Esports News: The eyes of the CS:GO world turn to the Oracle Arena in Oakland, home of the Golden State Warriors of the NBA, as 12 teams will battle for the $125,000 first-place prize at IEM Oakland on November 18-19.
SK Gaming Come in with Confidence
The teams are split into two groups. Group A looks to be a four-horse race, with SK Gaming, Astralis, Cloud9, and Ninjas in Pyjamas being the primary favourites duking it out for the three playoff spots.
SK Gaming are the most intriguing squad of the bunch, given their recent addition of boltz, formerly of Immortals, to the roster. With almost no practice time together, boltz and company took home first place at Epicenter just a few weeks ago, giving SK lofty expectations heading into IEM Oakland.
NiP May Be Odd Team Out
Astralis and Cloud9 edge out NiP in terms of playoff aspirations, given the recent form of both Astralis and Cloud9. Astralis has been one of the most consistent teams in the world, almost always exiting group stages and making strong playoff runs. With an incredibly deep tactical system headed by gla1ve, the Danes of Astralis are considered by some as more of a sure-thing to get out of Group A than SK, given their consistency in both roster and play across the board.
Cloud9, on the other hand, are an incredibly up and down squad, given their reliance on firepower and limited tactical depth. Winners of Dreamhack Denver last month, Cloud9 come in red hot with hopes of proving themselves as a consistent top-tier threat. The key for Cloud9 is often-criticized AWPer Skadoodle, as when he performs to even a moderate level, the team typically dominate their opposition.
Given the overall firepower, Cloud9 should be able to edge out NiP, who play a similar style, just with less depth of talent; EnVyUs, who only appear to play well online when there’s limited pressure and MongolZ, who are not expected to achieve more than perhaps a single win against EnVy.
Group B is Loaded
Group B, on the other hand, is stacked top to bottom with top teams and middle-tier teams on the rise. At the top are FaZe Clan and G2 Esports, both of whom play in a similar style to the previously mentioned Cloud9. Both FaZe and G2 Esports are all about their raw skill and abilities, with minimal tactics provided throughout a round.
With many force buys, in which the team has limited amounts of money, yet selects to buy upgraded armour and pistols in an attempt to defeat the opponent and cripple their economic state, FaZe and G2 are all about the highlight plays from superstar players. Both AWPers have been standout players the last few months, with FaZe’s GuardiaN looking resurgent in his newer lineup while kennyS heads the French super team of G2. While both teams are massive favourites, nothing is guaranteed in such a deep group.
Team Liquid Hoping to Shock
Team Liquid and Gambit Esports are two very intriguing teams, given the unexpected rise of both in recent months. Team Liquid are based around their two top players in EliGE, who has been a star in North America for quite some time, and Twistzz, who has emerged in the past few months as an incredibly gifted player. To put TL in perspective, even with Cloud9’s efforts at Dreamhack Denver, Liquid would be the favourite over Cloud9 should they be in the same group, that is just how incredibly impressive they have been as of late (based on their best-of-three victories over top teams).
Gambit were expected to have a massive drop off after winning the Major in Krakow, given in-game leader and heart of the team Zeus, along with their coach, left to Na`Vi. However, with fitch now on the roster and a looser style, Gambit have performed much higher than expectations. The team is stacked from top to bottom with talent, the question will be whether or not they can find any kind of consistency. It would not be a shocking outcome if Liquid claiming third due to Gambit losing to the likes of OpTic.
Immortals an Unknown Quantity
The final two teams in Group B are OpTic Gaming and Immortals. Immortals are a completely unknown quantity, given that four of their players have been either traded (boltz to SK) or benched (HEN1, LUCAS1, kNgV), with only Steel remaining. Immortals are expected to struggle, but OpTic Gaming could surprise a team or two.
OpTic are once again a team with incredible talent yet limited tactics, given their in-game leader is friberg, who had never performed the role until joining this team. Magisk is the star of the team, continually dominating the competition while the others have struggled to find their influence. OpTic could pull an upset of a top team or two, given both their firepower and the counter-tactics employed by their coach ImAPet, who became well-known for his abilities to pull off upsets while coach of CLG.
It is all shaping up to be a very solid tournament, with at least a half a dozen teams all serious contenders to secure the top slot. Qualification for the playoffs is, however, the first order of battle and it will be curious to see where the upsets fall.
Renegades have since been named as a replacement for Immortals for this tournament. Renegades have shown some promise as of late, reaching the finals of the IBUYPOWER Masters and claiming second behind Cloud9. While not expected to make it out of group play, Renegades do present more of a threat than the shaky Immortals line-up would have. Renegades are the type of team that could pull off an upset or two, greatly impacting who makes it into the playoff stage.
