This event, was a really good one, with some of the best game play I have seen from a CSGO Major in a long time. There were a ton of unexpected upsets with teams winning that usually don’t and honestly shouldn’t be. (I’m looking @ you Luminosity)
The team make up from this event looked as such:
fnatic
EnVyUs
Team SoloMid
Virtus.pro
Natus Vincere
G2.Kinguin
Ninjas in Pyjamas
Luminosity Gaming
Cloud9
dignitas
Titan
Vexed Gaming
mousesports
Team Liquid
CLG
FlipSid3
Here are the group stages, along with the teams that I picked. Day 1 was pretty standard with the way the groups were drawn. The C9 & Luminosity was a toss up, so I gave NA some love and went with C9. Titan beating out NiP was totally unexpected but after taking a deeper look @ the match up, the roster was 100% in favor of Titan, which is what I should have looked at more closely.
Day 2 Groups, were again pretty much as expected. NiP winning of Liquid was a bit suprising though, considering how well Liquid was playing in the match. Some of the best Counter-Strike i have ever seen come from that camp, with Hiko in the lurk role, they did really well but ultimately it fell apart when they couldn’t coordinate effectively. (As much as I dislike Hiko for being the I NEVER DO ANYTHING WRONG type of player, he played great CS @ this LAN)
Day 3 Groups again were all as expected. G2 willing over mousesports was a really tight match but it honestly could have gone either way.
Quarters were just like WHAT THE HELL? How the HELL did VP let G2 come in and take that away? VP picked their best maps too and the G2 pain train just came in and rolled all over them. This was a total upset. The NiP vs TSM game was another one that could have went either way. All the betting sites had TSM slotted to win because of their winning streak. Something like 80+ wins prior to this event? Something unheard of. I honestly shit the bed picking Luminosity over Navi. I only picked them based on their straight up steam rolling game play from this event but in hindsight I should have went with who had the proven track record and that is Navi.
Fnatic losing to ENVY was a big upset to a lot of people. Fnatic has a very good track record for really laying down the hurt on LAN, especially in the finals. Fnatic had some kind of funk surrounding them, as they really didn’t show up to this LAN in their truest Fnatic swagger. They lost a ton of rounds really stupid and on repeaks, doing things they shouldn’t have been. At one point I said out loud… “Is this silver?”
Envy to win over G2 was obvious but Navi winning over NiP after NiP adjusted their game play was something else that caught a lot of people by surprise as NiP has the better finals track record. I of course didn’t pick a final winner because I thought I was going to be awake in time to make the pick after ENVY won but I slept in. I did call Envyus to win the whole event prior, after I saw how Fnatic was playing. With KennyS and NBK on his hot streak on Envyus, there was no way that duo was going to be shut down.
All in all, this DH event was truly amazing. I watched several days worth of amazing CS, found myself on the edge of my seat for several hours and I learned a ton of new information on Cobble and strats and peak locations, some of which I have never seen before.
Until the next event. GG baguettes.
-5dollar.
