Introduction

[INDENT]After picking and analyzing the 20 best events of 2016, I'll now go deeper in term of teams results analysis.In this blog, for the first time ever, I'll sometimes leave my mathematical objectivity apart !Indeed, I'll pick my top 10 best winners, biggest surprises and deceptions, of course, with a bit of stats analysis behind those picks ;-)The second part will show you teams results sorted by countries, and some kind of nation ranking because I know you like this subject a lot ![/INDENT]

Best Winners

[INDENT]What I'm calling "best winners" are teams that had a really nice tournament, sometimes without losing a map, sometimes defeating great teams, and of course always being too strong for their opponents. Here are the 30 events and their finals results I'll analyze today.[/INDENT]TOP 1010.Virtus.pro @ DH BucarestGroup1-0 Gambit (16-13)1-0 Heroic (16-6)Playoffs2-1 dignitas (16-4, 14-16, 16-13)2-0 Cloud9 (16-9, 16-9)rating 1.13An easy tournament for Virtus.pro losing only one close map to dignitas. They also had such a run in SL i-League 1 and deserved their name in this ranking.9.fnatic @ IEM KatowiceGroup1-0 NaVi (16-10)0-1 Luminosity (12-16)1-0 NiP (16-14)1-0 TheMongolz (16-6)1-0 mousesports (19-17)Playoffs2-0 Virtus.pro (16-5, 16-8)2-1 Astralis (16-6, 12-16, 16-7)3-0 Luminosity (19-17, 16-3, 19-15)rating 1.11Last fnatic’s win and the most impressive of the year : they had to play quarter finals coming only second of the group phase but managed to defeat Virtus.pro, the home team with its crowd in a convincing fashion.The final match was also epic, fnatic coming back from a 12-3 situation 2 times to burry Luminosity’s hope.8.Cloud9 @ EEPL4 FinalsGroup1-0 FaZe (16-14)1-0 NRG (16-9)0-1 SK (6-16)1-0 NiP (16-9)1-0 dignitas (16-13)Playoffs2-0 OpTic (16-12, 16-2)2-0 mousesports (16-9, 16-10)2-1 SK (17-19, 16-6, 16-5)rating : 1.11Coming from the hardest group, C9 managed to get to the final against home team SK. This was a shocking result since SK was considered clear #1 at this time and Cloud9 pretty much stomped them the last 2 maps.7.fnatic @ ESL BarcelonaGroup0-1 EnVy (10-16)1-0 EnVy (16-13)1-0 gbots (16-13)1-0 dignitas (19-17)1-0 EnVy (16-7)Playoffs2-0 G2 (16-8, 16-7)2-0 Astralis (16-13, 16-4)rating : 1.08It’s not the easiest format for big teams that this 3 lives format is. fnatic has been facing EnVy 3 times in the first rounds because of other teams strategies. Their tournament could have ended sooner since they already lost their first life on the opening match, but they came stronger as usual to win every other map in a good manner, only Astralis coming close from overtime and just losing to flusha’s timeouts.6.NaVi @ ESL ONE New YorkGroup1-0 Liquid (16-9)1-0 Virtus.pro (16-9)1-0 SK (16-6)Playoffs2-1 Liquid (7-16, 16-13, 16-10)2-1 Virtus.pro (3-16, 16-8, 19-17)rating : 1.05Not as perfect run (lost 2 maps, worst rating) than other teams in this top but NaVi had to face strong opponents during the whole tournament and they managed to defeat them pretty easily: Liquid and VP had their chances but NaVi couldn’t let this trophy fly out of their hands once again versus their polish friends.5.SK @ ESL ONE CologneGroup1-0 G2 (16-11)1-0 FaZe (16-6)Playoffs2-0 FlipSid3 (16-7, 19-17)2-1 Virtus.pro (17-19, 16-5, 16-12)2-0 Liquid (16-7, 16-6)rating : 1.16Only losing one map vs Virtus.pro in overtime, SK was really dominant in Cologne. The group of death for breakfast, followed by FlipSid3 and Virtus.pro for lunch but SK was still hungry to devour the poor Liquid’s hopes in the finals.4.NaVi @ DH LeipzigGroup1-0 SK (16-3)1-0 FaZe (16-9)Playoffs2-0 dignitas (16-13, 16-9)2-0 Luminosity (19-16, 19-16)rating 1.11Clean sheet for NaVi who didn’t drop a single map during this event. After defeating good european teams they faced their rivals, Luminosity, who finally managed to defeat them at the previous event. NaVi made us think it could be a one shot from LG, they managed to win both final’s maps in overtime, like they used to do in their previous confrontations.3.NiP @ SL i-League 2Group1-0 HellRaisers (16-10)1-0 GODSENT (16-5)Playoffs2-1 Astralis (6-16, 16-12, 16-6)2-0 Cloud9 (16-9, 16-7)2-0 G2 (16-7, 22-18)rating : 1.09NiP can always be surprising, this year it was all or nothing. Here is their most convincing win: playing with a stand-in (Maikelele), only dropping one map to Astralis and defeating Cloud9 and G2 (seed #2).As always, NiP is writing history with each of its win and we all think it was the last when they failed hard on the next tournament.NiP’s magic has changed, but it still is something, and we have to count on them for such crazy win that this one was !2.Luminosity @ MLG ColumbusGroup1-0 mousesports (16-13)1-0 NiP (16-5)Playoffs2-1 Virtus.pro (17-19, 16-10, 16-11)2-0 Liquid (19-15, 19-16)2-0 NaVi (19-17, 16-2)rating : 1.11The context is : Europe >>> Americas.Americans want to prove something with the first Major coming on their home soil but they have to face european teams like fnatic, NaVi and Virtus.pro who all are looking very strong. The revolution started in group phase when Liquid and Luminosity took down fnatic and NiP. It didn’t stop there, Luminosity defeating Virtus.pro to reach semis for the first time.. against.. Liquid ! The question was not anymore of knowing if EU or America would win the tournament, we (NA people mostly ;-) ) were all convinced it would be between NA or SA winner this time ! This epic semi-final went both maps in overtime and LG’s way. It shouldn’t have been their hardest match on paper because NaVi was standing proud in front of them before the final match, but finally losing an overtime to brazilian broke something into NaVi’s mind. That gave us the first american Major winner : Luminosity.1.Astralis @ ESC 2 FinalsGroup1-0 OpTic (16-7)1-0 FaZe (16-3)Playoffs2-0 SK (16-9, 16-4)2-0 OpTic (16-6, 16-11)rating : 1.27Mmmh, I will watch the last big CS:GO event of the year today.. With the usual delays I should be on time :-) WHAAAAT ?? It’s already finished ??!!Astralis didn’t have time, 11 rounds is the best OpTic could get from them in one map. Astralis are known as chokers but finally they could free their mind and played beautiful CS that pleased every spectator during this event. Congrats danish boys !

Surprises

[INDENT]Here are now the 30 tournaments with the teams that performed better than expected.[/INDENT]Top 1010.3/4th Luminosity (Seed 5/8) @ SL i-League SLTV XIVNotable results2-0 G2 (16-9, 16-7)2-0 NaVi (16-14, 16-9)End of story1-2 fnatic (16-6, 7-16, 14-16)The first 2016 tournament was important for LG to confirm late 2015 surprising results. This tournament offered even more, we saw in them a team that could beat fnatic, and to see them losing in semis was hard because they deserved to play this match in final.9.5/6th Tempo Storm (Seed 11/12) @ IEM KatowiceNotable results1-0 Virtus.pro (16-9)1-0 EnVy (16-7)End of story1-2 NaVi (10-16, 19-15, 13-16)After defeating Virtus.pro in front of their huge crowd and eliminating EnVy, the LG little brothers faced NaVi in the quarter-final match. They fought well and tried all they could to reach LG for a brazilian semi, they pushed NaVi to their limits but finally had to surrender only 3 rounds far from a massive upset.8.1st Virtus.pro (Seed 4/22) @ ELEAGUE 1Notable results2-0 NiP (16-8, 16-9)2-0 mousesports (16-7, 16-10)2-0 fnatic (16-10, 16-8)Virtus.pro struggled hard in the group stage where they lost against EnVy, they managed to get to playoffs with the last chance qualifier and then stomped every other opponents. That’s the way they won this, more than the expectation we had in them that decided me to put them in this top.7.1st NaVi (Seed 5/8) @ ESL ONE New YorkWe already talked about this event in the previous section, but we didn’t mention NaVi was really bad performing before the tournament. This easy wins against Liquid, SK and Virtus.pro were not that expected in the first thoughts.6.2nd Liquid (Seed 9/16) @ ESL ONE CologneNotable results1-0 EnVy (16-7)2-0 mousesports (16-11, 16-6)2-1 NaVi (11-16, 16-12, 16-6)2-0 fnatic (16-13, 16-13)End of story0-2 Liquid (7-16, 6-16)We could have talked about their MLG’s run too but since they managed to do it a second time facing even stronger opponents I thought it was enough with this one.Looking at their matches, it could be weird to see we are only at #6 of our list. Liquid was low seed, not playing really great before the Major but still won some wonderful fights against top european teams, only losing against SK in the grand final.So what could possibly be better than that surprise run ?5.1st G2 (Seed 5/8) @ ECS 1 FinalsNotable results2-0 NiP (16-4, 16-10)2-1 Liquid (12-16, 16-6, 16-11)2-0 fnatic (16-2, 16-13)2-0 Luminosity (16-11, 16-5)We had in fact so much surprising winners this year that it explains why Liquid isn’t even top5..After losing short (2-3) in EEPL3 finals against Luminosity, G2 had their revenge and finally brought a new big trophy to France again. They were rewarded from this victory with the #2 rank in the world.4.1st dignitas (Seed 5/8) @ EPICENTER MoscowNotable results1-1 NaVi (16-6, 9-16)1-1 NiP (12-16, 16-12)1-1 G2 (16-14, 12-16)2-1 fnatic (9-16, 16-4, 16-13)2-1 NaVi (16-9, 13-16, 16-12)2-1 Virtus.pro (11-16, 16-5, 16-5)EPICENTER came at a time we didn’t have clear #1 anymore, so people liked to say it was the tournament that would decide the king of the world and solidify the ranking. With SK, Virtus.pro, NaVi and NiP, we had the 4 last big events winners and we were almost certain the EPICENTER winner would be one of this contender.dignitas chose this time to surprise everybody ! They qualified to playoffs with a 11 rounds lead over NiP who got cruelly eliminated. Then they didn’t struggle that much, always winning 2 maps in a good fashion against very european rivals.3.1st Nip (Seed 6/16) @ DH MalmöNotable results2-1 Astralis (16-5, 9-16, 16-12)2-0 Virtus.pro (16-12, 16-12)2-1 GODSENT (16-14, 16-19, 16-10)2-0 NaVi (16-14, 16-14)It could be surprising to see NiP that high in my surprises ranking. My numbers didn’t place them that high but triggered me a bit. Indeed, NiP won 3 tournaments this year and it was almost always impossible to predict their win because of their bad form in previous tournaments, I chose this event because the seeding difference was the highest and also because I wanted to talk about GODSENT and TyLoo who deserved a bit of words about their performances too !Starting with NiP, after an early loss vs dignitas in the group stage, they passed Astralis (Seed #3) test to get to the single elimination playoffs. It was still early to dream of a swedish winner in Malmö but next round vs Virtus.pro finally put stars again in the NiP fans eyes. Winning the swedish fight against GODSENT, they could finally get close to a trophy again, only team remaining being NaVi. This was a great match, that gave faith again to NiP fans, because in both maps they were behind and managed to come back to win shortly 16-14. From nowhere to the top, we knew NiP would be a great force to count on this year.. sometimes!GODSENT before losing to NiP in the semis, went 2-0 in group phase defeating NaVi and G2. They also beat 2-0 CLG in quarters, to finally being eliminated after 3 tense maps against their big brother. Wonderfull tournament for this new team, promising for the rest of the year..TyLoo didn’t go as far in the event but created the biggest wave: eliminating Luminosity 2-1 in group stage was so chocking that brazilian completely forgot about the 7-1 story..The chinese looked really prepared, especially on Cache, and played every duels like there were the last and most important ones, it paid!2.1st Cloud9 (Seed 4/11) @ EEPL4 FinalsThis was already discussed in the previous section too, we didn’t mention this event happened in Brazil for the first time and SK was promised to win the trophy. Combined with the fact NA teams didn’t show up for a long time beside Liquid in Majors, it was really difficult to predict Cloud9 would come on top of the world for this 4th EEPL season.1.1st OpTic (Seed 12/16) @ ELEAGUE 2Notable results0-1 fnatic (17-19)2-1 EnVy (16-3, 13-16, 16-8)2-0 fnatic (16-5, 16-11)2-0 mousesports (16-7, 16-11)2-0 FaZe (16-3, 16-12)2-1 Astralis (9-16, 16-6, 16-11)This is clearly the biggest upset this year, despite playing better with mixwell, Optic wasn’t considered at all as a good team. They were ranked 13th before the tournament and nobody was really focussing on their results. When they got to playoffs after beating EnVy and fnatic in convincing ways, people started to look at them and wondering how far they could go. The draw was indeed very favorable to them, but we know all can happen in sport and an easy path to victory is not an easy victory. OpTic played well every matches of those playoffs, they demolished some teams especially on Overpass, to win this prestigious event and claim a spot in the tier1 list !

Underperformances

"Top" 1010.7/8th Astralis (Seed 3/8) @ EEPL3 FinalsHighway to Hell0-1 OpTic (7-16)1-2 Luminosity (16-9, 12-16, 13-16)Losing the opening match against a low ranked OpTic didn’t go well for Astralis because they were forced to play an elimination match against Luminosity who also lost to G2. This could have been a greater upset, Astralis leading 1-0 against LG and still leading in the other 2 maps. But as always, choke came real and LG won shortly those 2 maps leaving Astralis with a poor last place finish.9.9/10 dignitas (Seed 1/11) @ EEPL4 FinalsHighway to Hell0-1 FaZe (7-16)0-1 SK (7-16)0-1 Cloud9 (13-16)Seed 1 ! Despite SK being favorite and on their home soil to play this event, dignitas was not far behind and ranked higher in the rankings. We all expected something from this team who recently won EPICENTER against that same SK team. It started well, going 2-0 in the round robin stage by defeating NRG and NiP, but the last and most important win never came, meaning dignitas went out with a sad 2-3 record and left São Paulo earlier we had expected..8.8th G2 (Seed 3/8) @ ESL New YorkHighway to Hell0-1 Astralis (13-16)0-1 Liquid (7-16)0-1 OpTic (7-16)2 finals and a win during the srping, despite not passing the Major group phase, G2 was considered one of the best team in the world. Unfortunately for them, it seems the swiss format didn’t go well in New York, going last with a 0-3 record ! Astralis deserve to be mentioned too, finishing 1-3 just winning G2.7.7/8th Virtus.pro (Seed 3/8) @ DH LeipzigHighway to Hell0-1 mousesports (5-16)1-2 dignitas (16-11, 7-16, 20-22)In the early 2016 we weren’t that used to big teams upsets. Of course there were some of them in 2015, Virtus.pro being often part of them, but we didn’t expect them to start that bad the year. Nothing else to say about it, they lost 2 games against top20 teams and that’s it.6.9/12th Luminosity (Seed 1/16) @ DH MalmöHighway to Hell0-1 mousesports (7-16)1-2 TyLoo (14-16, 16-7, 12-16)I talked a bit about TyLoo in the surprises top, the other side of the story is as much surprising. Luminosity won the opening match against the chinese, but had to face them again in the decider. TyLoo only winning on overtime against Liquid didn’t bother brazilian players who certainly thought it would be as easy as the first game. But it wasn’t, and even with a good second map, Luminosity didn’t manage to play 100% confident as they used to do and finally lost the match on Inferno.5.7/8 NiP (Seed 2/8) and Astralis (Seed 4/8)@ ECS 1 FinalsNiPHighway to Hell0-1 Luminosity (12-16)0-2 G2 (4-16, 10-16)AstralisHighway to Hell0-1 TSM (12-16)0-2 Cloud9 (9-16, 8-16)We weren’t used to see EU placing last in those international league finals. NiP and Astralis managed to get last place without winning a map, impressive ! One month after their win @ DH Malmö, it’s really sad to see NiP finishing last, but it’s even worst to see Astralis losing to NA teams without being able to take more than 12 rounds..4.13/16th G2 (Seed 2/16) and EnVy (Seed 6/16)@ ESL ONE CologneG2Highway to Hell0-1 SK (11-16)0-1 fnatic (13-16)EnVyHighway to Hell0-1 Liquid (7-16)0-1 mousesports (12-16)We knew G2 could come last of this death group, the draw is my deception and not the results even if it’s another chance to go to the playoffs left behind for G2. But EnVy already went out last of their group on the last Major, it was the time to bump but they failed miserably at it . #JesuisParis.3.13/16th Virtus.pro (Seed 1/16) and NaVi (Seed 4/16)@ i-League 2Virtus.proHighway to Hell0-1 CyberZen (7-16)0-1 EnVy (8-16)NaViHighway to Hell0-1 TyLoo (10-16)0-1 Astralis (16-19)China revolution : round 2 ! Both favorites (VP seed 1 and NaVi at home) were taken down on their opening match versus chinese teams. Then losing to EnVy and Astralis to go out last is really astonishing !2.EnVy in february/marchHow to choose a tournament where EnVy performed bad ? Just look at all of them during those two months !After their win @ GameShow Finals, they had a bad surprise in Barcelona where a danish alliance broke them to end their tournament at a 5th place only putting Vexed and 2 spanish teams behind them.Katowice should have been better for them, no strange format, just a round robin stage. But only winning FaZe and losing to VP, Astralis, Tempo Storm and even E-Frag isn’t enough to finish somewhere else than last..From 2nd place, EnVy has now dropped to 5th.Going to Columbus as the last Major winner, EnVy wants to prove it’s still a top team! But the curse isn’t over, and 2 shorts maps against CLG and Gambit broke their final hopes and concluded 2 horrible months for them.. Sad EnVy :-(1.NiP @ ELEAGUE Major QualifierHighway to Hell0-1 HellRaisers (17-19)0-1 OpTic (9-16)0-1 Vega Squadron (2-16)From Heaven to Hell. That’s how to describe NiP’s path trough the different Majors tournaments.You all know what happened here and that NiP was 1-0 when they didn’t manage to close out their 2nd map against HellRaisers. But still, this should have meant NiP going to 5th round and decider match. But.. WHAT ? Vega Squadron? Who ? Ok 2 rounds.. Humm. I don’t know what to say, just the biggest upset of this year, one map, the last one, to conclude this year the weirdest fashion we could !

Year in graphs

[INDENT]Just for fun, we can rank the different regions of the world in CS according to their results.Graphs represent the performances of the teams during the year: placements, win ratios, opponents, rating are parameters taken into account to create this indicator.100 is the winning team score, of course.[/INDENT]10. Africa9. Australia8. Asia7. Europe6. France5. North America4. Denmark3. Brazil2. Eastern Europe1. Sweden

Thanks for reading ! I hope You liked this blog !

topeiko