​I went through and previewed all of the teams in the Challengers Stage (​which can be found here) and with that phase of the tournament now in the books it's time to update my observations for the teams that made it through.





NRG





As I expected NRG looked a cut above of the rest in the Challengers stage, coasting through without dropping a single map. Their rifling star duo of Ethan and Brehze ended up the top two ranked players of the stage, with Brehze in particular looking in spectacular form. If they can maintain that then they're going to be a real threat to absolutely any team.​





As predicted in my preview of them, CeRq has been lagging behind a little. He performed well in their first two best of ones but struggled significantly as soon as they met some resistance against TyLoo. If they're going to want to be a real contender for the title then he's going to have to step up to give them a three pronged trident of star fragging ability. I'm predicting them to just about make it through this stage, but if the Bulgarian Beast gets activated then they will breeze through.





Legends Stage Prediction: 3-2





Renegades





The Renegades were the one team who made it through the Challengers Stage that I didn't predict to, and they did so in some style. I was impressed by the decisiveness of AZR's calls and jks and Gratisfaction were playing at a really high level.





I still maintain that Liazz hasn't integrated well into this team yet though; his natural game is blocked by jks' very similar playstyle.​ His stats have continued to bear this out, and while he certainly had his impact through his strong late round play I feel that's probably a distraction from the problem rather than a sign of a solution having been reached.





In the end I feel this will come to bite them as I don't think they'll have enough activated firepower to really compete with the big boys. NiP, AVANGAR and ENCE are all solid scalps to have taken so far but I don't see them as a team with real upset potential against top level teams and I think they're going to need at least one of those sorts of wins to get through.





Legends Stage Prediction: 2-3





Vitality

​

​The big question surrounding Vitality coming into Katowice was how well would ZywOo do against this improved level of competition? The answer seems to be he's a very strong player but not the ultra carry he is at the DreamHack Open level of competition. He's needed to the rest of the team to step up around him, and thankfully NBK seems to have answered the call. Vitality's IGL showed an excellent level through the early portions of the Major, and together the French duo proved a formidable force.





They're going to need more though to compete at the Legends Stage, and the obvious place to look is towards apEX. He certainly had his moments, but they're going to need to come more consistently for them to have a chance at progression. RpK also looked like he was warming into the tournament, so that could also be another source for the improvement that's going to be needed. I'm going to back them to make it through; I like their momentum and see the squad rounding out just in time.





Legends Stage Prediction: 3-2





​ENCE





Despite making it through fairly comfortably I wasn't overly impressed with ENCE's showings. ​Sergej was putting up some strong showings, but allu looked ordinary throughout the entire stage. He's usually a real star for them, and with Aerial also not showing up I worry about whether they'll have enough firepower to make their strong system work. They've had to rely on their young IGL Aleksib putting in big performances and I don't think that's reliable.





Another problem for them is that Mirage, a map that they picked repeatedly, is one they started to show weakness on losing it twice to Winstrike and Renegades. I think it's a possibility they pivot their pick towards Train, which looked particularly strong, but the lack of a clear go to map for them is worrying.





These two things combined mean I'm not backing the Finns to make it through. They're a very solid low variance team so I'd be shocked to see them lose out. As such they'll book their place at the StarLadder Major, but ultimately I think Legends will be the end of the line for them this time out.





Legends Stage Prediction: 2-3





(Image credit: ESL)​