ELEAGUE Premier Group A Preview

The first week of the ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2017 is set to begin tonight in the ELEAGUE studio in Atlanta, Georgia. Using the same format as ELEAGUE Season 2, the four-team groups will utilize the standard GSL group format with best of one opening and winners matches, and best of three losers and decider matches. Group A features 3 big names in FaZe, G2, and Natus Vincere, alongside a qualified team from NA in Renegades. Here we will break down each team individually and evaluate their chances of making the playoffs.

G2

The French giants are coming into ELEAGUE hot off a win at DreamHack Masters Malmö, where they took down SK, NiP, and North in series. G2 are in prime position to take the #1 spot, as the big three teams from the Major have either dropped off or made changes. Their fast and aggressive play combined with the star power of players like Kenny “kennyS” Schrub and Dan “apEX” Madesclaire make G2 a danger against any team. Being so reliant on skill means that your form can have big dips, as was seen in Krakow, but also having big peaks, as seen in Malmö. We likely won’t see as dominant a performance from G2 this weekend, but their average play should easily be enough to carry them to the playoffs.

FaZe

After disaster struck at the Major for FaZe, the team decided to make big changes, and swapped Aleksi “allu” Jalli and Fabien “kioShiMa” Fiey for Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovács and Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer. The team's’ debut at DreamHack Masters Malmö was less than desirable, as they lost out to Gambit in the decider match of Group C. It’s clear the potential of this team is enormous, as the clear two best players of early 2016 have been united under one banner, neither of which was main star Nikola “NiKo” Kovač, and are lead by legendary in-game leader Finn “karrigan” Andersen. The team should have a style akin to their old roster, but even more extreme than before, as this lineup has even less defined roles as the previous. Despite their blunder in Sweden, I wouldn’t count them out entirely, as with such a large change - olofmeister and GuardiaN are going from Swedish and Russian speaking teams respectively to an English speaking one - there is likely a lot to work through.

Natus Vincere

The CIS team finally decided that perpetual mediocrity wasn’t enough, and looked towards former Na’Vi in-game leader Danylo “Zeus” Teslenko for guidance and success. Replacing GuardiaN, the Ukrainian legend comes off of a hot run with Gambit and a Major title in July. Important to note, but with the signing of Zeus also comes a new coach in Mykhailo “kane” Blagin, who is a tenured veteran from the CIS scene. The new Na’Vi’s debut at DreamHack Masters was slightly underwhelming, as after taking down Renegades and Virtus.pro in the group stage, the team fell to Ninjas in Pyjamas in the quarterfinals after having hit match point on map two. This weekend will be the time for Zeus to prove his worth as an in-game leader, as a group stage exit won’t bode well for the team going forward.

Renegades

The Renegades roster has been through some turbulence in the last few months after the signing of Swedish talent David “Jayzwalkingz” Kempner. Despite some strong performances by the team as a whole, Jayzwalkingz has severely struggled in seemingly every match online, and after a group stage exit in Malmö, the team decided to remove him from the roster after less than a month of play. Luckily for them, OpTic was going through their own roster overhaul, and Renegades managed to snag Keith “NAF” Markovic to fill in. So far, the only results we have to go by are two ESL Pro League matches where they went 1-1 against compLexity and CLG. Despite NAF being a very decorated player in CS:GO, it is unlikely this team will be able to do much damage against the big names in this group, but playing close against a Na’Vi or FaZe can give this squad confidence for the future.

Make sure to check dust2.us, as we will be covering the results from ELEAGUE live.