The final group of E-league CS GO premier is set to start in a few hours time. It is the last few set of matches to be played in the Group stage, however the group is going to be extremely close. The four teams involved in this week’s matches are : Liquid, Astralis, SK and Heroic. Several of these teams have repeatedly played against each other in the past few weeks. Spread out over various tournaments the results have been back and forth. With $1,000,000 on the line for the winner of this tournament, these few matches are definitely a an important milestone for some of these teams.

We will take a look at each team, their strengths and weaknesses especially related to the past few weeks. Some teams have reached the pinnacle in CS GO rankings and have been dominating the scene for quite sometime. However there is also Team Liquid which has been repeatedly striking at that dominance and have been able to upset both Astralis and SK gaming in the recent matches. Heroic remains the underdog, but their familiarity with the gameplay of the other three teams remains one of their biggest advantages. It would be foolhardy to count them out just because of their lack of results lately.

World No. 1 – SK Gaming

The Brazilians are World No. 1 according to HLTV rankings, but they definitely have not looked the same in their matches. Under the guidance of Fallen, this team looks very confused in their performances.

Recent Events :

¼ final at PGL Krakow Major

1st at ESL One Cologne 2017

3rd at ESG Mykonos 2017

3rd at ESL One New York 2017

Looking at these results you might not assume any dip in their performance. But that is just a testament to the skill and performance of SK Gaming. Even their “average” results tend to be quarterfinal finishes in the best of tournaments.

The biggest disappointment for SK gaming in their recent weeks has been Coldzera. The star player who has been one of the best players for the team in 2017 has been underperforming to a great degree of late. He is definitely still in contention for the “title of the best player” in the world for 2017 by a long margin. But the team falters without the miraculous performances by Coldzera. He is still a great player, but the lack of individual brilliance from the player has hurt the overall balance within the team.

The team looks slightly confused in their executions on various maps. This might just be something that we can see and it isn’t a big change to their game style. They simply cannot hit the shots that they would have done with ease a few months ago. SK Gaming are very strong on Overpass, Train and Cobblestone. These remain their best maps especially as their T side is very strong on these maps. Fallen is especially strong on Overpass and Cobblestone due to the long range as well as close corners on these maps. His AWP style allows him a lot of leeway on these maps and it shows in the ultimate scoreboard for the team.

Their first match is against Heroic, which is definitely a easier match for the Brazilian roster. But winning the group is equally important to get a favorable seeding in the playoffs. With teams such as North, Faze Clan occupying the top spot in Group A, B; there is a lot of pressure to win Group D. They are a solid team, but their match against Liquid/Astralis will be too close to call any judgement on the Group yet.

The Danish Kings – Astralis

Astralis remain one of the strongest teams in the tournament. We have not seen them much in the recent days, but the team remains a team with one of the deepest map pools. Their strong T sides on CT oriented maps such as Overpass, Train is well known and feared amongst their peers.

Recent Events :

¼ final at ESL One Cologne 2017

3rd ECS Season 3

3rd PGL Krakow Major

The Danish roster still remains strong and consistent in their performances. We see the Dupreeh + Device duo giving out consistent performances. And yet, it seems to be not enough for Astralis. The Danish roster has fallen from the second rank to the 5th ranked team in CS GO. Their recent results have been quite similar to that of SK Gaming. Both the teams have had multiple 3rd – 4th place finishes in the recent tournaments. This is despite the fact they were undoubtedly the favorites to win many of these tournaments include the PGL Krakow major.

The biggest advantage for Astralis is their coordination and the way they handle their T sides. The Danish roster has sharpened their T side skills and it is often the case that Device gets the entry frag onto their opponents. Their flexibility with their strategies is something that endears them to many and makes them a formidable foe.

Kjaerbye is one of the most consistent performers on the team. His contribution to the team’s performance remains consistently over 70% and he is one of the major contributors for the team. With a kills per round of over 70.3% Kjaerbye is the lynchpin that holds together the extremes of the Danish team in Dupreeh, Device and Xyp9x.

In this group, Astralis are one of the favorites to win the Group and come out at Position 1 of the event. They have lost to Liquid before in a best of three and SK remain a formidable opponent, but they should be able to win the group with considerable ease. Their loss to Liquid remains a one off loss and the Danish roster will be able to understand their mistakes in the past.

Liquid

Liquid have definitely received a boost in their performances recently. With the addition of Twistzz on the roster, the NA Squad has suddenly transformed itself into one of the strongest teams on the scene.

Recent Events :

2nd at ESL One New York

2nd at ESG Mykonos 2017

Group stage at PGL krakow Major

Twistzz has been a part of Liquid since April 2017. The team has been getting along well together in the recent times. Despite suffering a Group stage exit in the Major, the team has been performing strong recently. Their second place finish at both ESL One New York and ESG Mykonos have brought everyone’s attention to them.

The biggest difference for Liquid has been the transformation of Twistzz. He has always been an explosive player and we have seen glimpses of the same during his time with Team Misfits. His ability to consistently deliver results has only helped alleviate a lot of pressure off the shoulders of JDM and Elige. JDM has been able to consistently remain near the top of the scoreboard. JDM remains one of the biggest X factors for Team Liquid. When he is performing well, the team does an excellent job overall. But when JDM underperforms with the AWP, the team struggles immensely. JDM’s lack of skill with the rifle definitely hurts them a lot in the long run.

During the off-season, the team made some changes in the roles for the players. Their Group stage exit at the Major definitely shook them as they have a lot of potential. With Stanislaw stepping down from being the IGL and handing over the reigns to Nitro, the team has been adjusting well to the change so far.

The team however looks extremely strong and we would definitely put them as a strong contender to make it out of the Group stage. The team’s performance in the recent events has been encouraging and is definite to provide them with a lot of confidence as they head into this match. Their first match is against Astralis, which is undoubtedly the more difficult match if they had to choose between Astralis and SK. However it is not an entirely impossible task and LIquid have won a Best of Three against Astralis just recently.

Team Liquid are a strong team and one of the favorites to make it out of the Group. Despite being ranked lower than SK and Astralis, their recent momentum is definitely favoring them.

The Dark Horse – Heroic

The other Danish team in this group is the Dark Horse. We cannot discount them simply cause of their lack of appearances at major events. The Danish roster has proved themselves with sporadic bursts of brilliance which propels them to wins over teams such as North Gaming.

Recent Events :

2nd at Dreamhack Atlanta 2017

3rd at Dreamhack Valencia 2017

3rd at Dreamhack Austin 2017

The quality of events that Heroic has attended is visibly lower than that of the other teams. The Danish team is still struggling with much of their results and their performances are all over the place.

The Heroic Roster has slowly been climbing up the ranks and has been showing significant progress with their performance. They have climbed almost 10 places in the past three months. This is quite significant and they definitely are a team that has a good chance to break into the Top ten with some good results.

That being said, they have a very small chance of actually qualifying to the playoffs. Maybe in some other group, it would have been possible but in Group D (Group of Death?) it is definitely a tall ask. They can however play spoilsport if they manage to win a series against any team. The possibilities are low, but we have seen more improbable things become reality in CS GO.

Group D is one of the most difficult groups out of all the four. With three top teams in this group, it is going to produce some amazing matches. It’s difficult to predict which team will actually make it out of the Groups at this stage but if we were take an educated guess it would be Astralis and Liquid.

You can watch the Matches streamed live on Twitch.

CS:GO livescore & results can be found here

CS:GO matches & predictions can be found here