The Eleague CS GO Premier 2018 is one of the bigger tournaments when it comes to prestige and establishing a name. The teams that flew all the way to Atlanta include some of the biggest names such as Astralis, Na’Vi, Mousesports and Faze Clan. The teams present the best teams in the CS GO scene. While Faze Clan are already out of the tournament, the remaining teams in the Playoffs are all very strong.

On one hand, we have Astralis, who are the most dominant team in Counter-Strike. They have prepared for the Playoffs, which has a two-day gap. As Device said in his interview, the team was surprised when they realized they have a couple of days free to practice for the playoffs.

The semifinals of the Eleague CS GO premier tournament will see competition not only for the prize pool but also for the bragging rights. Three of the four semifinal teams constantly make it to the playoffs of most of the tournaments that they attend. Let’s take a look at these three teams as we head into the Playoffs.

Astralis – The best team, but for how long?

The Danish squad is the best team in the world, and this is true especially with the changes on Faze Clan. The core roster of Astralis has been together for a long time and they have developed a higher level of coordination and synergy. We can witness their style when we see them playing within the games. Each person has a dedicated task on the team, and they function as a unit. However, they also have scope for amazing individual plays from their members. Stars such as Device, Dupreeh as well as Magisk can often take down multiple opponents in a round.

Astralis’ performance over the past few months has been consistently dominant. They were the better team even when Faze Clan was at its full strength. The team’s dominance comes from their wide and deep map pool. With Cobblestone, their permanent veto no longer being in the map pool, Astralis find it much easier to deal with the current veto. They mostly veto Cache and that leaves them with a very comfortable map pool. They are a very aggressive team, asserting pressure to take map control. The excessive map control provides them with a lot of information on the positioning and movement of the enemy across the map.

Astralis is the best team in the world, but the gap is closing fast. Faze Clan is no longer in the tournament, but they are also looking strong with the return of Olofmeister. The most imminent threat to their title, however, remains Na’Vi.

Natus Vincere – Inching closer with every tournament

Na’Vi has been emerging as a strong but steady team in the past few weeks. They have been winning important matches. Even their losses were too close for comfort. The biggest factor for Na’Vi in their professional matches, S1mple is no longer the sole threat on the team. Electronic managing to put up ‘S1mple-like’ numbers, it is often a case of which player will perform in this match.

Quite similar to Astralis, Na’Vi also has a decent and wide map pool. Cache is their permanent veto and the return of Dust 2 to the map pool definitely helps the team. They have some of the best Dust 2 players in the world in the form of s1mple, Electronic etc.

Na’Vi is currently on a three-tournament win streak. Na’Vi won Star series, CS GO Asia Championship as well as ESL One Cologne. The three tournaments present varying levels of competition, but Na’Vi has momentum on their side. This tournament would be a feather in their cap, as it would prove that they can rightfully be crowned as a close contender for the best team in the world. With ESL One Cologne recently in their kitty, ELeague CS GO Premier is something that they have their eyes set on.

One thing that is going in favor of Na’Vi is the fact that they have the momentum on their side. Astralis seems like the team which is still languishing in glory with their past accolades. But Na’Vi has the talent and the flair to punish their opponents for the simplest of mistakes. They also have some crazy playstyles which see them with unexpected plays and getting frags off that.

Mousesports – A new beginning, for Good or Bad?

Mousesports already had a very strong team with their previous iteration. However, they seemed to always hit a wall when it came to big tournament placements and playoffs. They were unable to win many tournaments and that was their sole aim, especially with such a talented team.

Mousesports’ changed their roster, brought in Snax from Virtus Pro. Snax presents a lot of experience as well as talent to the team. The past year has been rough for the player, whose individual performance saw a drastic decline. However, we have all seen him in 2016 and he can hold his own amongst the best in the business. Mousesports’ performance as a team cannot be judged so early post their roster change. They are still figuring things out, according to ChrisJ. It will take time, but they have suffered a setback when it comes to their map pool.

Understanding their chemistry with Snax, Mousesports have had to give up their dominance on some of their strongest maps. As a team, they rely on the trio of Oskar, Ropz, and Sunny. At least two out of these three need to perform in order for Mousesports to put up strong numbers. They will face Astralis in the semi-final first. A few weeks ago, the old Mousesports could potentially have had a win against Astralis with relative ease. But the new Mousesports is still shaky and are figuring out their map pool. The veto plays a big part in the team’s attempt to win the trophy.

Even the enemy teams have little to no information about their current map pool. They are obviously focussing their attention on certain maps as they practice and this will give them the element of surprise. Mousesports is the dark horse in the playoffs. They can either surprise all of us with a strong performance. But they can also easily fall flat on their face and present little to no resistance.

Team Liquid – The outliers, The underdogs

The North American team has not really been the perfect example of the best team n North America. They have some amazing talent and the young age of the team definitely presents them as a potentially strong team in the future. However, as they are in their current state, they seem to always falter as soon as they reach the playoffs of big tournaments. The team has not really won any tournaments and always loses once it reaches the playoffs of big tournaments.

Team liquid almost always seems to run into the Astralis wall in their LAN events. While is just bad luck nd not intended, this tournament they are up against Na’Vi. Liquid’s form dropped off at ESL Belo Horizonte as well as ESL One Cologne. This was mostly due to the very busy schedule and their lack of practice time on the team. The biggest problem for the team is the absence of their Coach, Zews who has a big impact on the team’s performance as well as mentality. Team Liquid is the weakest team in the playoffs. They also do not have a great map pool, especially when considered against the other top teams in this tournament.

We want to see a Na’Vi and Astralis finals.

While technically, anything is possible in the Grand finals the best teams should advance. Right now, the best teams in the playoffs are Astralis and Na’Vi. Astralis represents the old guard as they try to defend their tag of being the best team in the world.

Na’Vi, on the other hand has seen resurgence on the roster especially with Electronic putting up strong performances. The CIS Squad is looking to becoming the best team in the world and definitely seem to be on the right path. We want to see these two teams play in the finals, and it is not that unlikely. However, before that they have to win their respective semifinal matches. The Eleague CS GO Premier Playoffs start on July 28th is available on Twitch.