The review of Intel Extreme Masters New York 2020 Online CIS
Ihor MatusThere was no miracle
ESPADA, K23, and Cyber Legacy were the first teams to be eliminated from the competition. HellRaisers, Winstrike, and Ethereal were not able to pass the group stage. It would have been interesting and pretty unusual if some of the above-mentioned teams had made it to the playoffs instead of one of the participants who had advanced to the final stage of the championship, however, as we know, history does not tolerate the subjunctive.
Let’s remember that VP, forZe, and Natus Vincere advanced to the playoffs from Group A, while Team Spirit, Gambit Esports, and Nemiga Gaming performed the best in Group B. The remarkable thing is that Cyber Legacy, from which fans had expected at least a couple of victories, did not achieve even a single victory. They lost every match they played. However, the first match against Natus Vincere was principled and very interesting. Denis ‘seized’ Kostin’s team was close to a victory in it. Seized who used to play for “The Born to Win” with Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev demonstrated the best result in the match against s1mple over the last 4,5 years of his career, which only made us happy.
Natus Vincere vs COVID-19
There was an unusual case for esports in the group stage. The match between NAVI and forZe was postponed from October 18 to October 20. The match was postponed, it was played, everything is clear, everyone is happy, right? No.
Everything would be fine but the opponents of Natus Vincere found out about the postponement of the match 35 minutes before the start of the match. The reason for it was Perfecto’s positive COVID-19 test. The fact that the esportsmen were practicing for 4 hours to be told that the match was postponed did not make the players and management of forZe happy. Besides, the actions made by NAVI were also criticized. Natus Vincere asked not the representatives of forZe but the organizers of the championship to postpone the match. The last ones, of course, made concessions for NAVI and told forZe about the postponement of the match. After that, the esports community started discussing this situation. The community was divided into two camps: the ones who defend Perfecto with NAVI and also those who support forZe’s interests. There were enough of the representatives of both. Many told that ESL methodically demonstrated the double-standard principle and if it had been a different team, it would have already received a technical loss. According to other esports media persons “NAVI is 70% of CIS views” and ESL did not want to lose these views. Let’s remember that Virtus.pro has come to a match, being 15 minutes late, and they scored a technical loss. The match between NAVI and forZe was just postponed. The situation became hotter due to the fact that Perfecto decided to play a public match in CS:GO two hours after the situation. This created a new wave of outrage, after which the esportsman said that playing half an hour was not the same as playing the official match when you do your best. As a result, the situation has already been forgotten but it was discussed very actively on October 18-20. By the way, forZe defeated NAVI with a score of 2-0 and advanced to the playoffs.
Bread and circuses!
Intel Extreme Masters New York 2020 Online CIS showed us that the championships can unexpected in all stages. For example, despite NAVI making it to the playoffs from Group A, however, they were expected to place first in their sextet but not third. Virtus.pro who demonstrated a brilliant result appeared in the semi-final of the tournament and Natus Vincere advanced to the quarterfinal with great difficulties. By the way, VP became the only team that had not lost a match in the group stage.
Natus Vincere beat Gambit Esports with a score of 2-0 in the quarterfinal and proceeded to the semi-final. It was predictable, wasn’t it? And was the victory of Virtus.pro over Natus Vincere with a result of 2-0 predictable in the semi-final? Was Nemiga’s triumph over forZe with a score of 2-0 predictable? Was the final with the participation of Nemiga predictable? We think that the answer to the above-mentioned questions is probably “no” rather than “yes”. For this reason, it was interesting and intriguing sometimes to follow the CIS division of IEM New York 2020 Online
By the way, I hope you do not forget that NAVI asked to postpone the match in the group stage due to Perfecto’s health state, after which beat Gambit with him in the quarterfinal and played in the semi-final where they lost the battle to VP. So, they decided not to play the match for the third place against team Spirit and refused to participate in this match, referring to Ilya Zalutskiy’s bad condition. The difference between the fourth and third positions in the standings is in the number of the earned points. As a result, NAVI, having placed fourth, earned 2031 RMR, while Team Spirit, which has held the 3rd position, earned 2188 RMR.
Regarding the grand final, it can’t be called very interesting or at least a bit intriguing. Nemiga Gaming made its fans happy with their advancement to the final match, however, they demonstrated the game, which was without ideas, and did not win a single map against their opponents. They were fighting on the first and third maps and taking 12 and 13 rounds but they only managed to win 5 rounds on the second map.
Is there an animal stronger than a bear? Virtus.pro achieved victory
Virtus.pro has taken all the glory at this championship. If Natus Vincere received an advantage with the help of the media and paid attention to itself with scandals, intrigues, and investigations, Virtus.pro, in turn, just came, saw, and prevailed. The remarkable fact is that VP lost only two maps, one of which was technical (for being 15 minutes late). The team was the only one to finish the path in the group stage with a result of 5-0.
Having advanced to the playoffs, Virtus.pro defeated Natus Vincere, having faced some serious problems. The team was close to a loss on the second map but beat Natus Vincere with a score of 16-14 and made it to the grand final. After such a serious contest, Virtus.pro had a very easy objective — to beat Nemiga Gaming. VP did this task, which can be rated as five white bears out of five. They achieved victory on three maps and finished this match with a score of 3-0 and became the champions of the tournament. Virtus.pro received the money reward of $20,000 and 2,500 regional rating points and also 350 Pro Tour points by BLAST Pro Series for their efforts. Due to this, Virtus.pro has held the 3rd place in the CIS rate and will go to the Challenger series of the next Major tournament.
The results of Intel Extreme Masters New York 2020 Online CIS
- 1nd place: Virtus.pro — $20,000 + 2,500 RMR points + 350 Pro Tour points
- 2nd place: Nemiga Gaming — $7,000 + 2,344 RMR points + 200 Pro Tour points
- 3rd place: Team Spirit — $4,000 + 2,188 RMR points + 125 Pro Tour points
- 4th place: Natus Vincere — $4,000 + 2,031 RMR points + 125 Pro Tour points
- 5th place: Gambit Esports — $3,000 + 1,875 RMR points + 70 Pro Tour points
- 6th place: forZe — $3,000 + 1,719 RMR points + 70 Pro Tour points
- 7th-8th place: ESPADA — $2,000 + 1,484 RMR points + 45 Pro Tour points
- 7th-8th place: Ethereal — $2,000 + 1,484 RMR points + 45 Pro Tour points
- 9th-10th place: K23 — $1,500 + 1,172 RMR points + 25 Pro Tour points
- 9th-10th place: Winstrike — $1,500 + 1,172 RMR points + 25 Pro Tour points
- 11th-12th place: Cyber Legacy — $1,000
- 11th-12th place: HellRaisers — $1,000
After the end of Intel Extreme Masters New York 2020 Online CIS, the rating table looks in the following way:
- 1st place: Team Spirit — 5,663 points (the status of “The legend”)
- 2nd place: Natus Vincere — 5,461 points (the status of “The legend”)
- 3rd place: Nemiga Gaming — 5,169 points (the Challengers series)
- 4th place: Virtus.pro — 5,116 points (the Contenders series)
- 5th place: Gambit Esports — 3,735 points (the Contenders series)