E-League Group B Preview

NiP is a team cursed by their success. The expectation of championships will forever hound the team that once ruled the scene with an iron fist. As 2015 began to wind down, this expectation wasn’t met. Time and time again, group stage eliminations to semi finals with suffering defeats at the hands of the top teams left many NiP fans disappointed.

It wasn’t until the start of 2016 did hope for NiP to return as contenders emerge with the addition of the new coach in former 1.6 pro Björn “THREAT” Pers. The scene shifting towards coaches adopting in game leadership roles, THREAT proved to be the turning point for the ailing NiP roster. Threat stated that he had changed everything. Looking at NiP’s performances since his addition, it’s hard to disagree.

All of this came together for NiP’s first finals appearance in over a year at Dreamhack Malmö where they were able to defeat Natus Vincere 2-0; their first tournament win since February 2015. Their bracket was no slouch either. After taking an initial loss to Dignitas and defeating CSGL, they proceeded to beat Astralis, Virtus Pro, and GodSent en route to their 2-0 victory over Natus Vincere. They had defeated some of the strongest teams on LAN and re-asserted themselves as one of Counter-Strike’s premier teams.

At Atlanta, NIP face two teams that are on the verge of a breakthrough: Optic Gaming and G2 Esports. Both seek NiP’s scalp as proof of their rising stock. G2 came to prove that they are a truly elite team. Richard "shox" Papillon is here to reclaim his title as the greatest player in the world. Optic looking for proof that they are the greatest North American team. They’ve began to amass some strong wins and are on a solid upswing. However, NiP remain the favorites against either team; NiP already sit at the top. It’s not going to be easy to bring NiP down from the mountain.

A ghost of yesteryear by the name of Shox was seen in London at the ESL pro league finals. Rumors tell that he is a remnant of a 2013, an era where his squad could rival the best of the best and no matter the opponent, Shox himself could dominate with his playmaking abilities and miraculous clutches. Is this ghost here to stay? Only time will tell.

At the start of the year, G2 were asserting themselves over the slumping Envyus. A handful of top four finishes and consistent results saw much optimism around G2 coming into the Columbus major. At the major, they ran into a fully powered Virtus Plow and got stomped, barely putting up a fight. Disappointed, the team made a truly divisive roster move by removing their long time IGL Kevin "Ex6TenZ" Droolans and brought on LDLC White rookie Alexandre "bodyy" Pianaro. This move was met with a mixture of confusion and disdain, their first showing with bodyy was at Dreamhack Malmö where the team was a mess. Counter Logic Gaming and GODSENT had few issues disposing the French squad. Mockery soon came out everywhere with the community at large deriding them for their roster change.

Yet G2 remained unperturbed by the loss and the jeers. Standing by their rookie, they went into the ESL pro league final. The jeers soon turned into cheers. Shox and ScreaM utterly revitalized, complemented by bodyy and Rpk’s ability to set up entry frags, the team went on a run that forced people to show them some respect. They defeated Luminosity Gaming, Optic, and Fnatic before facing off with Luminosity once more in the grand finals. While G2 fell, they refused to go down without a fight, pushing Luminosity to the limit in ways few teams have. G2 ultimately couldn’t claim the title but they had earned much deserved praise and attention with ScreaM walking away from the tournament with the title of MVP.

With victory over Optic on LAN and a 2-0 victory over NiP in the online ECS, G2’s chances to come out of this group looks solid. G2 can definitely defeat NiP and should be favored over Optic Gaming. That is not to say that G2 should let their guard down against Optic. Optic are certainly a dangerous team and if G2 underestimates them, they will pay for it. Yet G2 arrived to Atlanta to defeat NiP; a big victory over NiP at E-League would cement for many that G2’s ESL Proleague run was not a fluke and that they are back.

Cloud9 pushing Luminosity to their very limits in group A of E-league has done much to take the thunder out of Optic’s momentum. Optic has claimed victory over two top ten ranked teams in Tempo Storm and Astralis and had their own competitive games against Luminosity. They are the Americas’ minor champion, having defeated Tempo Storm twice in best of three matches. While a surprising loss to Team Solo Mid in the ECS playoffs is a blow, it’s hard to not see Optic as the dark horse for this group.

Before these recent results, Optic was derided as a low tier NA squad; they had many middling results and were often swatted away by superior NA teams such as Cloud9. It wasn’t until April 13th 2016 did things turn around for Optic. That turnaround came in the form of Spanish awper Óscar “Mixwell” Cañellas. Replacing Shahzeeb “ShahZaM” Khan, Optic witnessed a drastic increase in the team’s firepower. This failed to wholly materialize at the CEVO finals where losses to HellRaisers and Virtus Pro left many underwhelmed. It was when they went to the ESL Pro League finals that they began to turn heads with a victory against Astralis and a close fought series against Luminosity. They followed it up at the Americas minor championship, crushing WinOut and Selfless before defeating Team Solo Mid and Tempo Storm twice to claim their first trophy.

What all these results show is that Optic is a serious up and coming team that shouldn’t be underestimated. Unfortunately for Optic, G2 and NiP have displayed far stronger results in the same time period. It is a very tough goal for Optic to get out of this group. If Optic fires on all cylinders, if Mixwell and RUSH are playing to their full potential , then maybe, just maybe Optic can upset their way through the European squads. This is a tough task; it will be Optic’s greatest trial to date. If they succeeed, they will truly ascend as NA’s finest. However, there is perhaps an ever greater barrier than the European squads ahead of them. That barrier is the removal of Inferno from the map pool. Inferno was one of their stronger maps. While NIP have consistently banned out Inferno, Inferno tends to fall to the wayside for G2. Without Inferno, Optic will likely have to come at the European squads on their strongest maps; the Europeans won’t have to expend bans on Optic’s inferno. It was already a tough challenge but it has gotten even tougher with the map pool change. Optic’s path to the top isn’t going to be easy. Ascending to the apex of Counter Strike never was.

Selfless has become struck with the unfortunate tag of “onliners”; a squad that posts good results online but quickly collapse and get crushed on LAN. Online Selfless is quite the team. They have claimed victories over the likes of Luminosity and Tempo Storm online. Yet at LANs, they always come out pitiful. At Dreamhack Austin, they chalked up a win over NRG Esports, but Team Liquid was able to defeat them both times. A disappointing result considering that the team that topped Selfless’ group was Tempo Storm, the very team Selfless defeated to qualify for that tournament.

Selfless entertained better results at the Americas minor championship where they got out of group stages, defeating Winterfox and WinOut. Come playoffs however, Tempo Storm mercilessly thrashed them, sending Sefless to the losers’ bracket where they ultimately lost 0-2 to Team Solo Mid. Time and time again, Selfless are losing to teams at LAN that they beat online. The team collapses very quickly when the pressure gets to them at LAN. Yet it is this kind of fortitude that is necessary to compete at a top level.

They have recently made a roster change with Michael “Uber” Stapells moving to backup while Connor “CoNnOrRr93” Glover joins the squad. There’s very little to go off their new player; he had a 1.25 rating at Fragadelphia which doesn’t tell us much. While Uber had issues performing on LAN, it’s doubtful that the rookie CoNnOrRr93 will be what it takes to resolve the never ending bugbear of Selfless’ LAN woes.

In the previous examinations of a team’s chance to escape the group, Selfless was not mentioned as a factor. To put it bluntly, Selfless struggles against the tier two of NA at LAN let alone a tier one NA squad like Optic who mauled them 16-1 at the Americas minor. That’s not even touching on G2 and NiP who are able to match up and beat the absolute best of the best in recent tournaments. Anything besides 0-8 would be a pleasant surprise for Selfless. Yet the lack of expectation may work in their favor; this is an opportunity for Selfless to face off against premier competition on LAN. Any victory here would be a huge confidence boost which could start to propel them from their derogatory onliner tag. It's a long road regardless. Ultimately at best, Selfless play spoiler here if they even take any wins.