The CS GO calendar year starts off with the Major qualifier along with the various stages in the Major system. These include the Legends stage as well the New Champions Stage for the Eleague Boston Major.

The Eleague Legends stage uses a Swiss system as its official format. The Swiss system can potentially be the go-to system for CS GO Majors without problems. However, this presumption relies on a proper seeding process. With the current seeding process which relies on the team’s performance almost six months ago in the previous major, we are seeing several problems arise.

The team list for the Challengers stage is varied with the inclusion of some really strong teams as well as some teams who are present just because of the Swiss system. The seeding for the Swiss system has one of the biggest impacts during the matches and their results. Optimally, this should never be the case, but it is what it is.

We present the top teams that should be making into everyone’s lists for the main tournament of the Eleague Major.

Astralis

The Danish team has confirmed that they will be playing with Device at the Major. Moreover, the team has already been practicing with their star AWPer since December 2017. It still remains unclear if he will pick up the AWP during the matches. His downtime and hospitalization meant that Dupreeh was seen on the AWP duty for the Danish team.

Astralis have a rich history of being a dominant team against mid-tier and at times the best teams in the world. The Danish roster has not been known to suffer from upsets even in Best of One matches. This provides them with a strength coming into the Swiss format which sees a lot of upsets in the early stages.

The team is strong on certain maps such as Overpass, Cobblestone, and Mirage. They can also play the other maps on a high level on a consistent basis. With their map pool being one of the strongest in the Major, they come into The Legends stage with a big advantage.

G2

The only French representatives in the Eleague Legends stage will be one of the top teams on the verge of bowing out of the Legends stage. Honestly, they have not looked as impressive as a look at their lineup might suggest. Comprising of veterans in CS GO such as Shox, KennyS the team has been unable to put forth results befitting of their roster.

The core of the lineup has been consistent in qualifying for the majors. Two of their players NBK and Shox have attended all 11 Majors. Two more in KennyS and Apex have attended 10 Majors and missed out on one only due to the team being disqualified prior to the Major.

We have no doubt about the talent on the team as they look to secure a place in the Main tournament. Throughout the years, these players have been consistent in their appearance at the Major. Being one of the only teams to have Nuke as their strongest map, it provides them with a big advantage coming into the New Legends stage.

SK

The team which has been consistently present in the Top three of almost every CS GO rankings will not be playing with their full roster. The Brazilian team has a different roster registered for the major which forces them to play with Felps instead of Boltz on their starting five.

However, we have already covered how much of an impact the team can have with Felps on their team. The SK Gaming roster with Felps was responsible for most of the tournaments trophies in 2017.They definitely have the potential to win the Major as a team with Felps.

Previewing the New Legends stage, SK gaming is one of the sureties to make it to the next stage. The dominant team would be the team to win all the matches in the New Legends stage. Under Fallen’s guidance, the team is not scared to execute different strategies in order to surprise their opponents.



Faze

Faze are the tournament favorites at the Eleague Boston Major. The team which has always had superstars on its roster made some big changes in their team composition post the PGL Krakow Major. They brought in Guardian and Olofmeister, two of the biggest names in CS GO. Following a disappointing first few events, the Faze roster has been dominant in the last few weeks of 2017.

They are extremely efficient on a few maps such as Mirage, Inferno, and Overpass. They seem to be unbeatable on these maps as of right now. The team has a history of pulling out wins from improbable situations on these maps. Their dominance on these three maps provides them with a huge advantage in the veto process. Indeed most of their result is decided in the veto itself.

Faze face off against Fnatic in their opening match. They should have a clear advantage going into the match. While they have had a few shocking losses in the Challenger stage we expect them to be much better prepared to come into this new stage.

Mousesports

The Mousesports team ended 2017 with a finals appearance against Faze in the ECS LAN finals. The team was able to match Faze toe to toe and almost clinch the trophy. Mouz performed well in several tournaments in 2017, but consistency has been a problem for the ChrisJ led roster.

With a finals appearance at two of the tournaments that they attended towards the end of the year, Mouz will be looking to make a run at the major. They have been known to cause big upsets in the past, but they are also a team to be easily amongst the teams to be upset. Consistency plays the biggest factor when trying to decide the outcome a Mousesports match. With players such as Sunny and Styko showing up of late, they are a threat to the top teams in the world.

They start off with a difficult match against Astralis on the first day. Mousesports can win the match against Astralis, who have not had as much practice with their full roster recently.

These are the top teams that should be making it out of the Legends stage. Each team has a reason for being amongst the top 5, be it recent results or past Major appearances. Do you think we left out any team which would be in the top teams at the Legends stage? Do let us know in comments.