The Americas region has always been a volatile region in CS:GO, with a handful of teams scrambling to be the top of the region. Cloud9, Counter Logic Gaming and Team Liquid are the teams that first pop into mind for domestic fans, but in 2016, the true kings of the region are the Brazilians.

The SK Gaming roster's rise started as far back as mid-2015 when they were acquired by Luminosity Gaming and it's been a upward trajectory for the team since then. And after their back-to-back Major championship, at MLG Major Championship: Columbus and later at ESL One Cologne 2016, Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo and co. have planted a flag deep in the Americas region and the CS:GO world. However a new, yet familiar, challenger is on the rise, "the other Brazilians," Immortals.

Immortals' older lineup, with Gustavo "SHOOWTiME" Gonçalves, after winning DreamHack Summer 2016

The Immortals squad were on the fringes of the Americas scene for much of 2015 when they were part of Brazil-based team Games Academy, but after they were acquired by Tempo Storm on Feb. 10, 2016 they gained opportunities to prove themselves in bigger tournaments. The team showed flashes of brilliance by winning CEVO Season 9 and finishing in second place at DreamHack Austin, but they dropped the ball during more crucial points in their career, such as when they failed to qualify for the MLG Major.

After they were acquired by Immortals on June 1, the team once again failed to qualify for a Major at ESL One Cologne 2016, but after the acquisition of SK's former coach Wilton "zews" Prado, the team have been cutting a swath through the Americas region. Immortals won the Northern Arena Toronto LAN by defeating Cloud9 2-1 in the Grand Finals and qualified for ELEAGUE Season 2 by defeating Team SoloMid 2-0.

IMT have seen a steady rise, but of what they've learned about CS was taken from the SK squad, given the close relationship the teams shared. When the IMT squad was part of Games Academy SK's AWper, Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo, was the CEO. They're as close as two competing teams could be.

Twins are crying. This is CS passion. This is y we play this. This is one of the best day in my life pic.twitter.com/oGCtLFCX4J — Gabriel FalleN T. (@FalleNCS) March 3, 2016

And the teams are brought ever closer now that zews is IMT's in-game leader, though it's been nearly two months since that transaction. IMT have stabilized with their new lineup, but SK have run into some speed bumps in the season.

Fernando "fer" Alvarenga was sidelined by an ear surgery for much of August and early September and the team used former IMT player Gustavo "SHOOWTiME" Gonçalves as their stand in. On Sept. 1, during SK's ESL Pro League match against Renegades, the team was served a 16-12 loss on Nuke, which was followed by another devastating loss, 16-0 on Dust 2.

It was a loss not taken lightly by coldzera, who made some regrettable comments on Twitter and subsequently deleted his Twitter account. Though that situation has largely blown over and coldzera has reactivated his Twitter — fer also returned to the roster on Sept. 10 — the team is still not at 100 percent in many ways.

SK were eliminated from the iBUYPOWER Fall Invitational after losing a 1-2 to OpTic Gaming. OpTic faced IMT in the finals, but were bested 2-1 by the Brazilian's.

Given the recent happenings, IMT are primed to pull off an "upset" against SK in ESL Pro League.

Player matchups

SK Rating +/- Rating IMT coldzera 1.33 0.12 1.21 hen1 FalleN 1.09 -0.08 1.17 boltz fer 1.08 -0.07 1.15 lucas1 fnx 1.06 -0.07 1.13 felps TACO 1.03 0.07 0.96 zews Team Average 1.12 0.00 1.12 Team Average

Average player ratings taken from HLTV.org on Sept. 19, filtered by "Past 3 months"

coldzera isn't just the highest rated player in this matchup but he's the highest rated player in the world right now and this holds true when you filter by all his games in 2016 as well. This is a daunting thing to consider when you're a team facing off against SK, but the team averages tell a different story as both IMT and SK share the same 1.12 team rating.

The most immediate difference between the teams is their setup. IMT's setup is much more rigid with hen1 as the primary AWPer and rarely make use of double AWP setups as their secondary AWPer felps is much more comfortable on a rifle. Conversely, SK have a bit more versatility with their double AWP setup from FalleN and coldzera, one of the strongest AWP duos in the world. coldzera sometimes even acts as the primary AWPer depending on the rounds, a rare situation for most riflers/secondary AWPers.

The most immediate difference between the teams is the capabilities of their AWPers. coldzera has equal capabilities as a rifler and an AWPer, and even acts as the primary AWPer on certain rounds, which is an extremely rare situation for most riflers. However, SK's primary AWPer FalleN is more than capable as a rifler. Conversely, hen1's rifling pales in comparison to his AWPing and the opposite is true for felps, IMT's secondary AWPer.

This versatility gives more wiggle room to SK in the case of picks. If FalleN gets picked, cold can pick up the AWP and the team's pick potential remains the same, meanwhile if hen1 is picked off, the rest of the team is almost better off sticking to their rifles. SK have also pulled out some double AWP setups on their T-side, something IMT almost never do.

Map matchups

SK (W/L - W%) Map IMT (W/L - W%) N/A Cache 9/4 - 69.2% 4/2 - 66.7% Dust 2 1/1 - 50% 5/1 - 83.3% Mirage 9/2 - 81.8% 2/1 - 66.7% Nuke 0/1 - 0% 6/0 - 100% Train 12/2 - 85.7% 6/3 - 66.7% Cobble 13/2 - 86.7% 5/2 - 71.4% Overpass 10/2 - 83.3%

Stats aggregated from HLTV.org on Sept. 19, filtered by "Past 3 months"

The only time these two teams faced off in 2016 was during the DreamHack Austin Grand Finals on May 8, which was a clean 2-0 win for the SK squad, taking Mirage 16-9 and Cobble 16-9. And even though the matchup took place five months ago, the teams show a preference towards those maps even now.

Given map draft trends we likely won't see Cache, Nuke or Dust 2 played. And given SK's recent loss to OpTic on Overpass, they may look to put that map back on the drawing board. This leaves Train, and incredibly strong map for both teams, as well as the two maps from their previous matchup, Cobble and Mirage.

All things considered, IMT and SK are so evenly matched on so many metrics. All logic points to SK taking the series cleanly, but their online performances lately have left a lot to be desired, while IMT are play at their peak.

IMT have established a foothold on the Americas region and only continue to improve, but their climb to the top is made decidedly tougher with their Brazilian cousins in SK standing in their way.