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Who will be the first team to win two majors?
ESL One Katowice 2015 will be the 5th major of CS:GO, and four different teams have won the four previous ones. This means that Katowice could possibly be the first time in CS:GO history a single team has won two such tier-1 titles. The current EnVyUs lineup emerged victorious from DreamHack Winter 2014 and they could retain their current major title making them the first team to win two CS:GO majors in a row. Fnatic are currently regarded as one of the best teams in the world and have some of the most experience of any team coming into Katowice.
Will Virtus.pro be able to shock everyone with the same form as last year?
Virtus.pro came into Katowice last March on home soil when they destroyed every team in their path, including Ninjas in Pyjamas in the final match. The Polish audience cheering them on could have definitely helped in this win, as Counter-Strike has been proven to be a very momentum based game. If they return to the same form as last year they could be unstoppable.
Can Fnatic convert their recent dominance to win a major?
Fnatic have won 23 of their last 25 maps online. This is amazing form to be entering the major in. On the other hand Fnatic had a similar run of dominance last year going into DreamHack Winter where they actually dropped out in the round of 8, against the ex-LDLC lineup. Fnatic have been looking stronger than ever online, and they could be an unstoppable force at Katowice.
Will Ninjas in Pyjamas go to their 5th CS:GO Major final?
Currently NiP have managed to reach the final match of every major tournament, however they have only managed to win one title, ESL One Cologne. The most experienced Counter-Strike team has been looking uneasy in the last couple of weeks, playing musical chairs with their 5th player, changing from Makail "Maikelele" Bill to Marcus "delpan" Larsson to Aleksi "allu" Jalli, however they've decided to sign Allu and will bootcamp together with him until ESL One Katowice. The Ninjas have huge pressure on their shoulders and Allu has strong shoes to fill but fans are rooting for them. With Allu, we may see NiP's return to form.
Could there be group stage upsets?
So far in 2015 we have already seen huge LAN upsets such as CLG beating EnVyUs on their best map, de_dust2, and many other big upsets in the LAN tournaments held pre-Katowice. The majors have commonly delivered huge upsets such as PENTA making the quarter finals of DreamHack Winter after large amounts of criticism online.
Which teams will emerge victorious and who will disappoint?
Danish Team Solo-Mid are well known for playing poorly in the semi-finals of LAN tournaments and have previously been the team who most would say disappointed them. They were also voted the most disappointing team of 2014 in the GosuGamers awards due to their poor late tournament results.
French team Titan, having recruited Counter-Strike legend Cédric "RPK" Guipouy, are led by arguably the best in-game leader in CS:GO, and maybe we could see Titan go very far in Poland.
Finally, maybe a wild card could surprise everyone, Brazilian community sweethearts KeydStars (ex-KaBuM) and Australian fan favourites VOX EMINOR are both very popular teams who have been widely supported by the Counter-Strike community.
ESL One Katowice 2015 is sure to bring us some of the best Counter-Strike the community has ever seen, and with just under a month until kick off, who do you think will come out on top?
Headline image by Helena Kristiansson and ESL.
- Jamie "Eating a Squid" Stewart
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