Going in to the tournament Gambit was one of the favorites to win the tournament, but how did the other teams perform?
Gambit winning? What a surprise … Well after the group stage concluded, some might have argued they were looking weaker than they did before, possibly struggling to hold on to their number one position for the future. With Gambit losing early on to Vitality in Group A, it seemed as if they had a difficult time ahead, having to face Astralis in the lower bracket quite soon after.
The top ranked CIS team was able to bounce back though, winning against Astralis and pinching out a victory against complexity to sneak their way into the bracket stage. But this did show that the number one in the world does not seem unbeatable and vitality is looking stronger again.
OG and EG surprising many
Group B featured Heroic as the best ranked team, still second despite some struggles and roster changes in recent times. Heroic did win the first match against Imperial, but was also quickly downed to the lower bracket. Contrary to Gambit, Heroic was unable to make it out of the group stage, falling to NIP in their first lower bracket encounter.
The big surprise was that OG topped the group, first taking down NIP, followed by a 2-0 against Virtus Pro and a 2-1 against Evil Geniuses. With OG being ranked just 20 th of the world, this was quite odd, but we could say the same about the second place for Evil Geniuses, being ranked 38 th of the world. A shift seems to be occurring again in the global scene, with the online era still living on, but LANs possibly on the horizon again in due time.
Evil Geniuses’ dreams shatter
Despite their great performance in the group, EG was unable to deliver in the playoffs, losing against Gambit. Gambit of course being considered the stronger team made it a predictable loss, but unfortunate nonetheless. Gambit had fixed their mistakes from earlier in the tournament and were now looking for yet another title. They went on to take another win against G2 Esports with similarly strong scores as they dropped against Evil Geniuses.
On the other side of the bracket, Vitality was once more showing strong form, taking down Virtus Pro with a very swift 2-0 in maps. It seems like the French powerhouse is trying to jump back into the top 10 of the world rankings. Vitality lost soon after against OG, however, who then went on to lose 0-3 against Gambit.
CIS still strong
CIS CS still seems to be one of the stronger regions, with both VP and Gambit making it into the playoffs, whilst Natus Vincere of course didn’t attend this event. Yet, it must be said that Gambit and Virtus Pro weren’t able to comfortably go through the brackets of the tournament, sometimes struggling against teams regarded as weaker. Internationally mixed line-ups seem to be making a comeback with OG, G2 Esports and Evil Geniuses performing really well where others seemed to slip away.
Outside of this event, of course Mousesports has also recently done extremely well with winning Flashpoint 3. It is worth mentioning that both Mousesports and OG do have Danish players in their rosters, whilst the full on Danish teams are actually not performing all to well anymore. Both Heroic and Astralis, regarded as the powerhouses of the region, seem to be losing out to the opposition, which is no longer just a stack of strong CIS teams.
Is this another big shift?
The cards are being shuffled and the international CS scene seems to be unsure of what is the dominant formula for the coming time. CIS is strong, yes, but seems to be beatable. French CS had a slump with Vitality dropping out of the top 10, but are now also trying to come back with better results, whilst the partially French roster of G2 are actually consistently at the top.
G2 just needs to get things lined up properly and finally win an event again. It would once more show that in recent times, the internationally mixed teams are here to stay and are a proper investment for organizations to make.
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