Funspark ULTI 2021 — viewership overview of the first notable CS:GO event in 2022

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Funspark ULTI 2021, the first big tournament in 2022 and the final championship in the series of the previous year's season with a $250K prize pool, was held from January 18-24. Top CS:GO teams such as Gambit Esports, Astralis, Fnatic, BIG, Entropiq and Complexity Gaming, as well as lesser-known K23 and ECSTATIC competed in the tournament.

Initially, the team Checkmate, which scored the most Funspark points in Asia, was supposed to participate in Funspark ULTI 2021. However, due to its absence, the number of invited teams was increased from three to four. BIG and Complexity Gaming (ex-Extra Salt) made it to the event as previous season finalists, while K23 and ECSTATIC got their places thanks to the Funspark points scored in Europe. 

Two Russian teams, Gambit Esports and Entropiq, advanced to the Funspark ULTI 2021 grand final. Gambit won the tournament and took home $150K. Both squads also solidified their 2nd & 9th places in HLTV.org rankings, respectively. 

Astralis and Fnatic performed less successfully, placing only 5th-6th and 7th-8th, respectively. The debut tournament for the new Complexity Gaming squad was also unsuccessful as it only took 7th-8th place. Entropiq showed a good game in spite of the break and strengthened its position among the top 4 teams of CIS.

The Gambit Esports sniper Dmitry sh1ro Sokolov was named the best player of the tournament. He managed to complete all ten maps played during the event with a positive KD rating.

In total, viewers spent 1.42 million hours watching the event, with Entropiq's matches (#1 by the metric) accounting for 38% of the total. Three of Entropiq's matches are in the top 5 of the tournament in terms of Peak Viewers.

Astralis is the most popular team of the tournament. Danes' matches attracted 39.42K Average Viewers, which is just 8% more than Fnatic scored (the team is ranked 2nd with 36.44K Average Viewers). Face-to-face confrontation between two teams in the first round of lower bracket drew 67.65K Peak Viewers, becoming the most popular game of the tournament.

Compared with the previous year's series finals, the viewership activity of Funspark ULTI 2021 has not changed too much. The number of Hours Watched increased by almost 4%, but the time tournament broadcast was on air also increased by three hours. Peak and Average Viewers numbers dropped by 6% and 2.5%, respectively. Funspark ULTI 2021 would have probably attracted more viewers if Astralis and Fnatic hadn't left the tournament so early.

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The most prestigious championships of the new CS:GO season will begin soon. BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2022 will be the first tournament in the season. The first matches are scheduled on January 28. NAVI, Team Vitality, Astralis, G2, NiP, Liquid, FaZe Clan, MIBR, OG, BIG, Evil Geniuses and Complexity Gaming are among the tournament participants.