Top 3 most improved CS:GO teams in 2017

With the ECS Season 4 Finals just coming to an end, the 2017 season of Counter-Strike is also coming to an end. This has been a year with a lot of things happening, let’s take a look at the top 3 most improved teams of 2017.

Third place: Gambit Esports

Gambit is undoubtedly one of the most improved teams of the year following the PGL Krakow Major championship, putting them in the ranks of Major champions, alongside CS legends like Filip “NEO” Kubski and Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” “ Alesund. If you had to predict at the beginning of the year that Gambit would win the Major, everyone would think you were ‘crazy’. For this reason, Gambit completely deserved what they showed and exceeded the expectations of the community.

The team entered 2017 after a successful 2016 year, winning several minor events and winning the legend title twice out of the three Majors it attended. Gambit was still considered Tier 2 back then, but with players like Dauren “AdreN” Kystaubayev and Rustem “mou” Telepovv is booming, they gain more and more respect with each tournament.

Gambit’s first impressions of 2017 came in April when they finished runner-up at cs_summit and then won DreamHack Austin the following week – it was one of the toughest DreamHack Open events of 2017. In In these two tournaments, Gambit beat big boys like Team Liquid, OpTic Gaming, G2 Esports, and Immortals in a best-of-3 format. At cs_summit and Austin, AdreN got a rating of 1.17: impressive given that the tournament was filled with strong Tier 2 and Tier 1 teams. AdreN’s shooting ability shined, making him a formidable fragger. He recovered his form compared to 2016 and proved to everyone how scary he is in two tournaments that April.

Meanwhile, his teammate Abay “HObbit” Khasenov from an unknown team at Tengri was another element of surprise in Krakow. When HObbit exploded with AdreN, Gambit was completely at the peak of his career. With a rating of 1.13 during the whole week of the Major, HObbit with AdreN and teammates defeated Virtus.pro, G2, Astralis.

While Gambit didn’t have as many problems as previous Major champions, and considering their final opponents are Immortals, we can’t take this for granted. From the CIS Tier 2 team, they took the legend slot to be able to raise the most valuable title of the year. Although the results in the second half of the year are somewhat slower, this Major title is not enough to help Gambit to be on this list.

Just a few weeks after Gambit won the championship trophy, the team had an unexpected incident. Danylo “Zeus” Teslenko, IGL and also a major contributor to the surprise of the Major, left the team with coach Mykhailo “Kane” Blagin to reunite with Natus Vincere. The cause of this departure is due to internal turmoil. But having suffered such a painful blow, all hope in Gambit gradually dissipated.

Although they are no longer at the level of the Major, Gambit still proves that they are not weak at all. Now, playing against Bektiyar “fitch” Bakhitov, who helped Gambit reach the semi-finals of DreamHack Masters Malmö, a very impressive result considering they beat FaZe and Astralis by best-of-3 to make it to the finish line. this. Even without the legendary captain, Gambit remained unshaken.

After winning the Major Cup, Gambit has slowed down but that doesn’t mean they won’t stop improving.

Second place: Cloud9

Cloud9 has done what the vast majority of teams have failed to do: created a level beyond what they did in January and continues to keep it that way. Although they didn’t win any major tournaments, Cloud9 always made it to the next round, while the strong European teams just exploded and quickly died out in the next tournaments. The North American team’s achievements include a runner-up finish at ESL One Cologne and reaching the semi-finals of the ELEAGUE Premier, which they lost to Astralis.

In addition to the above, C9 also reached the semi-finals of the ECS Season 3 Finals, ESL One New York, and IEM Oakland – all of which are notable. The team was quite quiet in the middle of the year but quickly made a splash in the following tournaments. The change to accept has opened the recipe for success for the team.

Will “RUSH” Wierzba and Tarik “tarik” Celik joined C9 in August and brought a lot of the firepower that made OpTic Gaming a success in late 2016 with a shocking victory at ELEAGUE Season 2. The replacement duo for Jordan “n0thing” “Gilbert and Mike “shroud” Grzesiek – 2 players who have dropped dramatically in 2017. Despite being the runner-up, shroud only had a rating of 1.03 at ESL One Cologne, while Gilbert was even lower, with only 0.94. For a team that wants to climb to the top of the world these numbers don’t really make this dream come true, so change is inevitable. The one who carried Cloud9 at that time was Timothy “autimatic” Ta and Jake “Stewie2k” Yip, with ratings of 1.12 and 1.09 respectively.

ELEAGUE Premier was one of the first events C9 took part in with a new roster, adding 2 fraggers immediately relieved some of the burden that autimatic and Stewie had to take on during matches. Throughout the event, tarik proved to be still in good form in NA, scoring an average rating of 1.19. Although not as hot as tarik, RUSH also has a rating of 1.08 at ELEAGUE Premier. It’s been a long time since Cloud9 has had such an aura in the international arena, when n0thing or shroud couldn’t do it before. And from there, C9’s progress began.

Just like that, the North American team continued to find their way into the semi-finals at another prestigious event, this time at IEM Oakland. In this journey, they faced SK and then Gambit in the quarterfinals. Both of these wins are credited to C9’s record – they’re appearing in the inner rounds more and more.

In the quarterfinals against Gambit, tarik continued to shine as he led the scoreboard with a rating of 1.27 in the whole series. Interestingly, the two players with the lowest ratings: autimatic and Stewie 2k are the same pair that took on C9 a few months ago. From there, it shows that this lineup has helped the team win more, relying less on individual performances from 1 or 2 members.

ECS Season 4 became too difficult to help C9 get to the next round. In the group stage, they were forced to act as a springboard for Astralis and FaZe Clan to advance, and me and fellow Liquid team had to carry their suitcases and leave. Although Cloud9 couldn’t end with a memorable ranking, the American boys still enjoyed a successful 2017 thanks to their semi-final results. Now, this squad reminds us of the glorious past of 2015, when the team was led by Captain Sean.”[email protected]” Gares.

With a strong start, FaZe continuously improved the squad with an ‘all-star’ list, helping them to stay in the top 2 position in the world and at a level that surpasses the teams by one level (except SK). The solid first half of the year made them a resounding success in the second half of 2017, when the team recruited two more world superstars, Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer and Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovács in August. Since then, FaZe has reaped trophy after trophy: the latest was ECS Season 4, and before that, they easily won ELEAGUE Premier and ESL One New York – two tournaments that FaZe completed overwhelm opponents.

What makes 2017 such a great year for FaZe is the fact that they are always in the top 2 in the world – everyone knows who the top 1 is. They are one of the most improved teams of the year thanks to a lot of high rankings, and the way FaZe is considered the only current team capable of taking the throne from SK.

The runner-up at IEM Katowice in March marked a smooth start for FaZe, but their journey to the final was not without many challenges. Topping the group after winning 4 out of 5 bo1 matches, and advancing to the next round by topping the 3rd round, FaZe met Immortals in the semi-finals, other than that, no one strong after that.

While winning at StarLadder StarSeries Season 3 was convincing, at ESL One New York, FaZe absolutely trampled every opponent. This is a tournament that shows everyone that FaZe is completely on a higher level. In the group stage, the team faced Virtus.pro and Astralis in bo1, losing only 5 and 6 rounds respectively, and then crushed Cloud9 with a score of 16-4, 16-3 in the semi-finals.

Unfortunately, viewers couldn’t see the dream final when SK stumbled in the semifinals, so FaZe’s power was not tested by the final boss CS. FaZe swept everyone in the way, however, defeating Liquid in just 3 bo5 maps – 1 map took up to 30 rounds, and the other 2 maps were completely ‘beaten’ by FaZe: 16-3 and 16-4. SK’s absence in the final helped FaZe have a completely overwhelming tournament with a destructive victory.

Not only have their performances improved in tournaments, but the individual members have also reached a new level. Håvard “rain” Nygaard seems to have come from another planet, when both he and Nikola “NiKo” Kovač (who is considered one of the best players in the world right now) has achieved an HLTV rating of 1.23 in the last 3 months. Comparing this number with rain’s performance from January to April, when he had only 1.04 shows how much the Norwegian has improved his shooting ability.

In addition to EPICENTER, rain’s level has improved tremendously, contributing to FaZe’s success. His development is even more obvious when we look at the ratings in the events. In the ESL Pro League finals, BLAST Pro Series, and IEM Oakland (both heavyweight tournaments), he averaged 1.23, up from the start of the year (1.07) in tournaments: DreamHack Las Vegas , IEM Katowice, and StarSeries Season 3.

Rain ended his successful year with the title of HLTV MVP at ECS, scoring a rating of 1.28. FaZe’s victory in Mexico this time was somewhat overshadowed by an impressive performance from mouz in the ECS final. However, if in general, this is a year that FaZe transformed itself into one of the two giants of the world CS: GO village, with a lot of medals and can completely hold its head high and smile proudly with 2017.

Source: cybersport