RES Regional Series' European debut hits 21K Peak Viewers as Fnatic win

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The RES European Series #1 was held from February 28 to March 6 as an online affair that saw 16 sides from the continent compete for a prize pool of $100K. It saw Fnatic win its first trophy in 2024, but the fall of one particular side before the Grand Final saw the viewership figures fall below its potential.

This B-Tier event saw Fnatic beat BLEED Esports 2:1 in a close encounter to emerge as the champion. The former took home $50 in earnings and 100 RLG points, which will help in its quest to qualify for the RES Regional Series Finals. This competition will be held sometime in the middle of 2024 in Belgrade, Serbia, and carry a prize purse of $250K.

  Essential stats and most popular games from the RES European Series #1   

The RES European Series #1 hit 21K Peak Viewers during the Playoffs Semifinals between Fnatic and Young Ninjas. The former came out 2:1 winners to advance to the summit clash, but this clash between two Swedish teams had enough hype to become the most popular game in this competition.

Fnatic's massive following could be seen in the fact that it was the only side to have multiple entries in the most popular games list. Its eventual drought-ending victory was also a good enough subplot to help this Counter-Strike tournament reach 522.3K Hours Watched and 6.7K Average Viewers over 78 hours of airtime.

What is interesting is that the Grand Final was far from the list of five most popular matches, coming in at ninth to barely make the top ten. The fact that the much-followed Russian side, BetBoom Team, fell in the semifinals to BLEED Esports played a part in this stat.

As one of the country's most sought-after CS2 teams, BetBoom Team's presence in the summit clash would surely have attracted a lot more viewers, ensuring higher stats for the game and event overall. However, despite coming into the game unbeaten and winning the first map, it could not maintain the momentum and crashed out with a 1:2 loss.

The RES European Series #1 saw the usual team top the most popular list, although it was run really close by an unexpected name. This team may have lost both its Group Stage games to go home winless, but it almost topped this table thanks to the identity of its owner and founder.

  Most watched recent CS competitions carrying a prize pool of $100K   

When compared to other recent competitions with a similar prize pool, this event comes lower down the leaderboard. As already mentioned, the absence of a popular side in the Grand Final, which would have made it a pretty intriguing Fnatic versus BetBoom Team encounter, was a big miss.

Moreover, the start of another CS competition, the BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2024, on the day of the summit clash, worsened matters. With sides like Team Spirit, OG, Cloud9, BIG, and Team Liquid in action, this $135K prize purse A-Tier tournament took away some viewers who would otherwise have turned up to watch the decider.

  Most popular recent CS competitions carrying a prize pool of $100K   

For those unaware, the RES Regional Series was launched by Relog Media and 1xBet in January. This tournament circuit offers total prize money of $1.05M in the first half of the year across online competitions in Latin America and Europe, with the action culminating in a LAN final in Serbia.

South America will have four online events, each offering prize pools of $50K, while Europe will witness six tournaments offering $100K apiece. With the top eight teams at each competition earning points in the RES circuit, the two highest-ranked sides at the end of the LATAM circuit, and the four top names in Europe will advance to the LAN final. Two more squads will get direct invites to the offline competition to round out the list of participants.