Group Stage - Analysis / Reasoning To My Picks (Part 2)

Picking The Undefeated Team -

Picking The Team That Won't Win A Game -

Picking The 7 Other Teams That Will Go Through -

Gambit Gaming | #16 on HLTV - Since Gambit Gaming picked up Zeus from Natus Vincere, they have been tearing up tier 3 teams, as well as beating Renegades, Godsent, Cloud 9 and OpTic Gaming to win Dreamhack Winter. In the last two months, they have only lost two matches, one best of three to Renegades and one random loss to IGameCom. Honestly Gambit Gaming could upset North in this match as well as go further and potentially get out of the group stage to the quarterfinals.Team Liquid | #17 on HLTV - Team Liquid is a very inconsistent team, recently losing to G2 Esports, Immortals and Astralis, Having close matches against CompLexity, Renegades and Luminosity and some how winning against Natus Vincere. Team Liquid always tend to show up at majors and get further then people expect but with Team Liquid's recent performance and with how stacked this tournament is, I don't see them getting far. If they play against the right teams on the right maps then they could make it out of groups but honestly, that's like any team in this tournament, anything could happen.HellRaisers | #18 on HLTV - Hellraisers have been playing surprisingly decent, beating Cloud 9 and Ninjas In Pyjamas as well as having back and forth wins and loses against Mousesports and Godsent. They haven't played a huge variety of teams, nor have they played that many matches but from the matches they have played, they have been playing pretty well and could beat quite a few teams at this majorFlipsid3 Tactics | #19 on HLTV - They have been doing fairly inconsistent recently, beating BIG, LDLC, Vega Squadron, Heroic, North, ENCE and Epsilon with most of those teams being tier 2 or 3, so nothing really special. Also, they have been losing to K1nguin, Godsent, Echo Fox and Cloud 9. Even though they got top 8 last major to receive legend status, I feel as though they won't do so well and won't get very far but they are an underdog team and anything could happen.Fnatic | #20 on HLTV - Fnatic in my opinion are pretty inconsistent these last few months. They've been able to win matches and maps against FaZe Clan, G2 Esports, North, Virtus.pro and SK Gaming but they've been losing to Astralis, OpTic Gaming, Godsent and Team EnVyUs. It's very hard to tell when they are going to win or lose a match due to this. I personally think they will be able to do well against some of these low tier teams at this major and could make it out of groups.For one of your picks, you need to choose a team you think will get out of the group stage and make it to the quarterfinals by going 3-0 (winning 3 matches and losing 0). It's only possible for 2 teams to do this in the group stage and you have to pick one of them. Obviously this means it's best to pick a team that is consistent right now and has the potential to win the major.The best team in the world right now is Astralis, not only that but they are also very consistent. They have been in the final of the last 2 big tournaments and have only lost 1 from both of them. Honestly Astralis is your safest pick. All the other teams are inconsistent or aren't capable of beating most other teams where as Astralis ticks all the boxes. I personally am going to choose Astralis but you are other good options at getting this pick correct would be choosing another top team that you feel could win 3 in a row. A team such as SK Gaming, Natus Vincere or Virtus.pro could also be a good pick.AstralisFor one of your picks, you need to choose a team you think will get knocked out of the tournament by going 0-3 (winning 0 games and losing 3). It's only possibly for 2 teams to do this in the group stage and you have to pick one of them. Obviously this means you pick a low skilled team.For my consideration of this pick, I've chosen 2 teams I don't see being able to beat a majority of the teams at this major and those 2 teams are Team Liquid and Flipsid3 Tactics. We haven't seen much from Team Liquid and I just don't see them beating any of the top or middle skilled teams at this tournament. The same with Flipsid3 Tactics, both teams are coming into this major as underdogs with barely any wins against top tier teams. Obviously both of these team could show up at this tournament but I am going off the teams with the most chance of going 0-3 and I think these 2 teams are very capable of doing it. Due to Flipsid3 Tactics winning DreamHack Leipzig and showing they are capable of beating tier 2 and 3 teams, I think it is safer to say that Team Liquid will go 0-3 due to their inconsistency and lack of wins against average teams. Other than Flipsid3 Tactics, some other good choices for teams going 0-3 could be HellRaisers or G2 Esports. Just any team you think isn't skilled enough or will fumble at this major.Team LiquidFor 7 of you picks, you need to choose the teams you think will get through to the quarterfinal stage. You've already chosen 1 team to get through to the quarterfinal stage (that team being the team you chose will go 3-0), now you need to chose the other 7 teams. For a team to go through to the quarterfinal stage, they need to win 3 games before they lose 3. So the teams you think will go 3-0, 3-1 or 3-2. Obviously you will pick the teams you think are the most skilled and most consistent out of the 16 teams.Alright, this is all about picking the teams that are most likely to get to the quarterfinals, so let's narrow this down a bit. Let's start with the team I think should / most likely will get out of group stage, those teams being Astralis, Natus Vincere, SK Gaming and Virtus.pro. The reasons why I am confident with these teams making it through to the next stage is because they are all very highly skilled teams with a lot of experience. It will be a huge upset if one of these legendary and skilled teams doesn't make it past the other teams to the next stage. That's 4 out of the 8 teams we need to choose for making it to the next stage. North, Optic Gaming and FaZe Clan are my next choices from the rest of the teams. They are all highly skilled teams with quite a bit of experience at the majors. OpTic Gaming and FaZe Clan are very consistent at the moment and if they keep it up at the major, then they will make it through to the next stage. North aren't very consistent at the moment but they are a very skilled team and if they play like they have in recent months then they should make it out of group stage as well. That leave us with 1 more team to choose to go through to the next stage. In my opinion, that spot could go to any of the teams. I am fairly confident about the first 7 teams I have chosen but I'm finding it hard to make a decision on my last choice. If Gambit Gaming play like they have in the last few months then they will have a good chance of making it through. Fnatic have been doing pretty good as well, even though they are inconsistent, they are beating and coming close some games with some top teams. Team EnVyUs and GODSENT also have a good chance of making it through but I just don't believe their lineups are strong enough to beat some of these top tier teams or underdogs. For my final pick I'm going to have to go with Fnatic, even though Gambit Gaming are more consistent, Fnatic have had to play against pretty much all tier 1 teams where as Gambit has had a mix between tier 1, 2 and 3 and the tier 1 teams only being Renegades, GODSENT, Cloud 9 and OpTic. I still think Gambit Gaming will do well but statistically Fnatic should have a better chance of making it through.Natus Vincere, SK Gaming, Virtus.pro, North, OpTic Gaming, FaZe Clan and Fnatic