The preview of Intel Extreme Masters Beijing Online 2020 Europe
Ihor MatusGeneral information
IEM Beijing Online 2020 Europe will be hosted on November 6-22. The overall prize pool will amount $150,000 and 16 participants will work on its distribution. The winner will take the main money reward of $60,000 and 400 rating Pro Tour points. The vice-champion will earn the money prize, which is twice smaller than the one the winner will earn — $30,000. The teams, which place 3rd-4th in the standings, will receive $12,000.
Who will it be interesting to follow?
The answer to this question will be very subjective because our interests might not be similar to some part of the viewership. However, just like an average viewer, we are interested in answers to such questions as “Will Astralis play with Xyp9x like the old days?”, “Will the Kovac brothers bring G2 Esports to a new level?”, “Will s1mple demonstrate his usual performance?”, “How far will NAVI proceed?”, “And what about Vitality?”, “Will olofmeister be able to help FaZe Clan?”.
Astralis. Will the red star shine over Denmark again?
Probably, all CS:GO fans remember the moment when Astralis left without Kjaerbye and invited Magisk to their roster instead of him in February 2018. The last one was able to bring the thing the team had lacked for so long and together with the arrived Emil Reif, the team advanced to first place of the world rate in April 2018 and did not leave it until June 2019. Then, the team started dominating again and a few players left the main roster in 2020 due to mental burnout. Now, the players have returned to the team one by one and reassembled the five, which terrified their opponents in 2018 and 2019. BLAST Premier Fall Series 2020 was the debut championship where Xyp9x was fighting alongside his teammates. The start was not bad at all. The team defeated MIBR, which suddenly began showing a decent play, and also beat G2 Esports, the team, which had received the powerful reinforcement in the form of the union of the Kovac brothers. Despite the triumph over the Europeans with a result of 2-1 (by the way, just like in the case with MIBR), the final match against G2 was over with a score of 2-0 in favor of G2 Esports. The first performance with the returned Andreas Højsleth can be called good but it is not Astralis the fans of the Danish team remember. So the question is: will Astralis be playing at this tournament as they used to in the good old days?
NAVI and s1mple
Natus Vincere is so famous for its instability that avid bettors have the unspoken rule: “Do not bet on NAVI, do not bet against NAVI”. Natus Vincere does not leave esports fans indifferent. Fans love or hate this club. And both the organization and some particular players of the CS:GO roster, namely s1mple, have enough of both of them. The esportsman is considered to be one of the best CS:GO players in the world for a reason and the main thing is that Oleksandr Kostyliev has been proving this for a long time. For example, he held 4th place on the list of the best players of the year by HLTV in 2016, 8th place in 2017, and he even became the leader in 2018. The majority of viewers thought that s1mple would place first the following year, however, unfortunately for him, HLTV rewarded the player with second place, having put ZyWoo on the top of the rate. The esportsman stated that he did not disappoint but even received motivation to perform well in 2020 to hold the leading position again. And the things we have seen at the recent championship men that Oleksandr said the truth. He did not just demonstrate the best result in the group stage of ESL Pro League Season 12 and Group B of BLAST Premier Fall Series 2020, he had the best rating over the past few months, about which we wrote in one of the materials. You can read about it here ((https://rus.egamersworld.com/counterstrike/news/3574/s1mple-has-the-best-result-in-the-hltv-rating-over-N16V-lmHt). The performance of NAVI in BLAST Premier Fall Series 2020 was interesting and not that smooth. Initially, they defeated NiP with a result of 2-0 and then lost the battle to OG. The second matchup with NiP was successful for Natus Vincere with a result of 2-1 and the final match with OG was over and NAVI won the rematch. The team placed first in its group and received an invite to BLAST Premier Fall Series 2020 Finals. They can when they want but it seems that they don’t always want to. For the championship in IEM Beijing Online 2020 Europe, you can earn the money reward of $60,000 and an invitation to IEM Global Challenge 2020 with the prize pool of $500,000, which is also important. Such a prize should definitely motivate Natus Vincere and we will be able to watch a good performance by NAVI and see them in the playoffs. Especially considering that they will fight MAD Lions in the first match and they will play against the winner of the match Complexity vs Fnatic in the case of their triumph.
G 2 Kovacs
What is mutual between the surname Kovac on the roster of the European team and the number “2” in the title of the organization “G2 Esports”? — both of them are equal to two. Nikola Kovac joined the team and took Audric ‘JaCKz’ Jug’s slot, which made a positive impact on the performance of G2 Esports. Definitely, NiKo’s main motivation to transfer to G2 was an opportunity to play with his cousin, huNter-. Nikola gave an interview, in which admitted this, and you can read interesting fragments of this interview in our material (https://rus.egamersworld.com/counterstrike/news/4253/niko-the-main-motivation-behind-the-move-to-g2-esp-V1WSYMFdY). It was clear in the last championship how well NiKo and huNter- cooperated together, so many fans of G2 predict their growth. Despite Nikola Kovac’s performance is unstable and it leaves much more to be desired but he demonstrates nice results from time to time. For example, NiKo played with the rating 1.51 in the final of BLAST Premier Fall Series 2020. What should we expect from G2 Esports now? We personally expect them to proceed to the playoffs, at least. The Europeans were lucky to have a relatively easy path to the final stage. They will have to overcome NiP in the first match and the winner of Heroic vs North in the second one. In our view, the players will be able to achieve the objective without problems because, as we know, one Kovac is good but two are better.
FaZe Clan
Things are not that good in FaZe Clan. NiKo moved from this team to G2 Esports and works for the last ones. His spot in the team was temporarily held by olofmeister who had been inactive since May. Olof Kajbjer explained his benching with emotional burnout. He has returned now, despite it being temporary, but he is ready to help his teammates. The debut tournament with the participation of olofmeister was not the best start for the Swede. The team played at BLAST Premier Fall Series 2020 Europe and there, olofmeister performed in two matches with the worst rate not only in his team but among all ten players who were participating in the match. FaZe will have to struggle with OG and, in our opinion, the team will probably lose the match. If it happens so, the team will face Team Spirit in the lower bracket. It is not worth to underestimate this CIS roster, so the performance of FaZe Clan might be limited with two matches again. The Europeans will make it to the final of the lower bracket in the best case and leave the competition. We will find out very soon if we are right or not.
Team Vitality
If we talk about the performance of one or another roster and headline the most interesting members, it probably will be an esports crime to miss Team Vitality. Mathieu ‘ZyWoo’ Herbaut who was recognized as the best player of the past 2019 plays on the roster of Vitality. The esportrsman plays well, however, he does not enter the top 1 in every last match. BLAST Premier Fall Series 2020 was the last tournament for Team Vitality where the team performed nicely in all three matches. The team lost one map in the battle with Complexity Gaming. The remarkable thing is that the newcomer of the roster, Nivera played on that map instead of misutaa and demonstrated the best result in his team. The first match against BIG was played with a score of 2-0 in favor of Vitality but BIG tried to win the rematch in the final and, having won one map against the French, lost after all. If we pay attention to the path the players from Vitality are going to pass, we can conclude that the French will have to make it to the playoffs without special problems. First, they will have to play a match versus Team Spirit, after which the winner of the match FaZe Clan vs OG will be on their way. It looks pretty easy in theory but it might be the opposite in fact. The fact that Vitality decided to meet together and play at a bootcamp brings more confidence in their victory. First of all, it improves the team’s morale and enhances their unity as a team and, secondly, it reduces the possibility of technical issues of one of the players.