We have now entered the group stage of the third season of ESL's Extreme Masters. The top two teams from each group automatically progress to the Continental Finals, while the third and fourth-placed teams will have to play the relegation stage for the last four spots.

As it happened last season, every match will be played on a best-of-three system.

The new season officially starts with a good-looking match between Dignitas and AndThenSome, two teams that came from the qualifying process. The British squad cruised past Lowlandlions in the qualifying round, while ATS proved far too strong for Scandinavian rival TEAM-ILLUSION. The Danish team has been riding high on form and a good result here will be very important for it ahead of the local WCG qualifier.

A very interesting all-German match takes place on Wednesday as n!faculty goes head-to-head with Team Alternate. N!faculty remains top of the EPS table and has so far been the strongest side in the league. However, it has never been able to replicate its domestic form abroad and this league will be the perfect time for a start. As for Alternate, it seems to be moving in the right direction again following the arrival of Martin "fleks" Wehrmann; however, its poor performance against pod.hama this week has raised questions as to how prepared this team is less than a month before the WCG event.

The winner of Extreme Masters, SK Gaming, will take on iNNERFiRE in the opening week of the group stage. The Swedish side did very well in Los Angeles and is highly-favoured to claim the top spot of the group table after a very favourable draw. iNNERFiRE knocked out eSuba at the qualifying round and, despite having surprised SK Gaming in early editions of the league, it just could not have wished for a worse opponent for its debut.

Russian side Virtus.pro takes on hoorai for week one of Extreme Masters. Virtus.pro did not impress at the ESWC, being sent back home at the group stages after finishing third of its group behind Alternate and emuLate. Although it may not be in its best form as it has not trained for the WCG, Virtus.pro is always a team to look out for. Hoorai, on the other hand, has been anything but impressive since switching organisations and Extreme Masters success could well make the fans forget the EPS disappointments.

Group C, the one that could well be called the "Group of Death", will open with an exciting all-Swedish clash between fnatic and the former EvilZone team, now known as lanklan. The two teams met each other at the WCG qualifier, with neither side emerging victorious as they had to be content with a share of the spoils in a 15-15 draw. Now, fnatic, following its Extreme Masters L.A. early exit, is more than eager to respond in positive fashion and collect the three points in the opening match.

GotFrag will be your home of full coverage of Extreme Masters III so make sure you stay locked to us for up-to-date scores, HLTV coverage and demos, as well as Gamesense match statistics. Also, do not forget to set your Personal Timezone to find out exactly when the matches will be played in your area so you do not miss any of the action.

Today's Match


Extreme Masters III Group A Round 1




Extreme Masters III Group B Round 1




Extreme Masters III Group C Round 1




Extreme Masters III Group D Round 1