Intel Extreme Masters: Katowice 2016 - The post-event rank shuffle

top five pre-Katowice top five post-Katowice fnatic fnatic Natus Vincere Luminosity Team EnVyUs Natus Vincere Astralis Astralis Luminosity G2 ESports



#1: fnatic ⇒ fnatic

How has Katowice affected this ranking?

The best time in the world has once again done it at Katowice, winning the grand finals, the trophy and $100k prize money. There is no doubt that this team deserves this spot and in the days or weeks we will highlight them and their domination in an extensive feature article. Apart from having some of the highest skilled professionals fnatic feature the biggest map pool in the scene and are currently undefeated on three of their maps in 2016 so far. Katowice has not contributed in changing the top one team but has rather once again confirmed they are going to stay there.

Fnatic have acquired a sixth tournament win now and are undefeated in a B03 ever since December. From Fragbite Masters over to ESEA Pro League S2, the StarSeries Finals and IEM Expo Barcelona they have outdone themselves once again and are looking hot to claim their fourth (!) major title next month.



#2: Natus Vincere ⇒ Luminosity Gaming

How has Katowice affected this ranking?

Na'Vi had to make space for the Brazilians and Katowice confirmed this in a heated semi-final, which eventually Luminosity took over despite Na'Vi's best efforts at inventive boosts to catch them off guard. Luminosity were almost able to bring down fnatic, whereas Natus Vincere seemed to be sleeping in their quarter-finals and almost lost out due to that. Except for Yegor "flamie" Vasiliev everybody was underperforming, but on the other side the Brazilians saw everybody stepping in, especially Tacio "TACO" Filho who usually had a more quiet time on the team.

Luminosity are the prime contender against fnatic to finally make an end to their reign and could do some at the MLG major. They are yet to find a tournament win but had many high place finishes in recent time and are guaranteed to find success internationally and of course on North American soil as they most successful team that is able to participate in tournaments of said region.



#3: Team EnVyUs ⇒ fnatic

How has Katowice affected this ranking?

This was the nail in the coffin for EnVyUs in terms of competing with the rest of the top five in CS:GO. After losing to Astralis, Tempo Storm and even E-Frag it was clear they had vanished from this ranking. A new player has been brought in to resolve the issues but for the time being there is no reason to feature them anymore in the top five. Instead, Natus Vincere have claimed their spot, not because they dropped off but because they had to make place to Luminosity Gaming. The CIS team is still able to get close finishes on LG, as for instance the 22-19 loss on Overpass in the quarter-finals of IEM Katowice. This alone qualifies them to claim this spot.

But furthermore they have claimed second place to fnatic at the ESEA Pro League, as well as at the StarSeries Finals. A first place could be made at DreamHack Leipzig, an event in which they actually faced Luminosity and sent them home.



#4: Astralis ⇒ Astralis

How has Katowice affected this ranking?

Astralis have always been good at holding their spot. In the group stages of IEM Katowice they did not lose one single map finishing off 5-0 but unfortunately fell short to fnatic in the semi-finals. They were able to take a map off of them in the playoffs which no other team was able to, but the way they lost the other two maps would make their position as a top three team questionable. In the online ESL Pro League they are currently sitting at the second spot, behind NiP, who have had some luck in terms of enemy teams being DDOSed and stuff like that.

In addition to that they lack tournament wins. They always place somewhere in the 3rd-4th scale, which guarantees them this position but still there is much more to expect from them. At IEM Barcelona they at least showed that in the West European matchup they were closest to fnatic as they finished second.



#5: Luminosity Gaming ⇒ G2 Esports

How has Katowice affected this ranking?

Well, actually not at all. G2 have not had the honor of participating at IEM Katowice, but it has still heavily affected them in an indirect way, since all the teams that were in front of them experienced a drop-off in the ranks. And before anyone complains that there are teams better than them, there are none. Would you choose NiP over them? The moderators at EPL described their performance as luck, and their win over Luminosity was a close upset and in the same manner they lost to mousesports. FaZe are sitting on a seven maps loss streak and EnVyUs were beaten twice by their French competitors.

G2 have recently, without any hassle, qualified for the major tournament and are displaying great progress as a team. Depending on how the roster change of nV pans out they might set themselves on top of them as the strongest French team.

Honorary mention:

It should however not be forgotten how well Tempo Storm performed in Katowice. To eliminate EnVyUs and then almost take out Natus Vincere is such a rise to the top that it can only be topped by their predecessors, Luminosity Gaming. Their potential is far from coming to an end, so be sure to look out for them whenever they have the opportunity to attend an international event because there is no doubt that they will have their domestic region in tight grips with fair ease. In April you will be able to see them battle it out at the DreamHack Masters Malmö.