ESL One Cologne 2020 North America Review
In the North American portion of ESL One Cologne, eight teams have fought for the trophy - and $135,000. Virtually all top teams were in attendance, and some of them delivered stellar performances to make it a tough road for the top teams. In the end, though, Evil Geniuses secured a narrow 3-2 victory in the Grand Finals.
In Group A, FURIA, Chaos, Gen.G, and 100 Thieves sought to get into the playoffs. With only two slots available, the teams had to work hard to make it past their opposition. In quite surprising fashion, Chaos were the ones who secured the first slot. In a 2-0 victory, which did feature an overtime map, Josh “steel” Nissan and his team overcame the Brazilians of FURIA. In this instance, steel was actually the top performer for Chaos. The in-game-leader usually doesn’t put up the big numbers, but against FURIA, he proved that he can still deliver strong performances against high-level teams. This match was then followed up by a relatively close affair against 100 Thieves. There, Nathan “leaf” Orf and Erick “Xeppaa” Bach dominated the scoreboard. Beating the Thieves 2-1, they booked their ticket to the playoffs.
The Australians, unfortunately, ended up losing the Decider Match to FURIA, giving up what almost felt like a safe Semi-Finals spot. On the Brazilian side, Henrique “HEN1” Teles and Vinicius “VINI” Figueiredo managed to pull in the big numbers. Unfortunately, though, the players were struggling with consistency issues. VINI could pull off a 1.48 rating in one match and then completely disappear in the next.
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On the other side of the Group Stage, Evil Geniuses confidently secured the first playoffs spot. With decisive 2-0 victories against Triumph and Team Liquid, respectively, they already set themselves up for the trophy. Liquid, having just recently released their in-game-leader, Nick “nitr0” Canella, struggled massively against Cloud9. Their newest addition, Michael “Grim” Wince, has put up some great performances so far. But the teamwork aspect has been lacking, which especially showed on the T sides of Liquid. Whenever the players were tasked with proactively getting into the rounds, they often failed to secure the critical opening kills.
Still, they eventually managed to get through the Group Stage. Meeting Chaos in the Semi-Finals, fans and analysts were ready for an upset victory. But in the meantime, the Liquid players had already fixed quite a lot of their mistakes. Chaos were able to make it close on Inferno but were easily bested on Mirage afterwards. Team Liquid were thus the first to book a ticket for the Grand Finals. EG had a similarly easy time against FURIA, dispatching them with ease.
So we were set for a Liquid versus Evil Geniuses rematch. This time around, however, Liquid didn’t concede the maps on single-digit scorelines. Instead, they fought an incredibly close and narrow match on Nuke. Losing in overtime, they struck right back on Vertigo. Unfortunately, the teams traded maps, until they arrived at the decider, Dust2. Liquid managed to get on top of a 12-9 lead, but as EG started to mount a comeback, they were unable to get any more rounds on the board. Evil Geniuses surpassed them with 16-12 on the last map, making for a 3-2 victory overall.
The six-hour match demanded everything from these players. While Jonathan “ELiGE” Jablonowski was a beast with 128 kills and a 1.40 rating, Jake “Stewie2k” Yip recorded a meagre 0.88 rating with just half the kills. In the Evil Geniuses camp, none of the players achieved such an incredible performance, but the roster was more consistent overall.
WHAT DOES THIS TOURNAMENT MEAN FOR NORTH AMERICAN CS:GO?
ESL One Cologne has shown us that EG’s success is built on fragile grounds. While the players arguably have the best teamwork at this point, domestically speaking, Liquid are catching up fast. During the ESL One Cologne Group Stage, Evil Geniuses had easily bested them. But just a week later in the Grand Finals, Liquid brought them to the very edge in a nailbiter Best-of-Five series.
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So while EG did indeed clutch the trophy at this event, it simultaneously predicts their downfall as North America’s premier team. With Grim on board, Team Liquid are looking to attack. While they will arguably reclaim their top spot domestically, we can’t possibly know how good any of these teams will perform against international competition. But as it appears, offline events will still be off the table for quite some time to come.
Click to enlargeESL One Cologne has also caused another major change in the CS:GO landscape. After years of playing for Chaos and a lengthy and decorated Counter-Strike career, steel has now both waved goodbye to Chaos and Counter-Strike. In an interview given just after the event, steel stated that it would only be a matter of time until his removal. His ban from Valve events following match-fixing in 2014, for which he has shown lots of remorse, is still intact.
While he did lead the team to a great Semi-Finals finish at this event and was an instrumental part of Chaos’ success, this has also shown that the team can start aiming higher. They have become a roster with legitimate Major aspirations. Obviously, they still wouldn’t stand a chance against the likes of Astralis or Vitality. But if MIBR can make it to a Major, so can they. Unfortunately, as long as Valve still hold onto the ban, this journey can only take place without steel. The player is now set to move to VALORANT as a streamer, where he can basically restart his professional career. The scene can undoubtedly benefit from having such a proficient and dedicated in-game-leader. Conversely, North American CS:GO has just lost one of its most important pieces.
Images via ESL
