Review of StarLadder Berlin Major 2019 The New Legends Stage
Ihor MatusSurprising teams
ENCE
The Finnish team performed at the championship very well. ENCE Proved that they had got an invitation to Legends Stage for a reason. They became the first team that made it to Champions Stage, without losing any battle with their opponents. It is remarkable, that they haven’t lost any map at the Major tournament. At the first battle with AVANGAR, they won 16-5, and at the match with MIBR, the game ended up 16-8 for the Finish. At the battle ENCE vs Vitality, the Finnish players won 2-0, giving away 17 rounds on two maps in total.
Another important factor is that before the start of the competition, the Finnish said to their captain Aleksib, that he would leave the team after the end of the championship. It seemed to affect Aleksi Virolainen’s game negatively, but, as nothing had happened, he was fighting with his opponents well. At the match against MIBR, the Finnish became the player who impacted the team more than the others.
NRG Esports
NRG Esports became the second team that made it to Champions Stage with the score 3-0. They beat Renegades, Team Liquid, and Astralis. By the way, at the battle with the latter, NRG did not give any map away. Taking into account the current shape of the Danish, it is rather good on them and it says about a great performance from NRG.
Taking into account the fact that NRG defeated Liquid and Astralis, ones of the strongest representatives of the CS:GO stage, this results surprised many spectators. They players are in a great shape and, as we can see, they are not going to stop at the quarter final. Unlike ENCE, NRG started at Challengers Stage at the tournament, completing it with 3-1, which is rather good.
According to many viewers, NRG are to win over Natus Vincere and make it to Top 4 of StarLadder Berlin Major 2019, but you can learn more about it from our tips for the match Natus Vincere vs NRG.
AVANGAR
Many people expected that AVANGAR would end up their way at Legends Stage with the score 1-3, but after the match against Liquid, they understood that everything is possible at the championship. Using decreased vigilance of their American opponents, AVANGAR managed to beat them on Overpass, leading the game to overtime. The meeting ended up with 22-18 and AVANGAR had to deal with another strong team G2 Esports. This task was also easy to cope with for them. GIving the first map away, the Kazakh pulled themselves together and ended up the meeting with the French with 2-1 for them. Thanks to the good performance from AVG, the Kazakh roster made it to Champions Stage with 3-1 and the players are already preparing for the next battle against Team Vitality, where everything cannot be so simple as we can consider at first blush.
Renegades
Renegades have not been able to show any good result for a long time, so the expectations about the Australian team were not so big. Nevertheless, the previous Major tournament showed us that sometimes we could get not what we expected from watching a championship. This time RNG also managed to surprise everybody and made it to Top 8 of StarLadder Berlin Major, providing themselves with an invitation to Legends Stage of the next major.
At this championship, the Australians had more troubles than they would want. At the first battle with NRG, they lost as well at the next one against AVANGAR. When the team was losing 0-2, the players understood that they needed to change something. Reflection, analysis and training turned out to be fruitful and at the next three elimination matches played against DreamEaters, FaZe Clan, and G2 Esports, ended up with a win for Renegades. Meetings with FaZe and G2 were especially difficult and got over with the result 2-1, however, RNG reached their goal — they passed to the playoff. At the quarter-final the Australians will have to play with ENCE, where they are likely to finish their performance.
Participants performing worse that it had been expected
Team Liquid
Despite the fact that Team Liquid achieved what they wanted and made it to Eight Best, their game at Legends Stage could have been much better. At Liquid’s performances, we could feel that they were too confident and at the battle with AVANGAR, commentators and analysts noticed their weak preparation and even negligence which led the Americans to their loss at the battle. EliGE and his teammates beat CR4ZY, but lost at the battle with NRG Esports and AVANGAR. After the team was about to leave the tournament, the team pulled themselves together and defeated North and mousesports with 2-0.
If the American team will be playing at Champions Stage in the same way as it happened at matches with NRG and AVANGAR, Astralis will get to the semifinal easily winning over their fundamental opponents.
mousesports
After mousesports made it to Legends Stage by the score of 3-0, winning over forZe, AVANGAR, and G2, many people expected the European team to make it to the final stage. mousesports lost the battle with FaZe Clan in an incomprehensible way, as their opponents were not in their best shape, but they won over North and Natus Vincere. After that the representatives of mouze had to fight with Team Vitality, where they could not take any map. The same happened while the Europeans were performing at the match against Team Liquid, leaving the competition as a natural result. Maybe, if at the first battle with FaZe the team had managed to get a win, their performance would have been more successful, but at the end, at this Major competition mousesports took the 9-11 place. Their efforts resulted in $8,750 and an invitation to Challengers Stage of the next Major tournament.
G2 Esports
G2 Esports started their way at the major with Challengers Stage and made it to Legends Stage with the score 3-1. There they defeated TYLOO, DreamEaters, and forZe, but lost against mousesports. Their way at Legends Stage was also good for the French. They made a beautiful comeback at the match against Natus Vincere and won the first match of the Legends Stage with the score 19-17. They lost the second battle, playing with Astralis, but after that they rehabilitated playing with MIBR at another Bo1 battle. At the match for passing to Champions Stage, G2 again had to play with the Danish titans, Astralis. They managed to take one map from them, but the meeting was lost. The same situation happened at the battle with Renegades. The match was lost with the result 1-2, and the Australians became ones of the last participants in the tournament who made it to the playoff.
The most disappointing detail of the performance is the last battle with Renegades. G2 had good chances during the season, and according to many analysts and spectators, the French should have taken the win at the meeting. Maybe, at the next Major competition they will be luckier, but at this championship G2 ended up their way on the 9-11 position at the tournament bracket. Their efforts resulted in a consolation prize of $8,750 and became owners of an invitation to Challengers Stage of the next major.
All the others
Astralis, Vitality, and Natus Vincere made it to the playoff, and CR4ZY, MIBR, FaZe Clan, North, NiP, and DreamEaters could not reach their goals. Are you surprised? We are not. Except for the seven team we were talking about in more details in today’s material, all the stage of the tournament happened as everybody had expected. Astralis and Vitality were in great gaming shapes and they made it to Top 8 as a natural result, while no matter what shape of Natus Vincere is, at any Major tournament, they make it to Champions Stage and finish their way at the quarter-final or semifinal.
We should especially mark CR4ZY. The team, despite their status, managed to achieve a lot and almost passed to the playoff. There is an interesting fact that CR4ZY’s roster is represented by huNter-, an older brother of the famous NiKo. So it was especially interesting to watch match FaZe vs CR4ZY, and Nemanja ‘huNter-’ Kovač achieved a better result than his younger brother at the tournament for the first time. Nevertheless, FaZe and CR4ZY got the same reward: $8,750 and an invitation to Challengers Stage of the next Major tournament.
NiP and MIBR came to the tournament with substitutes, so they approaches the championship as outsiders. As it had been expected, they could not show anything worthy. DreamEaters had sheer luck to make it to The New Legends Stage, but joining Top 8 is an impossible task for them.
As for North and G2 Esports, they just had bad performances. The teams had a chance of passing to the next stage, but there were many well-prepared teams at the championship who became obstacles on their way to success.
What comes next?
We are going to have three days-off. On September 5, there will be two Bo3 battles where ENCE, Renegades, Team Vitality, and AVANGAR are to fight. You can read our tips for the matches to learn more about the teams’ chances to win the meetings. They will appear on our material today.
On September 6, Astralis, Team Liquid, Natus Vincere, and NRG Esports will also fight for passing to the semifinal. You can read more about the possible results of the meetings in our tips for them which will appear on EGamersWorld.