IEM Melbourne is here and while it might not be Sydney, we’re feeling pretty good about the return of shoeys to tier one Counter-Strike.

We’re also feeling good about the return of siuhy to tier one Counter-Strike. His debut with Liquid at PGL Bucharest couldn’t have gone much worse, so surely it has to go better over in Australia.

When the teams get going, all eyes (as dreary as they may be) will be on Vitality. They can wrap up their ESL Grand Slam in Melbourne, and given the lack of Spirit, it looks likely they’ll do so with ease.

That is, unless MOUZ have closed the gap. From a 0-3 sweep to a thrilling 2-3 loss, MOUZ have improved drastically in their two finals against Vitality, and we have a sneaky feeling that the third time might be the charm for Spinx to get one over on his old team.

Fortunately, m0NESY’s debut on Falcons will kick off at a slightly nicer time (for the Europeans at least). Expectations will undoubtedly be high for the Baby GOAT on his new team, and he couldn’t ask for a much better first opponent than SAW.

FaZe and NAVI will also both be in attendance Down Under, but honestly, we’ve pretty much lost all faith in them at this point. At some point, we know FaZe will make us look stupid for saying that when they have their one event of the year, but we’re pretty sure it won’t be this one.

The only other big hitter, in theory, is The MongolZ. But, given how shaky they’ve looked recently, we’re a little concerned we’ll be let down again. We love you boys, please remember how to shoot things.

A little lower down the ladder of expectation, we are excited to see GamerLegion. Melbourne’s going to go one of two ways for them after their Major disappointment, and if they don’t sink, we wouldn’t be surprised to see them battling it out in the playoffs.

And this is all without mentioning Complexity, who have looked legitimately good recently. Yeah, we don’t get it either, but it’s happening.

Rounding out the team list are paiN, VP, 3DMAX, BIG, FlyQuest, and MIBR.

We would make comments about them, but our parents always told us that if we’ve got nothing nice to say, we shouldn’t say anything at all.