The IEM Chicago 2018 tournament is currently underway. Several of the top favourites for this tournament is already out and we have just four teams remaining. IEM Chicago has a prize pool of $250,000. The Playoffs are underway at the Wintrust Arena.

Faze Clan, Fnatic, Astralis and Team liquid are the four Semifinalists remaining in the event. They have endured through a gruelling group stage and overcome their quarterfinal opponents to reach this point. However, there have been subtle changes for all the teams in terms of their results.

Astralis – No Surprises here

The Danish roster has looked strong in this tournament, however, they are not the same force as they were during the FaceIT London Major. They still have the excellent mid-round calls which put them in a totally different category. Their understanding of their limitations and their strengths is crucial to their gameplay. They can adjust their positioning and playstyle according to these factors. Players like Device are known to retrace their own heatmaps in order to gain an understanding of how opponents will look forth to counter him. This type of mindset when it comes to their esports careers is why Astralis has been able to dominate their opponents.

However, after the FaceIT London Major and the Blast Pro Series, other teams are slowly catching up to Astralis. Maybe its a momentum thing or just loss of some form, but Astralis does not look as dominant as before. We saw Faze Clan dominate Astralis in a previous match.

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The team relies heavily on Glaive to put them at an advantage. The player is able to understand the entire map layout with the number of players alive. His quick decision-making process is crucial to the team’s speed of play and movement across the map. This is why we often see Astralis making decisions even in the last 20 seconds [ and they execute it to perfection]. Astralis is still a good contender for the Grand finals and possibly the tournament winners as they come into the semifinals.

Fnatic – A Surprise Presence in the Semifinals

Fnatic’s roadmap to the Semifinals is definitely interesting. After the departure of multiple members from this team, Fnatic looks all set with the new roster. Their recent addition of Brollan provides them with more than enough firepower. While Xizt might not be the best In-Game Leader, it is the trust and comfort that other players feel around him that is important. It ensures great team synergy and coordination. As we head into the semifinals of this match, Fnatic does seem to be outmatched against Astralis. However, this is already a very good placement for the Swedish side, at least for one of their first tournaments with Brollan.

The youngster has a lot to learn from the other veterans on the roster. He does have Twist who is his former teammate on Red Reserve. The familiarity with Twist and Twist’s familiarity with many of Sweden’s professional players is what makes this team stick for now.

Fnatic does have a map pool problem. They prefer playing on mostly open maps, but that is not to say that Xizt’s map veto is predictable. Xizt is known to make very confusing map picks, in an attempt to surprise their opponents. However, more often than not, Xizt ends up surprising his own team with this map picks.

Faze Clan – Looking dangerous right now

Faze Clan is a curious case in this tournament. Prior to the IEM Chicago, when we go back to the FaceIT London Major days, Faze did not look at their peak. Right now, we are witnessing multiple Faze Clan members perform really well in the server. With Guardian becoming extremely confident with the AWP things look good for the International team. They recently won the EPICENTER 2018 tournament which was more due to their raw skill over their executes and strategy. Faze was just running through the bombsites and gunning down their opponents. There was not a lot of smoke executes, peeking and ensuring that their opponents are caught off-guard. This novice playstyle will work a few times, but if they continue to repeat it, they will suffer.

For now, Faze Clan still has to play against a team that is considered firepower heavy itself. Faze’s map pool is significantly better than previous editions. They are no longer underperforming on Mirage, so teams will be afraid to allow Mirage into the map pool. Despite Karrigan not being the In-Game Leader, Faze is still doing quite well on the map. It is their home map along with Inferno and Dust 2.

Team liquid – The NA Contender

Team Liquid is the best chance for North America in this tournament. The team depends heavily on their heavy hitters to perform. Players like Elige and Twistzz have been relatively consistent for a few months now. However, as we saw in their match against Fnatic, when Elige does not have a good game, Team liquid suffers. Their performance is based on individual skill and when it comes to individual skill, there is probably no team better than Faze Clan at the moment.

Team Liquid will require to get a good map veto against Faze Clan. They will have their map pick and they should win it. However, the third map will always be a tough choice for Team Liquid as they will have to play within Faze Clan’s map pool

Final thoughts

We expect the best teams to move forward and it is going to be interesting to see the team rankings shift. While Astralis is no longer the unbeatable team anymore, they are still the favourites in this tournament. At the same time, we are seeing a resurgence from Faze Clan who might just be reaching to their full potential at this tournament. The semifinal matches start on the 11th of November 2018 and will be streamed live on Twitch.