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Fnatic (GosuGamers World Ranking #1)
Arguably the clear favourites to emerge from Poland victorious are Team Fnatic. They have had a very dominant period over the course of the last 6 months.
Due to fnatic’s elite form over the last quarter they have come out on top as number 1 in the GosuGamers World Ranking. Let me take you through some of the results that have earned them the top spot they’re currently sitting on. Late October of 2014 saw Fnatic winning FACEIT Season 2 in spectacular form, beating Team iBUYPOWER in the finals. Fnatic did lose the first map, Dust 2 (16:8) but came straight back to win the next 3 maps. iBUYPOWER won the opening map however they had no real close opportunity to take gold as Fnatic completely shut them out of the following two maps with two monster CT sides on Inferno (10:16) and Mirage (8:16). The 4th map, which was Nuke went really close. It came down to the 30th round however Fnatic shut IBP out of that map too closing the BO5 early.
Fragbite Masters Season 3 witnessed another BO5, this time fnatic vs the old LDLC (Now EnVyUs) lineup. This was another big final fnatic completely dominated in. Again LDLC won Inferno, just the single map however Fnatic were already 2 maps ahead after pummling LDLC on both Dust 2 (9:16) and destroying them (6:16) on Mirage. Fnatic closed this series by destroying LDLC (11:16) on Overpass, there was no way LDLC was going to beat fnatic when they were at their peak. Admittedly, LDLC had huge choking problems at this event with their main players unable to properly perform, however it was Fnatic’s excellent form which highlighted these issues. At ESWC 2014 Fnatic crushed LDLC in 2 maps, Inferno (16:10) and Cache (16:11). This win was at a LAN on French soil, it was a fairly big upset; Fnatic haven’t lost a BO3 against the current EnVyUs line-up since the middle of October last year. This shows incredible consistency from the Swedish side.
Unfortunately for the Swedish side, Dreamhack winter didn’t quite go as planned, as a controversial boost and backlash from the Counter-Strike community led to them forfeiting the match they were supposed to replay against LDLC. I think a lot has been said about this result, and I don’t want to write a paragraph explaining the complications of the boost or anything of that nature as this event happened a long time ago and is no longer relevant to the scene as a whole.
Their run of success ran into late 2014 as they crushed Virtus.pro at ESEA Season 17 LAN in a 2xBO3 format. Fnatic beat up VP winning 4 straight maps. This is a good example of Fnatic completely bullying the opponents. In the first BO3, VP were playing on one of their strongest maps, in fact, VP had just beaten Fnatic on these first two maps in pretty convincing fashion just a few days before the final. However this didn’t seem to fase fnatic as the devoured VP 16:10 and 16:10 on Cache and Mirage respectively. Fnatic then battled VP in the second BO3 winning the next two maps, Dust 2 (13:16) and Train (13:16).
Fnatic went cool losing to NiP and TSM in America at MLG X-Games, they came out 4th losing to NIP in 3 very tight maps, they also lost to TSM (ex-dignitas) in a very tight game of mirage (17:19), and Nuke which wasn’t so close (7-16). Fnatic were looking extremely weak in this match, they never got a decent economy during the opening map of Nuke, and their overall CT side was looking much more penetrable.
There haven’t really been many big significant LAN tournaments since then. However they’ve been performing to their old form online, completely crushing anybody, at one time they had a 21 map streak.
Team EnVyUs (GosuGamers World Ranking #4)
Although Team EnVyUs are 4th on the GosuGamers World rankings they realistically are the 2nd best team in the world. They have also had very good results in past results since the French Shuffle which saw the ex-LDLC line-up become the current EnVyUs line-up.
Post Dreamhack Winter, LDLC was the organisation which had obtained the current EnVyUs line-up. Let me go through the results which have secured them a solid #2 spot in the world.
In October 2014 LDLC played Natus Vincere in a close BO5 Grand Final during SLTV StarSeries XI. LDLC were up 1-0 by default, however, Na'Vi managed to win 2 maps from LDLC taking them to a final 5th map. LDLC crushed Na'Vi on Inferno (16:9). Dust 2 which is now EnVyUs’ best map was taken by Na'Vi (17:19) then Overpass was also taken, this time (12:16), Overpass is a map we commonly saw issues from the French line-up. The final map was Mirage, a map some would say Na'Vi would have a good chance at winning, however Na'Vi buckled under the pressure - they lost 10 rounds on their CT side as they were demolished (16:6) and LDLC took the title.
A big talking point when mentioning LDLC is their tendency to buckle under the pressure of a close game - they’ve lost marginally in big matches to teams they shouldn’t have, teams LDLC were better than beat them time and time again in these high pressure situations. A good example of them buckling under pressure were the FACEIT Season 2 Semi-finals, where they played against iBP. In this BO3, LDLC definitely crumbled, and lost in 2 straight maps. Inferno they lost out closely (27:31). They then lost Dust2 (12:16). This was an embarrassing performance as it’s against a very weak team and these were LDLC’s best maps. The third map would have been Cache, and LDLC doesn’t really play Cache a lot, so they would have likely lost this map as well.
Dreamhack winter was LDLC’s big result: they won the whole tournament, beating fnatic in the most controversial BO3 in Counter-Strike history in the Quarter finals. After smashing Na'Vi in the Semi-Finals, they then edged past NiP to win the event in the Grand-Finals. LDLC had a close CT half on Dust 2 however then they absolutely obliterated iIP on their T side winning 10 rounds. NiP then crushed LDLC on their home map, inferno (16:4). The final map was Overpass. NiP had 2 tournament points however LDLC miraculously took NIP to overtime and clutched the map and the major winning (16:19), it was possibly the most nail-biting map of the year. Overpass was certainly the map that got everyone talking.
EnVyUs then had a great turn-out at MLG X-Games, beating NiP again in another close final. They were once again beaten on Inferno however they came out on top on their Cobblestone CT side, not dropping a single round to win the X-Games gold medal.
Virtus.pro (GosuGamers World Ranking #2)
Champions of EMS One: Katowice 2014 Virtus.pro are looking to take the title once again. Let me show you why this aspiration is a little unlikely with a few past results.
I would like to break down VP’s past performance by listing their big wins and great turn-outs at multiple events like I just did with Fnatic and EnVyUs, however, I can’t as VP has not won the same amount of tournaments as any of the other elite teams. I don’t want to have to go back to last March to find VP’s last huge result during Katowice, it would be crazy to use this as evidence to state VP is even close to the favourites. VP consistently struggles to close out competitions. The FACEIT Season 2 finals saw VP kicked out of competition by Fnatic in convincing fashion then they also lost to ex-LDLC. Most notably NiP edged past VP at Dreamhack Winter 2014 to make in to the final. Map 1, Nuke, was a legendary Semi-Final which witnessed NIP make an insane comeback to close VP out of the map in overtime. NiP continued to crush VP on Inferno (16:8) to win 2:1. The Polish side was closed out of another Semi-Final.
In many ways they suffer from the same issues as TSM; they are constantly contending for a top spot however they can never make it past a top 4 team in the semi-final to win an event out right.
I am in no way saying that Virtus.pro is a bad team, or have poor results; let’s look at their past results optimistically by saying how many great results they’ve had in the previous year - they made it to the semi-final of most of the big tournaments they attended. They can really dominate every opponent in the Quarter-Finals of big events, however, when it comes to the wins, VP have won almost nothing note-worthy.
Ninjas in Pyjamas (GosuGamers World Rankings #3)
Ninjas in Pyjamas is the most successful Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team ever, making the final of all 4 majors, however only winning one, in Cologne.
Their run of overwhelming success started at the very beginning of CS:GO as they dominated the early era famously winning 87 straight maps at LAN. Here are a few more recent results which are more relevant, the results at MLG X-Games 2015 and Dreamhack Winter 2014. The current NIP lineup have not attended a LAN together, therefore these two results don’t fully represent what this new roster is capable of.
At Dreamhack Winter, NIP had a fantastic run, their semi-final performance was spectacular against VP, and in an extremely close map NIP edged past Virtus Pro to win Nuke (22:20), they the lost Cache (9:16) and won inferno (16:8). The last map, inferno, showed us an amazing form by NIP as they were able to completely lock down the CT side, notably banana (the thin choke point enterance to B bombsite). Friberg had some absolutely crazy rounds where he made a very bold play which decimated VP. This amazing performance earned NIP a space in the final of DHW where they faced off against the 2nd best team in the world ex-LDLC. This series also went to three maps, this time overpass was the nail-biting final map which closed out DHW in spectacular fasion, this map went to overtime, NIP had two championship points, they could have taken the title on two separate occasions, the closest any team has been to winning a major title without winning it in Counter-Strike history. The amazing form NIP showed in the playoffs of Dreamhack Winter was partly due to the roster change which occurred a month before which saw Maikelele, a Swedish AWPer added to the team. His sniping style was very quick, very snappy. He could hit extremely quick shots, however he wasn’t completely consistent, suffering from choking in some matches online after this event. Overall I don’t think Maikelele was the limiting factor which prevented NIP from winning the major however it was their decision to remove him from the roster for Allu, who we have yet to see play with NIP on LAN so I’m not going to talk about his performance. NIP also had a great run at MLG X-Games where they took silver, losing to ex-LDLC in three maps including a very close inferno game which really made this series great due to the context of NIP winning Inferno at DHW.
Hellraisers (GosuGamers World Rankings #12)
Hellraisers is another wild-card team as they have not played at any big events since the CIS shuffle which saw s1mple and Markeloff move to Flipsid3 Tactics.
In my opinion Flipsid3 came out on top of the roster shuffle which occurred as they picked up two of the best AWPers in Eastern Europe, WorldEdit and s1mple. On the other hand flamie is the star player who was transferred to HR, who performs well in high pressure environments and is quite a quick rifle player whose fast reactions can allow him to pick apart anyone. Dosia is Hellraisers most experienced player professionally. He has a very slow, assassin like play style, which sometimes merits perfect results as he can dismantle the enemy team.
HellRaisers are seen as joint second in their group, either them or CLG are expected to get out of their group, it will be a test of HellRaisers' new line-up to see if they will be able to escape to the round of 8. Maybe they could get a dream run and make it to the quarter-Finals or maybe even semis, however this seems quite unrealistic, as they're up against so many other great teams where the talent is so stacked.
Natus Vincere (GosuGamers World Rankings #5)
Na’Vi is a well-known Ukrainian based team with a large history, the players that make up Na’Vi make them a very unique line-up.
Famous for pushing a bomb-site in the final 15 seconds of the round, Na’Vi like to take risks that most conventional teams wouldn’t dare. Na’Vi will hide the bomb near the back of the map as they slowly creep forward, playing against their opponents patience, just tempting them to peak. It takes a very reserved and passive team to beat Na’Vi. Like Fnatic, Na’Vi is known to triple fake a bombsite to force rotations to make a clean final push.
GuardiaN is one of the best AWPers in the world, and plays as Na'Vi's dedicated AWP. He can hit almost any target at lightning fast speeds. He’s the star player that will make or break Na’Vi. The Slovakian AWP legend is the player the team is based around, Edward will normally play alongside GuardiaN.
SLTV 11 saw Na’Vi play against ex-LDLC for the title. LDLC started with a 1-0 advantage however Na’Vi managed to take LDLC to 5 maps, narrowly missing out on the whole championship. The final map of this BO5 series was mirage, LDLC managed to completely destroy Na’Vi on the T side, they took 10 rounds on the terrorist side, it was a shame to see such a good performance by Na’Vi to take the previous 2 maps shut down in such a controlling manner.
Team Solomid (GosuGamers World Rankings #13)
Team Solomid are the ones to watch in Poland, they have had some hugely disappointing performances in the past few months, most notably dropping out of the round of 8 at Dreamhack Winter 2014. Dignitas (Now TSM) played Na’Vi in the Quarter-Finals where they were the clear favourites to take down the Ukranian side. The map pick was questionable at best for Dignitas as they went for a surprise pick when they chose to play Cobblestone where they were completely decimated (16:3). The next map was Mirage where they got off to a fantasic start winning their Counter-Terrorist half 12:3; they choked during the second half only managing to pick up a single further round. Both these maps demonstrated huge weaknesses in TSM’s Terrorist side, only able to pick up 4 rounds across 2 complete games as Terrorist. Soon after this crushing result Fetish, the in game leader parted ways with the TSM line-up.
Device has the potential to be one of the best players in the world, and over the past few months we’ve seen him playing exclusively with the AWP mainly online. Device has a very aggressive fast picking style with the AWP however he lacks the confidence to use the weapon to the best of his ability during the huge matches. We will see him play far more passively, instead of pushing up into a much more aggrsssive position. He will sometimes stop using the AWP completely and move to a rifle. This sometimes isn’t a huge issue because his skills with a rifle are exceptional.
Man for man, TSM have enough firepower to outright win Katowice, they could very easily be the upset team who make it to the very end. However they have not shown that they’re capable of playing to their skill level during high pressure matches, they consistently show that they faze out, choosing very weird maps to play on or making crazy tactical decisions.
PENTA Sports (GosuGamers World Rankings #14)
PENTA is the wildcard straight entry to this major, they’re a German line-up who pre-Dreamhack winter were bombarded with cheating accusations as this was contextually relevant due to the recent VAC bans which had been handed out.
They were given a pretty easy group, facing off against iBUYPOWER, Copenhagen Wolves and Ex-Dignitas (Now TSM). This was an incredibly easy group compared to the others as there was only one elite team in group B, which was dignitas. PENTA managed to beat both iBUYPOWER and Copenhagen Wolves in two BO1s, which isn’t a huge upset but nevertheless a good achievement. I don’t believe that Katowice will be as easy for the German squad. Their group is considerably harder this time, they have been put into one of the most difficult groups with Titan, EnVyUs and LGB eSports, this will be a gigantic challenge for PENTA to even get out of the group stage. They’ve had a recent roster change just weeks from the event which will likely shake the team up hugely, this reduces the chances of PENTA making a good performance at Katowice even further.
kRYSTAL has shown time and time again he is a fantastic AWPer in high pressure situations, turning up big online causing some big upsets, he is certainly a player to look out for, if he turns up on form he could tear any team apart.
Who do you think is going to win ESL One Katowice 2015? Let us know in the comments below. Also, be sure to check out our giveaway contest in anticipation for the $250,000 event here.
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