Cloud9 will no longer use the services of Jordan “Zellsis” Montemurro. The 21-year-old was on trial with the team as a replacement for Maikil “Golden” Selim, who was out since he got diagnosed with myocarditis.
With Zellsis on the team, Cloud9 made it to the 5th-6th position at iBUYPOWER Masters and second at the ELEAGUE CS:GO Invitational, also reaching the New Legends Stage of the IEM Katowice Major, failing to make it to the top 8, going out with a 2-3 record.
Zellsis, who sported a 0.87 rating while playing with Cloud9,is rumoured to be a part of the new ย Swole Patrol roster alongside Bradley “ANDROID” Fodor, Braxton “swag” Pierce and Sam “s0m” Oh, stated in a report from Rush B Media.
This change comes shortly after Golden came back into the mix, replacing Robin “flusha” Rรถnnquist, who will be taking an extended break from the competitive scene following the demise of his mother.
In his own statement, Zellsis says that โI still have a lot to learn as a player, but it was an honor to spend my first major with such an incredible group of players. Thank you to everyone at Cloud9 for giving me this opportunity and I plan on coming back bigger and better than everโ
Cloud9 currently have:
Timothy “autimatic” Ta
William “RUSH” Wierzba
Fabien “kioShiMa” Fiey
Maikil “Golden” Selim
Cloud9 will be back in action during BLAST Pro Series Miami, on April 12.
The last time NiP was in a Major playoffย was three years ago at the MLG Columbus Major in 2016. After that event, it was all downhill for the legendary roster.
With no other option left, they began rebuilding their team from the core. That process has finally paid off. Three years later, NiP made it to the playoffs of a CS:GO Major.
Where it all began- the fading of the NiP touch
NiP is a legendary name. Their dominance dates from the beginning of CS:GO to 2013. They conquered the scene, became the worldโs best, and set the record of the longest unbeaten run (the 87-0).
The lineup that achieved this was: Robin โFifflarenโ Johansson, Richard โXiztโ Landstrom, Adam โfribergโ Friberg, Christopher โGeT_RiGhTโ Alesund, and Patrik โf0restโ Lindberg. They were the first to scale the heights of CS:GO competition and in this way set the standard for what it means to be the best in the world.
Post 2015, NiP were slowing down. They were still the juggernauts, but faced competition from new guns like Fnatic, LDLC/EnVyUs, Virtus.Pro and TSM/Astralis were in the race for the #1 spot
After IEM Oakland 2016, the team had dropped to the utter pits and there was no coming back for the legendary roster. The team began cutting players from their roster and added two new players called Fredrik โREZโ Sterner and William โdrakenโ Sundin.
This did work well for the team but was no where close to their old level. The team finally understood what was on the cards; another roster change
The Rise
In early 2018, the team announced Faruk โpitaโ Pita as their new coach and the arrival of Dennis โdennisโ Edman from Fnatic. Lastly, NiP traded draken for Jonas โlekr0โ Olofsson to Fnatic and had rebuilt their roster with lekr0 being the IGL. The changes got NiP back to life, the lekr0 and pita partnership was successful. The team finally began seeing some light at the end of the tunnel
IEM Katowice 2019
The IEM Katowice 2019 Major is the first tournament in the 2019 circuit. For NiP, the run to the Major playoffs shows their efforts in coming back from scratch . In the Challengers stage, NiP came strong and qualified for the Legends Stage by going 3-2.
In the Legends stage, NiP made it to the top 8 but were knocked out in the semi-finals by Astralis thus putting an end to the fairy tail.
Apex Legends has hit yet another milestone, reaching 50 million players in just under a month, after an overwhelmingly great response to the free to play battle royale.
The game by Respawn entertainment has grown exponentially, with 2.5 million players playing within the first 24 hours, with the number growing to a massive 10 million in just 3 days. Within a week of its launch, it was also the most watched game on Twitch, with over 300k concurrent viewers at 1 point.
In comparison, Fortnite took a lot of months to hit the 50 million mark, while its 10 million players took the same time Apex Legends has to get 50.
These stats all but suggest that the Epic Games bet on Battle Royale is set to be dethroned as the biggest BR game after sitting very comfortably for over a year. However, it is not as easy as it seems on the surface. Fortnite by no means has lost viewers to Apex Legends and continues to beat its own records everyday.
In fact just last week it set a record for having 7.6 million concurrent players without any reason. The stats seem skewed as well; Fortnite was not launched as a Battle Royale Game for 2 months, with a Save the World Campaign not getting the same momentum the Battle Royale got.
While Apex Legends seems to be the game of the moment, we can only really compare it to Fortnite after a year of its launch when the initial hype around the game has died down.
Fortnite is still 200 million strong – and it will take some feat to beat that.
Earlier We had reported that Global Esports is allegedly looking forward to sign Counter-Strike: Global Offensive squad. It is now a reality as the Indian organisation has acquired the service of ex-2EZ core and a couple of Polish players.
Rahul has been in 2EZ’s camp since a year and a half. Ever since his arrival, 20 year-old has added additional firepower into the lineup. Earlier on February 12, Tito and Antidote had officially announced their departure from 2EZ Gaming as the ESL India Premiership concluded a week prior. Both of them have been acquired by another Mumbai based organisation, Global Esports to seize their partially earned glory.
Tejas is reckoned for his raw firepower and excellent raw skills beside 1.14 rating. Although he did not officially announce his departure from 2EZ Gaming, 21 year-old has also been signed by Global Esports. Tejas boasts of excellent aim and firepower and alongside Rahul, Rexy has also been a part of 2EZ for a year and a half. Both of them have had commendable results as a duo under previous organisation.
Chinmay had been playing along with Rex and Tito since little more than a year but recently, Entity Gaming signed him after the ESL India Premiership Winter Finale. Within less than a month, 21 year-old is transferred to Global Esports where he is united alongside his former teammates.
Coming down to Adrian and Kamil, both the Poles have played for Team Pride and the Pride Academy prior to joining Global Esports. This marks entry of another Indian majority squad alongside a couple of foreign talent after Signify and Entity. It will be interesting to analyse their role in the Indian or SEA Counter-Strike.
This partnership between Entity Gaming and Global eSports marks the first step in player transfers in the esports scene for India. We’re glad that organizations like Global Esports and Entity Gaming are establishing this benchmark for the esports environment in India. This will enable further development for player infrastructure and grow the scene while maintaining International standards
Global Esports is glad to bring the working principles from the International scene to India, last week we finalized the transfer of Global Esports PKR DPS player ‘Water’ to Los Angeles Gladiators. We’re looking forward to setting a benchmark to further the goals of players and establish norms for inter-organization co-operation in eSports
Dr. Rushindra Sinha, Global Esports CEO & Founder
If we look closely, Global Esports has signed a 6 man roster. On being questioned about the distinctive step, Global Esports responded:
We want to work on a rotating roster. It is standard practice for us, we do even with our overwatch and fortnite teams, it also eases off the stress on the rest of the players allowing more off time and at the same time ensure the team always has a full roster for all scrims or tournaments. We prefer a larger main roster instead of substitutes and stand-ins.
Earlier this month just after the ESL India Premiership Winter Finale concluded, Entity Gaming acquired the service of Chinmay ‘PokI’ Mehta. Before getting on-board the Entity roster, Chinmay has played for 2EZ Gaming for more than a year.
He went on to replace Bhavin ‘HellRangeR’ Kotwani but in less than a month, Mumbai based organisation has transferred the 21 year-old to Global Esports. Entity Gaming has also announced to release Bhavin effective immediately since his contract has ended and the organisation plans not to extend his contract either.
This comes in as a major shift for Chinmay. Chinmay moved from 2EZ Gaming to Entity right after the ESL India Premiership ended. Within a month, he is being transferred to Global Esports.
On the other hand, Delhi’s popular Simar ‘psy’ Sethi will be replacing him on the active lineup. Earlier this week, Simar played alongside the other four against Team nxl and Lucid Dreams in the Silver Slam tournament.
Simar needs no introduction. 20 year-old lad has got tremendous raw-skills and firepower. But unfortunately, he has been suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome lately.
It is although unclear whether the star AWPer has entirely recovered from the injury. Simar is expected to take the rifle since DJOXiC will be picking the big green gun.
The six-year-old Finnish organization had a rough sprint in its early days of foundation in 2013. Moreover, the tussle between the management and players forced the organization to retire pretty soon.
The European scene of CS:GO was scrambling with players when the then 22-year-old Aleksi ‘allu‘ Jalli made news with his AWPing. The Finn had first rendered its services to NiP. Following his departure, he moved to Liquid, ENCE, FaZe & Optic Gaming for the next three years.
The journey of ENCE at IEM Katowice began with stumping victory against Spirit & G2 Esports. Further, advancing to further stages amidst of multiple defeats against Renegades.
ENCE qualified for the playoffs by beating AVANGAR 2-0 convincingly. Therefore, facing Liquid, Natus Vincere in quarters and semis, beating them both in best of three’s.
The grand finals of IEM Katowice was more of a stampede for the beginners. The battles of the best where experiences win. Thus, leaving no margin for heroics for the underdogs. A team like Astralis who did beat mibr, Natus Vincere, FaZe & other mammoths of the game, mercilessly. ENCE’s defeat was no surprise, though, expectations had leveled higher for the Finns.
The journey is still pronounced remarkable & takes us back to the era, the rise of Luminosity.
Astralis have perhaps etched their name in the history of Counter-Strike Global Offensive with their third Major title as an organization – second in a row. The Danes beat ENCE in straight maps (Train 16-11, Inferno 16-4) to retain their crown.
Grand Final
Astralis won Train 16-11
Astralis won Inferno 16-4
The Grand Final started on ENCEโs pick Train, with Astralis on the CT side. The Danes though, found themselves on the back foot early on as early outer aggression from ENCE yielded them the pistol round.
Astralis did not go for the second round force and instead bought well into the third round, which worked in their favour. Before we knew it, Astralis were leading 3-2. But, the scores were level soon, with ENCE converting an inner take. The following round saw a similar attempt, albeit with the opposite outcome as Astralis successfully retook the inner bombsite.
Astralis rushed to a 7-3 lead on the back of some successful defences, forcing ENCE on a quasi. The Finnish rookies were unperturbed and responded with a brilliant Quasi buy round to lodge their fourth round on the T side. Astralis did not give their opponents any more leeway and ended the half 11-4, with Magisk recording a 3k in the final round of the half.
Dupreeh failed to convert a well-worked 1v3 that ended in a 1v1 to hand ENCE their second pistol round of the map. A 3k from xseven and a foiled inner split attempt from Astralis later, ENCE cut the deficit to just four rounds.
A 1v2 clutch from @Xyp9x secures us the first map in the #IEM Grand Finals ๐ฅ
— Astralis Counter-Strike (@AstralisCS) March 3, 2019
Astralis chose to forcebuy and made it work to respond. The Danes then rushed to a 14-7 lead before a brilliant 1v2 retake from sergej brought one back for ENCE. A 2k at the inner bombsite from Allu helped ENCE add one more round.
Via: HLTV
ENCE added two more rounds before Astralis chose to up the ante with a quick take of the outer area. With the score at 15-11, Xyp9x was left with a 1v2 with just a cz in his hand, which meant only one thing – Astralis managed to claim ENCEโs map pick Train with the scoreline 16-11.
The second map started with a triple-man ENCE mid push on the CT side of Inferno. While ENCE got the first pick, dupreeh and device responded with a 3k and 2k respectively to earn their first pistol round of the series.
Dupreeh raked in some cash with the SMG with a 3k as ENCE went for the full-eco. Astralis rushed to a 4-0 lead soon after a couple of B hits and did not look like letting up anytime soon. Magiskโs 3k ensured the streak worsened for ENCE, who were yet to put up a round despite being on the CT side.
With the score at 6-0, Astralis seemed to be finally facing the short end of the stick with Dupreeh and Xyp9x left in a 2v4 situation, which the duo converted with some brilliant teamwork. Another 2v3 afterplant, this time on the A bombsite, saw ENCE falter once again in their quest to put up a round on the board.
A gla1ve double nade kill at B bombsite ensured another round and a 3k from Device in the subsequent round saw Astralis hit double figures without any response from ENCE.
The Fins finally responded with a B shutdown but were immediately reset by Astralis. With the score at 12-1, Device mopped up an ENCE eco mid push with a 4k. The Danes finished the half strong at 14-1, with just two round separating them from the defence of their major crown.
ENCE chose to rush mid and it yielded them the pistol round. Consecutive pistol rounds saw ENCE push the score to 14-4 before a B shutdown and a foiled Mid rush saw Astralis secure the map, series and the IEM Katowice 2019 title with a scoreline of 16-4 on Inferno.
Train was a matter of patience for Astralis. ENCE did try to shake the Danes up with some quirky rounds and CT aggression at the T connector. But, Astralis prevailed by catching ENCE off-guard with a couple of quick rounds at the end.
The Danes also lost a couple of clutch situations and would not be happy with the fact that they lost both pistols on Train, something that could have had a much bigger impact on another day.
Train already gave us a glimpse of just how dominant the scoreline could be if Astralis manage to get the pistol round and that is what happened on Inferno. Astralis won the first pistol and then just rolled over ENCE with momentum and some precise teamwork.
The utility efficiency from Astralis was a joy to behold on Inferno, a map that was not known for the HE meta a year ago.
ENCEโs run was no fluke. But, the fairytale had to end in order for the Astralis dynasty to be established, if not already.
Mibr managed a respectable Top four finish at the IEM Katowice 2019 Major, losing in close fashion to Astralis. The Brazilian organisation is back where they belong, in the talks of the best of teams in the counter-Strike world.
A large piece of the puzzle seemed to be the return of TACO to the active roster and zews as the coach. But, just why did mibr need the two homeboys to return to make themselves formidable once again? Were Stewie and Tarik not good enough for the roster? Was YnK too young as a coach to understand and handle the rigours of getting the Brazilians to play at a level they were used to?
Photo via HLTV
The simple answer is No. Stewie and tarik were major winners and actually played well after being added to the roster as the team, as a whole, posted inconsistent results. YnK was brought in at a time when the assimilated roster seemed to be not working and the Serb actually managed to make it work to an extent, bringing mibr into the top five of the HLTV Rankings after a long hiatus.
So, then why has mibr suddenly found their swagger? The answer is comfort factor. FALLEN had indicated that the stack did not like communicating in a language different to Portuguese and while they were fluent in English, they found it hard to be as smooth as they were when conversing and screaming callouts in Portuguese.
An exchange between Fer and YnK threw some light upon the practices of the Brazilian stars, which was later confirmed, to an extent, by the Serb when he departed as the coach of the lineup. It seemed like YnK had tried to instill a disciplined work culture and attempted to tweak the ways the Brazilian went about things, not just on the server, something that was not taken too kindly by the lineup.
Photo via HLTV
What we learnt from that phase of the mibr lineup was that the Brazilian superstars are set in their ways. There are some who can adapt to every given situation. But, the Brazilians like working in their comfort zone.
They like a more casual setting but the comfort factor is more than that. The Brazilians are just more comfortable on the server when conversing in their own language and going about their deed in their own style, which is how they built their identity in the first place.
Not every team is like Astralis, who can mould themselves in any manner, depending on the map and situation. And that is why perhaps, mibr came up short against the Danes in the semi-final.
But, their road to the Top Four has been a success and by a long mile. After being trampled by Cloud 9 in the opener, mibr returned in style against complexity and G2. But, their most impressive win came against the Ninjas in Pyjamas in the 2-1 pool.
Their T side on inferno was absolutely inspired, with the right mix of individual plays and some brilliant tactical calls on the fly, which is what the stack was known for in the first place when they were number 1 in the world. The Quarter-Final against Renegades was far from a done deal.
In a match that was largely billed as perhaps the one encounter to watch, given Renegadesโ form coming into the Quarter-Final, mibr showed it is a tedious task trying to outplay the Brazilians both on the server and off it.
Renegades picked Dust 2, a map mibr consider themselves strong on and the Australian stack had to pay the price for the gamble. In an attempt to surprise mibr, they ended up playing into the Braziliansโ hand, with the map veto handing their opponents three of their comfort maps.
Photo via HLTV
While many could point at various improvements in the mibr playstyle, which should be credited to the arrival of zews, we can all agree that it is their comfort factor that has seen them sail smoothly into the semi-finals.
TACO himself proclaimed in an interview with HLTV at IEM Katowice 2019 that the lineup is learning with each game and that is perhaps the best description of the Brazilian stack.
Be it the comfort factor of returning to an all-Brazilian roster and returning to perhaps Portuguese in terms of communication or the comfort factor of TACO back to add some structure to their roster or the comfort factor of a coach that knows when and where to push their buttons and just how far, mibr is riding the comfort wave.
Many can argue that this is what made them a force to be reckoned with in the first place and that zewsโ departure was what started the erosion of the rosterโs individuality and identity. Now that they have it back, perhaps they can work on the nitty-gritties. The mibr personality is back. It is now time to climb the proverbial ladder once again.
Even before the major concludes, roster shuffles are already underway. Cloud9 through their Twitter handle have announced the departure of Robin “flusha” Rรถnnquist. Maikil “Golden” Selim will be replacing flusha on the active lineup since he has passed several medical examinations and his health seems to be improving.
Maikil had recently missed Blast Pro Series Libson, ELEAGUE Invitational 2019 and IEM Major Katowice 2019 due to several health issues but nonetheless, he is back to active lineup as Robin decides to take a break from competitive Counter-Strike.
Cloud9’s CS:GO division has been undergoing quite a lot of ups and downs. Jordan “Zellsis” Montemurro was acquired on a trial basis until Maikil’s health improves. But now, his futute with the North-American organisation remains uncertain as the major has ended.
Timothy “autimatic” Ta earlier revealed that they were looking out for Kory ‘SEMPHIS’ Friesen as their potential coach to replace Soham “valens” Chowdhury. Kory is currently sitting on Team Envy’s bench since past three months.
Global Esports have announced the transfer of Minsing โwaterโ Lee to Los Angeles Gladiators, who will be a part of their academy roster for Overwatch.
The Korean was part of the Global Esportsโ Pantheon Kr squad, and after having an impressive showing at the Overwatch Pacific Contenders Season 3 last year, he caught the attention of one of the best Overwatch teams in the World that led to his transfer.
Global Esports is an up and coming esports start up based in India, with Overwatch teams from Singapore, Korea and a domestic one as well. They have expanded to other esports like Fortnite, PUBG, Apex Legends and Rainbow Six Seige, while a CSGO roster is rumoured to being formed.
Incidentally, this transfer marks the first player contract transfer by an Indian Organisation. Through our sources we have also found out that the player buyout amount is the largest in the SEA region, without specifying the actual amount.
Global esports founder and CEO Dr Rushindra โSalbaticโ Sinha said,
Minsung โWaterโ Lee is one of the most explosive players to come onto the Overwatch scene. Heโs an absolute beast, a projectile god who has performed at the highest level.
When we brought him on board Global Esports we promised to coach, train and make him OWL ready, so it is an absolute pleasure for him to get an opportunity with the Los Angeles Gladiators.
Water was recognized in the scene after many of his accounts featured in the Top 50 Asia Ladder. After bringing him under the wing of a professional organisation with the right resources, it has led to this moment of being transferred to one of the best Overwatch teams in the World.
