Astralis acknowledged on their facebook official page and website the signing of Gla1ve from Heroic. The shuffle came into the Danish scene after Karrigan was signed in by FaZe last week.Astralis who ever able to enter into the top 8 spot even though having two stand-ins after Dupreeh suffered ill health midway. Astralis now gets a chance to play at the ELEAGUE Major after settling their roster with Gla1ve.
In an official statement he said:
“Since the ESL One Cologne Major my biggest dream has been to play for Astralis and today that dream has come true, It is truly a great honour for me to get the opportunity to play and work with such talented people. Astralis have been through a rough patch lately and I will do my very best to get them back to where they belong. I have always known that someday I would go back to being the in-game leader I once was. I am extremely motivated and I feel ready to show people what I am capable of. This last year has been amazing – as have the last couple of months. I want to thank the guys from Heroic for being so understanding and such great friends. A special thanks goes to Snappi, who I have been playing with for the last year. Good luck in the future with the Heroic project!”
Astralis will be seen playing with gla1ve in the Group C of ELEAGUE, where they will be competing against Natus Vincere, Alternate Attax and SK. They now have dev1ce, Dupreeh, Kjaebye, Xyp9x, and Gla1ve.
Fnatic has revealed to ESL that they will skip the ESL Pro League finals which is scheduled in Brazil, due to personal reasons.
Fnatic even confirmed about the absence of Dennis in the team for the next month that too owing to the fact that its because of his personal issues. ESL confirmed this and looked around for a replacement for fnatic’s spot. But in doing so, they were unable to fill up the slot left by Swedes due to the short notice.
The teams which got an invitation further denied their presence due to the time frame in which they had to prepare to travel all the way to Brazil to attend the finals. Virtus.pro was also one of the team to get a direct slot in place of fnatic. This leaves the event with 11 teams participating instead of 12.
The ESL Pro League in Brazil will be played this weekend where the following teams will be competing for the championship:
Group A
Immortals
Mousesports
OptiC
EnVyUs
Liquid
?
Group B
SK
NiP
FaZe
Dignitas
Cloud9
NRG
Fnatic, only an hour ago got back KRIMZ in their official lineup and they will be participating at the ELEAGUE Major holding the legend status. As per the organization, they will soon be announcing a stand-in for dennis.
The duo is back! Olofmeister and KRIMZ will be seen playing together after two and a half months gap. Fnatic have officially released in a statement that they have claimed back the possession of their 2-year-old player KRIMZ in exchange of Lekr0 to GODSENT.
The speculations which were doing the rounds since two days finally came to halt after Fnatic and GODSENT chose to officially release the deal on their social networks.
GODSENT revealed on their Twitter handle that Lekr0 already joined their team and is practicing hard to qualify for the January 2017 ELEAGUE Major. Whereas, Fnatic retains their legend status after having KRIMZ back in their official lineup.
In a statement, GODSENT wrote to their fans:
Hello Lekr0, goodbye KRiMZ. Today we are welcoming back Jonas “Lekr0” Olofsson to the GODSENT squad, while saying goodbye to Freddy “KRiMZ” Johansson. Lekr0 was traded to Fnatic as part of the summer’s roster shuffle, but with our recent lacklustre performance, we have concluded that the right decision is to move KRiMZ back to Fnatic in exchange for Lekr0. We are incredibly excited for Lekr0 to be playing on GODSENT again. His performance this past year – also while at Fnatic – speaks magnitudes of his talent, and we are convinced that will light everyone’s spark.
With this move Fnatic regains Legends status for the upcoming 2017 ELEAGUE Major. The new GODSENT team, including Lekr0, is already bootcamping and we will fight with all our heart to reach the Major.
We want to thank everyone at Fnatic for a friendly position in this admittedly awkward discussion and wish KRiMZ and team godspeed in their new lineup.
Tune in for our ESEA Premier match against Gambit at 7pm CET tonight.
Fnatic also shared the swap news on their official Facebook:
We’re happy to announce the return of Freddy “KRiMZ” Johansson to theFnatic Counter-Strike line-up. KRiMZ will be rejoining the team in place of Jonas “Lekr0” Olofsson, who will be traded to Godsent. After evaluating the roster changes that took place this summer, both organisations concluded that a return of Krimz and lekr0 to their respective teams is best for the future success of both squads. With this move we will regaining our Legend status for the upcoming CS:GO major.
KRiMZ joined Fnatic for the first time in 2014, the team went on an incredible run, picking up 2 Major victories among others and earning the title of best team in the world. We are excited to be working with KRiMZ once again.
Unrelated to these roster changes, we regret to announce that our CS:GO team will not be able to participate in the ESL Pro League Finals in Brazil and that we will be playing with a substitute player during ELEAGUE next month, as dennis will not be participating due to personal reasons. We will release more information on our stand-in shortly.
Finally, we would like to give a special shoutout to all of our fans who have stuck with us and our players this year. There’ve been multiple changes to our roster but through thick and thin, your support has always been there and we immensely appreciate it!
Esports is a fast-growing field worldwide. Many games come under the head including DOTA 2, League of Legends and Counter-strike:Global Offensive. Today, I will be covering the Pakistani side of the Esports scene. Although, not a very well-known country for the industry, but certainly does have talents. Esports in Pakistan is yet to be known widely, but I am sure the day is not distant.
I will be first highlighting the community presence and the demographics.
The Global Offensive community of Pakistan has a majority of people aging between 10-30. From the youngest high-skilled players to the eldest bright minds. The community has roughly ten teams. Some underdogs, some semi-professional and some even just for the heck of CS fun with friends.
Image courtesy: PGR
Unfortunately, a lot of players in the community use cheats. To separate the abusers from the genuinely skilled players, the community of Pakistan follows strict rules. The players who are caught using hacks recently are not allowed to participate in official Pakistani tournaments. Most proving their skill on LAN make it to a more professional scenario.
Most people in Pakistan are restricted from playing video games as it is frowned upon by their families and seen as a waste of time, as elsewhere. And the leftovers play casually because the exposure of the country is so little to the world of eSports that they believe they would be spending their time trying to get to a professional level.
The players here usually get 70-90 (Karachi) or 80-140 (Lahore) ping in Singaporean servers. While in EU, they get 120-200 ping. Dubai being 20-300 depending on the internet connection and city. These lags make Valve’s official matchmaking and other match platforms hard to use.
Inception of the state of Esports in Pakistan – CSGO
Electronic Sports World Championship: Pakistan was first selected as a country to organize a national qualifier for ESWC finals, which were to take place from October 30th-November 3rd 2013. The company which was supposed to host the qualifier was never mentioned, and Pakistan was removed from the ESWC country list without an explanation.
Gamers gathering at an event in Pakistan. Image courtesy: PGR
The World Championship 2-16: Pakistan also appeared in The World Championship (TWC) and faced off against Mongolia. Both teams met with high pings. Mongolia, however, beat Pakistan with the score 2-0. It was a first time for Pakistan to participate in a semi-major event. And the team performed exceptionally well losing to Mongolia 14-16 in Cache and 11-16 in Mirage.
The lineup of Pakistan for The World Championship 2016:
Syed ‘Naughtyyy’ Rohan Sajjad
Abdul ‘HSB’ Haseeb
Hamza ‘Avg’ Sabzwari
Umair ‘shoTT’ Ahmed
Zeeshan ‘Zeeky’ Khan
Zubair ‘$Bills$’ Jafar
Zaki ‘KLnT’ Nasir
Syed ‘HARMZ’ Arsalan
Arsalan ‘ForayZ’ Razzaq
DreamHack Masters Malmö 2016 Asian Qualifier
Pakistani team G4G participated in the open qualifier and played against Skyred (now known as Threats). They lost 16-6 against the Vietnamese team. They faced high pings around 150-200 ms, yet still managed to put up a fight. The team’s sniper KLnT managed to get an AWP ace as the highlight of the match despite their loss.
WESG South Asia Qualifier
Three teams from Pakistan took part in World Electronic Sports Games (WESG). The teams that played were Elusive, Game4Glory, and Intex. Elusive and G4G were pit against each other, Elusive losing to G4G by a score of 2-1. Intex played against GEx, a team from Iran. They lost which led to final between G4G and GEx. The games against GEx were played on a Russian server even though the qualifier was for Asia which turned out to be a disadvantage for the Pakistani teams. G4G lost to GEx by a score of 2-1.
Other than the international events, the teams in Pakistan have an active and rock solid participation background migrating from the older version of the game to Global Offensive. I will do a quick overview of the groups and the individual talents in Pakistan for my next feature.
If the reports of a second potential GODSENT-fnatic swap are meant to be true, Krimz will be making his way back to the Swedish lineup Fnatic swapping his team with Lekr0 who will be joining back GODSENT.
Report by a CSGO journalist who goes by the name DeKay suggests a probable bidding between the two Swedish organization wherein Lekr0 will be transferred to GODSENT in return of KRIMZ.
This rumor can further be muscled by Flusha’s response during his Reddit AMA where he mentioned about Lekr0 being a contender of GODSENT’s lineup if not for KRIMZ.
Fnatic has been struggling since the swap which split the legendary lineup of Krimz, Olof, flusha, JW and pronax. Krimz, Flusha and JW chose to walkout of the organization to join pronax at GODSENT whereas, fnatic took in Lekr0 and wenton as tryouts.
Dignitas have defeated Virtus.Pro (2-1) to conquer the championship of EPICENTER Moscow 2016. They take home the trophy and $250,000 in the bank.
The seven-day-long event in Moscow showcased us some great Counter Strike matches and an exciting stage set up. Eight teams and a strong prize pool of $500,000. Virtus.Pro the Polish powerhouse who beat SK in the semi-finals to advance to the finals played Dignitas which was rather considered as an upset win when they beat Natus Vincere. The grand finals settled on the three maps Nuke (Dignitas’ pick), Cobblestone (VP’s pick) and Mirage after the veto process.
Virtus.pro dominated the first map Nuke. Neo unleashed his legendary style of play which hit the Danes hard on their map pick. The first half of the map rested in superiority with VP taking 11 of 15 rounds. Not much was changed in the final half of the game where Virtus.pro comfortably stole the show and concluded the game 11-16.
The second map Cobblestone was supposedly for Virtus.pro marking the momentum gained from the first map, but contradictory to the predictions, Dignitas pronounced their authority in the grand finals as they crushed the Polish side in their map pick with a decimating scoreline of 16-5 which looked a biased affair for the Danish team.
The final map, Mirage where Dignitas started on the favored CT side in which Magisk, cajunb, and k0nfig denied Virtus.Pro any entry to the A bombsite, in the second round. Virtus.Pro, however, controlled the crossfires and clinched the round unexpectedly in their favor. The third round even though biased towards VP due to the rifle differences went for Dignitas, all thanks to the connector kill by MSL. The shots went back and forth, and the action exhibited itself in the first phase of a couple of rounds as Dignitas settle themselves on around lead 3-1 after the first gun round.
Although having the support of the crowd and going everything in their favor, Virtus.Pro struggled to tick the scoreboard in their favor. Dignitas, on the other hand, kept extending their lead and building an economy on their side, they forced VP to take a tactical timeout as the score established at 7-1 and 8-1 resuming after the short halt. While effectively trading at the beginning of the round, VP failed to take charge of the rounds until Byali apprehended responsibility and Ace’s in the 14th round to make the score line a little poor 2-13.
The second half where Pasha finally proved his existence in the server by getting two frags on the B bombsite which assisted VP in taking the pistol round and keeping the hope alive. CajunB however, hoisted his message loud and clear by taking a quad kill and clutching the round vs. two in the 18th round making the score even further to 14-4. Disgustingly getting beaten by another series by a mere nest boost and bunch of pistols, Dignitas, secured ten match points at 15-5. Virtus.Pro apparently, succumbed to wounds.
Dignitas with the trophy and cheque.
Dignitas entry into the tournament through the EU qualifiers, where the other six teams got invited directly into the tournament group stage was not their only battle. Dignitas had to beat Na’Vi (winner of ESL One Newyork 2016) to get to the finals where they beat Virtus.pro (winner of DreamHack Zowie Bucharest). Their journey has been a remarkable one regarding how tight they were matched against, being down against VP 0-1 in the first map of the grand finals, Dignitas didn’t lose hope and made their way back in the series and beat Virtus.pro at their home ground. Virtus.pro had a rough time at the grand finals even after performing incredibly well by defeating SK in the semi-finals. Dignitas closed the series 2-1 (11-16 Nuke, 16-5 Cobblestone, 16-5 Mirage). K0nfig much deserved, named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the tournament by HLTV.org
Final standings of EPICENTER Moscow:
Dignitas – $250,000
Virtus.pro – $100,000
SK – Natus Vincere – $40,000
SK – Natus Vincere – $40,000
fnatic – G2: $15,000
fnatic – G2: 15,000
NiP – HellRaisers: $15,000
NiP HellRaisers: $15,000
No doubt about the most well-performing team, but talking about the worst performer were the Swedes. Fnatic edging out on the 5th-6th position and even worst NiP, bottoming the leaderboards. EPICENTER’s first ever CS:GO event certainly have proven exceptional. We will be patient until another CS:GO event coming from their schedule.
After defeating EnTity Gold yesterday at the semi-finals of ESL India Premiership Starter Cup #6, A3 today annihilated their opponents GunPoint in the grand finals beating them twice consecutively 2-0 (Cache 16-14, Mirage 19-16) in a best of three games.
A3 which has some of the top players from the Counter Strike 1.6 edition of the game had not been into the top 4 since the inception of Global Offensive in India.
Raju PokerF Jittu
Even though participating in almost every tournament and trying out with different players to settle with the best composition, A3 marks their first ever successful win in the new version of the game. The win comes when India’s witnessing multiple of new ventures signing in and creating a platform for the pro players to prove their skills.
A3 which played the premiership with PokerF, Anakil, Spy, Spyroo and Revo1tberg won the first map Cache very closely 16-14 even though being in the lead at the very start of the game. Entering into the second map, mirage, A3 looked confident and played in the same way as the previous one.
A3 did manage to climb to the closing stages of the game but failed to grab the map ahead of 6 match points straight. GunPoint, however, presented before us some great Counter Strike by bringing the game back from 6 match points against them into pushing the map to overtime.
The game resettled at 15-15 with 10K in the bank of each player and GunPoint denied the lead in the very first round by comfortably winning the first round of OT. Challenging their comeback, A3 initiated their part of retrieving the map back from them as they didn’t lose any rounds further and closed the game at 19-16.
A3 and GunPoint both earns a slot at the ESL India Premiership Challenger #2 which is scheduled in the next month.
The first semi-finals of EPICENTER 2016 showcased one of the best head-to-head matches. The current best rivals are facing each other in a similar way as of ESL One Newyork 2016. Virtus.Pro vs. SK, the ever demanding CSGO contest. The action started on SK’s Train, where they were able to take the pistol round, but their third round B-site aggression was expected and waited out by the Poles, denying them kills and information.
Virtus.pro vs. SK has always been a fascinating match of affairs and this year it began from ESL One Cologne 2016 where SK beat Virtus.pro in the semi-finals and knocked them out of the tournament. The first map on train started with SK clinching the first few rounds in their favor and losing only a single round in the entire first half of the game, marking the game to a 15-1 for them. The game quickly concluded with SK completely thrashing and demoralizing the home team in an incredible fashion in the first map of the first leg of semi-finals. The game ended 16-1.
Although being beaten down by SK in an embarrassing scoreline of 1-16 on the train, Virtus.Pro responded back by defeating the world’s best team SK on nuke in a close match with a scoreline of 16-13, thus forcing the game to introduce the third map.
The final map commenced with SK taking the triple regular rounds losing the first gun round being on the favored terrorists’ side of the map. Virtus.Pro didn’t skin any opportunity to take charge of the plan early on. Virtus.pro quickly gained momentum in the game and led the first half of the final map to an 11-4 strong half in the less favored side. The second half carried the intentions of Virtus.pro even further when they won the pistol round and the following gun rounds comfortably with the scores.
Coldzera scraped the last opportunity for the Brazilian side at the B bomb site where he was unable to spray down an easy kill. The match-up ended on cobblestone with a scoreline of 16-4. Virtus.Pro ultimately advances to the grand finals of EPICENTER to face the winner of the second semi-finals which will be, Dignitas vs. Na`Vi coming up next.
In a pretty odd turn out of events or rather a revolting result at the end of the first leg of semi-finals of ESL India Premiership Starter #2, A3, better off known as NSD knocked out EnTiTy Gold at the semi-finals with a scoreline of 16-14.
With the experience balancing on both sides of the scoreboard, (A3) NSD finally got a breakthrough in their long struggle of migrating to the newer version of the game as they beat the tournament favorites Entity Gold. A3 will travel to the LAN festival which is scheduled next month.
Entity Gold which beat Goutfits to enter into the semi-finals looked shaky even during the quarterfinals. They were down 0-8 against Team Goutfits who were farthest in the prediction set. A3, on the other hand, beat Goutfit’s counterparts JMdAim2Game in their quarters.
A3 is the first time to enter into the finals of the ESL India Premiership Starter Cup #6. Additionally, they have also qualified for the Premiership Challenger #2 where they will have the opportunity to be eligible to the ESL India Premiership Masters #1 which is scheduled in December this year.
The second leg of semi-finals will be played between GunPoint and JingBang, the winner of which will enjoy the same benefits as A3.
While the first day of Epicenter ended with 3 of the 4 matches ending in draws, day 2 saw all 4 matches ending in draws and day 3 ended with 3 matches ending in draws for the 500,000$ tournament. Day one saw only Virus.Pro as clear winner as they defeated the Brazilian team SK 2-0 on the opening match.
All other matches until day 2 ended were tied 1-1 proving how the teams have their own strengths and weakness and how they have adapted to the other team at understanding their strategies. Day 3 saw SK emerging as winners against HellRaisers as they won both rounds. The Epicenter Moscow uses best of 2 round robin format for the group stages.
The Prize pool is Divided as:
1st Place-250,000$
2nd Place-100,000$
3rd and 4th Place-40,000$
5th -8th Place-15,000$ each
Viewers witnessed some impressive performances by Marcleo”coldzera”David as he single headedly stood against VP but his team couldn’t capitalize on his performance and lost both matches. With their New Pickup Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev and Guardian on AWP Navi surprizes with amazing plays as both seem to carry game for their team.
Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer is also working wonders for fanatic as clutched 3v1 round against Hellraisers. Day 2 saw some amazing plays by Forest and snax to secure secure rounds for their teams.Day 3 saw Edward and Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev doing some awesome short work of NiP with some amazing fast plays.
Group A
Group B
Team
P
W
D
L
Pts.
Team
P
W
D
L
Pts
G2 Esports
3
1
2
0
5
VP.CS
3
1
2
0
5
NiP
3
0
3
0
3
SK.CS
3
1
1
1
4
Na’vi CS
3
0
3
0
3
fanatic.CS
3
0
3
0
3
Dig CS
3
0
2
1
2
HR.CS
3
0
2
1
2
With the Group stages coming to an end Playoff are Scheduled for 21st -23rd October with Navi and VP securing bye into second round. And Hellraisers and No.1 ranked Team NiP Knocked out by Na’Vi in exciting upset on day 3. Playoff are scheduled as Best of 3 matches, Match 1:G2 vs SK and Match 2:fanatic vs Dig. It will be exciting to watch these playoffs as the losing team will get knocked out.
