We have finally gotten out of the major main qualifier. Thank god that we made it out of there, it was full of upsets, brutal delays, and random issues. Speaking of upsets, North has fallen right back into their trap of showing us something and then dropping the ball. So, unfortunately, not all the best teams will be at the major but Vega will get a shot for some upsets here. The teams that made it are Vega Squadron, BIG, Liquid, Astralis, Tyloo, Hellraisers, Complexity, and NIP. You could have made a case for all those teams to make it, yet it’s would have been hard to predict for North falling to the likes of Vega Squadron and Spirit and just barely edging out Rogue. I’m not going to go super in depth here, however, I will share my day one predictions and justifications for those picks.

G2 vs HellRaisers

The French squad duke it out with Hellraisers for the opener of the New Legends Stage. Hellraisers path here is as followed

Hellraisers managed a 3-1 record leading them into the New Legends Stage. What we saw in those games is that ISSAA and w0xic are in top form and will look to bring that into this matchup. These two players have definitely made their skills known to every team at the moment. ISSAA especially who showed tremendous talent during the match against Optic.

Moving on to G2, there is not much to say about them that’s relevant still. They have only played one match since July losing to Windigo (2 – 1) at the EPICENTER EU Qualifier. Yet even going all the way back to before the player break, G2 did not look like an extremely strong team. However, I do have faith in the calling and system of Ex6TenZ and would enjoy to see him finally win a major in CSGO. With that said, I have to give Hellraisers a slight edge. The team has been playing from the qualifying stage up, allowing them to keep their engine hot when it comes to officials. G2, as stated before, has played one official ever since the player break started. The player break has given G2 a chance to rethink their game plan, but Hellraisers have been looking hot with their star players having really solid performances.

Pick – HellRaisers

Winstrike vs Team Liquid

This match particularly is one I will not be watching. In my opinion, this should end 1 – 0 for Team Liquid. Winstrike is a team that has not proven themselves they have dropped off the face of the earth since the last major. Looking at their last 5 matches alone says that they won’t do much here. Realistically they will roll out of the major without a win. Here is a list of Winstrikes recent matches.

Pick – Team Liquid

Faze vs BIG

This is one of the first big matches of the major, should be a solid match and I recommend tuning into this one. Now BIG came into the major through the major challenger stage. To recap that, BIG’s first matchup was against Renegades, who they had a field day defeating 16 – 6 on Overpass. On day two they drew, Vega who’s aggressive style upset them and many others. They beat BIG on Train in a quite nice OT match, which led to a loss of 16 – 19 for BIG. For their next draw, they ended up with complexity. This was a team which was not highly anticipated coming into the Challenger Stage, but managed to actually qualify for the New Legends Stage. Complexity won the veto and consequently the game, taking their map, Inferno, 16 – 12.

BIG, on the verge of elimination, needed to avoid another loss to continue their path through the Challenger Stage. They drew gambit, a team who has not be in any form close to relevant for months and managed to wipe them out 16 – 8 on Nuke. On the final day, they had to play a BO3 to qualify because they were a last chance team. They had to play OpTic, another team that has also been unimpressive since its formation. BIG picked dust 2, a map neither team really plays. Yet showed up hot and absolutely demolished. That performance highlighted the real flaws of OpTic.That map on paper is a dream for them, plays into there looser style and solid aim. It also does not require a deep strat book just requires solid team play and good on the fly. Yet, they still got rocked. The second map was Train, Optic’s pick which also looked like a shaky map, early in the tournament for BIG. Therefore there was a slight hope for the OpTic squad. Yet, Optic’s hope to win this map wasn’t looking great after a 6 – 9 half on T side. Optic nearly ran the game back tying the game at 14 – 14 on their CT side, but BIG was able to clinch out a 16 – 14 victory at the end. With that map, BIG had taken the series 2 – 0 giving them one of the last slots of the New Legends Stage.

Now that we have recapped BIGs way of passage, we move on to Faze, a team that needs no introduction. We know all the names on this team, and we have seen them come close to winning a major title twice now. We last saw Faze at Dreamhack Stockholm, where they played Heroic in their opening match in a close game on Mirage, that went into overtime. Yet in the end, Faze prevailed 19 – 16. Next, they played Optic in the group C winners match, which was a Bo3. Unfortunately for Optic, they fell quite quick to the likes of Faze. Optic was just too dazed by the skill and lost that match 0 – 2. Faze unexpectedly fell to Fnatic in the quarterfinal 2 – 0, ending their quite brief run into the tournament.

Yet, even with that lackluster performance at DreamHack Stockholm, I’m positive Faze has done everything they can to adjust. Thus, Faze in my mind, should still have the ability to go deep into the major. In this case, I do believe a mid-tier team like BIG does not stand a real chance of winning this matchup.BIG’s only playing factor would be the fact it is a Bo1 which can lead to a potential upset, which I do not foresee happening.

Pick – Faze

Fnatic vs Complexity

A matchup between a veteran lineup of past major winners vs Complexity, a team who I did not expect to be at this point. A team where one of my main concerns was experience and following that was there map pool. Complexity has shown us they can play at a decent level against international opponents, but their asterisk being here that they have only won one map which has been Inferno throughout the Challenger Stage. Now having one solid map that lots of teams like to play is good. Yet, when you start playing top 10 teams on Inferno, you can’t just rely on one map alone. Complexity’s fatal flaw is their weak map pool. With their troubling map pool, coupled with the fact their experience on an international level is minuscule when compared to that of their competitors, their chances of succeeding are similar to there experience, minuscule.

Furthermore, they have only been a squad for a small period of time and have young players, who have never been deep in a big tournament, let alone a major. The biggest concern is that during the Challenger Stage, the best two players on the team were ShahZam and Stanislaw, That’s abnormal since ANDROID and yay are their star players, they have so far been a huge question mark. They were quiet in the challenger stage and that will need to change to do damage here. Pulling off an upset against a seasoned team like Fnatic would be a difficult feat. Although I’d love to watch these guys make it out of groups, I’m gonna have to say they will go out early. They should be proud of how far they have made it. So I’ll say Fnatic has a big edge, but Complexity could get something going if their young stars show up. Complexity should at least be competitive here, I do think they will win at least one game during the major if they don’t fall into draw hell. It’s probably not gonna be here though.

Pick – Fnatic

MIBR vs Tyloo

This is almost clear cut but there is a little bit of an asterisk, that being MIBR’s level of play and the fact Tyloo is always a team that can upset. Tyloo’s best map is Mirage and like Complexity lack a real in-depth map pool. Yet unlike Complexity, they play an aggressive style of Counter-Strike with players who try to make up for lack of map pool by making unpredictable plays. That’s a style of play that is inconsistent but can upset even the best. We have seen with a team like Vega Squadron with a similar playstyle pull some upsets. Although with that said I do still think MIBR are the strong favorites to win this matchup. If we look just at MIBR’s level of play at the recent Dreamhack Stockholm, they managed to beat Hellraisers and Mousesports, a dark horse of this tournament in a Bo3. MIBR were smart and didn’t take a super long break like most of the top teams. Therefore, in that sense, they do have a slight buff since they have been ironing problems out. They did also win the recent Zotac Masters Cup, but the level of competition there small when scaled with there current competitors. On the other hand, MIBR was not looking all that hot before the player break, seemingly it came down to players changing roles and communication. Let’s hope for the sake of MIBR most of that is ironed out before this upcoming series of matching.

Pick – MIBR

Mousesports vs NIP

This one is hard to predict, these are both top-tier teams who can beat almost anyone. What makes it even harder is that fact that this is a best of one. The defining factor will be recent form. Now NIP, like most of the other teams so far, came through the Challenger Stage. NIP started with an easier target of Virtus.Pro, a team who has been unimpressive for about a year, who they wiped up an easy victory. NIP then moved onto Tyloo, a team that plays off an inconsistent style. Yet ending up on a strategic map like Train was ultimately going to be Tyloo’s downfall, and when NIP won 12 – 16 that was clear. NIP was 2 – 0 when they drew Astralis for their last game leading into the Challenger Stage. Astralis, being the uncontested best team in the world, saw this as an easy victory when taking the map to Mirage. Yet NIP magic rained from the sky, and Astralis, in a multiple overtime game, lost out 26 – 28.

Now NIP is here in the major, a veteran squad with, to be fair, a little magic on their side. Now they are meeting a real top team one that is also in form. Now the problem I see with NIP is the fact that they simply are inconsistent. NIP can beat a great team or almost lose to a mediocre one. For example, they almost lost to Ghost Gaming at DreamHack Stockholm in a Bo3. Now sure people may say NIP magic is floating around, yet that is not a way to justify a clean win, it’s a way to justify an upset. Mousesports consistency and overall better map pool will be the downfall of NIP.

Pick – Mousesports

Natus Vincere vs Astralis

Either way here, I upset half of the CSGO subreddit, so let’s take a look here at this matchup. The two highest ranked teams at this tournament are going head to head in what could be an absolutely amazing match.

Navi’s form as of late has been lackluster, to say the least. They had lost to Ghost Gaming in a Bo1, who in fairness had a great run. Their next match was a Bo3 and they almost lost to NRG, they then had to play Ghost again in a Bo3 and almost lost again. They then lost to the eventual winners of the tournament, North in a Bo3 which was a completely one-sided affair. Not to mention when flamie almost missed the event the rumblings of turmoil inside the team have returned in full force. I do believe Navi will show up here in real form, as they will want to make a run at this major.

Drawing Astralis a team who looked a little shaky in the Challenger stage is still a worst case scenario for them. Even with Astralis struggling against Rogue and losing to NIP and losing to North at DreamHack Stockholm in the finals, they are still a dangerous team. Neither of these teams will want to lose this opening match up both will want to get off to a strong start and back on track. I believe Navi is going end up inching this one out, both teams looked shaky recently, except the one thing you can rely on in Navi is the best duo in current day Counter-Strike, s1mple and electronic. s1mple is still chasing a major is going to be in hard carry mode like never before. I do believe this match could go either way since playing against a multi layered team like Astralis is still a feat. Navi will be looking to redeem themselves after Dreamhack Stockholm and this is the perfect way to do it.

Pick – Natus Vincere

Cloud 9 vs Vega Squadron

Now it’s time to upset North America, as we move on to the last major winners Cloud 9. In the last few months Cloud 9 have struggled to find their footing making multiple roster changes. I’ll honestly says that if Cloud 9 in this form had to come through the Challenger Stage they would not be at the major this year. This new Cloud 9 squad lack the firepower to compete with the top teams in the world and even competition at home, failing to qualify for IEM Chicago losing out to eUnited.

Cloud 9 did skip Dreamhack Stockholm and instead opted to spend that time boot camping and giving Golden the time to implement a working system. Replicating what Cloud 9 did last major will be an almost impossible task, and winning a match is something they will really struggle to do. Drawing Vega in this opening matchup looks like the beginning of a hard road for the past major winners. Vega plays a baffling style of aggressive Counter-Strike, a style which stunned multiple top teams in challenger stage and something, I do not believe Cloud 9 will be able to handle. After saying all that I think it’s clear who I am predicting to win this matchup.

Pick – Vega Squadron