ESL One Cologne 2016 Qualifier Previews

EnVyUs & FaZe: Ending the fall

While these two teams should not struggle to make it back to the circle of sixteen, they will still have to tread carefully in this qualifier. It’s more stacked than ever and nearly every match is a dangerous fight against bloodthirsty underdogs.

If anything, it’s especially EnVyUs that should really focus on getting back in shape. The recent months have been rather quiet and underwhelming for the boys in blue, with DreamHack Malmö being their sole LAN appearance and noteworthy result. Aside from that, their only official matches were in the ESL Pro League and in the ECS League, and they struggled quite mightily in both. With a 3-5 score in series in the ECS, and not a single map won in the ESL Pro League, their record is bleak as both league wrapped up the online portion.

Not making it to the ESL Pro League Finals, and barely missing the offline playoffs that determined the last two european spots for the ECS finals, EnVyUs kept on tanking their ranking. Hence it is important that they exercise great caution to not falter at these qualifiers if they want to retain at least some of their reputation as a top team. Otherwise, it would be another step missed, and an even further down fall for the not so long ago great Frenchmen.

The story of FaZe in the past months is pretty much the exact opposite of EnVy’s one. Like EnVy, their only LAN was in Malmö, but they crashed really hard in the group stage, going down 0-2 at the hand of VP and EnVy. At least, they bounced back in the following weeks with decent online showings in the Pro League, for a 7-3 combined score including wins against Fnatic and EnVy, and in the ECS with an average 5-5 series score, but with wins against Fnatic and G2. They also notably traded blows with Ninjas in Pyjamas, including a monstrous 59 rounds game that went the Ninja’s way in the end. If FaZe doesn’t look yet like a top tier contender again, at least they are on the right path to slowly but surely ascend, especially with the work of Robert “RobbaN” Dahlström slowly starting to bear fruits.

For longstanding rosters, their results at majors is quite telling of their evolution. Both these teams had it rough recently, and have been degrading from their past form and achievements of late 2015. Failing to advance here would only confirm that the poor results at MLG Columbus, and before, were only the premise of a more long-term fall.

G2: Moving on

Faze and Envy are not the only favorites going into this qualifier. Indeed, there’s another team, no stranger of these qualifiers, that has been on the rise so far in 2016: G2 Esports. The cursed frenchmen that has failed to make it out of group at every single major they attended so far, no matter the lineup. While they looked relatively good going into Columbus, this was not enough as they hit the wall of the playoffs once more; Virtus Pro singlehandedly barring them the access. G2 felt that radical changes were needed. After the major they removed Kévin “Ex6tenZ” Droolans, one of the founding players of the Titan lineup. Following the footsteps of their compatriots at EnVyUs, they recruited another talented player from LDLC.White, Alexandre “bodyy” Pianaro -- incidentally playing a part in the shutdown of both LDLC teams in the process.

Then, was Ex6tenZ the problem? This new blend delivers in ways they never did before. It’s hard not to be convinced when looking at the record of G2 since the change. Even with a slow start as expected post-roster change, G2 has been getting better and better, week after week. And soon was forgotten the 0-2 result in the groups at Malmö, quickly proceeded by a second place finish to Luminosity at the ESL Pro League Finals; a nail-biting series that went to five games and multiple overtimes. G2 then stringed 4 consecutive 2-0 series wins in the ECS. The victims? Fnatic, Dignitas, VP, and NiP. And just recently, they rampaged through their E-League group, scoring a perfect 8-0. G2 fumbled a bit in the group finals against NiP, losing 0-2 to the Swedes whom they 2-0’ed earlier.

G2 has never looked this good, and they made it to every major of 2015. Even with the format change, they are definitely expected to reach Cologne.

Dignitas: Looking for redemption

Team Dignitas will be hungrier than ever going into this qualifier. With the breakout performances of Markus “Kjærbye” Kjærbye, Dignitas came as a favorite to the MLG Columbus qualifier, and crashed hard in a group that seems all but a lock for them and Gambit to take. Instead, they surprisingly lost to both Renegades and Cloud9. This time, they’ll want to make up for it. They’ve broke down their issues and fixed some key aspects of their teamplay and preparation, especially their flawed and overconfident approach to matchups that favorite them. They’ve hired a coach, Casper “ruggah” Due, to help with the in-game leading and relieve pressure off from Mathias “MSL” Lauridsen. Overall, it looks like this time should be their time.

Except something came up. All of a sudden, their star player was gone. Astralis picked up Kjaerbye, trading René “cajunb” Borg to Dignitas. They lost the fire of the youth and received the veteran outcast. While it may hinder the team, given the little time to work around the roster change, cajunb can still be an anchor for Dignitas on his own. The qualifier will show if there was enough time for Dignitas to prepare and if their efforts will reap dividends.

Mousesports & HellRaisers: The one man armies

The last two teams that will represent Europe have had different stories recently, but still share a common structure: being heavily centered around one star player. HellRaisers boast one of the most promising AWPers of the european subtop, Tomáš “Oskar” Šťastný. Mousesports have one of the best players in the world, Nikola “NiKo” Kovač. One just need to hear the “NiKosports” and “OskarRaisers” memes that are sometimes used to understand that this is how these teams work.

Mousesports has been able to find their way through to the major for a couple of times now, and they’re usually confident coming into this qualifier. (In)famous for their often disappointing LAN performance, failing to replicate online successes, they still showed up at DreamHack Malmö. They reached the playoffs easily, where they lost to GODSENT 1-2. One could notice that for once, NiKo wasn’t carrying mouz alone, but received a welcome helping hand from Johannes “nex” Maget and Timo “Spiidi” Richter. This demonstrates that Mouz is at ease in group stages, especially with Bo1 matches; in longer series, it becomes harder for them to make a difference. Fortunately, the swiss system means they’ll play nothing but Bo1, meaning that NiKo and friends shouldn’t have a hard time to qualify once again.

HellRaisers, on the other hand, has yet to make a major with any of the lineups it sported for over a year now. Last time was Katowice 2015, and only Kirill “ANGE1 “ Karasiow remains from that era. Each of their attempts to qualify have been halted mere inches away. The recent months have been quite indecisive for HellRaisers; one could argue that it’s been the case for a long time now. They did some damage at CEVO Season 9, notably taking down VP, but lost to SK Gaming. Other than that, they’ve played in the minor and the StarLadder i-League Invitational, where they got demolished by VP and Na’Vi. On the bright side, their win of ESEA Premier season 21 granted them a spot in the ESL Pro League. All in all, HellRaisers remains to serve as gatekeepers into the echelon of elite counter-strike. The recent arrival of Vladyslav “bondik” Nеchуроrchuk , replacing Emil “kUcheR” Akhundov, is a definite upgrade. They still have to outperform their EU brethren, and the playing field is quite packed at this qualifier.

Once again, Oskar will have to go big if they want to go past the big guns.