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CS:GO is the most watched eSports game: Reports

Deepak Ojha
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CS:GO is the most watched eSports game: Reports

Newzoo, the e-marketing company from Netherland recently released a report on the industry shares of the major eSports game and the hours it dominated on Twitch. Surmising to which, the report concluded that the majority the games watched on Twitch in July 2016 were of CS:GO, way ahead of DotA 2 and League of Legends.

The figures are different from the most watched game on Twitch.

most watched esports game

Counter Strike: Global Offensive have had 60% of the shares of eSports hours on twitch, trailed behind by League of Legends with 26% and DotA 2 with 25%. Not to confuse with the most watched game which is League of Legends, most watched esports hour on twitch is different and the results are reported based on the algorithm created by Newzoo’s twitch tracker.

Most watched eSports game

most watched esports game
Most played eSports hour game

This eSports hour watched is different from the most watched game as it doesn’t pull the data from individuals or the professionals playing the games for hours. CS:GO led the figures in numbers which were totally foreseen considering the Valve-sponsored major ESL One Cologne 2016 and Turner-backed ELEAGUE was conducted in the same month.

Opinions on the New CSGO Pro Team Roster Changes

FrankSchib
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0
Opinions on the New CSGO Pro Team Roster Changes

Many teams this year have been doing many changes in their rosters and this is my opinion on how this can effect and change the teams in many ways. From Na`Vi to fnatic, every team has been undergoing some unexpected and major roster changes.

S1mple Joining Na’Vi – Opinion

ESL Pro League Season 4

When I first saw this, it was pretty shocking. They replaced him with ‘Zeus’ a long term player for Na’Vi of about 7 years and former In-Game leader although he was not kicked but placed as inactive in the team. I think in my opinion that S1mple can make a big change to Na’Vi for the better. He is a great player and is consistent. I think they can go big and go to at least the semi-finals of the upcoming tournaments although it will be a hard journey for him to play in a new team as his playstyle is a little different.

Fnatic & Godsent Roster Swaps

53429_04_cs-go-team-fnatics-core-players-shuffle-godsent

On the 15th of August, it was confirmed that 3 Fnatic players get swapped with 3 Godsent players. JW, Krimz & Flusha had been swapped with 3 Godsent players. The new Godsent is more or less the old Fnatic, they have a strong lineup with pronax being with them and leading them.

I think that Godsent will play much better as they had played before as a team and that they were a strong team before. Although I’m not sure about Fnatic. I do think they won’t be as successful as they were before but will still have the potential to win now and then. Also, I do wish to see the “old fnatic” now is godsent without olofmeister and see where they can go and how far they can do so.

Liquid’s New Pickup, Pimp

Team Liquid’s pickup up on Pimp after the ESL One Cologne, in my opinion, is a great change. They are testing the roster changes to find that one amazing player and I think Pimp is him. Pimp is a great player and great personality. I think that Pimp being in the new lineup is a great change and they have a lot of potential in winning tournaments and moving forward in their team. They will most likely be comfortable with him and all of them are okay with playing with him.

They will most likely be comfortable with him and all of them are okay with playing with him.

OpTic Picking up Tarik

On the August 20th, it was released that Stanislaw will be dropped out of OpTic and Tarik will be their 5th man. I do think this is something new for the whole team and would most likely move more into the tournaments. Tarik is a player where he is on-going with everyone and so I think that this pickup is not a mistake at all, Tarik will do great with them but it depends on where they put him and what role he will be given.

Overall Opinion: I do think it is a great change to see within the rosters of the professional teams as it brings more excitement on the game and more people will be looking forward more to see the new team rosters play and develop new strats.

“We’ve all felt unsupported by our family at times”: Will “animus” Turner

Reece "Maestro" Barrett
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“We’ve all felt unsupported by our family at times”: Will “animus” Turner

Today I had the privilege of talking to Will “animus” Turner. The Australian player currently plays for the AU team Team Skyfire who recently played in the ESEA Open Oceania 22; losing in the quarter-final to Chiefs ESC.

Animus currently holds a 1.00 rating on HLTV (at the time of writing). I spoke to him today to talk about the Australian Counter Strike scene, as well as some big changes which have taken place in the world of CS:GO, and a bit about himself too.

Interaction with Will “animus” Turner

First of all, let’s talk about Australian CS as a whole. With more and more competitions like the ESEA Open Oceania (a competition you took part in yourself), more and more teams are getting exposure, teams which a casual fan has probably never heard of. How do you think this helps the AU scene?

Thanks for having me, Mae!

I have been a part of the CS scene in Australia for a veeery long time and this is the most exciting time for any player right now. Exposure is the #1 thing that Australia needs and we have has always lacked this crucial element to becoming competitive on a world-scale. Bringing these types of competitions to Australia benefits everybody and our scene is just going to continue to grow everyday.

From a viewer’s point of view, obviously as more competition comes in it gets more exciting, but from a player’s point of view, how do you feel about new teams coming in and adding more competition?

Personally, I love seeing young players and new teams climbing the ranks and doing big things (against other teams). The more teams competing raises the level of gameplay here and consequently our top teams have to be even better to represent Australia overseas. The huge number of amateur teams that are working tirelessly to improve may not realise that their efforts flow into the higher divisions and it’s becoming harder to stay at the top level without working hard.

Obviously Renegades is the big Australian team, and they are taking part in the ESL Pro League Season 4: North American division. Do you agree with there being only one spot in the pro league for an Australian team or do you think there should be an entire league for just Oceania?

Honestly, I’m a big believer that Australia will get the spots when we deserve them. I am positive that we have teams that could compete in the ESL Pro League right now but we’re going to have to prove that seriously before we can expect more invites. When our teams are going overseas and winning matches against top European teams and the best NA teams I have no doubt the invites and sponsors will come to us.

Do you think the Oceania scene needs to be built up a bit more before they can have an entire Pro League?

Our scene has the players and teams for the league, and we have about 5 actually serious organisations that can bring the professionalism for that type of league. You could say that we need more professional orgs before we have a league like that, but then we would miss the opportunities for leagues like this to actually bring those organisations to Australia. There are so many strong teams in Australia that could go so far with proper backing and any smart overseas organisation would recognise that and see the bargain they could get here.

Obviously Australia is a long way away from Europe and America, and travel probably costs quite a bit, do you think this is a factor as to why AU teams aren’t seen very often at big tournaments?

Our distance from Europe and the US has always been our biggest obstacle. Top teams in those regions can compete against teams from other countries online and hence they have more opportunity to improve. Add that to the cost of travel for major tournaments and our small population and it’s a wonder we even have top level teams. But our passion for CS here is strong, travel is getting cheaper every year, and more sponsors are making travel more and more possible. Our top teams are traveling 4+ times a year now which is mind blowing for me. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for us.

At that level, everyone has aim. You can’t expect to ‘make it’ by being the sharpest guy anymore.

Now onto Counter Strike as a whole, do you think that CS would benefit with one major tournament per year like The International, or do you think it is better off with the 3 tournaments per year structure we have now?

Will "animus" Turner

The number of tournaments isn’t the topic – it’s how the prize money is generated. The International’s system for funding is such a smart and effective method and has made DotA explode in magnitude over the last few years. I don’t see a valid reason why Valve couldn’t do the same with CS.

“We’ve all felt unsupported by our family at times for the effort and hours we put into this game, and that family recognition meant more to me than winning a big tournament.”

How do you feel about the Fnatic and GODSENT recent changes?

Man, huge changes. It’s rough seeing olof split from his teammates and it was worse to hear JW say that the pressures were too much for their friendship.

Having said that, I think pronax is one of the smartest CS players to have lived, his ability to read the game mid-round is unrivalled and escalated a team with the huge fragging power to an unstoppable level. I can’t see any reason why this GODSENT team wouldn’t be able to perform at that old level, except for confidence. They had a really rough time without olof in the past due to his injury  and I hope that they bring a good attitude to GODSENT.

What can you say to help players trying to break through into the professional CS:GO scene?

I have been playing different iterations of counter-strike since 2002. I’d like to say I was at the top level for all that time but I was always at that top-of-div2 level and could never crack into the pro scene, until recently.

The defining point for me was recognising that there are a tonne of players scraping the surface of pro teams that have all trailed for the top teams and been looked over for a few key reasons. At that level, everyone has the aim. You can’t expect to ‘make it’ by being the sharpest guy anymore. The teams at the pro level look for 3 things:

  • Teamwork/listening to the IGL
  • A focus on winning rounds not getting frags
  • A fun personality  – no one wants to go to nationals with a jerk

 

The aim will get you the trial, those 3 things will get you the job.

Finally, you tweeted out earlier about you being featured on HLTV. How does it feel to be on the HLTV site with some of the greats?

Oh man, I feel honoured. I shared it with my family. I remember being 9 and showing my parents f0rest as HLTV Player of the Week and explaining what his DPR rating meant. When I told them about it, they were stoked for me, which was truly rewarding. We’ve all felt unsupported by our family at times for the effort and hours we put into this game, and that family recognition meant more to me than winning a big tournament.

Thanks for your time Will. Any last things you want to say? Any shoutouts?

I want to thank my current teammates, Kaotik krudeN and especially steve-, who were the ones who gave me the opportunity to play at the pro level. Thank you to SKYFIRE, Turtle Beach, and Sector Six for their support and to my fans who keep my spirits high after some really tough games – shoutout to wolFy, brakker, Mr Pink, and of course our #1 fan TixiSKF.

One of my philosophies has always been to share as much knowledge as I have. It pushes me to learn new things and educate those around me. If you ever want to learn more about CS or just have a chat feel free to hit me up.

– Will “animus” Turner

You can follow Will at @animusAUS

Team Invictus to represent India at BenQ-Zowie’s eXTREMESLAND in Shanghai

Deepak Ojha
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Team Invictus to represent India at BenQ-Zowie’s eXTREMESLAND in Shanghai

Zowie’s plan on giving India a chance to represent their best team in Shanghai was grabbed by Team Invictus. They beat Brutality, MxB, and Invisible Wings twice to secure their spot in the CS:GO Main event. Invictus will fly to Shanghai to represent India and compete with the best of the bests to fight for the $100,000 prize pool.

Team Invictus were qualified through the Zowie Extremesland Online Qualifiers after beating Team Overcome.  The LAN playoffs began with the top 4 teams who got aligned from the online qualifiers. Joining Team Invictus in the playoffs were, Brutality, MxB and Team Invisible Wings. After beating Brutality pretty comfortable during the online qualifiers, Invictus looked strong to win the tournament and were the favorites.

Zowie INdia qualifiers

In the very, first match of the series Team Invictus lost their battle to Invisible Wings settling the scoreline 22-25 (de_train) in a breathtaking opener. Following the event’s double elimination schedule, every team had the opportunity to be in the game after their initial elimination. Entering into the finals were Invisible Wings from lower bracket finals who beat Brutality 2-1 (de_dust2 16-13, de_cbble 19-17, de_train 16-19), and Invictus who beat Invisible Wings 2-0 (de_mirage 22-19, 16-9).

Mirage

The final series, best of three started on Team Invictus’ pick mirage wherein they won the knife and chose the CT side, to begin with. The first few rounds were comfortably won by Invisible Wings as ‘psy’ and co. were demolishing the sites by rushing from either way taking no prisoners. Pistols and the following guns round were dominated strongly by IW as they steer the scoreboard to 5-0 strong start which forced Invictus to call their first tactical pause.

Team Invictus bought the next few rounds pulling the score in their favor slightly with a couple of rounds, only to get destroyed back by psy’s picks which led the score to 6-3 with 5 of them alive, contributing to the economy. Ritesh ‘RitZ’ Shah who have been putting efforts to get back to his level did manage to get a comfortable 3K post plant in a gun round making the scores 9-3 in their favor. The first half was settled at 11-4, massively inclined towards Invisible Wings.

Things looked balanced when Team Invictus managed to win the pistol and a couple of following anti- eco’s and gun rounds, but things went monotonously different when Invictus forced IW to a decimating eco round at 12-12. The match transformed into a much intense match following a 1v3 clutch by MithilF after being down a round, which made scores tying up once again to 13-13. To respond back, Ace and co. did play a pretty comfortable game, in the end, calmly winning the map 16-13 at de_mirage.

Cobblestone

The second map was rather an opposite reflection of the first, the game started favoring Team Invictus in cobblestone where Invisible Wings initially trailed by 2-9 scoreboard which looked scary for them being on the favored site. The first half of the game was dull comparatively to the second one as the score halted at 10-5 during intermission favoring Invictus, much of the similar scoreline in Mirage which favored IW. The map looked worse when IW lost the pistol round in the second half which made the score completely weighted towards Invictus to a 12-5.

Invisible Wings vs Invictus
Image courtesy: SoStronk.com

The map looked worse when IW lost the pistol round in the second half which made the score completely weighted towards Invictus to a 12-5. The buy round, however, got IW back on track as they won a couple of good rounds forcing Invictus to pause and making the scoreline less imbalanced to 12-9. As the gap kept shrinking, the intensified match turned around upside down once again, Akshay ‘Kappa’ Sinkar, the lead entry fragger of Invisible Wings clutched an important round keeping the hopes alive and advancing with the scores to 12-11. The scores tied quickly at 12-12 and the map went on ahead with 12-14 to Invisible Wings. Invictus called a pause at that very moment. And it brought them the results, the very famous ‘fnatic’ pause. The 27th round, the most important round of the match seemed like a dead dream for Invictus, but Tejas ‘Ace’ Sawant, who was having not his best, stood up for his team and clutched a close to impossible 1v3, keeping their hopes alive.

The momentum gained after winning the 27th round stimulated Invictus, and they went on to win the game 14-16 losing, leaving the third map idle.

Final standings

Invictus – 1st

Team Invictus
Invisible Wings – 2nd

Invisible Wings
Brutality – 3rd

Team Brutality

Invictus won Zowie eXTREMESLAND CS:GO India Qualifiers, they will be flying to Shanghai as an Indian team to play and compete with the other qualified Asian teams. We wish them a very good luck and expect them to return with a trophy!

 

DJ leaves Fnatic

Vishal 'Arrow' Gupta
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DJ leaves Fnatic

DJ is officially out of Fnatic as he leaves the current roster on valve’s Major Registrations list. Just after The International 6, Fnatic will undergo some changes even after placing 4th at TI.

DJ out of Fnatic

SOURCE

DJ left the team on 19th August 2016 leaving Fnatic with only 4 active players.

With this, post International shuffle starts. Fnatic after securing a top 4 finish at The International 6 was not able to hold their roster for a long time and Dj left the party.

It is not yet confirmed that DJ is out. No official statements are made by Fnatic or by DJ.

There are chances that DJ might be added back to the roster after 4th September.

dj leaves fnatic

This year, team registrations phase will have two steps. The first phase which will end on 4th September where teams have to release the members who will not be a part of their organisation. The second phase will start from 4th September for two weeks. Teams are required to add the new members to the roster in this given time. Teams who fail to update their roster will have to play from the open qualifiers as followed last year.

Since the teams looked strong and committed to the organisation, it can be expected that DJ might be added to the roster since no announcements are made yet about him joining any other team.

With this, Fnatic has concluded post-TI shuffle.

Fnatic Current Roster :

ID Name Position
Mushi Chai Yee Fung 1
MidOne Yeik Nai Zheng 2
Ohaiyo Chong Xin Khoo 3
343 Adam Erwann Shah bin Akhtar Hussein 5

EternalEnvy leaves Team Secret – Team lose Aui and 1437

Vishal 'Arrow' Gupta
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0
EternalEnvy leaves Team Secret – Team lose Aui and 1437

EternalEnvy leaves Team Secret as per the Dota 2 Team Tracker which says EE left the team.

He left the team after a disappointing run at TI6, placing 13th – 16th place. Team Secret firstly was not able to place themselves in the upper bracket and had a bad run during their group stage matches. They were knocked out of the tournament by LGD Gaming during their lower bracket first match. A best of 1 series where anything can happen and none of the teams ever wish to be in a position like that. LGD Gaming took down team secret 1-0 with a clean sweep who were later brought down by Digital Chaos during

LGD Gaming took down team secret 1-0 with a clean sweep who were later brought down by Digital Chaos during the second round in a best of 3.

Team Secret at TI6
Team Secret at TI6

Team secret will also drop their both coaches, namely Aui_2000 and 1437.

As the roster shuffle will go on until 4th September, it is expected that team may have more players dropping or maybe not.

 

Valve muscles their coaching policy

Deepak Ojha
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Valve muscles their coaching policy

Valve today addressed to the outrage on their newest coaching policy, strengthening its existence and confirming that they will not be rolling it back. They also shared the logic behind having the game restricted to a 5v5 on the field.

Two days ago, Valve announced a new change in the rules of the coach’s participation in professional matches during the CS:GO majors, wherein, the coach gets limited to only be speaking and guiding the team while off the game. This received mass criticism from the professional players and the talents.

valve

The contributors, however, did have contrary views on this even though being on the same track. The very famous talent brand RoomOnFire which has Anders, Moses and Semmler in their squad had a different perspective on Valve’s take and interestingly, both of them made sense. As per the Moses’ views on this, Valve’s peculiar take on the coach came into existence at a very unnecessary point of time. Whereas, Semmler did a video where he explained the possibility through which Valve must have seen this and proposed the game’s basic dynamics to larger audiences which will help them gain a larger audience to showcase their game.

Deprioritizing the semi-professionals and professionals.

Today, Valve themselves have cleared all the airs of the possibility of the rule getting minor adjustments. After the speculations that this will ruin the career of the many and also will mess up with the structured roles of the professionals’ teams, Valve completely turned a blind eye to them and rigidly released a statement on standing by their new policy. The stated that distributing the in-game and important mechanics of the game was “not in line with our goals” and it will not be permitted in any Valve-sponsored majors and minors.

Valve also shared their concern on a conversation with “an organizer” who were interested in taking things in a different way to create a possibility for the rules being adjusted a bit but was denied moderately. The organizer was not named but it is assumed to be FACEIT as per James’ twitter.

The complete statement of Valve below:

At past Majors, we have had conversations with pro teams about the participation of their coaches in the gameplay responsibilities of players and they assured us that their coaches focused on activities traditionally associated with coaching, such as preparation, support, opponent study, etc.

We were always open with them about our opinion that distributing the work of 5 players (e.g. keeping track of the economy, calling plays and mid-round calls, and general situational awareness) across 6 people was not in line with our goals, one of which was to make it possible for new teams to emerge and compete at the highest levels. We had no concerns with the other coaching responsibilities and at the time any potential harm was hypothetical.

Since then it has become apparent that teams are, in fact, transitioning away from fielding players that have a wider breadth of skills and instead relying on coaches to handle some of that work.

On August 8th an event organizer forwarded us an email from a coach, representing some top teams, stating that the status-quo was no longer acceptable and that they insisted on more in-game access for coaches during their events. The organizer was aware of our concerns and asked us, in light of the current trend, whether we intended to take a position on coaching.

The forwarded email made it clear that despite the conversations we had with them, teams were further investing in coaching in a way that was contrary to the goals of the Majors and the concerns we had expressed. It was important to make a decision before teams further invested in coach IGLs and we decided to rein in the role of coaching in the next Major to exclude player responsibilities. We informed the event organizer of our decision (see below) and asked them to incorporate our message into their conversation with the pros.

We understand that there will be some short-term disruption for teams that have made an investment in coach IGLs.

However, we intend the Majors and Minors to be events that can be won by any team of 5 players that demonstrate excellence in all skills of CS and this adjustment is intended to ensure that this remains true.

This is just the most recent adaptation in our continuing process of improving the Majors and Minors. As always, you can send us feedback at [email protected]

Valve’s new policy restricts coach participation

Deepak Ojha
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1
Valve’s new policy restricts coach participation

In an email earlier this morning sent out by Valve to ESL, and then been communicated to certain organizations and players, Valve has supposedly restricted the involvement of coaches in the game, limiting their existence to warm up, half-time, and the strategic timeout.

According to the email sent in, Valve’s perception to coaching is divergent to the masses. The email which was sent to ESL says that CS:GO is a 5v5 game and an involvement of the 6th player diminishes the excitement and thrills for the playing five in-game. Valve’s unassociated thoughts and observation suggest the member of a team to be considered as an active player and not coach if he is taking care of the economy, strategies and calling plays.

If a person is performing these actions, we consider them a player.

Contrary to the majority of the community disassociating themselves from what Valve has planned, it surely affects a lot of top teams and players in both good and bad ways. From the perspective of organizations who structured their roster according to the rules set by the coach, things now will be difficult for them as well.

Valve’s letter to ESL on new coaching restrictions.

Interestingly, the statement from Valve also seems to be very independent and limited to majors in their own way as it also reads, “Obviously, third party events can use whatever rules they want but if you want to align your events with ours then we recommend using this coaching rule.”

The outrage of this particular is already foreseen. Not only will the recent roster changes get affected, but also the victim of this unwarranted policy, coaches will also be the one to have their career endangered overnight.

Mixed reactions from the professionals

The LOL’s

Suggestions

Negative

https://twitter.com/blucsgo/status/765949316728889344

Positive

Well..

Complete statement from Valve

“With unrestricted communication with their players, coaches can currently function as a sixth player, and not solely as a source of guidance or training. Activities such as keeping track of the economy, calling plays, and general situational awareness are important components of CS gameplay. If a person is performing these actions, we consider them a player.

Since the goal of our events is to identify the best five-player CS teams that exhibit the best combination of all CS skills, the current participation of coaches in the game is not compatible with that goal. To address this problem, future Valve sponsored events will enforce the following coaching rules:

During a match, the coach may only communicate with the players during warmup, half-time, or during one of four 30 second timeouts that the coach or player can call.
Obviously, third party events can use whatever rules they want but if you want to align your events with ours then we recommend using this coaching rule.
Ido Magal”

Bonus Content

Ironically, Valve has mentioned a statement on their official website regarding their course of working decorum. As they state, they work “boss-free”.

“We’ve been boss-free since 1996.

Imagine working with super smart, super talented colleagues in a free-wheeling, innovative environment—no bosses, no middle management, no bureaucracy. Just highly motivated peers coming together to make cool stuff. It’s amazing what creative people can come up with when there’s nobody there telling them what to do.”

Mountain Dew’s DewArena Online Qualifiers #2 recap

Kanishka Thakur
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2
Mountain Dew’s DewArena Online Qualifiers #2 recap

Mountain Dew Arena, India’s largest gaming championship in partnership with ESL India announced their tournament with a prize pool of INR 8,00,000. The event started on 15th of July 2016 with the online qualifiers of Counter Strike: Global offensive. The first and the second online Qualifiers of CS GO have already been wrapped up and two top teams of the country have qualified for the LAN finals.

The first qualifiers saw a battle between Team Invictus and Team Brutality for the first LAN slot in which Team Invictus emerged victoriously and confirming a slot for themselves in the LAN finals. The lineup of Team Invictus was Excali, Marzil, Ace, Dnm and RibbiZ aka One.

The second qualifiers of the Dew arena saw 250 teams fight for a place in the Lan finals and later on MxB Gaming winning the qualifiers by defeating Mission in Stealth and booking a slot for themselves in the LAN finals.MxB Gaming will join Team Invictus at the LAN finals of DewArena.

largest-game

The first map in the series was MiS’s pick mirage which pretty much started with their dominance on all parts of the map, after winning the pistol and the following anti-eco rounds they successfully were able to beat MxB yet again on the gun rounds making it 3-0, with the likes of Snrlx who was formerly player of the top Indian lineup Team Wolf, MiS were able to beat MxB for consistently 9 consecutive rounds where in MxB were only able to grab a round among the first 10 of them. In the first

In the first half, the dreams of MxB were decimated being down 5-10 in the first map of the online qualifiers. MxB started the second half on the CT side and surprisingly even after losing the pistol round they were able to bring the ball in their court and winning the map comfortably with a 16-13 scoreline, winning 11 rounds in a row! RatZ from LXG Gaming did predict a comeback when the scores were 6-13 to MXB, but to pull off that massive comeback was seemingly difficult which in the end was made possible with the likes of HellRanger, Antidote, and Spawn strongly.

The second map in which MxB entered as confident riders were completely opposite to the first one, MxB dominated the game from the very first round after winning the pistols and took the streak to 7 straight rounds, which in the end was reduced by 2 rounds making the first half go 13-2 in their favor. The second half, however, MiS did manage to steal the pistol and a couple of following rounds which in terms made the lineup look devastated as the game ended in their favor with a scoreline as strong as 16-6.

Third qualifiers

The lineup of MxB Gaming was Hellranger, antidote, Spawn, Busterr and Blackhawk. The registrations of the third Qualifiers of the Dew Arena have already been started and the qualifiers will begin on 19 August 2016.

Evaluating the Top Teams at ESL Pro League Season 4: Europe

Reece "Maestro" Barrett
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0
Evaluating the Top Teams at ESL Pro League Season 4: Europe

The ESL Pro League Season 4 is approaching; the league featuring the world’s best teams split into two different leagues, Europe and North America, with the top teams from each league going on to the Season 4 Finals. With $750,000 on the line, top teams from around the world will battle it out in Ginásio do Ibirapuera in São Paulo, Brazil from the 28th to the 30th of October; making the ESL Pro League Season 4 the first major tournament to be played in Brazil.

Today we will be looking at the Europe division; seeing which team is most likely to take the top spot in the EU league and potentially the entire title. We’ll be looking at multiple teams who I think are the top contenders for the first place space.

all_cs_casual

Evaluating the top teams at ESL Pro League Season 4: Europe

Natus Vincere

Natus Vincere, also known as Na’Vi, have recently undergone the biggest roster change yet, swapping out Danylo “Zeus” Teslenko for former Team Liquid player Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev. The 18-year old has a ton of potential and has already immortalized himself due to his amazing double no-scope vs Fnatic led the de_cache creator FMPONE to add graffiti as a tribute to this amazing play.

S1mple brings a new skill to the team after Zeus had begun to lose his value; he was more of a coach than a star player and he helped to prevent Flamie from raging, but after Flamie had matured and after Starix began making more of the strategically calls as a coach, Zeus lost his value. With Ukrainian Alexsandr becoming a free agent, it just made sense for Na’Vi to bring in the amazing youngster for the seasoned veteran.

ESL Pro League Season 4

Natus Vincere now has one of the best rosters in the world, if not the best. They hold the former best AWPer in the world Ladislav ‘GuardiaN’ Kovács who was only dethroned due to a wrist injury, and undoubtedly has the potentially to rise to the top spot again. Na’Vi also boast the “Pistol King” Ioann ‘Edward’ Sukhariev, a 1.6 legend who has been dubbed the best pistol player in Counter Strike today. The youth of Denis ‘seized’ Kostin (21 years old) and Egor ‘flamie’ Vasilyev (19 years old) shows that Na’Vi have loads of potential, so if they aren’t the best team in the world today, they will be the best team in the world in the future.

One thing to note however is that this is the first tournament Na’Vi will play in the aftermath of the Zeus and s1mple roster change. This could show some cracks in Na’Vi as they may have not fully jelled together as a team yet, but the individual skill the team has should allow them to advance to the ESL Pro League Season 4 Finals, if not win them the entire tournament.

FaZe Clan

450px-Faze_Clan_at_DH_Masters_Malmo_2016

FaZe Clan are a worldwide clan known best for their Call of Duty trick shots and their Call of Duty team.

Their Counter Strike team is also very good with a European roster packed with talent; the former G2 eSports European squad; except for one change.

The one and only roster change Faze made was the release of Maikel “Maikelele” Bill for the former-Envyus French player Fabien “k1oshima” Fiey.

Faze’s talent-packed roster came into their true form when Kioshima joined the team. Players like Håvard “rain” Nygaard and Philip “aizy” Aistrup woke up and began to do amazing things with the team; both are currently sitting on a 1.07 HLTV rating, the highest on the team. Faze will want to put aside a disappointing performance at ESL One Cologne where they failed to escape the Group of Death with a good run in the ESL Pro League Season 4.

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The only real flaw with Faze is that the roster doesn’t shape up to the world-class rosters of Na’Vi and the new Godsent. Faze can still definitely pull something big off in their first ESL Pro League season and should advance to the finals.

Ninjas in Pyjamas

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Ninjas in Pyjamas are one of the biggest Counter Strike teams of all time and are probably the best-known brand when it comes to the team name. The name Ninjas in Pyjamas originated in 2000 as the team began as a CS 1.6 team who dissolved in 2007, before being resurrected in September of 2007. The team went on to win ESL One Cologne: 2014; going on an 87 match win streak before they suffered their first loss against Virtus Pro.

NiP also have an undoubtedly great roster. Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund boasts the top HLTV rating with a rating of 1.20 and he shows it; Christopher is a consistent performer who has clutched many rounds and is a player with the influence to get NiP back into a game. Patrik ‘f0rest’ Lindberg is another top player for NiP. The 28-year old has a 1.02 HLTV rating and shows no sign of slower down as his age progresses.

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Roster changes have been rumored for the current NiP lineup so the players will be at the top of their games to show they deserve to stay on the starting roster. The Ninjas haven’t got a lot of good form heading into this tournament as the last time they won a major tournament was the 17th of April (Dreamhack Malmo Masters 2016).

Conclusion

In conclusion, I believe that either Faze, Natus Vincere or Ninjas in Pyjamas will win the ESL Pro League Season 4: Europe. One thing to also remember is that Virtus Pro have won their wildcard match so they could be another big team with a big chance to win the league.

My personal favourite out of those top three teams is Natus Vincere, I believe this have the best roster in the world right now, maybe only SK can compare talent-wise, and I think Na’Vi are destined for greatness with the new addition of s1mple who is already a great player at the young age of 18 who can help the team greatly.

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