It may be a new year, but it certainly isn't a new Gambit. They return to their highs of last year immediately into the new season, and in a moment of déjà vu from last year, we were immediately thrust into another CIS final, with Entropiq being the team at the other side of Gambit. It took two maps in a best of three finalto see off Entropiq, which saw Gambit take home $150,000, compared to Entropiq's $50,000.

So how did the story unfold up to this point? For Entropiq they had to bash through ECSTATIC (2-0), then were, in an act of foreshadowing, defeated by Gambit (2-1). This tumbled Entropiq to the lower bracket, where they had to eliminate Astralis from the tournament (2-1), defeat ECSTATIC once more to eliminate them too (2-1), and finally, they eliminated BIG (2-1) from the tournament before they stumbled once again into Gambit, for a repeat of the 2-0 in the final. For Gambit, they had a much quicker path to the final, as they managed to stay above water in the higher bracket. They saw off Complexity (2-1) at the start, then as we know from above, saw off Entropiq (2-1). Next up they hammered BIG (2-0), and landed into the Final here.

Looking ahead, Entropiq are taking part in the current Elisa Invitational Winter 2021 Qualifier, and have been invited to the IEM Katowice 2022 play-in, plus ESL Pro League Season 15. Gambit have qualified straight for IEM Katowice, and won't need to go through the qualifier, perhaps to the relief of Entropiq. Although they may run into Gambit at ESL Pro League, as they too are qualified for it.

For other teams, Funspark ULTI finals were a learning step for new teams. Complexity debuted their new team here, featuring talent from Extra Salt, and were sent home after just two matches with ECSTATIC & Gambit seeing them off. The same story goes for Astralis, who managed three matches. They were seen down by Entropiq & K23, but won against fnatic. Astralis will be hoping to return to former glory, even if they only have 2 of the former juggernaut lineup left in Xyp9x & gla1ve.