The first stage of the $60,000 T.K.O. is almost complete, and the teams moving into the next round have already been determined. The second round will start on 25 February.
All but two matches of T.K.O.'s stage one have been played out, and the advancing and eliminated teams have already been determined. 'Three' seems to be the magic number, as all teams who has at least that many wins on both the American and the European tournament proceeded to advance to the second round.
While the remaining matches will not affect the teams which will be eliminated, both are still of great importance on the competition. Despite each division starting a new round-robin tournament on the second round, the teams occupying the top three ranks from stage one can get as much as a three-point headstart. The four remaining teams with a match left - Natus Vincere, Empire, Sadboys and Cloud 9 - are all teams guaranteed of getting initial points.
The American match-up of Sadboys and Cloud 9 will determined who will be ranked first, and consequently be given a three-point bonus on ther second stage's score. The Europe division's matchup between Empire and Na`Vi is more complicated, as any outcome will result on a certain tiebreaker. An Empire win will guarantee them three points on the second stage, Fnatic two, and give Na'Vi and RoX one point each. A Na'Vi win, on the other hand, will give the Ukranian team still one point - but they will pull even with Empire and Fnatic who will end up getting a similar one point each.
T.K.O. is a multistage tournament with independent round-robin stages for both America and Europe. A total of $60,000 is up for grabs, $30,000 per division. The teams to be eliminated in each stage are determined by their wins-losses, with the top scoring teams receiving bonus points toward the next stage and a specific number of lower ranked teams being eliminated.
