BIG, Astralis headline CCT Central Europe Series 4 playoff invitees

The schedule for the opening round of matches has also been revealed.

The teams invited to the knockout stage of CCT Central Europe Series 4 as well as the opening matchups have been announced, as 16 teams are now set to duke it out for the chance to win the lion's share of $50,000.

BIG, Astralis, GamerLegion, and Movistar Riders are the highest-ranked teams to throw their hats into the ring. The four top 30 ensembles are joined in the playoff bracket by Copenhagen Flames, 9INE, 1WIN, and FORZE, who also accepted invitations to the final CCT Central Europe event.

BIG join the playoffs of the online event as the highest-rated team

The eight invited lineups are joined by the eight squads who secured their own playoff berths after successfully traversing the group stage. HAVU and HONORIS both put up unblemished 3-0 records en route to a spot in the playoffs, whilst Apeks, who are fielding Michał "⁠MICHU⁠" Müller in their return to competition, went 3-1 to book a place in the final portion of the event.

CCT Central Europe Series 4 is BIG's first outing since their second-place campaign through Elisa Masters Espoo in November. The German side will be on the hunt for a strong showing in the tournament which they're in prime position to win as the highest-ranked team.

Astralis enter the playoff stage of the online event with the most to prove. The Danes recently suffered an early exit in their first outing with Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz back on the lineup when they bowed out of CCT North Europe Series 2 in 5-8th place after being edged out by HEET in a hotly-contested two-map affair.

Read more Astralis suffer early exit from CCT North Europe Series 2

Copenhagen Flames return to the event on the back of a first-place showing in the event's previous iteration, which earned the side 150 points on the regional ladder. The Danish quintet are in with a shot at nabbing a place in the studio finals, which will run in February from the island nation of Malta, if they clinch back-to-back tournament wins.

The playoffs will begin on Thursday, December 15, and feature a single-elimination, best-of-three format, concluding with the grand final on Sunday, December 18.

The opening matchups are as follows:

Date	Matches
CCT Central Europe Series 4
15/12/2022	Movistar Riders12:00 ECLOT	Match
15/12/2022	FORZE15:30 HAVU	Match
15/12/2022	Copenhagen Flames18:00 ESTOWNIA	Match
15/12/2022	Astralis20:10 ECSTATIC	Match
16/12/2022	9INE12:00 Apeks	Match
16/12/2022	GamerLegion14:30 MASONIC	Match
16/12/2022	1WIN17:40 HONORIS	Match
16/12/2022	BIG20:30 Young Ninjas	Match

Movistar Riders #23 Alejandro 'alex' MasanetAlejandro 'mopoz' Fernández-Quejo CanoPere 'sausol' Solsona SaumellDavid 'dav1g' Granado BermudoAntonio 'MartinezSa' Martinez Nicolai 'device' Reedtz Age: 27 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.16 Maps played: 1791 KPR: 0.78 DPR: 0.62 BIG #15 Johannes 'tabseN' WodarzFlorian 'syrsoN' RischeNils 'k1to' GruhneKarim 'Krimbo' MoussaElias 's1n' Stein HONORIS #61 Wiktor 'TaZ' WojtasKamil 'reiko' CegiełkoKamil 'Sobol' SobolewskiDenis 'Grashog' HristovDawid 'SaMey' Stańczak 1WIN #43 Egor 'flamie' VasilyevIgor 'lollipop21k' SolodkovAleksandr 'TRAVIS' TimkivAleksandr 'glowiing' MatsievichDenis 'deko' Zhukov HAVU #40 Jesse 'zehN' LinjalaJani 'Aerial' JussilaSami 'xseveN' LaasanenJoonas 'doto' ForssJarkko 'spargo' Rahja Apeks #54 Martin 'STYKO' StykMichał 'MICHU' MüllerJoakim 'jkaem' MyrbostadTim 'nawwk' JonassonJustinas 'jL' Lekavicius Copenhagen Flames #30 Rasmus 'raalz' SteensborgJohannes 'b0RUP' BorupThomas 'TMB' BundsbækThomas 'birdfromsky' Due-FrederiksenIulian 'regali' Harjău GamerLegion #21 Frederik 'acoR' GyldstrandMihai 'iM' IvanNicolas 'Keoz' DgusKamil 'siuhy' SzkaradekIsak 'isak' Fahlén Michał 'MICHU' Müller Age: 25 Team: Apeks Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 1773 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.68 FORZE #46 Vladislav 'Krad' KravchenkoAndrey 'Jerry' MekhryakovAleksandr 'zorte' ZagodyrenkoAleksandr 'shalfey' Marenov Astralis #16 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzBenjamin 'blameF' BremerMikkel 'MistR' Thomsen HEET #32 Aurélien 'afro' DrapierPierre 'Ex3rcice' BulingeThomas 'Djoko' PavoniAlexandre 'bodyy' PianaroAudric 'JACKZ' Jug 9INE #38 Wiktor 'mynio' KrukKrzysztof 'Goofy' GórskiKamil 'KEi' PietkunKacper 'Kylar' Walukiewicz