Last November the Corporate 5's Cup officially launched, as 20 media organisations went head to head in our tense launch tournament
Back in November we ran our media launch event to officially kick-off the 2019 Corporate Cup series…and what a tournament it turned out to be. 20 teams competed, with four groups of 5 teams and the top two teams from each group progressed to the quarter finals.
Group 1
Group 1 was incredibly close with GiveMeSport, LADBible and Squawka all finishing level on points at the top of the group. The games between these top three teams in the group were all tight affairs GiveMeSport beat Squawka 3-1 in the very first game of the group before LADBible overcame GiveMeSport 3-2. With all three of the top teams beating both Sky Sports News and The Football Republic, it meant that a lot was riding on the last game of the group between Squawka and LADBible, Squawka took a narrow 2-1 victory but it wasn’t enough. All three teams finished on 9 points and Squawka missed out on goal difference, with GiveMeSport winning the group.
Group 2
Slash Football, a team of football influencers from London, were favourites to top group 2 and started in impressive fashion beating the Ascot Racecourse team 10-0, before putting 6 goals past City AM and 7 past The Sun team. However, in their final game in their group they were beaten 4-3 by the tournament hosts, Corporate 5’s, in one of the matches of the tournament. This surprise result completely opened up the group as it left both Slash Football and Corporate 5’s on 9 points from their 3 games. The Sun had earlier beaten the Corporate 5’s team, which meant that all was riding on the final game of the group between Ascot and The Sun. The Sun team needed to win by 4 goals or more to progress to the quarter finals. In a tense game The Sun eventually run out winners but the 6-4 scoreline meant that they were eliminated on goal difference with Corporate 5’s and Slash Football progressing to the quarter finals.
Group 3
The situation in group 3 was a little more clear cut, although it could have been very different as several of the games in the group were decided by a single goal (The Body Kitchen beat Estate Agents Today 4-3 and Estate Agents Today beat The Mirror 5-4). Including the game between The Body Kitchen and Four Four Tweet which decided the group, both teams went into the game with 3 wins out 3 and The Body Kitchen edged out a 4-3 victory to top the group. Four Four Tweet finished second ahead of Estate Agents Today, Mash Media and The Mirror.
Group 4
Group 4 was another tight affair, Joe Media and Grass Root Goals both kicked off with wins against Harper James and Snack Media. It meant that the final game of the group would decide the group and in another tense match Grass Root Goals prevailed 4-3 to top the group. Meanwhile Harper James beat Snack Media 9-7 to avoid finishing bottom of the group.
Knockout Stages
And so it was onto the quarter finals, Slash Football ran out comfortable 4-1 winners over Four Four Tweet, whilst Grass Root Goals beat LADBible by the same scoreline. The other two games proved to be absolute classics. Joe Media came from behind to beat Give Me Sport 4-3 and The Body Kitchen came through 5-4 winners after an end to end encounter against Corporate 5’s (as hosts we obviously felt it was right to let them beat us).
This set up a couple of mouth watering semi finals…first up The Body Kitchen vs Grass Root Goals in a battle of the two remaining unbeaten teams. It was a close game and high in quality but The Body Kitchen eventually took control and a couple of late goals saw them progress to the final with a 5-1 win.
The second semi-final saw Joe Media take on the formidable Slash Football team who seemed to be moving through the gears as the tournament progressed. Joe Media did incredibly well to keep the scores level at 1-1 for a long time but a couple of late goals sealed a 3-1 win for Slash Football.
The Final
On paper the final looked mouth watering, the pre-tournament favourites Slash Football vs the all-conquering Body Kitchen team who came into the final with 6 wins out of 6. The first 5 minutes or so was enthralling, the game was on a knife edge and the quality was high. After a long day of football, it always felt as if the first goal would be crucial, and so it proved. Slash Football got it and seemed to find another gear, playing some incredible one touch football. On the other hand The Body Kitchen seemed deflated and never really looked like getting back in the game. As The Body Kitchen sent more men forward, it opened up more space at the back and Slash Football punished them, eventually running out 6-0 winners.
Sash Football lifted the trophy and were deserved winners and The Body Kitchen team also deserve a special mention for playing some great football throughout the day.
Both teams will be back for our grand final in October where they’ll compete against the finalist from our 10 industry tournaments that we’re running in 2019. Each tournament is specific to a particular industry and provides companies with the opportunity to network with and compete against their industry rivals.
The winners of the grand final will win a charity donation to the charity of their choice and a place in the Ultimate Tour Soccer Sixes in La Manga, Spain.
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