Flashpoint Season 2 Group Stage Examination: Cloud9 And c0ntact Gaming
Flashpoint Season 2 became official on November 10, and has already seen two teams sink to the bottom. Cloud9 and c0ntact Gaming finished 11th and 12th after losing both of their sets in the group stage brackets. Both million-dollar rosters looked good based on salaries but it didn’t show at their most recent event. With a million dollars on the line, Flashpoint Season 2 could've helped balance their team’s budget. Fnatic and Dignitas dominated c0ntact Gaming while Cloud9 was eliminated by Virtus.pro and OG. All four teams have their strengths and weaknesses but were clearly the stronger opponents. MAD Lions, BIG, and Virtus.pro became the first teams to enter the grand finals in their groups.
C0NTACT GAMING GETS SWEPT UP
Fnatic were the first team to beat c0ntact Gaming in round one. Both teams traded map picks and lost their preferences being mirage and train. Lotan “Spinx” Giladi struggled the most with a -18 K.D and had a 0.81 overall player rating. He went 8-21 on mirage which also happened to be c0ntact Gaming’s map of choice. As for Fnatic, everyone had a consistent match while Freddy “KRIMZ” Johansson had a whopping 1.30 player rating. He also got three kills on the final round of overpass securing the victory for his team. KRIMZ made another highlight after his 1v2 clutch on the pistol round.
Dignitas even managed to destroy c0ntact Gaming with a 2-1 finish. Their team’s rookie by the name of Ludvig “HEAP” Alonso finished with the second-best player rating. HEAP managed to win a 1v3 clutch on map 2 while the bomb was planted. Spinx was able to make up for his previous set against Fnatic by carrying his team to victory on dust2. He went 40-14 compared to the second-best score of 18-15. His player rating topped at 2.48 which is unbelievable even for professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO). Dignitas finished things off with a four-round lead on inferno pushing c0ntact Gaming out of the series.
CLOUD9 STILL CAN'T FIND A WIN
Cloud9 got absolutely slammed by Virtus.pro and OG losing all four maps, making them the worst team in the entire tournament. Virtus.pro won their map pick of inferno beating Cloud9 16-5, not a great start for the multi-million dollar roster. Ricky “floppy” Kemery struggled the most with a 0.70 player rating after going negative on both maps. Overpass was a really close game with a two-round difference, the only issue was that floppy couldn’t keep up with his team.
The final round started off with Alex “ALEX” McMeekin missing an aggressive wide peak, allowing Virtus.pro to push through water with ease. Patrick “es3tag” and William “mezii” McMeekin made the right choice to close in on water and take out all three players. While Cloud9 moved their focus towards the B site, they forgot to watch mid. Timur “buster” Tulepov was able to kill es3tag in connector making it a 2v2. With ten seconds on the clock, Cloud9 held short away from cover allowing Virtus.pro to clean up the round. It seemed like their game sense was lacking when they truly needed it.
Click to enlargeTHE FIRST TEAMS TO ENTER GROUP FINALS
MAD Lions were able to win both maps against Dignitas which was expected to happen. Players across both teams had similar results to their teammates, and nobody, in particular, was at fault. Only thing was Dignitas lacked a lot of teamwork and overall skill on overpass, they lost by a total of ten rounds on the map of their choice but put up a fight on nuke. Fnatic was a much stronger opponent for MAD Lions and kept the scores going back and forth. Rasmus “sjuush” Beck and Fredrik “roej” Jørgensen both had ACEs on vertigo with consistent performances. MAD Lions finished off with all four rounds in overtime in the final map.
BIG went up against MiBR and forZe with outstanding results. They beat out MiBR 16-2 on both mirage and dust2, keep in mind they’re also ranked fourth in the entire world of CS:GO. While MiBR has had some recent success in the NA scene with their loaned pickups, BIG was a much bigger matchup. Florian “syrsoN” Rische was even able to ACE on the final round of dust2. Their upper bracket match against forZe was a clean 2-0 finish; the underdog roster didn’t stand a chance on their first map. They had a close 14-16 conclusion on inferno against a top-five team, that’s a lot to be proud of.
After taking out the players of Cloud9, Virtus.pro went up against Gen.G. A team that had just gone undefeated against OG and was looking for more to brag about. Virtus.pro didn’t let them get in the way of their group stage finals. They beat Gen.G on the final map which was vertigo and finished with an eight-round lead. If they keep this up, Virtus.pro will move onto the playoffs against another powerful roster.
Images via Flashpoint