E-League Group C Preview

While Nicolai ‘device’ Reedtz has finally overcame his nervous breakdowns on the big stage, the Danish juggernaut has started struggling in group stages. Elimination by the hands of Dignitas and NiP in Malmö was called an “unlucky situation”, given that Dignitas were on fire in groups and NiP went to win the whole event. Not advancing out of groups despite device’s monstrous showing against Luminosity during ESL Pro League S3 Finals was a wake-up call. The Danestack’s aura of invincibility that persisted until the semifinals is shattered and other teams in group can smell blood in the water. They have easily qualified for ECS finals and have received an invite for Dreamhack Summer. However, they need to lock in the spot in playoffs in Atlanta to regain their comfort for group stages.

The Markus ‘Kjaerbye” Kjærbye and Rene ‘cajunB’ Borg trade has worked out for Astralis with the former posting unreal 1.37 rating in their sets against Fnatic and FaZe. Unfortunately, the no-show of their in-game leader Finn ‘karrigan’ Andersen, inevitably, is going to hurt. Still, even if they’re forced to use Danny ‘zonic’ Sørensen as their stand-in, NiP’s MLG Columbus run demonstrates that there is a decent chance that Astralis will still top the group due to the raw talent and firepower behind Andreas ‘Xyp9x’ Højsleth, Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen, device, and Kjaerbye while the storied player-now-coach can just fill the gaps in the structure.

Astralis are the best team in the world on Mirage with a mind boggling 84% win rate. Their Overpass, Dust2, and Cache are insanely strong. Astralis’ only glaring weakness is still Cobblestone which has been their go-to ban. The removal of Inferno might hurt on paper, but consider that Astralis (then Dignitas) were one of the best teams in the world on old nuke -- the new Nuke should be a non-issue. The Danestack is coming to Atlanta to overwhelm all three teams they’re facing to secure the spot in the E-League playoffs.

SK, alongside Dignitas, serve as a farm team for Astralis. At CEVO Season 9, where SK were able to defeat likes of Selfless, Dignitas, and Hellraisers while falling to Tempo Storm 3-1 in the finals, many thought that the historied organisation is finally coming to its own. Perhaps even cement itself as a prominent team in Counter-Strike once again.

Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. SK bombed out at the European Minor during Dreamhack Tours, losing to Orbit and Epsilon, following up with back-to-back defeats to Hellraisers and Worst Players in Kiev during the SLTV Invitational.
That being said, SK showed what they’re capable of during Fragbite Masters last winter, when they beat Team Questionmark (now Astralis) in bo3 plus took a map from Fnatic and took a map of Luminosity in Dreamhack Leipzig.

Jacob ‘Pimp’ Winneche and Emil ‘Magiskb0Y’ Reif are a very strong rifling duo when they’re on fire and Andreas ‘MODDII’ Fridh is a solid entry fragger, but SK Gaming will require more than that to create upsets this week, let alone achieve top-2.

Considering that SK eschew dust2 and cache with targeted bans, it’s a good sign given the two American teams’ presence. They just need to get their preferred mirage or overpass picks to be confident, but should SK need to challenge CLG and NRG on Train and Cobblestone, they’ll be more than happy to do so.

With the recent news of SK attempting to sign the LG roster, this is the hero’s moment for the Danes. Can they go above and beyond to prove to themselves that their efforts to ascend to the top is still a valiant ambition?

After reaching Legend status at MLG Columbus, some thought that CLG was going to snowball their advantage and become a strong force in the scene. But then, after losing in overtime to Na’Vi in groups in Malmö, Stephen ‘Cutler’ Cutler and crew has entered the seemingly unending slump.

Since MLG Columbus, they have lost to Godsent at Dreamhack Malmö, barely avoided the relegations during the ESL Pro League Season 3, lost to Cloud9 twice at Dreamhack Austin and cherry on the cake - did not qualify for the ECS Season 1 LAN, after losing to both Team Liquid and Team SoloMid in the playoffs.

Atlanta will be the last stop for CLG before the Cologne Major. Should they lose here, it might truly spiral out of control for the famous North American organisation. With the unknown 5th replacing Jacob ‘FugLy’ Medina who left the roster, CLG is scraping the bottom of the barrel for confidence boosts.

The worst problem is that no one is really performing at the moment. Joshua ‘jdm64’ Marzano and Tarik ‘tarik’ Celik are docile while cutler, pita, and James ‘hazed’ Cobb can’t cover for their star players. CLG lacks the firepower and ability to win maps through individual skill and outbursts of stardom.

There is hope on the horizon for the Americans. The removal of Inferno and the addition of the new nuke does save them a map ban -- Inferno was CLG’s most common ban. They should prioritize Dust2 and Train to stand a chance against the Danish squads, having their beloved Mirage to as their default. Everyone can play Mirage in this group though; perhaps not the best map choice for CLG this coming week.

NRG is the clear outsider in this group. Yes, NRG had their moments in the spotlight like beating Team EnVyUs at Counter Pit Season 2 LAN or almost getting to the ESL Pro League Season 3 finals, missing it in the last week of online play. Overall, Fatih ‘gob b’ Dayik’ and co. just can’t find their groove. Their group stage exit at Dreamhack Austin to the hands of Tempo Storm and Selfless Gaming does little to assuage their situation.

Group C will be the first test for the new NRG roster. The addition of Johannes ‘tabseN’ Wodarz heralds the arrival of much needed firepower to the squad. FugLy joining as well is a clear upgrade over the departed Samuel “SileNt” Portillo and Justin “just9n” Ortiz . NRG is not expected come out on top of the group, but the potential for upsets is brewing in the mix.

The main problem NRG will have in this group is that their 2 best maps are Mirage and Dust2. Every team in this group plays Mirage. SK won’t let them play Dust2, and both CLG and Astralis are better on the map. Nuke could be their ace in the hole, while Train is still available for NRG to use against the other teams.