NiP have showed the world they’re still a force to be reckoned with, and they’re not even at their best…
Pyth shows no signs of injury
Pyth’s outstanding performances in Oakland silenced any remaining critics that the young Swede has.
Much of the CS:GO community believed post-injury Pyth would hold NiP back at IEM Oakland and calls for Maikelele to become a permanent replacement were regular Reddit topics.
His 0.98 HLTV tournament rating doesn’t do him justice. As useful as these stats are, it doesn’t factor in the number of important rounds and crucial kills he secured – and if we only include games NiP won he had a 1.10 rating.
When Pyth played well, NiP played well.
Without his 4k on the CT pistol round of Nuke against FaZe, it’s not a stretch to say NiP would’ve lost the map and subsequently the tournament.
All of Pyth’s hard work to successfully return from injury has paid off and if anything he looks even better than before.
This isn’t NiP’s final form
What makes NiP’s victory in Oakland even more impressive is the fact that they had less than two weeks to practice with Pyth before the event.
Two months – let alone two weeks – isn’t anywhere near long enough to re-integrate a player who’s been injured for almost four months.
On top of that, the Swedish side have had to use utilise stand-ins during Pyth’s absence.
And despite some success in placing first at StarLadder, it’s hard to fully commit to practicing with a player you know is only a short-term solution.
With Pyth back in the side NiP are already improving, and if they continue in the same vein they’ll be strong contenders to win the ELEAGUE Major.
Na’Vi need to go back to the drawing board
Things have gone from bad to worse for Na’Vi. They’ve struggled to find a consistent level of form for months.
Bombing out of the group stage of IEM Oakland adds to a growing list of shortcomings for the CIS team that include failing to qualify for ESL Pro League and being knocked out of ELEAGUE groups.
Right now s1mple is the only player capable of posing a threat to tier one opposition, and this is reflected in his stats.
During IEM he won a 1.11 rating. None of his teammates made it above 1.00 – and if you only include matches Na’Vi won, he stands at 1.46.
Overall they look worlds apart from the Na’Vi we saw win ESL One New York and will struggle to pass the group stage of the ELEAGUE Major in January if they don’t sort out their problems.
FaZe are on the rise
Karrigan has been a breath of fresh air for FaZe, he’s given them tactics, consistency, and significantly improved their CT sides.
Recently FaZe qualified for the ELEAGUE playoffs and finished a respectable third place at IBUYPOWER Masters.
They went one step further at IEM Oakland and shocked analysts and viewers alike by going undefeated in a scary-looking group alongside NiP, Cloud9, and SK.
Their only loss in Oakland would come at the hands of the eventual winners NiP, and yet at times looked capable of beating them.
FaZe will be setting their sights on getting payback back on NiP at Thursday’s ECS match, and as recent results show, they’re capable of beating the best.
Everyone should veto Train against SK
CS:GO has never seen a team be as dominant on a map as SK gaming are on Train.
In the past three months the Brazilians have played Train online and at LAN 25 times, winning all but one of those.
Some of the most impressive results include a 16-4 victory vs NiP, 16-0 win against G2 and a 16-1 destruction of Virtus.Pro, all of which were on LAN.
You can be the best team in the world and SK will make you look like a batch of matchmaking silvers playing Train for the first time.
Teams will learn to perma-ban Train from SK, so it’s up to them to counter this by putting more emphasis on the depth of their map pool.
Either way, it’s suicide to play Train against SK at the moment. If they can master the rest of the map pool in the same way they’ve dominated Train, the Brazilians will be in with a good shout for January’s Major.
