Souma Profile Blog Joined May 2010 2nd Worst City in CA 8905 Posts Last Edited: 2015-07-08 23:35:08 #1







At the end of every tournament is a period of reflection for all teams who underachieved. In this issue, we ask the pivotal question of, "What went wrong?" for the teams that bottomed out during the ESL ESEA LAN Finals.









Luminosity Gaming



Team SoloMid



Keyd Stars



Team EnVyUs









Coming into the ESL ESEA LAN Finals as North America's third seed, Luminosity Gaming was a relatively difficult team to predict. Their play and tactics were more polished than most of their American counterparts', but the fact that this was the team's first international LAN raised questions concerning whether or not they could perform up to par. Luckily for them, they were situated in the easier group as both Fnatic and Team SoloMid—the top two teams in the world—were placed in Group B. Things would not go well for the American (+1 Swede) hopefuls, however.







Their first match pitted them against the Polish veterans of Virtus.pro. The map pick? Cobblestone. This was a peculiar pick as the Poles were far from weak on the map, having played a nail-biter against Fnatic—arguably the best Cobblestone team in the world—at ESL One Katowice on the same turf. One can only chalk up the map pick to Luminosity preferring a map they were comfortable on as they've sported a 7-1 record on the map since May, and also a map they did plenty of opposition research on prior to the tournament.



A close listen into their in-game comms will show that they did research the Poles to some extent, but they were demolished nonetheless. So what went wrong?



It can be said that Luminosity got a cold hard slap from the reality known as competition. While preparation is always necessary, the ability to adapt to your opponent during the game is even more important. Though Luminosity won the pistol round while starting on the Counter-Terrorist side, they lost the following round as they stacked four towards B and left Peter "ptr" Gurney alone at A long. This begs the question: Is it really necessary to put more than three B against a pistol and armor force buy? One would think not.



ptr would be traded long which allowed Virtus.pro to take control of both long and mid. A full-on execute into the A site a moment later would all but secure the round for the Polish side.



Luminosity managed to win the first gun round as they had two players watch drop with one defending the upper B push, but their decision the following round to keep three B hurt them. VP would work A—once again—to great success, while the rotate from B was heavily delayed due to the distraction created by a single lurker. While the team realized there was only one B, they failed to properly rotate to defend the A site, and the round was subsequently over thanks to an easy clutch by Jarosław "pasha" Jarząbkowski. The lost round culminated into a save by the Americans, and the score was now 2-5.



The half would follow the same tune throughout with Luminosity scraping a round only to lose the next and eco. Their economy was never set which led to a disastrous half. On Round 14, with a couple Famas equipped, Luminosity decided to place two long A with three watching upper B, leaving mid and drop wide open. Unfortunately for the Americans, Virtus.pro decided to do a full rush up middle, and the round was over from there. While Luminosity managed to save three rifles, their buy was still less than ideal for the last round of the half. That proved insufficient as ptr and Alexander "LeX" Deily were traded out middle, giving VP access to the A site once again. The half ended at 4-11, with the American side in the dumps.



The second half started similarly poor as Luminosity was unable to claim the pistol round. ptr and LeX both pushed through the smoke at mid doors which resulted in Smoke Master Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski landing two easy kills, and the round collapsed from there. After a double eco and the score at 4-14, Luminosity opted to put pressure on B with a TSM smoke blocking the broken wall section and pyth pushing up upper. The Swede would be greeted with a slew of nades and was forced to retreat with red health. At this time, VP already had four positioned at B due to a quick rotate, but Luminosity chose to execute onto the site regardless. The game would end as quickly as it had started, with Luminosity only scrounging a total of four rounds.



The elimination match featured Luminosity against Team EnVyUs, a team they may have not expected to play as Cloud9 defeated the French squad in the previous match. Luminosity seemed prepared nonetheless, and this match started off much better for the Americans on Dust 2.



Though Luminosity lost the pistol round as they started on the Terrorist side, they were able to string together the three rounds following their double eco with clean executes up cat. In the seventh round, with the score tied 3-3, ptr would call for a quick mid-to-B which was the perfect call as EnVyUs had only one watching tunnels and one watching middle. Despite this, a clumsy, uncoordinated execute would render Luminosity unable to trade out Richard "shoxie" Papillon at B doors.



In the following round, a molotov thrown by the French team towards long A doors signaled to ptr that Nathan "NBK" Schmitt was playing long solo, and he was right. Luminosity executed into long and managed to trade out NBK while earning an additional kill on Edward "SmithZz" Dubourdeaux as he rotated for the assist. With two quick kills and plenty of time left in the round, ptr called for the cancel and rotated out of long doors, but his carelessness resulted in his and Jacob "pyth" Mourujärvi's deaths as shoxie was already positioned to flank and the American in-game leader failed to check a critical corner. An additional whiff from Todd "anger" Williams on Vincent "Happy" Cervoni as the French leader pushed out long doors put Keith "NAF-FLY" Markovic in a one versus two that he was unable to clutch, handing a second round in a row to EnVyUs.



The half would end at 6-9 for the Americans as all attempts for a mid-to-B split were easily thwarted. Though they did manage to secure the B site in the final round of the half, that was mainly due to Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey getting picked early as he pushed out of B and into the upper tunnel. In the second half, Luminosity would once again lose the pistol round, but this time the American squad was able to use a double scout setup to great success as they allowed their team to clean up the cat push and bring the round home for Luminosity.



ptr and co. would not be able to capitalize on any momentum, however, as a sloppy mid-to-B defense gave EnVyUs the site cleanly. Forced to save in Round 19, the score would end up 7-12. In Round 20, EnVyUs opted for another B split, but LeX and NAF were better prepared and managed to trade out three before they fell. Despite this, a careless push by ptr through mid doors concluded in him getting picked off by the Happy lurk, and the last two remaining members were unable to trade out the lone Terrorist in the B site as they decided to go through window one by one. Luminosity would eventually end the match at 7-16 and not much to show.



While their match against Virtus.pro was mainly a result of a failure to properly adapt, Luminosity's match against EnVyUs was more a consequence of bad coordination and individual display. The holes in their game were immense, but this is a squad that's trending up. With great emotional leadership in both ptr and LeX and the former continuing to grow as an in-game leader, this team can certainly go places. However, to compete against the very best, roster changes may be necessary. More than anything, the team needs a closer, much like Cloud9 before they recruited Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham. The addition of a reliable anchor would go a long way as well. With Coach He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in the background, this team is bound for improvement.





Written by Souma

Coming into the ESL ESEA LAN Finals as North America's third seed,Luminosity Gaming was a relatively difficult team to predict. Their play and tactics were more polished than most of their American counterparts', but the fact that this was the team's first international LAN raised questions concerning whether or not they could perform up to par. Luckily for them, they were situated in the easier group as bothFnatic andTeam SoloMid—the top two teams in the world—were placed in Group B. Things would not go well for the American (+1 Swede) hopefuls, however.Their first match pitted them against the Polish veterans ofVirtus.pro. The map pick? Cobblestone. This was a peculiar pick as the Poles were far from weak on the map, having played a nail-biter against Fnatic—arguably the best Cobblestone team in the world—at ESL One Katowice on the same turf. One can only chalk up the map pick to Luminosity preferring a map they were comfortable on as they've sported a 7-1 record on the map since May, and also a map they did plenty of opposition research on prior to the tournament.A close listen into their in-game comms will show that they did research the Poles to some extent, but they were demolished nonetheless. So what went wrong?It can be said that Luminosity got a cold hard slap from the reality known as competition. While preparation is always necessary, the ability to adapt to your opponent during the game is even more important. Though Luminosity won the pistol round while starting on the Counter-Terrorist side, they lost the following round as they stacked four towards B and leftPeter "ptr" Gurney alone at A long. This begs the question: Is it really necessary to put more than three B against a pistol and armor force buy? One would think not.ptr would be traded long which allowed Virtus.pro to take control of both long and mid. A full-on execute into the A site a moment later would all but secure the round for the Polish side.Luminosity managed to win the first gun round as they had two players watch drop with one defending the upper B push, but their decision the following round to keep three B hurt them. VP would work A—once again—to great success, while the rotate from B was heavily delayed due to the distraction created by a single lurker. While the team realized there was only one B, they failed to properly rotate to defend the A site, and the round was subsequently over thanks to an easy clutch byJarosław "pasha" Jarząbkowski. The lost round culminated into a save by the Americans, and the score was now 2-5.The half would follow the same tune throughout with Luminosity scraping a round only to lose the next and eco. Their economy was never set which led to a disastrous half. On Round 14, with a couple Famas equipped, Luminosity decided to place two long A with three watching upper B, leaving mid and drop wide open. Unfortunately for the Americans, Virtus.pro decided to do a full rush up middle, and the round was over from there. While Luminosity managed to save three rifles, their buy was still less than ideal for the last round of the half. That proved insufficient as ptr andAlexander "LeX" Deily were traded out middle, giving VP access to the A site once again. The half ended at 4-11, with the American side in the dumps.The second half started similarly poor as Luminosity was unable to claim the pistol round. ptr and LeX both pushed through the smoke at mid doors which resulted in Smoke MasterJanusz "Snax" Pogorzelski landing two easy kills, and the round collapsed from there. After a double eco and the score at 4-14, Luminosity opted to put pressure on B with a TSM smoke blocking the broken wall section and pyth pushing up upper. The Swede would be greeted with a slew of nades and was forced to retreat with red health. At this time, VP already had four positioned at B due to a quick rotate, but Luminosity chose to execute onto the site regardless. The game would end as quickly as it had started, with Luminosity only scrounging a total of four rounds.The elimination match featured Luminosity againstTeam EnVyUs, a team they may have not expected to play asCloud9 defeated the French squad in the previous match. Luminosity seemed prepared nonetheless, and this match started off much better for the Americans on Dust 2.Though Luminosity lost the pistol round as they started on the Terrorist side, they were able to string together the three rounds following their double eco with clean executes up cat. In the seventh round, with the score tied 3-3, ptr would call for a quick mid-to-B which was the perfect call as EnVyUs had only one watching tunnels and one watching middle. Despite this, a clumsy, uncoordinated execute would render Luminosity unable to trade outRichard "shoxie" Papillon at B doors.In the following round, a molotov thrown by the French team towards long A doors signaled to ptr thatNathan "NBK" Schmitt was playing long solo, and he was right. Luminosity executed into long and managed to trade out NBK while earning an additional kill onEdward "SmithZz" Dubourdeaux as he rotated for the assist. With two quick kills and plenty of time left in the round, ptr called for the cancel and rotated out of long doors, but his carelessness resulted in his andJacob "pyth" Mourujärvi's deaths as shoxie was already positioned to flank and the American in-game leader failed to check a critical corner. An additional whiff fromTodd "anger" Williams onVincent "Happy" Cervoni as the French leader pushed out long doors putKeith "NAF-FLY" Markovic in a one versus two that he was unable to clutch, handing a second round in a row to EnVyUs.The half would end at 6-9 for the Americans as all attempts for a mid-to-B split were easily thwarted. Though they did manage to secure the B site in the final round of the half, that was mainly due toFabien "kioShiMa" Fiey getting picked early as he pushed out of B and into the upper tunnel. In the second half, Luminosity would once again lose the pistol round, but this time the American squad was able to use a double scout setup to great success as they allowed their team to clean up the cat push and bring the round home for Luminosity.ptr and co. would not be able to capitalize on any momentum, however, as a sloppy mid-to-B defense gave EnVyUs the site cleanly. Forced to save in Round 19, the score would end up 7-12. In Round 20, EnVyUs opted for another B split, but LeX and NAF were better prepared and managed to trade out three before they fell. Despite this, a careless push by ptr through mid doors concluded in him getting picked off by the Happy lurk, and the last two remaining members were unable to trade out the lone Terrorist in the B site as they decided to go through window one by one. Luminosity would eventually end the match at 7-16 and not much to show.While their match against Virtus.pro was mainly a result of a failure to properly adapt, Luminosity's match against EnVyUs was more a consequence of bad coordination and individual display. The holes in their game were immense, but this is a squad that's trending up. With great emotional leadership in both ptr and LeX and the former continuing to grow as an in-game leader, this team can certainly go places. However, to compete against the very best, roster changes may be necessary. More than anything, the team needs a closer, much like Cloud9 before they recruitedTyler "Skadoodle" Latham. The addition of a reliable anchor would go a long way as well. With Coach He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in the background, this team is bound for improvement.Written by Souma





After their acquisition by Team SoloMid, the former Team Dignitas squad has come into their own. With Finn “karrigan” Andersen meshing with his new teammates, the Danes have developed a dangerous synergy. Within months, they have gone from a solid Tier 2 team to a blossoming Tier 1 team, taking maps and sets off of some of the world’s greatest, most notably Fnatic. Back-to-back LAN wins at Fragbite Masters and FACEIT proved that the young team had wrestled their way into the upper echelon of CS. But this weekend, the team appeared to fall flat on their faces. A loss to Keyd Stars and Fnatic, who they’ve fared well against in the past, set up a harsh reality. One map. A single map separated TSM between a shot at $100K and being complete and utter busters.







So what exactly went wrong?



The most interesting match was the cross-continental showdown between the Danes and Keyd Stars. The Brazilian team, while a promising prospect to watch, are not at the level of Fnatic, Team EnVyUs or even TSM. But best of ones are a fickle mistress.



In the first half, TSM was clearly unprepared for the aggressive play from the South Americans. Keyd exploded with multiple entry kills and quick pick-offs, giving them easy wins round after round. These successive wins only further deepened the hole that TSM was digging, as they did little in their eco rounds to slow the tide. To TSM’s credit, they were able to maintain composure and muster a comeback. However, the damage had been done. Keyd managed to secure five rounds in a row, giving them a steady advantage and mental edge going into the second half.



TSM’s failure in the second half of Inferno was largely the same as their failure on CT Overpass: a lack of map control, compounded by a strong, opposing team with no fear. Lucas “steel“ Lopes and Ricardo “boltz” Prass worked hard to shut down TSM’s attempts to plant when the round managed to progress that far. More often than not, the tide of battle was decided in a botched entry from TSM, making rotations difficult. Keyd adapted fast and were able to pick off key players as they were in the motions of setting up a take or a planned execute. Rotations were an issue even when the Danes had a full roster. They were either too slow or simply too predictable and were easily dismantled by Keyd. It will be interesting in the future to see if the Brazilians can continue their success or if their style will be figured out and countered by the top teams.



Now let’s look at the match that eliminated them from the tournament: Fnatic. The Swedes were fresh off of their win at DreamHack and were able to top the regular season of ESL ESEA with a 17-5 record. Team cohesion seemed to be stronger than ever with smooth rotations and well-executed strategies. They were able to adopt several styles of play with sharp, fast rush plays complementing a usual chokehold style of slow, methodical compression. The latter style was the most important for this match.



In the first half, TSM seemed to be slightly trigger-happy. There were several instances where TSM opted not to shoulder peek to try and gain information before engaging. Instead, they opted to dive right in. Despite having excellent entry fraggers, their risky plays often yielded little reward. The trigger-happy Danes found themselves down one or two men at the start of rounds or down a key member in clutch situations due to an early jump. As a result, TSM was forced into several eco rounds or half buys. In these rounds, Fnatic simply out-aimed them and played even more aggressively and compact to prevent pick-offs and lurking plays.



In the second half, TSM fundamentally failed at the basic CT-half strategy on Overpass: assert map control. Fnatic’s movement was almost unimpeded, allowing them to set up precise rotations and strong rushes on bombsites. This free reign also led to Jesper “JW” Wecksell channeling Charles X and tearing through the Danes. In contrast, TSM had little AWP presence with only a handful of pickoffs. These issues were not glaring, nor did they set up TSM for a terrible failure. A 14-16 score line is nothing to be ashamed of, but the loss was preventable.



The worst part of the losses was that they were close. Losing by two or three maps is far more stressful than losing by eight or nine. Victory was so close, so achievable. The problems were small enough to fly by, but not big enough to be glaring and a major detractor from the Danes’ play. The issues were ones that are solved simply through time and experience. The only stylistic alteration that needs to be made is instilling some patience in the squad. With these losses under their belt, expect TSM to come back stronger than ever at their next event.





Written by peanuts



After their acquisition by Team SoloMid, the formerTeam Dignitas squad has come into their own. WithFinn “karrigan” Andersen meshing with his new teammates, the Danes have developed a dangerous synergy. Within months, they have gone from a solid Tier 2 team to a blossoming Tier 1 team, taking maps and sets off of some of the world’s greatest, most notablyFnatic. Back-to-back LAN wins at Fragbite Masters and FACEIT proved that the young team had wrestled their way into the upper echelon of CS. But this weekend, the team appeared to fall flat on their faces. A loss toKeyd Stars and Fnatic, who they’ve fared well against in the past, set up a harsh reality. One map. A single map separated TSM between a shot at $100K and being complete and utter busters.So what exactly went wrong?The most interesting match was the cross-continental showdown between the Danes and Keyd Stars. The Brazilian team, while a promising prospect to watch, are not at the level of Fnatic,Team EnVyUs or even TSM. But best of ones are a fickle mistress.In the first half, TSM was clearly unprepared for the aggressive play from the South Americans. Keyd exploded with multiple entry kills and quick pick-offs, giving them easy wins round after round. These successive wins only further deepened the hole that TSM was digging, as they did little in their eco rounds to slow the tide. To TSM’s credit, they were able to maintain composure and muster a comeback. However, the damage had been done. Keyd managed to secure five rounds in a row, giving them a steady advantage and mental edge going into the second half.TSM’s failure in the second half of Inferno was largely the same as their failure on CT Overpass: a lack of map control, compounded by a strong, opposing team with no fear.Lucas “steel“ Lopes andRicardo “boltz” Prass worked hard to shut down TSM’s attempts to plant when the round managed to progress that far. More often than not, the tide of battle was decided in a botched entry from TSM, making rotations difficult. Keyd adapted fast and were able to pick off key players as they were in the motions of setting up a take or a planned execute. Rotations were an issue even when the Danes had a full roster. They were either too slow or simply too predictable and were easily dismantled by Keyd. It will be interesting in the future to see if the Brazilians can continue their success or if their style will be figured out and countered by the top teams.Now let’s look at the match that eliminated them from the tournament: Fnatic. The Swedes were fresh off of their win at DreamHack and were able to top the regular season of ESL ESEA with a 17-5 record. Team cohesion seemed to be stronger than ever with smooth rotations and well-executed strategies. They were able to adopt several styles of play with sharp, fast rush plays complementing a usual chokehold style of slow, methodical compression. The latter style was the most important for this match.In the first half, TSM seemed to be slightly trigger-happy. There were several instances where TSM opted not to shoulder peek to try and gain information before engaging. Instead, they opted to dive right in. Despite having excellent entry fraggers, their risky plays often yielded little reward. The trigger-happy Danes found themselves down one or two men at the start of rounds or down a key member in clutch situations due to an early jump. As a result, TSM was forced into several eco rounds or half buys. In these rounds, Fnatic simply out-aimed them and played even more aggressively and compact to prevent pick-offs and lurking plays.In the second half, TSM fundamentally failed at the basic CT-half strategy on Overpass: assert map control. Fnatic’s movement was almost unimpeded, allowing them to set up precise rotations and strong rushes on bombsites. This free reign also led toJesper “JW” Wecksell channeling Charles X and tearing through the Danes. In contrast, TSM had little AWP presence with only a handful of pickoffs. These issues were not glaring, nor did they set up TSM for a terrible failure. A 14-16 score line is nothing to be ashamed of, but the loss was preventable.The worst part of the losses was that they were close. Losing by two or three maps is far more stressful than losing by eight or nine. Victory was so close, so achievable. The problems were small enough to fly by, but not big enough to be glaring and a major detractor from the Danes’ play. The issues were ones that are solved simply through time and experience. The only stylistic alteration that needs to be made is instilling some patience in the squad. With these losses under their belt, expect TSM to come back stronger than ever at their next event.Written by peanuts





Keyd Stars are a wildcard. The team first came into the scene this past winter at MLG Aspen and Clutch Con where they scored upsets over Team eLevate and Cloud9. Through an incredible crowdfunding effort, the squad was able to stay in North America and qualify for ESL One Katowice. At Katowice 2015, Keyd made it to the quarterfinals over Counter Logic Gaming and HellRaisers, earning themselves an invitation at the next major. Most impressively, they took Virtus.pro to the edge in the best-of-three series.







The Brazilian team only dropped a handful of maps during the ESL ESEA North American regular season, finishing second behind Cloud9. However, heading into the LAN finals, the team switched the role of in-game leader from Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo to Caio “zqk” Fonseca, who is also the team's main awper. It remains to be seen if this change was for the better.



Their run at the ESL ESEA Pro League finals started off with a bang. Keyd was an underdog going into their first matchup on Inferno against the Danish powerhouse of Team SoloMid. After a failed pistol round, Keyd stabilized well, executing an exceptional eight rounds on the Terrorist side. Fernando “fer” Alvarenga led the defense as the Counter-Terrorists, managing a 1.87 K/D overall and helped close out the game with a 16-12 scoreline, knocking TSM into the lower bracket. Keyd showed that they weren’t afraid to take risks through force buying or stacking sites. They played smart, and didn’t carelessly throw away rounds when at an advantage.



Their next match was against CLG, a team that—until this event—they had never lost to, whether it be online or on LAN. Things started well as the Brazilians took the pistol on Cache and the next three rounds but dropped an eco in the fifth round, at which point the game seemed to inch away from them. Throughout the first half, Keyd often gave up control of mid which gave CLG a lot of real estate to work with and capitalized on. The end-of-half scoreline was worrisome at 8-7, and thus began Keyd’s decline in this event.



It seemed that Keyd were either overconfident or did not research their opponent well enough. After dropping the pistol round thanks to a brutal double kill from Tarik “tarik” Celik, Keyd only managed a single round on the Terrorist side. Keyd missed crucial entry frags most of the second half, resulting in many rounds with a man disadvantage early on. They did well damaging CLG’s economy by taking members of the enemy team down with them, but often executed into a stacked CT site and played right into their opponents’ hands.



Meeting Fnatic in the lower bracket, questions surrounded Keyd’s map picks. They banned out Cache first, which was understandable after their loss to CLG the day before. However, they picked Inferno first; a map of which Fnatic is considered to be the best in the world. While Inferno was the same map they had upset TSM on, it could easily be argued that Mirage would’ve been the better choice as Fnatic had dropped the map to CLG the day before.



Inferno was a disaster for Keyd. The team found momentum with an early force buy that paid off, but were quickly stunted once Fnatic was able to level their economy. As Fnatic moved between their predetermined positions on the map, Keyd made the read easy for the enemy team, bouncing around like pinballs and giving up positioning by process of elimination. With the loss bonus in full effect, Keyd only managed a disappointing three rounds on their T side. This may be in part due to zqk’s shotcalling style as their executions were notably slower which gave Fnatic proper time to gain information and set up crossfires. As CT, the half had a similar start with Keyd gaining an early edge thanks to the help of a huge triple kill by fer who was holding down the alley between boiler and truck during the pistol round. However, with a mountain of match points to overcome, Fnatic ultimately established their dominance with a fast A take in round 22, finishing the map out at 16-6.



In the second map, the team brought Fnatic into overtime on Train using a double AWP setup for the majority of playtime. Keyd played very well with the strategy they were running, but it acted as somewhat of a crutch. Regulation time consisted of a series of peek and bait battles around the trains with some aggressive positioning on the A site during Keyd’s T side that Fnatic easily collapsed on with quick rotations. Keyd may have been able to close this map out on CT had their economy not constantly been in the gutter for the majority of the game after losing their expensive buys. Taking this strategy into overtime with them was a major blunder on the Brazilians’ part. After losing the first round in OT, Keyd’s economy was destroyed for the rest of the half because of the expensive first round purchases. Just like that, their semifinal hopes were extinguished.



Overall, Keyd will have to work on their consistency heading into ESL One Cologne if they want to contend. The win over TSM was huge and proves that this roster is capable of big things if they do their homework and put the time in, but it’s all for naught if the next map is dropped to a team that they face week in and week out already on home turf. Not preparing for CLG is one thing, but not respecting Fnatic’s Inferno is an entirely different story. Hopefully before Cologne, Keyd will put aside some time to study their mistakes.





Written by Dylux

Keyd Stars are a wildcard. The team first came into the scene this past winter at MLG Aspen and Clutch Con where they scored upsets overTeam eLevate andCloud9. Through an incredible crowdfunding effort, the squad was able to stay in North America and qualify for ESL One Katowice. At Katowice 2015, Keyd made it to the quarterfinals overCounter Logic Gaming andHellRaisers, earning themselves an invitation at the next major. Most impressively, they tookVirtus.pro to the edge in the best-of-three series.The Brazilian team only dropped a handful of maps during the ESL ESEA North American regular season, finishing second behind Cloud9. However, heading into the LAN finals, the team switched the role of in-game leader fromGabriel “FalleN” Toledo toCaio “zqk” Fonseca, who is also the team's main awper. It remains to be seen if this change was for the better.Their run at the ESL ESEA Pro League finals started off with a bang. Keyd was an underdog going into their first matchup on Inferno against the Danish powerhouse ofTeam SoloMid. After a failed pistol round, Keyd stabilized well, executing an exceptional eight rounds on the Terrorist side.Fernando “fer” Alvarenga led the defense as the Counter-Terrorists, managing a 1.87 K/D overall and helped close out the game with a 16-12 scoreline, knocking TSM into the lower bracket. Keyd showed that they weren’t afraid to take risks through force buying or stacking sites. They played smart, and didn’t carelessly throw away rounds when at an advantage.Their next match was against CLG, a team that—until this event—they had never lost to, whether it be online or on LAN. Things started well as the Brazilians took the pistol on Cache and the next three rounds but dropped an eco in the fifth round, at which point the game seemed to inch away from them. Throughout the first half, Keyd often gave up control of mid which gave CLG a lot of real estate to work with and capitalized on. The end-of-half scoreline was worrisome at 8-7, and thus began Keyd’s decline in this event.It seemed that Keyd were either overconfident or did not research their opponent well enough. After dropping the pistol round thanks to a brutal double kill fromTarik “tarik” Celik, Keyd only managed a single round on the Terrorist side. Keyd missed crucial entry frags most of the second half, resulting in many rounds with a man disadvantage early on. They did well damaging CLG’s economy by taking members of the enemy team down with them, but often executed into a stacked CT site and played right into their opponents’ hands.MeetingFnatic in the lower bracket, questions surrounded Keyd’s map picks. They banned out Cache first, which was understandable after their loss to CLG the day before. However, they picked Inferno first; a map of which Fnatic is considered to be the best in the world. While Inferno was the same map they had upset TSM on, it could easily be argued that Mirage would’ve been the better choice as Fnatic had dropped the map to CLG the day before.Inferno was a disaster for Keyd. The team found momentum with an early force buy that paid off, but were quickly stunted once Fnatic was able to level their economy. As Fnatic moved between their predetermined positions on the map, Keyd made the read easy for the enemy team, bouncing around like pinballs and giving up positioning by process of elimination. With the loss bonus in full effect, Keyd only managed a disappointing three rounds on their T side. This may be in part due to zqk’s shotcalling style as their executions were notably slower which gave Fnatic proper time to gain information and set up crossfires. As CT, the half had a similar start with Keyd gaining an early edge thanks to the help of a huge triple kill by fer who was holding down the alley between boiler and truck during the pistol round. However, with a mountain of match points to overcome, Fnatic ultimately established their dominance with a fast A take in round 22, finishing the map out at 16-6.In the second map, the team brought Fnatic into overtime on Train using a double AWP setup for the majority of playtime. Keyd played very well with the strategy they were running, but it acted as somewhat of a crutch. Regulation time consisted of a series of peek and bait battles around the trains with some aggressive positioning on the A site during Keyd’s T side that Fnatic easily collapsed on with quick rotations. Keyd may have been able to close this map out on CT had their economy not constantly been in the gutter for the majority of the game after losing their expensive buys. Taking this strategy into overtime with them was a major blunder on the Brazilians’ part. After losing the first round in OT, Keyd’s economy was destroyed for the rest of the half because of the expensive first round purchases. Just like that, their semifinal hopes were extinguished.Overall, Keyd will have to work on their consistency heading into ESL One Cologne if they want to contend. The win over TSM was huge and proves that this roster is capable of big things if they do their homework and put the time in, but it’s all for naught if the next map is dropped to a team that they face week in and week out already on home turf. Not preparing for CLG is one thing, but not respecting Fnatic’s Inferno is an entirely different story. Hopefully before Cologne, Keyd will put aside some time to study their mistakes.Written by Dylux





Team EnVyUs came into ESL ESEA with a 16-6 record and a Gfinity Summer Masters 1 title after trouncing Ninjas in Pyjamas 3-0 for first place. WIth the switch back to Vincent “Happy” Cervoni as the team’s in-game leader, their immediate results spoke for themselves. At the ESL ESEA Pro League Finals, the French squad’s group appeared relatively easy. They defeated Cloud9 the past weekend and Luminosity Gaming were a relatively new team experiencing their first international stage. Virtus.pro would be their biggest challenge and to many a highlight of the group. However, Cloud9 came prepared and EnVyUs began to crumble.







The first map that EnVyUS suffered a defeat on was Cache. They started as the Counter-Terrorists, going six straight and looking exactly as one would expect them to. Since Cloud9 was on the backfoot with little money and equipment, EnVyUs was easily able to create opportunities for kills by executing their patented style. After Round 7, however, Cloud9’s usage of molotovs forced EnVyUs’s players into unfavorable positions and provided Cloud9 with better mid control. From there, Cloud9 managed to secure multiple rounds with good reads whilst capitalizing on EnVyUs’s tendency to peek and hunt for early-round frags. At one point, nV opted for a triple AWP setup in Round 13 which led to B being overwhelmed as Happy missed his shot and fell as a result. The first half ended with EnVyUs at 8-7, a closer scoreline than what many expected out of the Frenchmen.



On their Terrorist side, EnVyUs easily took the first three rounds after demolishing the Americans in the pistol round and executing successful anti-ecos, though losing a handful of guns in the process. Up 11-7, EnVyUs opted for heavy early mid control which paid off in spades as they clinched the first gun round of the half. Cloud9 looked broken as EnVyUs were showing their strength in their aim and tactics. However, at the 20th round, Cloud9 began to respond to EnVyUs’s site takes with quick rotates. In Round 21, Cloud9 managed a good read as they stacked three towards the A bombsite and easily fended off nV’s execute. EnVyUs could not gain a foothold as the Americans gained momentum. Nathan “NBK” Schmitt and Happy were unable to make their characteristic plays and Richard “shoxie” Papillon was forced to step up multiple times to try and save the rounds. Their habit of force buying began to whittle away their advantage, allowing Cloud9 to exert control and predict the French team’s strats more easily due to their limitations.



In the quarterfinals, EnVyUs was once again matched up with Cloud9. On their first map, Dust 2, EnVyUs started on the Counter-Terrorist side with an unfortunate first round as the bomb was not defused in time due to the kit being in B tunnels. They managed to bring it back with a force buy the following round and an insane headshot by Edward “SmithZz” Dubourdeuax as he peeked through mid doors with a Scout, allowing them to take the lead with the ensuing anti-ecos. Eventually up 5-1, nV fumbled the seventh round as multiple trades left them in a two-versus-one situation against Jordan “n0thing” Gilbert. n0thing would pick off SmithZz in B doors as the French AWPer decided to push alone instead of waiting for NBK, the latter subsequently failing to clutch the round. In Round 8, SmithZz and NBK were picked off, allowing Cloud9 to get a foothold into the A bombsite after some struggle. In the following round, EnVyUs managed to pull off a full deagle buy by allowing Cloud9 to funnel into the A bombsite then picked them off by maneuvering around smokes. However, the French squad allowed Cloud9 to work cat and A to great success the rest of the half and subsequently lost it with a 7-8 score. The biggest blunder on nV’s CT side was Happy flanking from long A with Cloud9 none the wiser and missing a huge opportunity to land easy kills.



Things began to quickly fall apart on T side as EnVyUs did not adjust to Cloud9’s positions. Three times they dropped down from A short to CT spawn where Ryan “fREAKAZOiD” Abadir and co. were waiting to get an easy two to three kills. Although EnVyUs were able to acquire picks, they missed other key shots that would have bought them enough time in the round to secure a site.



The last map was once again Cache. EnVyUs were able to repeat their early-game domination but then could not respond to Cloud9’s aggression. There were huge rounds such as Fabien “kioShiMa” Fiey coming up with a clutch play only to not have a kit. It was a clear example of minor mistakes leading to lost rounds.



Overall, EnVyUs played their style using force buys to surprise their opponents and utilizing their coordinated yet loose style of play. However, compared to their previous tournament performance, the usual suspects such as Happy and NBK were simply not there. kioShiMa on Cache boasted a 32-21 score while NBK was the next highest at 18-20. They also didn’t use their pauses efficiently, which could have been beneficial to discuss making minor adjustments. EnVyUs may have the key pieces to be a consistent top team, but they will need to adjust their playstyle as teams are proving to have a good read on them.





Written by Akasha Team EnVyUs came into ESL ESEA with a 16-6 record and a Gfinity Summer Masters 1 title after trouncingNinjas in Pyjamas 3-0 for first place. WIth the switch back toVincent “Happy” Cervoni as the team’s in-game leader, their immediate results spoke for themselves. At the ESL ESEA Pro League Finals, the French squad’s group appeared relatively easy. They defeatedCloud9 the past weekend and Luminosity Gaming were a relatively new team experiencing their first international stage. Virtus.pro would be their biggest challenge and to many a highlight of the group. However, Cloud9 came prepared and EnVyUs began to crumble.The first map that EnVyUS suffered a defeat on was Cache. They started as the Counter-Terrorists, going six straight and looking exactly as one would expect them to. Since Cloud9 was on the backfoot with little money and equipment, EnVyUs was easily able to create opportunities for kills by executing their patented style. After Round 7, however, Cloud9’s usage of molotovs forced EnVyUs’s players into unfavorable positions and provided Cloud9 with better mid control. From there, Cloud9 managed to secure multiple rounds with good reads whilst capitalizing on EnVyUs’s tendency to peek and hunt for early-round frags. At one point, nV opted for a triple AWP setup in Round 13 which led to B being overwhelmed as Happy missed his shot and fell as a result. The first half ended with EnVyUs at 8-7, a closer scoreline than what many expected out of the Frenchmen.On their Terrorist side, EnVyUs easily took the first three rounds after demolishing the Americans in the pistol round and executing successful anti-ecos, though losing a handful of guns in the process. Up 11-7, EnVyUs opted for heavy early mid control which paid off in spades as they clinched the first gun round of the half. Cloud9 looked broken as EnVyUs were showing their strength in their aim and tactics. However, at the 20th round, Cloud9 began to respond to EnVyUs’s site takes with quick rotates. In Round 21, Cloud9 managed a good read as they stacked three towards the A bombsite and easily fended off nV’s execute. EnVyUs could not gain a foothold as the Americans gained momentum.Nathan “NBK” Schmitt and Happy were unable to make their characteristic plays andRichard “shoxie” Papillon was forced to step up multiple times to try and save the rounds. Their habit of force buying began to whittle away their advantage, allowing Cloud9 to exert control and predict the French team’s strats more easily due to their limitations.In the quarterfinals, EnVyUs was once again matched up with Cloud9. On their first map, Dust 2, EnVyUs started on the Counter-Terrorist side with an unfortunate first round as the bomb was not defused in time due to the kit being in B tunnels. They managed to bring it back with a force buy the following round and an insane headshot byEdward “SmithZz” Dubourdeuax as he peeked through mid doors with a Scout, allowing them to take the lead with the ensuing anti-ecos. Eventually up 5-1, nV fumbled the seventh round as multiple trades left them in a two-versus-one situation againstJordan “n0thing” Gilbert. n0thing would pick off SmithZz in B doors as the French AWPer decided to push alone instead of waiting for NBK, the latter subsequently failing to clutch the round. In Round 8, SmithZz and NBK were picked off, allowing Cloud9 to get a foothold into the A bombsite after some struggle. In the following round, EnVyUs managed to pull off a full deagle buy by allowing Cloud9 to funnel into the A bombsite then picked them off by maneuvering around smokes. However, the French squad allowed Cloud9 to work cat and A to great success the rest of the half and subsequently lost it with a 7-8 score. The biggest blunder on nV’s CT side was Happy flanking from long A with Cloud9 none the wiser and missing a huge opportunity to land easy kills.Things began to quickly fall apart on T side as EnVyUs did not adjust to Cloud9’s positions. Three times they dropped down from A short to CT spawn whereRyan “fREAKAZOiD” Abadir and co. were waiting to get an easy two to three kills. Although EnVyUs were able to acquire picks, they missed other key shots that would have bought them enough time in the round to secure a site.The last map was once again Cache. EnVyUs were able to repeat their early-game domination but then could not respond to Cloud9’s aggression. There were huge rounds such asFabien “kioShiMa” Fiey coming up with a clutch play only to not have a kit. It was a clear example of minor mistakes leading to lost rounds.Overall, EnVyUs played their style using force buys to surprise their opponents and utilizing their coordinated yet loose style of play. However, compared to their previous tournament performance, the usual suspects such as Happy and NBK were simply not there. kioShiMa on Cache boasted a 32-21 score while NBK was the next highest at 18-20. They also didn’t use their pauses efficiently, which could have been beneficial to discuss making minor adjustments. EnVyUs may have the key pieces to be a consistent top team, but they will need to adjust their playstyle as teams are proving to have a good read on them.Written by Akasha











Writer