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1. American potential
Coming to this tournament, everyone expected a rather one sided affair with a big performance disparity. However, the initial day of the event brought us something totally unexpected. Not even the fans of those teams could expect such results, but again they came well-deserved.
There were a total of three North American teams at X-Games, with only Cloud 9 having previous international experience at major tournaments. Counter Logic Gaming were the first in line to cause an upset, beating none other than DreamHack Champions LDLC. The French team was shocked the same way as was the whole CS:GO community, but CLG proved that with hard effort, the best results are within reach.
KaBuM demolished Cloud9 and everyone was already thinking how the most famous NA team will start packing home, but they too showed they have aces up their sleeve. The North Americans successfully patched up their flaws from the first game, and came out strong the next game, demolishing Ninjas in Pyjamas. Alas, the American dream disappeared with the dying light of the first day in Aspen. In their deciding matches, all of the NA teams suffered defeat from their stronger European opponents and their run was ended.
Overall, North American fans can be very satisfied with the outcome. Their teams showed a great potential and it’s just a matter of time when some of those explode and cause a major upset in the international scene.
2. High level of production
Being the first CS:GO event ever hosted by MLG, X-Games was approached with a lot of uncertainty when it came to production. There have been many bad, as well as good, example as of late, so everyone had their fingers crossed that X-Games would be of the latter.
In terms of scheduling, the event had a slight delay only during the first day which was quickly fixed the other two days. Scheduling the matches early in local time was a good move, especially considering the European audience.
The casting role was perfectly filled by a duo of experienced commentators, Daniel ‘ddk’ Kapadia from FACEIT TV, and Matthew “Sadokist” Trivette from ESEA. Joshua Nissan, known to the wider audience as steel of ex-iBuyPower fame, was the observer who controlled the in game camera he did a perfect job at keeping the focus on the most important parts of the game.
Duncan Shields, also known as “the historian of eSports”, and former Ninjas In Pajamas player Robin “Fifflaren” Johansson, did an outstanding job at the analyst desk. Rounding out the team we have MLG host Chris Puckett. With direct and well thought out questions, he was always on-point with the post-match interviews.
3. The leading trio brought us another unforgettable show
Team LDLC, Fnatic and Ninjas in Pyjamas are arguably the three best teams in the world right now. By coming to this tournament, Fnatic wanted to recover from DreamHack Winter after their controversial match against Team LDLC. On the other hand LDLC wanted to prove that their win at DH:W was not a fluke, and that they could continue winning. NiP is one of the teams with the widest fanbases are considered as favorites a lot of the time, so they were looking for a chance to take revenge on LDLC for the DreamHack Winter finals.
The tournament didn’t really start well for all these teams,though. LDLC lost to the underdogs, CLG, completely shocking the world. But with the win against Fnatic in the next round they were back on track. Fnatic had a good match against Liquid, but then they lost to LDLC on their statistically best map de_inferno, and they had to look for hope in the match against CLG who had scored one upset already. In the other group NiP survived the first match by defeating Dignitas in overtime, but they managed to lose against Cloud9 which also shaked them a bit.
However, all three favorites woke up hungry for victory on the next day. The first semi final match between NiP and Fnatic was one of the better ones we’ve seen in the recent past. Although it’s evident that Fnatic are currently in a slump, they were looking strong nonetheless, just not enough to trump NiP. Their clash had an abundance of heartbreaking moments, especially during the first two maps.
The finals were even a bigger thriller as LDLC and NiP fought tooth and nail and scored some incredible comebacks. The series was closed on one of the most disputed maps in the pool, de_cobblestone, but seeing how no team had specifically prepared any strategy for it, it was an entertainment by itself.
4. The round robin format proves better than the GSL?
MLG X Games had a slightly differing format from the traditional major tournaments. The group stage didn’t feature a double elimination groups - where a player needs two wins to advance or two losses to drop out - but rather a round robin system.
Having round robin in the group stage was a complete success. Who could’ve expected to see all of the teams at 1-1 after the first day? This type of format also gave a better chance for underdog teams to shine, which they actually did at this event.
The playoffs featured a single elimination bracket with a third place decider for the bronze medal. The only thing which could be counted as a downside is that the grand finals weren’t a Bo5 but a Bo3 instead.
5. Is this a new ground for the first major on North American soil?
So far the Counter-Strike:Global Offensive competitive scene has had four major tournaments, all of which hosted in Europe. But with companies like MLG getting involved, this could be a step towards bringing high level CS:GO to North America.
Still, one could see why sticking to Europe-hosted events remains the better option. With the majority of the top teams coming from Europe, it becomes an ordeal for tournament organizers to bring them all across the Atlantic. Yet one can hope that this hindrance disappears in the future and North American fans get their big CS:GO event. They’ve deserved it.
Headline image by Adam Apicella and MLG.
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