ESL One Cologne will feature 16 teams in four groups of four with a prize pool of $1,000,000. Starting from July 5, eight ‘legends’ and eight ‘challengers’ will compete in the most prestigious CS:GO event. In this article, we’ll handle Group A, that features legends Astralis, Counter Logic Gaming and challengers Gambit and Team Dignitas. Let’s start with Danish giants Astralis.
Astralis (Ranked 7th on our team rankings)
Nicolai “device” Reedtz
Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen
Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth
Finn “karrigan” Andersen
Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander (stand-in)
Danny “zonic” Sørensen (coach)
Team Profile
Astralis, one of the most powerful teams in the CS:GO scene, have a well-deserved reputation. They are regarded as one of the favorites in every tournament they attend. In addition to their firepower and experience, their players are used to playing together even with their stand-in for this major, Rossander, who used to be one of the best Danish players and played with the likes of Device and Dupreeh on CPH Wolves line-up. He stands in for Markus “Kjaerbye” Kjærbye as the Danish youngster attended the European Minor with Team Dignitas.
Major Experience
Fortunately for them, all of Astralis’ ESL One Cologne roster including Rossander have major experience. Rossander never played in a major since DreamHack Winter 2014 but all four of his teammates reached semifinals at least two times at the previous majors. Their core trio Reedtz, Rasmussen and Højsleth played 45 maps together on majors and this statistic alone explains how hard it’d be for other teams to put Astralis’ players under pressure.
Between Two Majors
They’re not in their best form since their semi-final exit at the MLG Columbus 2016. Astralis haven’t played even a single map with Rossander during last three months. This makes it impossible to know what his role would be and how he will adapt to Astralis’ playstyle so I’ll be commenting on Astralis’ form regarding their other four members.
Past three months were harsh for the Danes. First they’ve disappointed their fans with a devastating group stage exit at DreamHack Masters Malmö and they’ve lost their two games at the ESL Pro League Season 3 Finals and thus finished 7-8th at the 8-team event. The addition of Kjærbye came after this result. His addition improved other Astralis player’s performance but it was nothing compared to the Astralis team before MLG Columbus 2016.
The Danish team attended three offline tournaments with Kjærbye: ELEAGUE Group Stage, DreamHack Open Summer and ECS Season 1 Finals. In fact, they’ve shown some signs of improvement at the first one as they were the best of the four ELEAGUE Group C teams. Even their DreamHack Summer Open campaign was acceptable considering they were eliminated by NiP at the semis but the ECS Season 1 Finals was a complete disaster. Astralis were out of the tournament after three maps on two matches against TSM and Cloud9.
Cologne Expectations
ESL One Cologone will be a high mountain to climb for Astralis. If we look at their performance on last three months, any top-10 team in the world have a fair chance to beat the Danes. At least their group stages opponents Dignitas, CLG and Gambit aren't as strong as Astralis. In my opinion, Astralis won't have much problems protecting their 'legend' status. A win or lose against Dignitas on group opener wouldn't change it as they're far better than CLG or Gambit. After the group stage, they'll probably have hard times against teams like fnatic, NiP or SK though.
Team Dignitas (Ranked 17th on our team rankings)
René "cajunb" Borg
Ruben "RUBINO" Villarroel
Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen
Jesper "TENZKI" Plougmann
Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke
Casper "ruggah" Due (coach)
Team Profile
Dignitas are known for developing great talent (and losing them to teams with higher reputation) not for winning grand tournaments with elite players. Almost every top level Danish player and a fairly high percentage of players from other Scandinavian countries have some history with Team Dignitas. Same goes for this major, they have young and talented players (Only René "cajunb" Borg is over 22). Almost every member of their lineup may secure a move if they could perform well. Of course Dignitas won't want to lose their talented young prospects but this didn't stop FaZe and Astralis who signed Philip "aizy" Aistrup and Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye from Dignitas in the past. Apart from everything else, it is clear that Dignitas have always been a enjoyable team to watch at the majors.
Major Experience
On this topic, the Dignitas topic is clearly a mixed bag. Their oldest and most experienced player, Borg, has played in 8 majors and achieved three semifinals. On the other hand, ESL One Cologne 2016 is going to be 19-years-old Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke's first major. The other three members of the team attented at least two majors but neither one of them was able to get out of the group stage.
Between Two Majors
Before MLG Columbus 2016, Dignitas were regarded as a top-10 prospect but once they've failed to qualify for the mentioned major, I've never seen them playing like a top-10 team. After the American major, they've failed to qualify to the semis of three consecutive tournaments: Copenhagen Games, DreamHack Malmö and CEVO Gfinity Season 9. A 5-8th place at DH Malmö is absolutely not a disappointment but expectations were higher on CPH Games and CEVO Gfinity.
After these tournaments they've attended European Minor as weren't at the previous major and won the minor with impressive performances from Kjærbye. Then the famous Danish swap came. Dignitas bid farewell to Kjærbye and in place of him, got Borg from Astralis. With him, Dignitas attended just two events. It was main qualifiers for ESL One Cologne that came first and they've did barely enough to secure a spot at the major after three wins against two defeats. Their last event before the major was ELEAGUE Group Stage and their performance wasn't impressive: four defeats on six group matches and a group semifinals exit in the hands of FaZe.
Cologne Expectations
Honestly, everything is possible. They have an experienced player like Borg but they surely will miss the raw talent of Kjærbye. An opening match versus Astralis is a disadvantage and it'd get them eliminated after a losers' match defeat but they are capable of beating Gambit and CLG. We'd see Dignitas as one of the legends at the major after ESL One Cologne if they play better than they did at ELEAGUE but again, everything is possible including a disappointing showing and two defeats in a row.
Gambit (Ranked 53rd on our team rankings)
Mihail "Dosia" Stolyarov
Dmitry "hooch" Bogdanov
Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev
Rustem "mou" Telepov
Ivan "spaze" Obrezhan
Alexander "BeAst" Yakovlev (coach)
Team Profile
The CIS scene, except from Virtus.pro and Na'Vi, failed to produce elite level teams. A couple of teams like HellRaisers almost managed to gain a top-10 title but they've decreased quickly after climbing the ladders. Gambit's fate would be like HellRaisers but nowadays, they're the better of the numerous CIS teams.(Of course excluding VP and Na'Vi.) They have three players playing together since early months of 2015 and a 29-years-old player, Dmitry "hooch" Bogdanov who has great experience on Counter-Strike. Plus, their fifth and newest player, Ivan "spaze" Obrezhan, is a young and talented player.
Major Experience
When we look at the previous majors, it is hard to see Obrezhan, Rustem "mou" Telepov and even Bogdanov's name despite the latest's fairly older age compared to the most players but it should be mentioned that during their sole major experience, Telepov and Bogdanov were part of the Gambit team that eliminated the previous major champions Team EnVyUs. On the other hand, Mihail "Dosia" Stolyarov and Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev attended six and five majors respectively with both having at least two quarter-finals.
Between Two Majors
The offline events that Gambit attended between MLG Columbus 2016 and ESL One Cologne 2016 are limited to two as the CIS team competed in just ESL One Cologne Main Qualifiers and ELEAGUE Group F. They were impressive in the former with a 3-1 record and a spot at the ESL One Cologne as a reward but the same doesn't go for ELEAGUE as they've won only one map out of eight and to make the things worse, their single map victory was against compLexity.
Cologne Expectations
Gambit will kick off their major campaign against CLG. A win against the NA team could boost their confidence and with this boost they may go crazy and secure a quarter-final spot but Dignitas stand solid on their way as well as CLG.
Counter Logic Gaming (Ranked 32nd on our team rankings)
Tarik "tarik" Celik
James "hazed" Cobb
Stephen "reltuC" Cutler
Faruk "pita" Pita
Kenneth "koosta" Suen
Team Profile
CLG have always been one of the best North American teams. Their core trio, Tarik "tarik" Celik, James "hazed" Cobb and Stephen "reltuC" Cutler have a good understanding between themselves. CLG and Team Liquid traded their AWPers Josh "jdm64" Marzano and Kenneth "koosta" Suen before coming to ESL One Cologne 2016 and former coach of the former team, Faruk "pita" Pita, will fill in the fifth player spot.
Major Experience
As I've mentioned before, their core trio Celik, Cobb and Cutler understand each other's playstyle well. These three players attended all of 2015's majors together as challengers and finally earned legend status at MLG Columbus 2016. Surprisingly, Pita has a major experience that goes way back to DreamHack Winter 2013 but his and his team SK's performance on that major were nowhere near impressive as they were eliminated after just two defeats on two matches that were played on best-of-one format. The fifth player Suen who was a part of Team Liquid during MLG Columbus doesn't have major experience due to his spell with Enemy at the Americas Minor for the mentioned major.
Between Two Majors
Only three players out of their five player roster for the major played together during the time between MLG Columbus and ESL One Cologne except ELEAGUE Group Stage where they used Pita as a fifth player. They had three offline events during that period. First one was DreamHack Masters Malmö where they've faced two strong teams in a row: G2 and Na'Vi. Their matches against those teams were impressive for them as they upset G2 and almost defeated Na'Vi but on their third match, they've lost to GODSENT and therefore eliminated from DH Malmö.
After Malmö, they've went to Austin for DreamHack Open Austin with high expectations but they couldn't live up with them and finished the tournament at 5-6th place, a disappointing result. Fans were worrying for CLG when their ELEAGUE campaign started but ELEAGUE went quite well for the team. CLG started off slowly with a 3rd seed result on group stage but eliminated SK on group semifinals and lost to group favorites Astralis 2-1 on group finals. Despite the defeat, taking a map from Astralis is a good sign.
Cologne Expectations
CLG has shown us many times that they can beat almost every team when they feel good and play with confidence. But they were not stable recently and because of this, I don't expect much from them at Cologne. They have a deadly weapon like Celik, a raw talent like Suen and two experienced players, Cutler and Cobb. Even their former coach Pita will contribute considering he has a good understanding of the game but if they are to upset bigger teams, they need Celik fragging and Suen playing without pressure. I think Group A of ESL One Cologne 2016 has a winner, Astralis, even before the first match and every other team has almost same chance to make it out of the groups.
Photos courtesies of DreamHack, Adela Sznajder - DreamHack, Gambit, Adela Sznajder - DreamHack respectively.
Frontpage photo coursety of Helena Kristiansson - ESL.
