The review of EPICENTER 2019 CS:GO
Ihor MatusThe CIS disappointment
The failure of Virtus.pro
The remarkable but not funnies fact for viewers of EPICENTER 2019 was that CIS teams totally failed their performance at the championship. The elimination of Virtus.pro in the initial stage was an unpleasantly surprising moment for us. Jame and his teammates, which used to play under the tag AVANGAR, joined one of the biggest CIS organizations and before the tournament, many people expected the roster to make it to the playoffs because the team had to play better than forZe and the players didn’t lack motivation. They were interested in showing VP that the last ones hadn’t made a mistake in their choice, having signed ex-AVANGAR. Despite this, the team was that worried that didn’t show a good enough play in the decisive match with forZe and didn’t proceed to the playoffs. Despite their performance was failing but Virtus.pro didn’t leave us without bright memories. Their epic comeback on Inferno from a score of 0-11 is worth a lot. This is probably one of the strongest comebacks in the CS:GO history. If we do not consider this moment, the debut of the players under the new tag can be called the failed one. Jame, on who the team has got used to relying, was not in his shape on the last map, which brought VP to a sad loss. Despite the result, we are sure that we will see Virtus.pro in action!
Let’s go GuardiaN! Not on the bottom, GuardiaN, but on the top!
The writing on the poster — “ty for cyberbullying”
After NAVI signed the Slovak sniper who used to stand out with his performance, the beginning of GuardiaN’s gaming activity on the ranks of Natus Vincere went wrong. The Slovak missed a lot where it was unforgivable and many viewers noticed that s1mple had a rough reaction on these moments and morally pressed Ladislav. Oleksandr Kostyliev tried to disprove these facts and the situation was forgotten soon. As a result, GuardiaN was receiving that much support from viewers, which, probably, was had never been received by any playing esportsmen in the CS:GO history. In one of the matches of the last tournaments, Ladislav Kovach showed the worst result, which had been noticed on his score back in 2014. Despite this, viewers and fans of NAVI still supported GuardiaN, while the second part of the community joined the ranks of the haters of the Slovak. Ladislav showed a few interesting moments at this championship but as a result, performed the worst in his team, which, to be honest, is not welcome for the person who holds a sniper rifle and defends the key places on maps. After NAVI lost the quarterfinal match to EG, many viewers think that there will be changes on the roster. Yes, Evil Geniuses are not a weak opponent and even one of the strongest in the North American region but if Natus Vincere wants to grow and enter the top 5 CS:GO teams in the world, they will have to do something with their gaming shape and, namely, with GuardiaN. As an alternative decision, Ladislav can use enhanced psychological therapy and work hard on his gaming shape. In the worst case, the Slovak will have to think about continuing his career in another place or, what is even worse, to finish his player’s career.
The end of mousesports’ series of victories
Mousesports has recently won three championships in a row. Initially, they conquered CS:GO Asia Championships 2019, then ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals and after that cs_summit 5. By the way, they won the last one with two stand-ins, which is the first such case in CS:GO. One of the players, ropz, said that cs_summit 5 was not a priority tournament unlike EPICENTER 2019, however, they managed to prevail at the American championship but they stopped one step from the victory at the Moscow championship. The team brilliantly played the group stage, having placed first in Group B, without losses, and defeated Evil Geniuses in the semi-final without special issues. The grand final was spectacular and interesting and the final of EPICENTER was full for the first time, it means that it was hosted on all three maps. Despite all tries of mousesports, the Europeans were not able to win the fourth victory in a row but the majority of viewers thought that they would do it. mousesports entertained us with bright moments. Have you already seen how frozen made three incredible kills with AWP in six seconds when there were only twelve seconds until the end of the round and there was no one alive, except for him? This highlight has become one of the most spectacular clutches in the history of the shooting discipline. Do you it’s not for a reason? No, it isn’t. Watch it by yourself!
Has Team Vitality returned to the game?
One year ago when Vitality just assembled the roster, this tag could fear opponents because, from the very beginning, the French were able to achieve victories at LAN championships and gained good momentum in summer 2019 and was considered to be one of the strongest teams in the world. One of the reasons is the young phenomenon Mathieu ‘ZyWoo’ Herbaut. The 19-years-old esportsman, being alone and outnumbered, turned a losing situation into a winning one a lot of times. His individual skills are pretty good and helped Vitality to place first. They became champions for the last time more than half a year ago. This is a serious achievement for shox who joined the team because after the replacement of NBK- on Richard Papillon, the team was not able to hold the first place, reaching a final in the best case. It’s worth to notice that shox has played worse than usual and even stood out with a team kill, which is not typical for the Tier-1 scene. ALEX managed to surprise (but in a positive way, unlike shox) who presented the incredible highlight in the semi-final match against Heroic. The player changed his USP-S on Deagle in an economical round and made only four shots in the round. These shots were enough to make four headshots and reduce the number of opponents to one person. The rest players of Vitality dealt with one player of Heroic in that round and won the round, which initially was considered to be lost for them. However, why should you read beautiful stories if you can watch them?
The Chinese CS:GO is the worst CS:GO
The Chinese teams, again and again, prove that they are the representatives of the weakest division in the shooting discipline. In the past, TYLOO was on such a high level that they were going to enter the top 10 CS:GO teams and then, the Chinese CS:GO was respected. EHOME, which represents the same division, came to the tournament and showed one of the worst results this year. They hardly won 19 rounds in 2 matches. They won one round in two out of four maps, which is difficult to ignore. For now, the Asian CS:GO is even not in the state of stagnation, it degrades. This might change in 2020 but the Chinese teams performed awfully in 2019 and the quintessence of the most disappointing results of Asian teams is definitely in the performance of EHOME at the past EPICENTER 2019.