Another season of the Ukrainian event StarSeries Season 5 came to a close this weekend in Kiev. There were many highlights, we saw North coming alive, NRG and AGO giving top teams run for their money and more.

Who ended StarSeries on a good note? Who failed success here as expected? Let’s take a look at the winners and losers of this years StarSeries i-League Season V.

The Winners

North comes back stronger

North finished in 3rd-4th position. It’s a shames because their path to the semis was fairly easy and they could have made it to the grand final.

So what happen? To reach the group stage, the Danes overcame NRG, HellRaisers and GODSENT. In the quarter-finals they beat AGO and were eventaully eliminated by NRG in the semifinals.

While not an impressive list of teams, if we go back a month , North would have never dreamed of beating these four above. The team has been steadily improving and winning DH Open Tours really did wonders for team moral.

While a top four finish is impressive from North, the team isn’t in an overall good place amongst the elite. Most of their wins weren’t comfortable at all and they still can’t close out games with ease.

MSL squad reached their peak

Unfortunately, it looks as if North have reached their limit. Closing StarSeries amongst the top four was clearly an over-performance. It’s expected the Danes be the ones to take the gatekeeper place as the top 10.

Most precisely, we expect them to be winning less prestigious events, while being the dark horse in premier competitions. This is thanks to the problems that the team has shown this week.

MSL tactics aren’t powerful as they once were. Aizy is better but is inconsistent and so is their awper, mertz. Valde is indeed a top tier player, but he isn’t enough to carry his team to the top.

North next challenge will be DreamHack Open Summer 2018. There, the team will face their old-teammates in OpTic along GODSENT who will be looking for revenge.

AGO and NRG surprised

NRG and AGO werelabelled the dark horses of this tournament. NRG especially has been underwhelming as the team couldn’t convert their online performances to the previous LANs.

The polish squad of AGO impressed every one of us being unbeaten in the group stage. The team were classed the best Polish team after beating Virtus.Pro. Then, proceeded to beat NiP and Mousesports convincingly enough.

AGO were eliminated by North in the quarterfinals. It’s clear after this amazing run, AGO absolutely deserves their title – Best Team in Poland.

It’s worth noting ‘snatchie’ and ‘phr’ performances. Both players managed to maintain a top level independences against their opponents. These are promising signs that the team is releasing their full potential.

North America’s last hope at Kiev

Another revelation was NRG. The team that beat HellRaisers, Renegades and VG.Flash to make to the playoffs. There, they could the worst possible challenge, Liquid, who were the favorites to win the tournament.

Brehze squad stood up to the challenge – instead, the team came out with everything they could. While NRG lost the first map in the series against Liquid, they dominated the opposition in the following two maps.

In the semi-final stage, it was time to take revenge on North. The trio of ‘CerQ’, ‘Nahte’ and ‘Brehze’ closed the match in their favor and outplayed the Danes.

In the grand finals, Na’Vi was just too much for the North Americans and Cerq. Nonetheless, NRG run in Kiev was their most impressive run ever in a premier tournament.

The expectations are high for NRG as their next tournament is going to be ECS Season V Finals. They will be also competing in the qualifiers for the Americas Minor in the upcoming days.

SK rediscover themselves

SK was the second team to succeed the group stage unbeaten in Kiev. The team faced VG.Flash, AVANGAR and Liquid and closed their run in the quarterfinals after losing to Na’Vi.

Stuffing from a rough few months, it’s good to see the Brazilians finding their way once again. Coldzera put on a star level performance and Stewie2K didn’t disappoint.

The team has to iron out some on-going problems. Boltz is severely underperforming and FalleN isn’t playing as expected considering that he has been relieved of IGL duties. Even Fer’s performance has taken a dip.

Those problems come as the Brazilians are going through a time of changes. The roster is probably going to be transferred to another organization, Boltz future on the team is unknown and Coldzera time as the IGL can be coming to a close.

Coming up for SK it’s Mache XL Esports next week.

Natus Vincere lifts the trophy

Na’Vi has been through its fair share of predicaments last year and thing are continuing down the same path this year. Saying that the team have been a serious contender for trophies in the last three months.

Natus Vincere had a very rough start on StarSeries. The CIS squad was looking very shaky in the group stage as they lost the opening match against TyLoo and were almost eliminated in their final match on the first stage.

Fortunately, they won against AVANGAR booked their playoffs spot. There, we saw a new Na’Vi in s1mple . In the quarterfinals, SK posed a threat in the first map but s1mple and Edward demolished the Brazilians in the following two.

In the semis, Na’Vi took revenge on Mousesports. Edward once again stepped up, this time alongside electronic and the duo helped s1mple to close out the best of three in Na’Vi favor.

To finish off the tournament, Na’Vi faced NRG in the grand-finals. While Cerq, nahtE and Brehze did what they could, nobody could stop s1mple and his teammates.

‘S1mple’ star of the show

During the EPL Season 7 Finals, s1mple wasn’t performing up to his normal standards. Once Na’Vi reached the playoffs this weekend however, s1mple turned out in the star that every fan loves to watch.

Even in the semifinals where he faced Mousesports, known to be one of the best teams dealing with the threat he poses, he was unstoppable. S1mple finally took revenge for the last season of StarSeries.

It has been more than one year since Na’Vi lifted a trophy from a premier tournament and here they are. S1mple never stopped working through his issues but it seems those days are behind them now and his dedication is finally paying off.

While s1mple is worthy the MVP title, we also have to mention his teammate Edward. The support player was often quoted to be kicked alongside seized back last year. For this event however, he didn’t let his team down and definitely contributed in this victory.

The Losers

Gambit and Virtus.Pro fail to impress

Gambit was one of the first teams eliminated without booking a single win at StarSeries. Virtus Pro managed to beat Gambit but couldn’t win over any other team.

The situation was dire for both teams. Gambit got a free pass this time though as the team just added ‘mir’. Dosia was also implementing his game plan as he is the new IGL which makes it indeed an unsurprising result. However, there’s no excuses for VP.

It’s clear now that ‘NEO’ has to go. The legendary player isn’t even close to his prime and it’s not the first time he’s had a negative event. In fact, in 2018, out of 7 LAN events, there were a mere two occasions where he didn’t receive a negative rating.

PashaBiceps, VP awper might be out too. While better than NEO rating-wise, he also is struggling very badly.

Liquid couldn’t keep up with expectations

After managing to get a runner-up placing at EPL Season 7 Finals, Liquid came in at StarSeries as one of the favorites. The North American powerhouse seemed to finally have found their way. Fans were hopeful and instead their whole show was a let down.

In the group stage, Liquid won against NRG and GODSENT. Then they faced SK Gaming as the favorites but lost the match which already signed a red flag for the fans.

Liquid recovered by beating AVANGAR and they made to the playoffs, but they disappointed. NRG dominated Liquid in two maps and sent Liquid back home earlier.

To start to diagnostic Liquid issues, we have to pinpoint Nitro. Right now, even IGLs have to perform well amongst the elite teams. Nitro however had the worst rating in his team. Weak mid-round calls and missing important kills were his characteristics in Kiev.

The next challenge for Liquid will be ECS Season V Finals. Nitro squad is in the same group as FNATIC and Astralis. While they can surprise us if they can overcome FNATIC, we wouldn’t be surprised if Liquid fails to advance to the playoffs there.

Renegades faces difficulties as the team lost their coach

One of the most undervalued positions in CS:GO certainly is the coaching role. Most of time, the person behind the players, that help the team build the game plans and prepare for each match get sidelined.

Fortunately, this has been changing. Zonic, Astralis’ coach has been given some recognition of late and the same can be said for Cloud9’s valens.

The Australians were eliminated in the group stage after a very weak overall performance. The team was playing without a proper coach as they parted ways with kassad in the past week. In a post-event interview, ‘Nifty’ explained the situation:

“I feel like it’s an accumulation of many things. One being this is a new for us that we don’t have kassad behind us. For them, especially, as they had kassad behind them for eighteen months, and fourteen months for me. He was always there for, like, the life of this team, coming up to the place where we are at right now. It’s super different. I think people do underestimate the change that actually is happening. It’s super hard to deal with.”

We expect Renegades to adapt to the changes as they look for a new coach. In meantime, results like this shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Mousesports needs to take a break

Mousesports are not the worse of the bunch. It’s clear however the team do not have what it takes to keep up with the top teams in the world.

In the group stage, the International mix only lost to AGO. They beat North, NiP and a weaker Na’Vi. In the quarterfinals they faced NiP once again and were able to eliminate the Swedes. Mouz couldn’t do the same with Na’Vi though and got eliminated in the semifinals.

Now Mousesports will have a two-week break from tournaments until ESL One Belo Horizonte. In the meantime, they must try some form of making STYKO to perform. The Slovakian player is holding the team back at this point as he misses crucial shots and can’t perform when his team needs him the most.

The team also needs to work on their map pool. Mousesports setups in Mirage, Dust2, Nuke and Train haven’t been anything but mediocre of lately.

June will be a busy month

Next in the schedule of events comes ECS Season V Finals, ESL One Belo Horizonte and DreamHack Open Summer 2018. All those events have interesting storylines going foward, especially ECS Season V Finals.

So, who will be the teams who will shine in June? Tell us! As always you can expect to get coverage, event previews and predictions here!