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The Major is in full swing, and with it all the heartbreak and emotions that come with it. But most importantly, new stories and new superstars.
The League of Extraordinary Teams
Not all the teams are created equal. Some are simply better, and those are the ones we’re interested in. Not just the best, The elite, and the elite of the elite. Spoiler alert, they’re no all from EU.
3-0 Elite of the Elite: G2 and ENCE
Our 3-0 teams this year were unsurprising, for once.
G2 were the obvious favorites to go 3-0, especially with their favorable bracket draw. How favorable you ask? Well, their first game was against TheMongolz, a team most of us had set as 0-3 in our pick **’em. They obviously beat them. Setting themselves up for a BO1 against CoL, who, as an NA team, was destined to lose because NA fans don't get to feel joy.
G2’s one and only BO3 then was against Apeks. In a pound-for-pound EU mix vs EU mix duel, it’s pretty tough to beat the star power G2 has. Map 1 of Anubis was sort of competitive with a 16-11 scoreline, but Inferno… not so much, sealing G2’s 3-0 spot.
Their lossless cohorts at ENCE had a different path. Instead of being allowed to beat 2 teams from the less competitive regions, they played a ladder of EU teams progressively getting harder.
Starting off with OG, the bottom of the EU barrel, gave ENCE a great shot of warming up into the major. So they did, and as they made relatively easy work of OG they flowed right through to their next game against NIP. Their opponents managed 15 rounds between them (6 and 9 respectively) showing just how dominant ENCE was.
That leaves the final step of the ladder, the best of the EU best. Unfortunately, G2 was occupied, so FaZe had to do. This is exactly what ENCE did, do FaZe. Map 1 might’ve gone the way of FaZe but that didn’t stop the EZ4ENCE machine Snappi created from walking right through the remaining two maps. So ENCE joined the elite at the top of the ladder looking down.
3-1 Just Elite: FaZe, Apeks, and NIP
You might’ve noticed, we already mentioned all these teams. So we’ll keep it short. For all of these guys, their only hurdles were those who managed to go 3-0. The rest didn’t seem to be a challenge.
FaZe had a few close calls against Monte and PaiN but managed to hold firm until they faced ENCE. Instead of dropping their head though, they seemed revitalized against a tough FORZE to seal their 3-1.
Much like FaZe, Apeks only lost at their first BO3, unlike FaZe they did drop a map in their next BO3. The end result was the same though, they still beat a lively-looking PaiN. Closing out on a very good major showing from Apeks that includes a 16-0 dismantling of Grayhound as the cherry on top of their run.
Leaving NIP as our last elite team well, as elite as any team with Aleksib can be. NIP are another team blessed with a good run even if on paper it might not have seemed that way. Their first game against MOUZ seemed like a rough start. But in reality, MOUZ never got going at the major giving NIP a free run into OG (who they still went to OT against) and Grayhound who seem to be caught in the crossfire constantly. So, NIP closed it out and round up our 3-0 and 3-1 teams.
Now it’s these teams’ chance to prove they’re not just elite, but legendary.
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MOUZ fall into the trap
Illustration by NovaH
Oh dear, MOUZ.
If going 0-3 wasn’t enough shame and ignominy for one tournament, how about losing out to the IGL you refused to call up and the AWPer you binned off?
Having lost to NIP and OG - not entirely unreasonable, but still disappointing losses - MOUZ were on the brink and were drawn against GamerLegion.
You already know what happened, and it didn’t reflect all that well on torzsi or dexter. acoR, meanwhile, picked up a +17 scoreline.
Oops!
It’s easy to blame torzsi but acoR wasn’t that great in this roster either, and that paints an ugly picture for dexter.
Joining them in the 0-3 bracket was Fluxo, who came in with very little expectation and matched it almost exactly. They doubled their tally from the RMR in their game vs paiN - losing 16-2 this time - and gave the heebee-jeebies to Team Liquid in an 0-2 game (yeah, seriously), but that was about it.
The previously mentioned OG are also nowhere to be seen after getting overpowered by, you guessed it, GamerLegion. They at least put up a fight, and were it not for a complete collapse having gone up 11-4 against NIP it could have been a completely different story.
Complexity dropped GamerLegion in a BO1 before getting outmuscled by G2, railed by paiN and monstered by Team Liquid. Team Liquid had a 15-0 half and didn’t win though, the gits.
TheMongolz were unable to repeat the heroics of the last few months, and fell into their expected 1-3 hole, with a solitary win over… GamerLegion.
Are GL just the main character?
Are Liquid doomed forever?
Tune in to this week's episode of Overtime on Inferno where your favorite hosts aizyesque and Logan Ramhap go deep on the biggest news in CS:GO:
- Why Apeks are good
- Why you shouldn’t worry about Team Liquid (true!)
- Why BOROS is that guy
The big boy games
To answer the question posed in the closing line of the biggest losers piece, yes.
siuhy’s boys pulled off the reverse sweep with a confident showing against FORZE, winning their third back-to-back-to-back BO3 to qualify. It’s pretty hard to argue they don’t deserve it.
siuhy himself put up a monster performance on map two, dropping 30 kills while marshalling his troops to confirm GamerLegion’s spot in the Legends Stage.
They’ll be joined by fellow 0-2 enjoyers Team Liquid, who recovered from 0-1 down in the Fluxo series to win six maps in a row, albeit against Fluxo, Complexity and Grayhound. You can only beat what’s in front of you, but that’s a lot easier with a good seed.
Grayhound climbed to 2-2, but frankly never threatened to topple Liquid who avoided giving up an Americas Major spot to Asia, just about.
The last 2-2 game - not chronologically, just in this piece - was paiN vs Monte.
Monte had won 15 Anubis games in a row. That’s a one and a five. paiN left it open, Monte picked it. paiN won it.
And still lost the series.
Despite losing their home map, the map they’ve made a name for themselves on, Monte eviscerated paiN on Nuke. 14 rounds on the CT side and a 1v4 for sdy on the pistol and it was night-night on Nuke.
Fair play to sdy, though, who went +27. Maybe he really was being screwed by NAVI.
Monte have been scary on Mirage, and they continued that to put paiN out, who seem to be a perennial bridesmaid. It’s sad, but that’s the nature of the Major.
You don’t get any sympathy.
That leaves a boatload of exciting first games on Saturday, including Heroic vs FaZe and Vitality vs G2.
Yummy.
‘STRONG WINDS’
🏗️🏢 NIPcarus fell…
- Obviously you have to be careful when doing work on a high and open structure, Snappi…
- Even the clipmakers over at HLTV were making fun of him…
- But in the end, we all know who got the last laugh.
👀 Time for a thorough analysis
- Jame took it upon himself to analyse blameF’s lurking. We prefer the term “baiting”, Jame.
- The danger of having a camera behind you is always there at events. That’s why we wrote our stratbook in Minecraft enchantment language.
😮 Now that’s dedication
- pasza is coming to the Major… by bike. 1800 km, no biggie.
- 3kliks is just making sure Valve can prepare an update for his absence. Thank you for your service, Philip.
