SLTV StarSeries Season X Lan Finals preview and predictions

The SLTV StarSeries Season X Lan Finals will start on Saturday, August 30th and will continue on to Sunday, Augstus 31st. The finals will feature four of the best teams in the European region, including Na'Vi, Fnatic, HellRaisers, and myXMG. The finals were originally supposed to include German team mousesports, but they decided to skip the finals due to the ongoing political situation in Ukraine. Therefore, myXMG replaced them in the final. With a total of $30,000 on the line, this is certainly a tournament that you do not want to miss.
 

Participants	Map pool	Prize pool
Fnatic myXMG Na'Vi HellRaisers	de_dust2 de_inferno de_train de_nuke de_mirage	1st: $14,000 2nd: $7,000 3rd: $5,000 4th: $4,000

Round Robin Standings

A series of matches were played by 16 of the best teams in Europe to determine who would be allowed to compete in the lan finals for $30,000. The standings of those matches are below.

Brackets

The tournament will be played in standard double eliminination, where four teams will be split into two groups, with Fnatic and myXMG in one group and Na'Vi and HellRaisers in the other group. The matches will be played in a BO3 format, and the winner of each group will continue in the upper bracket into Round 2 where they will fight for a spot in the final.

The losers of each group will drop to the lower bracket (also in BO3 format), and will have to win two matches in a row in order to secuire a spot in the grand finals. If a team loses a single match in the lower bracket, they are out of the tournament. In the grand final, the team coming from the upper bracket will start with a one game advantage against the team coming from the lower backet.

 

Location

While it's not exactly going to be nearly as large as ESL Cologne, the SLTV StarSeries Season X Lan Finals will be held at the Kiev Cybersport Arena in Kiev, Ukraine. This is the same place in which the previous SLTV StarSeries Lan Finals were held, and will feature a large LCD screen above the stage in order to broadcast the matches in front of a spacious viewing lounge. The matches will also be streamed online by 2FaceTV and RoomOnFire.

 

 

Predictions
 

Match 1: Fnatic vs MyXMG
	Fnatic had just come out of a deep slump earlier this month, in which they didn't come close to winning any tournament, big or small ever since their victory at Dreamhack. However, with their recent roster change that dropped both Jonatan "Devilwalk" Lundberg and Andreas "schneider" Lindberg, but also introduced Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer and Freddy Lars "krimz" Johansson, they clearly have been able to overcome the slump. With impressive results at Gfinity and ESL Cologne, Fnatic has finally proven to be a capable and top level team. Expect to see them in the grand finals. They are currently ranked 2nd in our Counter-Strike rankings database.
	myXMG, the ex-Reason Gaming/unu.AIN squad had recently just found its spot in a new organization. They did not do well at all during the round robin league play, with 4 wins, 1 draw, and 10 losses. They were the only team that was willing to take mouseports' spot after they announced that they would not be going to the event.  The roster, while certainly not composed of all-star players, has still shown to be a stong contender in the scene. The roster was able to qualify for EMS One Katowice earlier this year, but failed to make it out of the group stages. Despite not qualifying for ESL Cologne and disappointing results at ESEA, the squad was still able to defeat decent mid-tier teams such as NO SIR! and WiLD-Play Iceland. They come into this tournament as clear underdogs, but could definitetly surprise if underestimated. They are currently ranked 69th in our Counter-Strike rankings database.

 

 

Match 2: Na`Vi vs HellRaisers
	Na'Vi, the defending champions of SLTV StarSeries Season IX, have proven to be serious contenders in the scene since their roster change in December. Adding all-star AWPer Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovacs and former Virtus.pro player Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev, they have shown to be important assets to the team. After getting eliminated from ESL Cologne by Fnatic during the Quarter-Finals, Na'Vi still played strong in ESEA after the event was over, beating teams such as NiP and mousesports. If there was one team that would be favored to win the entire tournament, it would be Na'Vi. With arguably one of the best AWPers in the entire game, it would be hard to not make it as a top tier team. Expect to see them in the grand finals with Fnatic. They are currently ranked 11th in our Counter-Strike rankings database
	HellRaisers has had a tough time at all of their previous majors, being eliminated during the Quarter-Finals at EMS One Katowice and not even making it past the group stages at ESL Cologne. Despite never coming close to winning a single tournament in months, the team has still pulled off impressive victories in individual matches against top tier teams such as Titan and NiP. The main issue with HellRaisers has been inconsistency, which is essentially the only reason why HellRaisers haven't made it past a Quarter-Final in a major. HellRaisers has the aim, strats, and chemistry, it all boils down to whether or not they will perform well during the tournament. They are currently ranked 7th in our Counter-Strike rankings database.

 

 Who do you think is going to win SLTV StarSeries Season X? Let us know in the comments below.