On January 22, Quantum Bellator Fire made it to the ELEAGUE Major 2018 playoffs by surprise. Beat Virtus.pro, Gambit Esports and mousesports in the group stage to be in the top 8 in the world. Let’s learn the history of the dark horse of this ELEAGUE Major.
The current QB Fire roster was formed in Fall 2017, later than any other team at the 2018 ELEAGUE Major. Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov joined the team in September, followed by Grigory “balblna” Oleynik and coach Dmitry “iksou” “Mikhaylichenko in October. The other members have been playing together since June.
For that reason, the team did not receive an invitation to the CIS Minor Championship 2018 – Boston. Team Spirit and Tengri are invited teams, and the others have to go through the online qualifiers. All 283 participating teams must go through BO1 knockout matches until 32 teams remain. It’s all online CS: one slip and you’re out. A lot of people encountered hackers in the qualifiers, but QB Fire still made it through, making it to the top 4 and making it to the Major’s LAN tournament.
[penci_blockquote style=”style-2″ align=”none” author=”” font_style=”italic”]I couldn’t believe I was ‘legends’. For me, this has been a difficult journey. We got into the tournament through the open qualifiers, when I was still playing at the net shop, because the internet connection at home couldn’t be used. For two weeks straight, I went to the internet shop early every day, and came home around midnight. I am very grateful to the team for their enthusiastic support[/penci_blockquote]
At the CIS Minor, QBF played 17 maps, more than any other competitor, to finish as runner-up and advance to the next round. However, in the Minor the team lost to AVANGAR 3 times: once in the group stage, once in the upper bracket, and the final.
Miraculously, the two rivals rematched in the Challenger round, facing each other in the deciding match, and QB Fire avenged AVANGAR with a 16-6 scoreline at Train. Before AVANGAR, QBF had won Flash Gamign and Team EnVyUs, but that victory was nothing to flaunt. The Flash players knew they were going to the Major as the tournament started in just two weeks, and Team EnVyUs took on QB Fire as stand-ins: Cedric “RpK” Guipouy was sick and the team’s coach Damien ” maleK” Marcel had to play for him, who had never competed professionally before.
This is where the pundits say they don’t deserve to be in the top 16 at the Major, and the players admit that they’re pretty lucky. Many people predicted that QB Fire would leave quickly with a 0-3 defeat in the Legend round. But, we’ve all been wrong.
However, QBF got better and better in the Legend round, and ‘handled the big hands from Virtus.pro, Gamebit esports and mousesports. Expert Alexander Petrik said:
[penci_blockquote style=”style-2″ align=”none” author=”” font_style=”italic”]QB Fire proved to the world, and especially the other CIS teams, that the Major’s format and the tournament’s qualifiers have given many people great results. The lack of experience playing in the big leagues was made up for in Atlanta. In the end it was tough wins against easy opponents.
When it comes to the top 16, the team has achieved the lowest goal and has somewhat removed, or reduced the pressure. This success is probably for the coach and the management, as well as the players themselves. The wins against VP, Gambit and mouz are not by chance; they have shown that QB Fire is completely capable of taking on any opponent in terms of skill and preparation.
The other teams gradually felt the pressure, while the QB Fire players relaxed and enjoyed the game – and that was their way of playing right, showing their strengths and winning.[/penci_blockquote]
Beat teams in pistol rounds (only matches played by teams from the Legends and Challengers rounds of the tournament):
— SK: 87.5%, 7 out of 8 rounds
— Fnatic: 80%, 8 out of 10 rounds
— QBF: 61%, 11 out of 18 rounds
— FaZe: 57%, 8 out of 14 rounds
— Cloud9: 56%, 9 out of 16 rounds
— mouz: 50%, 10 out of 20 rounds
— NaVi: 44.4%, 8 out of 18 rounds
Mercenary Aurimas “Kvik” Kvakšys had the best results at QB Fire against mousesports and Virtus.pro; before mouz, he was very successful when he switched to the second AWPer.
Kvakšys became the first Lithuanian player to break into the top eight at the Major. He himself is very happy about this:
Another player worth keeping an eye on is the team’s captain, Nikita “WaterfallZ” Matveev, who serves as both a sniper and the team’s IGL, while his frag never goes negative. His experience is clearly beneficial, as the vast majority of QB Fire members are young and have never played at such a high level. WaterfallZ and Savely “jmqa” Bragin, having been in the ESL One Cologne 2015 offline qualifiers before, knew what to expect. In an interview with HLTV, WaterfallZ said:
[penci_blockquote style=”style-2″ align=”none” author=”” font_style=”italic”]I cannot believe what is happening. I do not know. I couldn’t have dreamed of this, I became a Legend from the very first Major. When we got here, the real worry in our heads was not to lose 0-3 in the qualifiers. I really don’t know what’s going on. A month ago, I lost to online tier-5 teams and we had some bad results, couldn’t find ourselves, we practiced for a month at bootcamp, we lost a lot of training sessions. And now that we are playing here, everything is going well…[/penci_blockquote]
Time to talk about spots for the major qualifier. I think CIS should have 8 spots.
— FaZe karrigan (@karriganCSGO) January 20, 2018
[penci_blockquote style=”style-2″ align=”none” author=”FaZe karrigan” font_style=”italic”]Time to talk about major qualifying spots. I think CIS should have 8 slots.[/penci_blockquote]
QB Fire’s victories at the ELEAGUE Major 2018 have caused a social media explosion. Vince Hill said at the beginning of the New Legend round that he would “get his boots on stream” if QB Fire made it to the playoffs. Now we’re waiting for Vince to do it.
In the first round of the playoffs, QB will face Natus Vincere, who beat them once in the New Challengers round. However, even if QBF loses, it won’t affect the team’s reputation much. The team did the unthinkable. WaterfallZ “We’ve climbed to a place where we don’t deserve to be”. Alexander Petrik continued his comment:
[penci_blockquote style=”style-2″ align=”none” author=”” font_style=”italic”]QB Fire absolutely deserves to be in the top 8. The players worked hard, you can’t just say it was luck, luck, or the format of the game. If these guys can play calmly and without pressure in the playoffs, they might be able to beat Na`Vi. The QB Fire has everything, and they’re shooting well. Psychology accounts for 50% of the results, or more. But we often find young teams can’t handle the pressure on the big stage, in front of a large audience, so I don’t expect a miracle to happen with QB Fire in the quarterfinals. They have been so successful.[/penci_blockquote]
The match between QB Fire and Na`Vi starts on January 27 00:30 (UTC). The playoffs will take place at the Agganis Arena in Boston from January 26 to 28. The champion will receive $500,000.
Source: Cybersport
Source link: Quantum Bellator Fire the dark horse at CSGO ELEAGUE Boston
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