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Group stages at the Northern Arena have concluded and Group A saw CLG and Nexus advance to the playoffs whereas Group B sees compLexity and SPLYCE advance.

With $20,000 on the line this weekend in the Mattamy Athletic Center in Toronto, Canada, eight teams descended upon the Center for the Northern Arena event.

Group stages were played in a best-of-one, round robin format with the top two teams from each group advancing to the single elimination, best-of-three playoffs.

ptr and SPLYCE narrowly edged out Method in Group B to advance

Group A's biggest surprise was perhaps 3suP's inability to win a game as the ESL ESEA Pro League team was unable to convert wins against not only CLG but also against mix-team variations of Nexus and ACE.

As a result, Nexus went through behind the undefeated CLG squad (who are being coached by Faruk "⁠pita⁠" Pita for the event), with the team utilising Enemy's Michael "⁠Uber⁠" Stapells as a stand-in.

Northern Arena 2015Best of 1 3sUPMatchpage 14 16 5th December 2015 Nexus 14Dust2 16

In Group B, the strongest team were Kory "⁠SEMPHIS⁠" Friesen's compLexity, who went 3-0 in the group with close victories against Peter "⁠ptr⁠" Gurney's SPLYCE and a Method team featuring Mike "⁠shroud⁠" Grzesiek as a stand-in, as well as winning comfortably against CLG Red.

The second team to advance out of the groups would be decided in the final match of the night, between SPLYCE and Method.

The game saw both halves go to close 8-7 scorelines, however it was Jake "⁠Stewie2K⁠" Yip & co. of SPLYCE who retained the narrow advantage and managed to win de_mirage 16-14.

Northern Arena 2015Best of 1 MethodMatchpage 14 16 6th December 2015 Splyce 14Mirage 16

The first playoff semifinal of the tournament will actually take place late in the night in Toronto, in about 30 minutes time, and features CLG and SPLYCE going at it in a best-of-three match.

stich writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter

Faruk 'pita' Pita Age: 24 Team: CLGC Peter 'ptr' Gurney Age: 25 Team: Splyce Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 149 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.62 Kory 'SEMPHIS' Friesen Age: 26 Team: Complexity Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 319 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.70 Jake 'Stewie2K' Yip Age: 17 Team: Splyce Rating 1.0: 0.99 Maps played: 78 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.74 Mike 'shroud' Grzesiek Age: 21 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 250 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.66 Michael 'Uber' Stapells Age: 18 Team: Enemy Rating 1.0: 0.96 Maps played: 110 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.71