D	+/-	Rating
Steffen "phnien" Willumsen	80 - 63	+17	1.16
Martin "hellzERk" Solbakken	73 - 60	+13	1.13
Martin "zenith" Hansen	66 - 69	-3	0.95
Michael "m1kkis" Sokki	64 - 66	-2	0.94
Thomas "Vertigo" Andresen	58 - 69	-11	0.85

dateam

Player	K-D	+/-	Rating
Danniél "dalito" Morales	67 - 59	+8	1.07
Emil "striker" Westerberg	73 - 68	+5	1.05
André "keiz" Carlsson	64 - 72	-8	0.88
Daniel "rape" Börszönyi	69 - 75	-6	0.88
Christian "floreNz" Shahan	53 - 67	-14	0.80

Statistically speaking, this was the second closest match, as Deatwish had a 1.00 team rating and dateam had 0.94.

The two most valuable players for Deathwish's success were Steffen "phnien" Willumsen and Martin "hellzERk" Solbakken. They both played well in each of the three maps, while Willumsen was top rated in the marathon decider (1.18 on de_tuscan). Solbakken was right behind him in the last map (POV demo), and he was also the most successful AWPer of the first round (37 awp kills).

A pair of players stood out for dateam too, as Danniél "dalito" Morales and former SK member Emil "striker" Westerberg put up the most resistance.

Those who dared to buy Willumsen for their Dreamteam were richly rewarded. His very low starting price (€80k) made most people steer away, but he ended up earning €9k thanks to his performance. Solbakken also earned a lot (€6.3k), which coupled with a Sniper role in which he earned €2.4k could have been a very good choice, even though he was quite a bit more expensive at the start (€104k).

Online Kingdomvs eSrael

2:0

HLTV Demo

1st map - de_dust2 (16:14)
2nd map - de_nuke (16:12)

eSrael hopped into our tournament as a replacement for Universal Soldiers and not much was expected of them, as they are known to have very bad ping in online matches. However, they managed to put up an excellent fight against favorized Finnish Online Kingdom. Even though the Finns won after two maps, the scores practically could not have been closer.

On de_dust2 Online Kingdom won their T-side 9:6, but eSrael took over in the second half and even got up to a 14:12 lead. However, the Finns then stepped up and won the remaining 4 rounds and therefore the map 16:14. Similar story took place on the de_nuke, where a close 8:7 lead for OK paved way for an exciting finish. The Isreali team once again took over the lead at 12:11, but the Finns stepped up and won five rounds in a row to secure a 16:12 win.

Match statistics:

Online Kingdom

Player	K-D	+/-	Rating
Hannu "H^N" Pohjalainen	53 - 38	+15	1.27
Jirka "jigetus" Ryhti	47 - 36	+11	1.20
Otto "danzer" Dimitrow	41 - 35	+6	1.16
Joni "Freon" Huumo	44 - 33	+11	1.10
Kimmo "BASiC" Fagerholm	35 - 36	-1	0.90

eSrael

Player	K-D	+/-	Rating
Dor "badE" Geuli	39 - 42	-3	0.95
Eran "syn" Schvarts	39 - 44	-5	0.94
Avi "spooky" Maduel	38 - 44	-6	0.91
Roy "rishoN" Torgeman	35 - 46	-11	0.81
Itay "infront" Mordehay	27 - 44	-17	0.65

Even though the result was very close, statistics show that OK had the upper hand quite a bit with a 1.13 rating, compared to eSrael's 0.85.

The best player from the Finnish team was not one of their stars, but instead it was Hannu "H^N" Pohjalainen. He especially stood out in the first map (29-18, POV demo) and was solid in the second map as well. Their first star, Jirka "jigetus" Ryhti didn't disappoint by having a 1.20 rating overall, but their other player-to-watch, Kimmo "BASiC" Fagerholm played below average (0.90 rating).

Israeli team put up a good fight altogether, without any players standing out, except maybe Dor "badE" Geuli in their second map when he led the team with a 24-19 score (POV demo).

The only really profitable Dreamteam purchase you could have made concerning this match was Pohjalainen, as he was not too expensive at €99k, while he earned €8.3k.

SK Gamingvs gatherproffs

2:1

HLTV Demo

1st map - de_train (16:6)
2nd map - de_inferno (8:16)
3rd map - de_dust2 (16:12)

In the last match of 1/8 finals, second-seeded SK Gaming met with a young Danish squad named gatherproffs. What was expected to be an easy stroll for SK almost turned out to be the biggest surprise. The Danes had an excellent display, as they even won a map quite convincingly, and kept themselves in the game until the very end.

On the first map, de_train, gatherproffs announced their potential by taking a 5:0 lead as Terrorists. However, SK then shifted into the next gear and won 10 rounds in a row, and eventually the map 16:6. 

SK continued in the same manner on de_inferno by taking a 5:0 lead, but gatherproffs then took over with some great T-side play and won the half 9:6. The Danes then won the very important pistol round and later some more key rounds to close the map at a 16:8 scoreline.

The deciding 3rd map was de_dust2 at which SK started on the stronger side, and took a 12-3 lead as Terrorists. The Danes wouldn't give in and they kept themselves in the game for another 13 rounds, eventually succumbing to a 16:12 defeat.

Match statistics:

SK Gaming

Player	K-D	+/-	Rating
Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund	79 - 44	+35	1.55
Robert "RobbaN" Dahlström	54 - 48	+6	1.18
Johan "face" Klasson	51 - 44	+7	1.11
Dennis "dennis" Edman	48 - 49	-1	0.95
Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg	40 - 49	-9	0.83

gatherproffs

Player	K-D	+/-	Rating
Emil "zaider" Brandt	55 - 54	+1	1.06
Nikolaj "EXR" Therkildsen	52 - 52	0	1.02
Nicolai "moxxi" Tinggaard	57 - 57	0	1.00
Samal "SFM" Mikkelsen	40 - 52	-12	0.77
Jacob "noah" Sørensen	30 - 58	-28	0.57

SK's main reason for outplaying gatherproffs was the performance of Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund, the 2nd best player in entire 2010 according to our ranking and one of the best performers at the recent IEM5 World Championship.

Alesund was remarkable throughout the entire match, top-fragging for his team in all three maps. On de_train, he topped the charts along with Robert "RobbaN" Dahlström, while on de_inferno he was the only bright spot in his team and even had an excellent highlight round (highlight; de_train POV; de_inferno POV). And then in the deciding map, Alesund really took his game to the next level and recorded an incredible 36-16 score (POV demo) and practically singlehandedly led SK to victory.

In the other camp, no one largely stood out, but several players had their moments. Emil "zaider" Brandt was the team's best overall, playing well in each map, especially on de_inferno when he recorded a nice highlight (4-kill round) and displayed some nice awping as CT (POV demo). Nicolai "moxxi" Tinggaard also showed a lot of potential throughout the match, especially on de_dust2 (27-22 score; POV demo), while Nikolaj "EXR" Therkildsen was the team's top rated player in their only win on de_inferno.

Even though it was expected that SK players would bring easy profit in Dreamteam from this match, it didn't quite turn out like that. The only player who was worth having in your team was the most expensive one in the entire game - Alesund (€124k at the start), while the rest didn't bring enough profit to justify their price. Alesund himself certainly did that by earning you a remarkable €19.7k, second most of all players.

Eight teams now remain in the tournament and the match-ups look as follows:

mTw vs munkka

RAGE-Gaming vs empty

Moscow Five vs Deathwish

SK Gaming vs Online Kingdom

You can check out the bracket for the tournament here and complete statistics of all players and teams here.

The next matches are scheduled to be played on Sunday, April 3rd 2011, so make sure to keep your browser on HLTV.org and grab the HLTV IPs tomorrow to watch all the action.

Feel free to leave your comments below about the already played matches and their affect on your Dreamteam, as well as how you expect the teams and players will perform in the upcoming matches.