Three teams with the most potential in the Starseries Playoffs

October 11, 2018 | 0 | 1549| |

#Cadian #Cerq #Counter Strike #I-League #Kjaerbye #North #NRG #Pro Scene #Starladder #StarSeries

The Star series & I-League Season 6 is down to its last few matches. There are only eight teams remaining and they are all going to play single elimination Best of Three matchups. Each team has the potential to reach the finals and ultimately win the tournament. The biggest problem for most of these rosters is their consistency at this level. We have seen splendid performances from the teams either in this tournament or in ones before. Regardless of their peak performance, the teams have trouble in maintaining the same level throughout multiple events.

We take a look at three of the most consistent lineups still remaining in the event. Their consistency gives us hope of a good showing and potentially a tournament victory.

BIG Gaming

BIG Gaming remains one of the most well-known teams from amongst the remaining rosters. The team has made its presence felt in the playoffs of several big tournaments in the past. Comprising predominantly of German players, its ‘secret weapon’ has to be Smooya. The young British player who is proud of his origins and carries the national flag onto LAN events has seen large inconsistencies in his performance.

There are times when Smooya can have some of the best performances dominating opponents especially on maps like Train. He is a very momentum based player and that was vastly evident in his match against Mousesports. Despite mis-buying a SCAR weapon Smooya continued to use it as he felt comfortable with his positioning and playstyle. We could see him getting excited, shouting on-stage as BIG Gaming won round after round. His excitement and enthusiasm definitely had an effect on the Mouz players on-stage.

While Smooya might be the X-factor for the team, it is Gob B and his tactics which provide the ammunition. Gob B is one of the best In Game Leaders. He has years of experience in helping develop young talent. With BIG Gaming it is no different as Gob B is able to make most of the talent available to him.

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Smooya – The British representative on BIG Gaming.

Between Smoooya, Tizian and Tabsen Gob B has a steady mix of multiple AWPers and riflers. Tabsen has definitely seen an uptick in his individual performance. When Smooya is not performing as well, Tabsen is almost always there to pick up the slack.

This team does have a decent map pool, but unless their map pool dramatically increases they are going to face a tough time towards the latter stage of this tournament. For now, they face off against ENCE in the quarterfinals of the event.

NRG & North

NRG and North are matched up against each other, which is a shame considering the amount of talent on each roster. It would indeed be a disappointment to see one of these two teams exit the tournament so early in the Playoffs. However, this results from North’s inability to secure a clean Group stage at Kiev.

NRG

The North American roster has a very high skill-ceiling when it comes to raw firepower. They have the likes of Ethan, Cerq who have been consistently showing up for the team in recent matches. In addition to this, daps as their In-Game Leader brings a lot of experience and strategy to the team.

NRG need to be more consistent if they are to start winning tournaments.

This team has a lot of firepower but an equally experienced roster. The likes of Fugly and NahtE have been around in North American counter strike for several years now. Their ability to read their opponents and have a good spatial knowledge of the enemy team’s positioning is what makes their experience very handy. NRG is a team that has not been very consistent in terms of their firepower. In most of their recent tournaments, they almost make it to the playoffs. However, there have been instances when they would just run into a much stronger roster than themselves en route to the Playoffs. As such, their loss is an expected one albeit not impossible to overcome.

Player Performances

The biggest drop in form has been for Fugly who has not had the best series of matches of late. His KDA has dropped drastically since just a few months ago. It is mostly due to his positioning on certain maps that results in him not being able to have the space to make good plays. Regardless his playstyle is a very intelligent one often setting up the other ‘stars’ on this roster in the form of Cerq and NahtE.

Cerq has definitely improved dramatically in the last few months. It is reminiscent of his performance early in his career when he would post really high numbers. Over the past few months, especially on LAN, Cerq has been able to outclass his teammates and be a standout performer on the server. NahtE too has picked up the slack whenever Cerq has an average performance. He is doing quite well on an individual level, however, NRG needs to develop better team coordination and synergy. Their map pool also needs a significant upgrade.

North

In a recent interview, K0nfig mentioned that the team is getting frustrated with lack of results. They have recently brought on Cadian as their In-Game Leader. This was a significant upgrade for the team especially as we saw how effective Cadian was with Rogue. However, Cadian has not had enough time with this roster. Establishing his ability to lead the team takes some time and North have been travelling from one tournament to another.

The loss of Niko meant a huge shift for the rest of the players. Niko definitely had a huge impact on the team, when it comes to their firepower and skill. But they needed a strategical approach to the game, which is exactly what Cadian brings to the roster.

North has shown us strong performances, especially when they managed to defeat Astralis in the Grand finals of Dreamhack Masters Stockholm 2018. However, that seems to be a distant memory as the North roster has not had any good results of late. They have the experience necessary to make a strong case for themselves. They have the likes of CajunB, K0nfig and Kjaerbye on the roster. These are some of the best Danish players, some of them are even more highly skilled than Astralis. Ofcourse Astralis has mastered the ability to play to their strengths and knows their limits.

North need to start winning to regain confidence

North Gaming has a decent map pool and they have excellence on maps such as Nuke, Train etc. Their dominance comes on their CT side, but their T sides do need some improvement.

This tournament is the perfect opportunity for North to get some silverware. The level of competition in this tournament is not the best and this forms the chance for North to establish their dominance in the Tier 2 scene.

Final Thoughts

The eight teams left in the tournament all have a very good chance at winning this tournament. The inconsistencies of the top teams is the biggest reason for the possibility of an upset winner. The Starseries & I-League Season 6 has a prize pool of $300,000 and the winner takes home a total of $125,000.

You can catch all the action live on Starladder’s Twitch Channel here.

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Rohan

The author

Esports journalist. An esports fan, former wannabe pro and occasional angry young man. You can find him trying to climb the Dota 2 MMR or just chilling in Rocket League. Or maybe building an entire city in Cities: Skylines. The current mood is always a surprise.