Ranking of CS:GO teams at IEM Katowice 2018

Today, February 27th will open the Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2018 – World Championship tournament. 16 teams will compete for a total prize money of $500,000, plus they will also receive an extra point for the Intel Grand Slam Season 1 prize. Let’s take a look at the 16 teams and divide them into three groups – Top , Medium and Bottom. In addition, the article will analyze why they are classified in this group.

Tier 1 – Upper Door

FaZe Clan, SK Gaming, Cloud9, Astralis

This is the pool for the teams most likely to win the league title, based on previous events. Each team has had good results or simply attachment as well as the potential to beat the other opponents. Of course, not everyone on this list has equal opportunities, let’s get started.

FaZe Clan

Team Europe is constantly pushing deep in the international arena, at least always finishing in the top 4. So it’s strange that the members struggled at the Boston Major and Starladder, even though they still managed to reach 2nd and 3rd place. 4. At the Boston Major, the team lost to Cloud9, a team they always beat. Meanwhile, at StarLadder, FaZe lost to the runner-up of the tournament, Natus Vincere.

Theoretically, these two teams cannot beat the world number one. Whether it’s karrigan’s lack of strategy, or the team’s lack of cohesion, FaZe needs to get to the core of the problem if it wants to make a comeback.

SK Gaming

Recently, we still haven’t been able to see the silhouettes of the Brazilian boys who won tournament after tournament in winter 2017. Many expect this lineup to continue to dominate in CS: GO after EPL, but in the past three events: the ELEAGUE Boston Major, cs_summit 2 and most recently the StarLadder Season 4 Finals, they have not delivered any significant results. The team only finished 3rd twice and ranked 8th once. SK had enough time to rest and fix all the problems. In addition, being eliminated early at StarLadder will give them more time to fix existing problems. Hopefully we’ll see SK’s true prowess at IEM soon, otherwise it’ll be a downhill ride.

Astralis

The Danish team recently made a roster change, with Kjaerbye leaving and replaced by former OpTic Gaming member Magisk. It seems that the new rookie has yet to adapt to the system, but with time, Magisk will make Astralis his home. As for the results, it’s hard to guess what from Astralis because the team members have just stabilized, especially after the device’s health has just recovered. Now with 5 full members, Astralis’ main goal is to ensure clear communication, as well as stabilize the new member to bring the team back to its previous style, a form that helped them win the ELEAGUE Major against VP in 01/2017.

Cloud9

Cloud9 is considered the most fragile team in the Upper Door group. Even so, the North American team still showed their potential, most recently at the 2018 ELEAGUE Boston Major, where they defeated FaZe in the BO3 final. The performance wowed the world, but that wasn’t replicated at StarLadder. The team finished 9-12th, after losing to FaZe Clan, SK Gaming and mousesports. The names above were defeated by Cloud9 at the ELEAGUE Major, with two of them losing in BO3, while mouz lost BO1 in the group stage. Cloud9 now has to make sure they achieve the consistency that one would expect from a top team and winning a Major. If this is achieved, we may see a North American at the top.

Tier 2 – Average

— North
— G2 Esports
— Gambit Esports
— Fnatic
— Heroic
— Team Liquid
— Ninjas in Pajamas

The second group represents potential candidates in the past, and sometimes made a big splash in tournaments, but did not achieve the same stability as the Upper Door teams.

Recently, many teams have changed members, including North, Heroic, Team Liquid and Ninjas in Pajamas. This makes it harder to gauge the teams’ chances of going deep. The question is whether the new roster will have enough time to stabilize their communication with each other and their roles and increase their confidence to take on other opponents. The answer can probably only be found after the IEM Katowice tournament ends, especially when the 4 teams mentioned above are still too many unknowns with the new members.

When looking at Fnatic, it seems that the Swedish team have improved their situation, consistently finishing in the top 4 in events. Golden’s leadership seems to be fine, allowing the team to play more harmoniously. Whether they can help the members achieve success or not remains to be seen, but the team is clearly on the upswing.

G2 still haven’t had a successful tournament in the last three months, only 5-8th place. The team needs to find themselves, especially in the tactical area. G2 possesses everything that is enough to defeat any opponent: steel spirit and the ability to shoot second to none.

Finally, take a look at Gambit Esport. The team parted ways with fitch to return to Na`Vi’s IGL, seized. Although the roster change has not been successful, Gambit announced that HObbit will take the role of IGL instead of Dosia. The team definitely needs more time to achieve stable results and create resonance in the international arena before returning to top form. IEM will be a difficult test for Gambit, but if they can prove it, this will be a catalyst for Gambit to develop more.

Tier 3 – Lower Door

— TyLoo
— Virtus.pro
— ORDER
— AVANGAR
— Renegades

Finally, we have teams that haven’t made a lot of international appearances, or simply haven’t been that noticeable lately. Let’s start with Renegades, the Australian team made a big surprise when they reached the top 8 at StarLadder. Having said that, in that tournament, the Renegades did not meet any heavyweights to make it to the playoffs, and when they faced FaZe, they lost 2-0. However, with the arrival of jkaem, this lineup has really improved. Perhaps the new member is the piece that the team needs to make a breakthrough.

Virtus.pro have been going through their ups and downs recently, perhaps they are still missing their longtime friend and member, TaZ. It’s not easy to say goodbye to the CS legend, not only with the team but with the whole community. MICHU needs more time to adapt to the team. VP’s recent results with new members have not made any difference. With practice and more time, we should probably see the VP plow in action, but for now the plow needs a rest and ‘oil change’.

Finally TyLoo, ORDER and AVANGAR, All of these teams lack international experience, especially ORDER and AVANGAR. IEM is an opportunity for these players to gain more experience as well as experience the feeling of playing in a big stadium and against international giants. If anything happens, it is possible that TyLoo will cause some surprises, but there is a high chance that these teams will not be able to make it through the group stage.

Source: Cybersport

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