The last major tournament of the iconic game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive starts on Monday, May 8 in Paris. The tournament features 24 of the world’s best teams, battling it out for a place in the history books and a share of the $1.25 million prize pool.
The Finnish color in the tournament is represented by the captain of the Swedish NIP Alex “Alexib” Estonian and coach of the Finnish organization ENCE An advantage “saw” Saw.
Read more: shows the last major tournament of the CS:GO game together with Pelaajat.com
16 of the teams start on Monday 8.5. in the challenger phase of the tournament. The group matches are played using the so-called Swiss scheme, where teams advance with three wins and are eliminated from the tournament with three losses. The opponents for the matches are selected from among teams in the same situation, i.e. the winners of the opening matches face another team in a 1-0 situation, the losers face each other.
The eight teams with the best success in the continental qualifiers (Natus Vincere, FURIA, Heroic, Vitality, 9INE, fnatic, Into the Breach and Bad News Eagles) will advance directly to the legend stage of the tournament, which starts on Saturday, May 13. The final playoff teams will be determined on Tuesday, May 16, and the quarterfinals will begin on Thursday, May 18.
The final match, which will be played at the Accor Arena in Paris, will be watched live in Areena and on E-erühlu’s Twitch channel on Sunday, May 21, starting at 18:00.
Will a familiar name or a surprise party be celebrating at Accor Arena?
The qualifiers played in April gave a good indication of the competition condition of the major teams. In particular, the two RMR qualifying tournaments in Europe were of a very tough level, because without a place in the major, e.g. Big clubs like FaZe, Astralis, Cloud9 and BIG.
General E-sports expert Kalle “gaLezki” Kareinen you named a few turps that you take under a magnifying glass with majors.
9INE: Former ENCE player Hades on fire
The big surprise of the European major qualifiers was Poland’s 9INE. The young Polish bunch, who entered the qualifiers from 25th place in the HLTV world ranking, knocked down G2 (ranking #1), BIG (#18) and Vitality (#7) and went straight to the legend stage of the tournament.
– Despite the good online results, no one expected that the Poles would play so well in Lan (nearby online event) against such tough opponents. Especially a former ENCE player Alexander “hades” Miskiewicz were the best players of the tournament on both the CT and T sides. Also Kamil “NO” Pietkun and Kacper “Kylar” Walukiewicz it is worth monitoring in the future, says Kareinen.
Natus Vincere: Will npl sit in the team?
As expected, the Ukrainian Natus Vincere, who celebrated victory at the Stockholm majors in the fall of 2021, took a place in the legend stage. Into the Breach put the team in a tight spot in the opening match, but three wins and the last 2-0 win over FaZe (ranked #2) sent the team straight into the second stage of the tournament.
The Ukrainian organization is the only one that has participated in all major tournaments of the game. The newest addition to the team, a product of the organization’s junior mill Andrij “npl” Kukharsjkyj is the only player without a major win under his belt yet.
– npl showed clear signs of maturing and was exceptionally the best player of his team in light of the numbers. In previous matches, the level has been far from that of the teammates. Of course, the sample size is only four maps. As a fun statistical extract from those four maps, NAVI won 60% (12/20) of 4v5 underpowered situations on the CT side, while the tournament average was 27%.
How are the “Finnish teams”?
In terms of Finns, the interest is focused on the Swedish NIP and the team of the Finnish organization ENCE, who will start their major career right from the challenger phase on Monday. NIP is captained by Finnish star Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen, while ENCE is piloted by Eetu “sAw” Saha.
According to E-sports expert Kalle Kareisen, NIP’s chances of success rest on the necks of hitters who sometimes tickle unevenly.
– Louis “Brolla” Brolin pulled off the tournament of his life at RMR. Also Frederick “REZ” Sterner and Daniel “headtr1ck” Appellant played much better and above all more confidently than earlier this year, Kareinen analysed, but reminds that the trio immediately returned to their “familiar uneven line” in the IEM Rio that followed the qualifiers
– With NIP, even during the same map, the performance level can fluctuate enormously. But the team went to the majors especially with strong T sides and good enough CT sides. In addition, there is a so-called “comfort pick” on the Vertigo map, even though they once lost against Vitality in its qualifiers.
From the ranks of ENCE, Kareinen is offered a snack Guy “Nertz” I was delusional. On a good day, the 23-year-old Israeli striker plays like the best in the world.
– Of course, NertZ is not leaving ENCE for a while, but he is an unfathomable “guy” who could play in an even tougher gang, Kareinen praises.
– He is a perfect fit for ENCE and Paweł “dychan” Dychan with were the saviors of the T sides in the qualifiers, when Pavle “Made” Bošković was in really deep water.