E-League Group F Preview

NBK’s

EnvVyUs will try to make a statement in their disappointing year, while

Gambit will try the mantle of CIS power from last week. And then there is compLexity.

</div><h2 class="fo-heading"><span>Virtus.pro</span></h2><div class="fo-text">

2016 hasn’t been a good year for VP. The rise of the online qualifiers, format where the Polish powerhouse were never particularly strong in, has prevented them from competing at ESL ESEA nor ECS. Their embarrassing loss to

PENTA prevents them from competing in the ESL Pro league for at least 2 seasons. Therefore, being directly invited to ELEAGUE is a fortunate opportunity for Virtus Pro. In spite of their underwhelming year, the Poles have won once at Starladder i-League Invitational. Do note that they’ve lost 5 LANs in a row to eventual champions.

But you can never take any team with

NEO and

TaZ lightly, even when everything is against them. Their entire identity was built around consuming teams in the clutch, demolishing them when it matters and performing on the biggest stages. Getting an opportunity to play in front of the TBS crowd might be a one in a lifetime opportunity and the Poles shall not let this go. With the insanely skilled duo of byali and Snax, the decades of experience from NEO, TaZ, pashabiceps, this is a recipe for success this week.

The Poles’s favorite map Mirage is still their best map. While Train is a strong choice for VP, the replacement of Inferno for Nuke is a huge boon for the Polish lineup. If they can transition their success from the old iteration of the map to the new one, Virtus.pro will be a contender for the ticket to the Friday night lights.

</div><h2 class="fo-heading"><span>Team EnVyUs</span></h2><div class="fo-text">

nV’s 2016 is even worse than Virtus.pro’s. Their strong performances in the beginning of the year with their top 4 finish at the StarLadder XIV LAN and Game Show Cup win] got quickly overshadowed by their embarassments at ESL Expo Barcelona and IEM World Championship in Katowice.

Soon after,

kioshima was kicked;

DEVIL came in his place. The change was slow to kick in as nV suffers another embarrassing loss no other but NRG Esports at the CounterPit Season 2 LAN in the quarterfinals. Having failed to qualify for any premier tournaments in this time andgetting eliminated in groups at Columbus Major - one could have postulated that

kennyS and crew hit rock bottom; their top-4 at Dreamhack Malmö before getting schooled by

Na’Vi is a brief relapse from their mediocrity.

For now, the team has regained some composure and is ready to fight for their pride and dignity once again.

Apex’s enhanced performances helped them qualify for the Cologne Major, beating

Immortals,

Splyce, and

Cloud 9. While they’ve lost to

Gambit, Envy, under the IGL’ing of Devil, has the potential to ascend to the elite pantheon once more.

The map pool right now is a disaster for nV. They don’t play overpass, never were able to play a workable cache and lost inferno, which was considered as their best map by many pundits. The old

VeryGames lineup of 2013 was solid on Nuke; EnVyU’s Cobblestone is still passable. Unless they have learned some tricks on Train, can improve their Mirage or become a powerhouse on Dust2 once again, they might be in some serious trouble come Tuesday.

</div><h2 class="fo-heading"><span>Gambit Gaming</span></h2><div class="fo-text">

The perfect mix of experience, shooting prowess, and some quality CIS “Rush B” vintage style,

Gambit might be one of the most beloved teams in the circuit nowadays. Everyone loves

hooch and

Dosia! The Kazakhstan duo of

Adren and

mou have a long history of playing in top regional teams and the new guy

spaze propped a big statement during his performance at ESL Cologne qualifier.

Oh right! Gambit has qualified for a major, exceeding the expectations of a majority. Why? Well, they just haven't shown up online this year and their only solid results are getting second to

E-Frag in the IEM Katowice qualifier to qualify for the major. Apparently, that’s enough to get a direct invitation to E-LEAGUE! Jokes aside, Gambit’s performance at the major qualifier was pretty impressive. Beating

OpTic, nV, and

G2 isn’t an easy task by any mean. Perhaps their efforts in the qualifiers has been rewarded by netting the easy group at the major itself

But for now, it’s time to fight in E-LEAGUE. They don’t need recognition, fame, nor money, CIS esports was always about glory. Winning the group will be glorious enough to boost the notoriety and fame of the men in red. This week will be a strenuous marathon for the team; time to use their experience playing under pressure and clinch the first seed on Friday night.

Gambit’s map pool is still a pretty big riddle for most teams. Yes, they showed a good enough cobblestone and train during Cologne qualifiers, plus they’re always capable of playing a solid cache or dust2 (rush B cyka blyat). On the other hand, they don’t play overpass at all, inferno is gone and no one knows if they invested time into mastering nuke, the ultimate regional kryptonite.

</div><h2 class="fo-heading"><span>compLexity Gaming</span></h2><div class="fo-text foicons">

Once CPL and ESWC champions and a world class team, coL’s ventures to CS:GO falters in the shadows of the glories of their 1.6 history. The seangares/swag/Hiko/Semphis/n0thing squad has achieved the unthinkable and got to the semifinals of the first ever major at Dreamhack Winter in 2013, before losing to the eventual champions,

pronax and his

Fnatic. They followed it with reaching the quarterfinals at Katowice’s major, losing there to NiP, but after swag’s departure to iBUYPOWER, compLexity gave up the number one slot in America.Shortly after swag’s leave, the col roster left to greener pastures in Cloud9.

Since then, coL has tried to make multiple rosters work. They even summoned the legendary

fRod from the oblivion before letting him go to the

FaZe Clan’s newly formed Overwatch division. Their best result this year has been beating OpTic,

TSM, and

Echo Fox in bo3s in ECS qualifier and winning a map against

Liquid in ESL ESEA regular season on February, 10. Well, I tried. Their achievements is laughingly weak compared to their opponents’ in this group

North American teams haven’t been exactly too successful in E-LEAGUE so far with combined record of 13-43 in maps against non-North American opposition; even winning a map for compLexity will be a great achievement. Every team will probably veto Nuke against the Americans to prevent random upsets (unless they’re practiced on it). Besides that map, coL should aim for something like Dust2 or mirage against Gambit. Go compLexity! Make the home crowd in Atlanta proud, because making NA CS great again might be too daunting.

</div><h2 class="fo-heading"><span>Predictions</span></h2><div class="fo-text foicons">

VP are the clear favorites to take over this group. Proficient on most maps in the pool, they should have enough fuel in the tank to take it home and secure their spot in the playoffs. compLexity, by all means, should finish fourth, so the fight for the playoffs spot should come to the EnVyUs-Gambit best-of-three. Both teams don’t play Overpass and Train will be banned by nV, which opens up the possibility of Cache and Cobblestone as the two starting maps, maps where Gambit has a history of beating nV offline. Even if it’s Mirage by Team EnVyUs, Gambit Gaming will still have an opportunity to get Dust2 as the decider map, where the Russians should just burn down their own spawn to make French surrender again. Hooch and crew will finish second and travel to the major in high spirits and camaraderie.

Writer: Wonderful
Editor: Amazingxkcd
CSS: FO-nTTaX
Graphics: David-Scott

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