NA CS at the Majors: StarLadder Berlin Major 2019

As we near closer and closer to the BLAST.tv Paris Major, the final CS:GO Major Championship, Dust2.us is walking down memory lane to relive North America’s Counter-Strike history at the Majors. Coming off the back of another Astralis win at Katowice, North America was still on top as Liquid towered over the HLTV ranking. Several North American hopefuls were also in decent contention, with NRG in the top ten and Cloud9 in the top 20. North America was in a good place.

Despite Astralis winning back-to-back Majors, all eyes were on Liquid coming into Berlin. The summer of 2019 will forever be ingrained in North American fans' hearts and minds as the summer of Liquid dominance. Following a quarterfinals exit at Katowice, Liquid went on a spree of nine consecutive finals, including first places at IEM Sydney, DreamHack Masters Dallas, ESL Pro League Season 9 Finals, and ESL One Cologne, the four tournaments which would net them the second-ever Intel Grand Slam, and still to date, the fastest at just 63 days.

HLTV's rankings pegged Liquid at the top with 1000 rating points, with second place Vitality a far cry away at just 490. By all accounts, Liquid was the team to beat. Despite just a quarterfinal finish at Katowice, a playoff appearance was enough to retain their Legends spot for Berlin. Cloud9 made a number of roster moves between the Majors, dropping Robin "flusha" Rönnquist, Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey, and Jordan "Zellsis" Montemurro. This meant that Cloud9 would lose their slot at Berlin. The new team with Maikil "Golden" Selim, Daniel "vice" Kim, and René "cajunb" Borg attempted to qualify for the Major through the North American Closed Qualifier, but ultimately failed.

Complexity kept their spot at the Major as a Returning Challenger, courtesy of their 12-14th place finish, however, the team wouldn't be the same. Peter "stanslaw" Jarguz and Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert made way for Hunter "SicK" Mims and Owen "oBo" Schlatter in the lineup. Rounding off the North American teams was NRG, who were not fortunate enough to retain a slot at the Major. However, they fought their way through the Minor system, and alongside FURIA and INTZ, joined the ranks at Berlin.

Between Katowice and Berlin, Valve changed the competitive map pool, removing the mainstay of Cache from the repertoire, instead replacing it with Vertigo, introducing the new map to Majors for the first time. For those of you aware of Berlin, this will very much come into play later on in the story...

Back to the Major, Liquid got a free pass through the first set of the Swiss system courtesy of their Current Legends status while NRG and Complexity had to battle it out. In the opening round, NRG matched up against DreamEaters, where they duked out on Overpass. DreamEaters got to a hefty early lead, but miraculously, the Americans won nine rounds straight from 15-6, only to lose in overtime. Complexity also had a close game, but fell to Avangar on Inferno in the 29th round, moving North America perilously close to only having one team in the New Legends Stage.

The second set of NA matches were nowhere close to as contested as the first two. NRG scored an easy victory over Tyloo, while Complexity were absolutely blown out of the water by HellRaisers. Onto the third round of matches, NRG still had a BO1 to play, in which they obliterated Syman to sit just one BO3 from the New Legends stage. Complexity, at 0-2, were in the doldrums of the Swiss system, needing three consecutive BO3 victories to stay alive. The first match went as planned, narrowly taking the first map from Tyloo in double OT before eliminating the Chinese team in swift fashion on the second map.

Continuing their relatively easy run, NRG made short work of Avangar to make the New Legends stage, feeling pretty good about themselves. After that victory, stanislaw said "We improved as the tournament went on, now we are just kind of rolling over teams, which we kind of expected of us to do". It was a boost of confidence for the team who had switched IGLs before the Major.

The same confidence couldn't be said for Complexity, who couldn't put 16 rounds together in total against Grayhound, falling to the Aussies to be eliminated 1-3 from Berlin. It was an incredibly disappointing run for Complexity, which owner Jason Lake made very clear.

This tweet would kick start the European "juggernaut" project that would last until the end of 2021 with a revolving door of stand-ins and mixed results. But that's enough about 2021, we're reminiscing on 2019 here! Let's get back on track shall we?

Onto the New Legends stage, we are greeted by Liquid along with the familiar face of NRG from the New Challengers stage. Both teams got off to solid starts, with NRG narrowly winning their BO1 over Renegades, and Liquid starting off with a statement victory over CR4ZY. It still looked a bit dull for the dominant team though, with Stewie saying "There was a little worry about rustiness, the first few days of our bootcamp were not that sharp, it wasn't that good, it didn't look like we were at the same spot where we left off."

Unfortunately for NA fans, the two teams faced off against one another in the second BO1s of the New Legends stage. At least it wasn't for elimination, right? Surprising everyone, NRG actually took down the Grand Slam winners in a fairly secure fashion, giving up only nine rounds over the game. With two victories in the bag, taking down the best team in the world, NRG now needed to take on the back-to-back Major champions Astralis. Train went to a ludicrous 59 rounds before NRG were able to finally take it in their favor, while Nuke, Astralis' pick, blew back in their face as NRG held them to just four rounds. Just like that, NRG were locked into playoffs with a 3-0 record, winning six consecutive series to get there.

Liquid, on the other hand, had a substantially more difficult road ahead of them. A double OT loss to Avangar put them on the back foot, just one BO3 loss away from elimination, and two BO3 wins away from qualification. The first was facilitated by a 2-0 victory over North, with the Americans eliminating the Danes from the competition. In the final do-or-die match with mousesports, Liquid went to three overtimes over two maps to just barely clinch a playoff appearance.

Here we are, the playoffs. Two NA teams made it, but they're both on the same side of the bracket. More than that, they're on the same side as the back-to-back reigning champions Astralis. First to face the music was Liquid.

In what many considered should be the grand finals, Liquid and Astralis butted heads in the quarter-finals. But, this match did not go according to plan. Remember when I said that Vertigo was just added to the map pool? Well, many teams were electing to ban the new map, rather trusting their playbook on the more seasoned maps. Astralis were one of those wary teams, never picking Vertigo throughout the Major. At least, until they faced Liquid.

This obviously shook Liquid to their core. What were they thinking? Picking Vertigo against a Liquid with a 100% win rate on it? Well, Astralis came away with a dominant 16-8 victory over Liquid on Vertigo. The Danes had completely shocked Liquid with their pick, and it proved successful. Overpass was better, but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades as Astralis took the map 16-13, eliminating the best team in the world and the best team North America has ever seen 2-0 in the quarterfinals.

NRG matched up against Natus Vincere in the quarterfinals. Continuing their strong streak from the New Legends stage, NRG won their map pick and made a close affair on map two, Natus Vincere's pick of Mirage. A stunning 1.39 rating from CeRq pulled NRG across the line on Mirage in overtime, extending the winning ways of NRG. It was now ten straight map wins from the American squad.

With only one NA team in the semifinals, NRG now had to face off against Astralis, the best team in the history of CS:GO. NRG beat them once before in the New Legends stage, surely they can do it again? It looked like NRG were going to start off on the right foot before an absolutely stunning 1v3 from Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz set the tone for the match.

Instead of the 59-round affair that we got on Train the first time these two teams met, Astralis closed it out in regulation, stealing NRG's map pick 16-10. Then, on their own map pick, instead of choosing Nuke, which they lost last time, the Danes opted for Overpass, easily defeating NRG 16-9.

Just like that, both NA teams in playoffs were eliminated by Astralis, who would go on to defeat Avangar in the grand final, making it three back-to-back Major victories and four in total. Shortly after the event, the NRG team would be bought by Evil Geniuses, who would go on a strong run in the online era, but never have such a good impression at a Major again. Complexity embarked upon their "juggernaut" project, leaving the North American scene behind, opting for a European roster instead. Liquid would never again reach the same dominant heights as before the player break. Before the Berlin Major, Liquid won the Grand Slam in just 63 days, an incredible record that will likely never be broken. Liquid have still not won an international Big Event since.