ESL One Cologne 2020 Europe Preview
The European portion of ESL One Cologne 2020 features 16 of the top teams, all fighting for a share of the $325,000 prize pool. Quite a few of the teams in attendance are looking like legitimate title contenders, as the move to online competition has shaken up the top of CS:GO.
In Group A, BIG, Sprout, OG, NiP, Natus Vincere, mousesports, Complexity, and MAD Lions are all looking to get a hold of one of the four playoffs slots. Taking a look at the HLTV world rankings reveals that reveal, as of now, BIG occupying the top one spot. One might argue that the online events that have taken place recently do not accurately reflect on the teams’ abilities, but the Germans have certainly shown lots of improvement lately. In their domestic derby against Sprout, they are the clear-cut favourites.
OG will be locking horns with the Ninjas in Pyjamas. One of their best players, Mateusz “mantuu” Wilczewski, has had to deal with a wrist injury throughout the summer break. While he is back in action now, he has not been able to perform up to his usual level. So OG are definitely weakened going into this matchup, but the Ninjas themselves haven’t been looking too great either. Early exits and underwhelming performances marked all of their recent online events.
Natus Vincere and mousesports are desperately looking for a win. Finn “karrigan” Andersen and his squad are particularly motivated to redeem themselves after an abysmal Road to Rio run. NaVi did win the last real offline event of 2020, IEM Katowice, but their recent form in online events has been lacklustre at best. Both teams feature insanely talented individual players, and mousesports will finally debut their six-man roster at the event.
Click to enlargeNaVi may have won the 2018 rendition of ESL One Cologne, but their chances at this online event are considerably lower.
Complexity have done solid work at DreamHack Open Summer Europe. They were able to set themselves on top of their group, but it wasn't a smooth ride for them by any margin. OG, in particular, gave them a tough challenge. Still, they should be able to overcome their Danish opponents in this matchup. MAD Lions, following the release of Lucas "Bubzkji" Andersen to Astralis, haven't looked like themselves. They exited the DH Open Summer event dead last. While they will probably have rectified a lot of the issues that made them struggle at the tournament, they should nonetheless stand no chance against Benjamin "blameF" Bremer and his international super-team.
- Read More - GuardiaN And AdreN Reunite To Form 'OldG'
In Group B, Team Vitality, and Team Heretics will provide yet another domestic matchup for the ESL One Cologne viewers. While Vitality have struggled in recent months, they have ended up in second place at their two last online events. Losing to BIG and Complexity, respectively, this doesn't bode well for the playoffs. In their initial match, however, they should manage to keep a clean slate. Heretics have risen to be the third-best French team, but they're still a few levels below Vitality or G2 in every way.
Astralis are a real dark horse at this event. They continue to play without their in-game leader Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander and star-clutcher Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth. The team has recently acquired Bubzkji from MAD Lions, giving them another promising young talent to mould into a consistent star player. In their matches without gla1ve, they struggled massively. However, they have had quite a bit of time to prepare for this event. Fnatic's results haven't looked great either. At cs_summit 6, they were booted from the event by GODSENT, exiting in 6th place. Both teams will have made huge strides to make sure that their first match at ESL One Cologne will go in their favour.
FaZe Clan have recently added Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye to the mix. After Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer announced his departure from the roster, citing motivational issues, the team had been desperately looking for a replacement. Aurimas "Bymas" Pipiras has been unable to fill the void, but Kjaerbye may finally be the type of player that FaZe Clan need to get to the top of CS:GO. Heroic are certainly going to have a tough challenge with this international super-team.
As the last match of the day, MIBR will be facing G2 Esports. The Brazilians were offered a ticket to the European competition after they were unable to commit to the North American portion. This was quite a controversial decision, as several European teams who were disregarded for the event were actually placed higher in ESL's own international standings. Alencar "trk" Rossato is the newest addition to the Brazilian roster, and so far, they have had mixed results with the player. G2 are looking for some convincing results as well, as their online journey has been disappointing so far.
The biggest question mark at this event looms above the heads of the Astralis players. While they have certainly added great individuals to the team, the question remains whether they have had the time to build a tactical framework yet. Mousesports will debut their six-man roster at the event, which makes them unpredictable as well. So many teams have changed things up to bring their performances to the next level, which makes Cologne an exciting Counter-Strike battlefield once more.
The European portion of ESL One Cologne features a stacked lineup of top teams. Most of them are looking to prove themselves again after a string of weak performances, so the teams in attendance are hungrier than ever for a tournament trophy - even if it's just online.
Images via ESL