March 27, 2018March 27, 2018 by Jose Alvarez

mousesports wins V4 Future Sports Festival

As the weekend draws to a close, so to does the illustrious V4 Future Sports Festival. With eight of the best teams in the game competing for a whopping prize pool of almost $600,000, the action was intense in the Hungarian capital, Budapest. Each of the participants brought their A game to the major. Teams were initially divided into two groups, where they played a round robin format. Group A saw FaZe Clan and HellRaisers emerge victorious over GameAgents and Dark Tigers. Group B saw mousesports and Virtus.pro triumph over eXtatus and x-kom Team.

Virtus.pro vs. FaZe

Virtus.pro and FaZe faced off in the first semifinal of the V4 Future Sports Festival. The first round went the way of the Polish side, as did the next two anti-eco rounds. Virtus.pro continued their hot start by winning the first gun round and the subsequent rounds. Then, in a shocking turn of events, the eighth round and the rest of the half went to a suddenly streaking FaZe; what was a 0-7 deficit suddenly became an 8-7 lead. In a thrilling second half, the two sides would go back and forth, with Virtus.pro narrowly winning 16-14.

Image courtesy of liquipedia.net

Virtus.pro continued their solid form and took the opening pistol round on Nuke, eventually grinding out an 8-7 victory in the first half. Although the second half saw FaZe take their first pistol round of the match, it was not meant to be for the European superpower. The Polish side won their force buy and rolled the rest of the half to win the map 16-10, shocking FaZe in the process.

mousesports vs. HellRaisers

mousesports and HellRaisers faced off in the second semifinal, with the former turning a 3v5 deficit into a surprising victory. The two sides traded runs before HellRaisers took the half 8-7. Krill “ANGE2” Kraslow’s 1v3 clutch in the pistol round saw HellRaisers extend their lead. This momentum came to a quick halt when mousesports picked up weapons, demolishing HellRaisers seven rounds in a row to hit 14 rounds. HellRaisers managed to make it exciting and tie the game at 14-14, before mousesports took the map 16-14.

Map 2 was Cobblestone, and HellRaisers began their pick with a victory on the pistol and anti-eco rounds. However, Martin “STYKO” Styk pulled off a 1v3 clutch to halt HellRaiser’s momentum and win the first round for his team. Each team would pull off multiple runs to end the half 7-8 in favor of HellRaisers. The second half began with three victories for mousesports and a 10-8 lead, before HellRaisers won the first gun round. Down 11-12, mousesports would go on a run and reach matchpoint, with Chris “chrisJ” de Jong eventually getting four kills to take mousesports to the finals

mousesports vs. Virtus.pro

mousesports and Virtus.pro kicked off the grand finals on Mirage, with the former taking the opening pistol round and the following anti-eco rounds. Virtus.pro then made things competitive, taking the first gun round, and holding their own against the favored mousesports, narrowly losing the half 8-7. The second half started with mousesports winning the first five rounds handedly. Although the Polish side was able to take a round back, the rest of the half went the way of mousesports, who took the map 16-8.

After getting smothered on Mirage, Virtus.pro looked much more convincing on Cobblestone, winning the first seven rounds. It would take three kills from Tomáš “oskar” Šťastný for mousesports to get on the board. Virtus.pro continued their run and took the half with an astounding 13-2 lead. The second half was much of the same, with Virtus.pro eventually taking the map 16-2.

The V4 Future Sports Festival grand final would come down to the final map: Train. Despite getting crushed on Cobblestone, mousesports won five of the first six rounds on Train. Once again, the two sides traded rounds, with the half ending 8-7 in favor of mousesports. The second half began with Virtus.pro overcoming an early deficit to win the pistol round and two more wins on the subsequent anti-eco rounds. Although mousesports were able to win the first gun round of the half, they immediately dropped the following round, forcing them to call a tactical pause. After some stunning play from Jarosław “pashaBiceps” Jarząbkowski, Virtus.pro held a 14-10 lead and looked ready to take the tournament. Then, in stunning fashion, mousesports won the following six rounds to win the map and the tournament.

image courtesy of liquipedia.net

MVP

Several players put on outstanding performances in this tournament, but none was better than Czech superstar Tomáš “oskar” Šťastný. oskar led mousesports to their second title of the year with a 1.28 rating and a +20 KDD in the finals against Virtus.pro. In addition, oskar had the third-highest tournament rating at 1.24, led the event in KDD (+63), AWP kills (134), AWP kills per round (0.47) and total opening kills (44). This is oskar’s second MVP medal, after previously winning at ESG Tour Mykonos.

Image courtesy of hltv.org

As Hungary’s first international tournament in the CS:GO, the V4 Future Sports Festival was one for the books. With Virtus.pro’s dramatic upset over FaZe in the semifinals and a thrilling three-map final that saw numerous lead changes, the weekend was certainly one to remember.

You can like The Game Haus on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for more sports and esports articles from other great TGH writers along with Jose!

Featured image from Liquipedia.net

January 19, 2018January 19, 2018 by Ben Holschuh

Dota Pro Circuit: The standings so far

We’re almost at the halfway point in the Dota Pro Circuit for the season. In these past few months we’ve seen some clear leaders rise to the top of the charts. Others, however, performed worse than most fans anticipated. Though we are still a few months away from the final tally, it’s as good a time as any to analyze the teams seeing the best results during the first third of this competitive season.

Team Secret

Image courtesy of teamliquid.net

Team Secret is on a tear that the brand has not seen since the TI5 season. 7.07 might just be their patch. Out of 107 tournament games they have played since 7.07, they have won 74 of them. This massive 70% win rate is more than a little unusual in a game as volatile as DotA 2.

It is also hard to pin down the particular thing bringing them this success. Team Captain Clement “Puppey” Ivanov has been known for being a master drafter able to adapt to his enemies over the course of a set. Marcus “Ace” Hoelgaard, while a newer member of the team, has shown his prowess in the carry position on aggressive heroes like Weaver, Huskar and Lifestealer. Adrian “Fata” Trink’s ability to engage as Tidehunter, Puck and Brewmaster often leaves enemies scrambling in team fights. There currently do not seem to be any obvious weaknesses in their line-up, or their gameplay.

However, though they are a thousand points ahead of the next team, it could only be a single major that costs them that spot. While this sounds tragic, in the end it doesn’t matter all that much. The only goal of the Qualifying Points system this year is to make the top 8. No one gets special treatment for finishing first vs finishing eighth. With that known, it is difficult to imagine enough teams passing Team Secret on the leaderboards to take away their direct invite to TI8 even this early in the Dota Pro Circuit. Safe to say, we’ll be seeing them this August in the Main Event.

Team Liquid

Image courtesy of teamliquid.net

In many of my articles I have talked about Team Liquid as the TI winning team that hasn’t lost their touch. It is difficult to describe them any other way. Too often we see TI winning teams implode upon themselves shortly after claiming the Aegis. Either they have an immediate roster change, or they can’t seem to find their groove again after a much deserved break. Liquid did neither of these things. They continue to be a force to be reckoned with in any tournament they participate in. Though Liquid have played fewer games than Secret this season, their win rate is actually higher than Secret’s at 73%. More than that, they have placed in the top 3 of every single tournament they have participated in.

More than any individual player, this is a team that moves around the map in a way few others do. This team has been together for so long it feels like they know when someone needs help in lane before they even ask for it. Kuroky may be a solid drafter, and GH might always be where the enemy doesn’t want him to be, but it is how these individual pieces come together that makes this team shine. The next time we see Team Liquid will be at the Galaxy Battles Major in mid July. I’m willing to bet they place in the top 3 there as well. This year’s Dota Pro Circuit is looking bright for them as well.

Virtus.Pro

Image courtesy of media.epicenter.gg

Though Virtus.Pro is not a member of the 70% win rate club, their results are still remarkable. Out of 90 competitive games they have won 60 of them, putting their win rate at a nice 67%. Though they were already doing well in the rankings, their recent victory at The Summit 8 provided additional padding to their points. Unfortunately, they did not win as many points for their lineup as they could have since their captain was on hiatus until the end of last year. Regardless they still have an incredible lead over Newbee in the spot below them.

I find it difficult to argue that Roman “RAMZES666” Kushnarev contributes the most to his team’s success. His hero pool recently has consisted of heavy farming late game heroes like Medusa, Morphling and Razer. Farming aside there is another thing that these heroes are really good at: not dying. A late game carry’s greatest weakness is getting picked off early. RAMZES, however, is especially smart about the way he moves around the map to avoid these ganks. Despite not being overly aggressive with his farm, he finds enough to pull in the game winning items right when he needs to. Of course his team helps to create space for him to do so, but I’ve seen more popular carries get carried away by the pressure to farm and feed kills.

Don’t even get me started on RAMZES Broodmother games. For those, I have no words.

Featured image courtesy of blog.dota2.com

You can like The Game Haus on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for more sports and esports articles from other great TGH writers along with Ben!

You can follow Ben here – https://twitter.com/TheWholeShoe

To continue enjoying great content from your favorite writers, please contribute to our Patreon account! Every little bit counts. We greatly appreciate all of your amazing support! #TGHPatreon

Statistics for this article fetched from datdota.com

in Dota 2 / Esports 0 comments

Position 5 – Akbar “SoNNeikO” Butaev

—

I could gush about Na’Vi’s return to relevance in the DotA 2 scene for hours. This team has had a rough few years, but things finally seem to be turning around. Fellow Game Haus writer Eli Sherman already wrote a great article on the topic, which echoes many of my sentiments as well. You can find that article here.

DreamLeague Season 8 will take place in Jönköping, Sweeden from Dec 1st – Dec 3rd.

Featured image courtesy of dreamleague.dreamhack.com

You can ‘Like’ The Game Haus on Facebook and ‘Follow’ us on Twitter for more sports and esports articles from other great TGH writers along with Ben!

You can follow Ben here – https://twitter.com/TheWholeShoe

To continue enjoying great content from your favorite writers, please contribute to our Patreon account! Every little bit counts. We greatly appreciate all of your amazing support! #TGHPatreon

in Dota 2 / Esports 0 comments

November 16, 2017November 16, 2017 by Ben Holschuh

DotA Pro Circuit: Balanced or broken?

By now the new DotA 2 Pro Circuit system probably feels familiar, as if it has always been there. Finally though, we have a system that transparently dictates which teams receive invites to The International. Invites in previous years have been met with a wide range of criticism from fans who follow the scene closely. “But what about X team?” they ask. “They’ve won two of the past three tournaments they’ve participated in! Surely they are worthy of an invite.” Conversely, fans have questioned the inclusion of teams they considered unworthy of skipping the highly competitive qualifiers. The question now becomes, is this new Pro Circuit system the final solution? Perhaps it is just a step in the right direction.

Transparency is good

Image courtesy of dota2.com

Fans like to be kept in the loop. It is plain and simple. The lack of visibility into Valve’s previous selection criteria was problematic. It put some fans in a sour mood before the opening ceremonies even began. Though they undoubtedly enjoyed some high quality DotA in the end, Valve never wants their 20+ million dollar tournament to start off on the wrong foot. The new system definitely addresses these concerns. By the end of the final tournament before TI8, or maybe even before that for a few teams, the masses will know exactly who has earned those coveted invites to the biggest tournament of the year.

There are other benefits to this new system as well. Because the Qualifying Points are awarded to players and not to organizations, rosters are incentivized to stay together if they are performing well. Too many times in the past have we seen a team win a tournament only to immediately drop players for unknown reasons. Team Secret dropped Aliwi “w33” Omar and Rasmus “MiSeRy” Filipsen after winning the Shanghai Major in 2016. Perhaps the most memorable instance of this behavior is when Evil Geniuses dropped Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling shortly after taking the Aegis at TI5. When points are attached to these winning players, these kinds of changes are far less likely. Hopefully this change will make the competitive scene less volatile, and thus easier to follow.

But there are always problems

Of course there are two sides to every argument. One could easily argue that despite good performance, any player creating friction in a team game can be mentally exhausting for all involved. This will undoubtedly hurt a team in the long run. Peter “PPD” Dager eventually went on to explain that no amount of winning was worth the stress he was going through working with Aui. Now I know that after TI, the point values will reset, but let’s play pretend for a second. If Evil Geniuses had just won a Major with Aui instead, would they have let him go? A DotA 2 Major is worth a whopping 750 points per player on the winning team. A loss of that many points could take a series of wins to make up for. This brings me nicely into my next point.

A victory at a Major is worth a full five times the amount of Qualifying Points as a Minor. This disparity seems incredible, especially considering that points are never awarded below fourth place no matter the event. Any team would have to win five Minor tournaments to even catch up to a team that has won a single Major. This disparity seems a little extreme, especially considering that many of these competitions see the same competitors.

Current Qualifying Points standings courtesy of wiki.teamliquid.net

Say that Team Liquid, who has two first place Minor finishes and one third place Major finish, never win a Major this season. They need to win at least two more Minors to even tie Virtus.Pro, who won that first and only Major so far this season. Virtus.Pro is bound to continue participating in tournaments for the rest of the year, and their lead seems difficult to surmount. While a team of Liquid’s caliber might be up to the task, plenty of other great teams may fall short.

A great start

I am certainly not trying to say that this new Pro Circuit system is bad. Far from it! The Qualifying Points system makes seasons easy to follow, and informs viewers of tournament stakes outside of prize pools. However, the point disparity between Majors and Minors is alarming to me. Granted, the season is still young. We still have no idea how the greater part of the season is going to turn out. Everything could turn out fair and balanced, but I worry talented teams that succeed in Minors will find it hard to qualify without a Major win.

At the end of the day though, teams failing to earn Qualifying Points are not completely lost. Even if they do not manage to secure direct invites, they will still be able to work their way up through the Regional Qualifiers, or even the Open Qualifiers. Maybe that will be enough to balance the Pro Circuit. Only time will tell.

Featured Image from blog.dota2.com

You can like The Game Haus on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for more sports and esports articles from other great TGH writers along with Ben!

You can follow Ben here – https://twitter.com/TheWholeShoe

To continue enjoying great content from your favorite writers, please contribute to our Patreon account! Every little bit counts. We greatly appreciate all of your amazing support! #TGHPatreon

For a more in depth look at what The Game Haus thinks of DotA 2, be sure to listen to our DotA 2 podcast “Secret Shop Talk” here.

in Dota 2 / Esports 0 comments

November 9, 2017November 10, 2017 by Josof Ruttig

Na’Vi sign electronic

When Natus Vincere picked up Counter-Strike prodigy Aleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev, they were supposed to be the best team in the world. After narrowly winning out in ESL One New York, the team was fairly underwhelming. Na’Vi reacquired Danylo ‘Zeus’ Teslenko and they were primed to be a top five team. This prophecy never came to fruition either; the public seems to be blaming s1mple, considering that Na’Vi, a franchise that was experiencing a lot of deep tournament runs prior to picking up s1mple, are now making group stage exits regularly. The real problem with Na’Vi has been Egor ‘flamie’ Vasilyev, as he has not brought the star power he did in 2016. S1mple needed another true star player to dominate with him, and now he has it.

Will electronic fit in?

s1mple at MLG Columbus Qualifier

One key problem I’ve noticed within Na’Vi has been how s1mple and flamie play. They are both very volatile, aggressive players. Well, flamie is supposed to be, but it looks like he is lacking confidence, as he is playing more passively. Either way, that should change with Denis ‘electronic’ Sharipov on the team. Electronic plays his best Counter-Strike as a passive player and rotator. His style of play reminds me a lot of former Na’Vi member Denis ‘seized’ Kostin, whom electronic is replacing. He is the perfect secondary star to pair with s1mple, as electronic is the type of player who can find ways to win clutch rounds.

electronic

Na’Vi now has the ideal team built around s1mple, with electronic, Ioann ‘Edward’ Sukhariev, Zeus and flamie. S1mple can now play almost the style of Counter-Strike Jesper ‘JW’ Wecksell was able to play in 2015; being able to make plays at will, knowing if he dies it isn’t detrimental to the round. This team reminds me of the Team Liquid that made it to the finals of Cologne. With flamie drawing comparisons to Nick ‘nitr0′ Cannella, Zeus being similar to Spencer ‘Hiko’ Martin, Edward looking like Josh ‘jdm64’ Marzano and electronic playing up to Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski’s level. That last comparison is pretty loose though. My point is that they’re secondary playmakers for their respective teams.

In an ideal world, I would cut s1mple loose, and let him do whatever he wants to, basically, as long as he communicates it. He has played his most dominant Counter-Strike when cut loose (see MLG Columbus, ESL One Cologne 2016). While we don’t live in that ideal world, I foresee a lot more playmaking from s1 in the future.

Implications

Astralis at Dreamhack Leipzig 2016

In terms of rankings, I would personally slot Na`Vi back into my personal top 10, looking something like this.

FaZe Clan
SK Gaming
G2 esports
Astralis
North
Cloud9
mousesports (edgy, right?)
Na’Vi
Liquid
Virtus Pro

The Virtus Pro ranking is probably a bit questionable, but the potential is there as seen in previous classics. I stand fully behind the rest of the rankings though. Realistically, this team should be better than mouz, C9 and North on paper. However, I’m not falling back into the Na’Vi trap too quickly. I think it’s fair to put them at eighth in the world, just considering the firepower. Also, none of Na’Vi’s new big three are even 21 yet, and oozing with potential. I love their upside, and I would predict within the next three to five months that they creep into the top five in the world.

You can like The Game Haus on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for more sports and esports articles from other great TGH writers along with Josof!

Featured image: Liquipedia

To continue enjoying great content from your favorite writers, please contribute to our Patreon account! Every little bit counts. We greatly appreciate all of your amazing support! #TGHPatreon

in Counter Strike: Global Offensive / Esports 0 comments

November 3, 2017November 4, 2017 by Joe Sitavanc

Virtus.Pro finally bring back their plow

Virtus.Pro have been plagued with issues over the course of the last year. They went from being in the final of a major and winning Dreamhack Masters Las Vegas to making six group stage exits, only making it out twice. Meeting EPICENTER was a whole different story. It’s almost like we saw the old VP who showed dominance over the best in the world. Let’s take a look at their tournament run.

Group Stage

vs SK Gaming

VP left the starting line at a slow jog. They showed almost nothing of what they did later in the tournament, being short work for SK. Honestly though, this was more a win for SK than a loss for VP. They performed at the same level in this match as they have the last months, nothing new here.

vs Gambit Gaming

Photo by: hltv.org

Although this match could have gone either way from the get-go, Gambit were still favoured to win. From what we saw in the first map, VP looked like the clear favourites, but throughout the rest of the series they had troubles closing out. The second map went to Gambit but had trouble themselves closing out as the economy for both teams were in the dump. Cache, the deciding map, also had the same story going along for it. Neither team really impressed but eventually VP came out on top. While this wasn’t necessarily the best win for VP, it is still a win against a top eight team. Not the most common things that they have seen.

vs FaZe Clan

The number one team in the world was about to make short work of the Polish team and make their way to the semifinals… right? Well, the first map definitely said so. 16-2 in favour of FaZe, but VP shook it off and came back. Stronger than we’ve seen since they were in Las Vegas. While the second map wasn’t exactly a comfortable win, it wasn’t hard either. VP won Cobblestone 16-11 with Inferno being the deciding map. Surely FaZe wouldn’t lose on their best map. I’m not too sure about what I should be sure about anymore, after VP took the map eliminating FaZe and sending themselves into the semifinals.

Playoffs

vs G2 Esports

Photo by: hltv.org

G2 had an impressive tournament all things considered, dismantling both Astralis and especially North in the group stage. Compared to FaZe or Gambit at the event, G2 looked fantastic and were clear favourites to win the series against Virtus.Pro. But is anything allowed to make sense anymore? Throughout the entire series G2 struggled to stay alive. Almost losing the second map in the process which would have given VP a quick 2-0 victory. G2 showed some individual brilliance in the series, but other than that there were no more pros to pick out of the team. Losing rounds they had advantages in or a round they should win in the first place. The same can also be said about VP. Both teams made plenty of mistakes, but VP were fortunate to make the least.

vs SK Gaming

A classic match between the Polish and Brazilians, and what a match it was too. Dubbed as one of the best grand finals to date, both teams fought their hearts out. VP started out with the map lead but were immediately traded by SK taking Inferno. Train was probably a kick in the face for VP. Starting out with a 12-3 lead on the CT side, SK Gaming brought it back into Overtime and took the map 19-16. VP then took Cache, not letting the previous map affect them, and after that came the magic. A grand map to end a grand series. Cobblestone. One of the greatest maps for either team happened to be a decider, and what better than taking it to double overtime? Unfortunately for VP they weren’t able to manage a round on the second overtime, but they showed brilliance that a fluke-run would never be able to show. This is Virtus.Pro coming back telling everybody to watch out, they’re here to win. Even if they weren’t able to lift the trophy.

Featured image via hltv.org.

You can ‘Like’ The Game Haus on Facebook and ‘Follow’ us on Twitter for more sports and esports articles from other great TGH writers. You can also follow me on my personal Twitter.

To continue enjoying great content from your favorite writers, please contribute to our Patreon account! Every little bit counts. We greatly appreciate all of your amazing support! #TGHPatreon

in Counter Strike: Global Offensive / Esports 0 comments

October 25, 2017October 26, 2017 by Ben Holschuh

ESL One Hamburg: the competition

After Star Ladder and PGL Open Bucharest reintroduced competitive DotA in October, it’s finally time for the first Major of the year. Unlike Minors which only award a total of 300 Qualifying Points, DotA 2 Majors quintuple that number. The winning team of ESL One will earn more Qualifying Points than the total point pools of both previous Minors combined. This will be enough to earn them a comfortable lead until the next Major drops in early December. But this is a conversation for the future. For now, let us take a look at the teams that will be competing in the highest stakes tournament of the year so far.

INVITED TEAMS

Team Liquid

Image courtesy of teamliquid.net

Roster:

Position 1 – Lasse “MATUMBAMAN” Urpalainen

Position 2 – Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barqawi

Position 3 – Ivan “MinD-ContRoL” Ivanov

Position 4 – Maroun “GH” Merhej

Position 5 – Kuro “KuroKy” Salehi Takhasomi

—

Liquid comes into ESL One on the heels of a victory at Star Ladder. Mineski proved themselves a capable team at the tournament, but not capable enough to triumph over the champions. As it turns out, Liquid hasn’t lost their touch in this patch despite taking a break after TI7. After all, they dropped only a single game in the entire tournament. At this point, Liquid seem to be the indisputable kings of the patch, but teams still have one last chance to change that. Regardless, Liquid are doubtless the favorites to win this tournament, and they seem poised and ready to do so.

Roster:

Position 1 – Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao

Position 2 – Steve “Xcalibur” Ye

Position 3 – Khoo “Ohaiyo” Chong Xin

Position 4 – Djardel “DJ” Mampusti

Position 5 – Johan “pieliedie” Åström

—

Fnatic is a very different team than they were a few months ago. The departure of Mushi in February of this year lead to a volatile time for the team. After a series of additions and departures, this new roster sees EternaLEnVy taking the Captain’s help from DJ. Depending on how this succession of power occurred, this could be either a good thing or a bad thing for the team cohesion.

Say what you want about Jacky Mao, but he is an experienced player who knows his way around a game of DotA. His aggressive style could be the edge his team needs at ESL One. It could also lead to ill-advised team fights that turn into team wipes.

Keen Gaming

Roster:

Position 1 – Jin “zhizhizhi” Zhiyi

Position 2 – Zhai “荧” Jingkai

Position 3 – Song “dark” Runxi

Position 4 – Jiang “佞臣” An

Position 5 – Chen “Rong” Jingwu

—

Keen Gaming may seem like an unknown brand, but they are originally an offshoot of the EHOME brand. This isn’t to say that the EHOME.Keen brand was especially popular or successful though. Nevertheless in September of this year the current roster of EHOME.Keen chose to part ways with the organization.

The truth is that some of the players on this team have been playing DotA 2 professionally for less than a year. Most would use that as an excuse to call their talent into question. One has to remember that they earned their spot in this major through the Chinese qualifiers. Now they just have to prove themselves on the world stage.

Virtus.Pro

Image courtesy of teamliquid.net

Roster:

Position 1 – Roman “RAMZES666” Kuchnarev

Position 2 – Vladimir “No[o]ne” Minenko

Position 3 – Pavel “9pasha” Khvastunov

Position 4 – Ilya “Lil” Ilyuk

Position 5 – Alexei “Solo” Berezin

—

Virtus.pro made a surprising announcement that they would not be changing their roster after TI7. Don’t get me wrong, their team is talented, but teams that have actually won major tournaments have dropped players in the past. Their decision to maintain the same roster shows their confidence, and to be fair they had a great showing at TI7.

The key to Virtus.Pros victory at ESL One is going to be young RAMZES. Not since SumaiL have we seen such a mix of youth and execution. While he can be overly optimistic in team fights, he has a tendency to get just the right kills to turn the tide. He is definitely one to look out for in this tournament.

SG e-sports

Image courtesy of teamliquid.net

Roster:

Position 1 – Guilherme “FuckinEh” Costábile

Position 2 – Adriano “4dr” Machado

Position 3 – Rodrigo “Liposa” Santos

Position 4 – Thiago “Thiolicor” Cordeiro

Position 5 – Lucas “Bardo” Bardosa

—

SG e-sports managed to defeat Vici Gaming 2-0 at Star Ladder before being swept by both Mineski and Liquid. It’s hard to fault SG for those losses though, since Liquid and Mineski look like the two strongest teams so far this season. While their win’s against Vici were far from one sided, they showed solid teamwork throughout the series. It seems like they can compete with some of the big players in the scene. Hopefully they’ve been studying their defeats leading up to the biggest tournament of the season so far.

ESL One Hamburg will run from Oct 26th – Oct 29th.

You can ‘Like’ The Game Haus on Facebook and ‘Follow’ us on Twitter for more sports and esports articles from other great TGH writers along with Ben!

You can follow Ben here – https://twitter.com/TheWholeShoe

To continue enjoying great content from your favorite writers, please contribute to our Patreon account! Every little bit counts. We greatly appreciate all of your amazing support! #TGHPatreon

in Dota 2 / Esports 0 comments

September 22, 2017 by Josof Ruttig

Why are some teams under-performing?

The Counter-Strike scene is in a state of flux like we’ve never seen before. Truly, there are about eight teams who can at any time win a tournament. The tier below the ‘top tier’ (teams that could win a big tournament) is as strong as it has ever been. Team Liquid, per HLTV, was rated as the ninth best team in the world. A fringe playoff team, who could maybe make the semis of an international tournament, with a lucky bracket draw. That was their situation before they made the finals at ESL One New York, beating the best team in the world in a best of three to get there.

However, there are some teams under-performing given their stature and talent level. I’m going to try to analyze why these teams are under-performing, one by one. My definition of ‘under-performing’ is a team that isn’t playing up to their standards or expectations. Keep in mind, some of my analytics will be related to the eye test; therefore, there will be opinions. I know, opinions in 2017, an absolute deathtrap.

Astralis

Astralis is a team everyone has noticed under-performing. From IEM Oakland in 2016 until DreamHack Masters Malmo 2017, Astralis did not fail to make the semifinals once. During this span, they made six finals and won three tournaments. Falling out in the group stage is unacceptable for a team of their stature, I don’t care the format. It is not okay to lose to Team Liquid in a best of three match when best of three’s are supposed to be your bread and butter.

To theorize why Astralis are playing poorly, by their standards anyway, let’s look into the individual performances of players, as I think they still play one of the best brands of Counter-Strike in the scene today. When looking, Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander is really the only under-performer (0.99 HLTV rating in the last three months on LAN).

All that said, I’m not worried about the Danes. Their style of Counter-Strike is highly proficient, and they have some of the best players in the game. I believe they will return to their winning ways very soon.

Virtus.Pro

NEO, just being NEO

I will admit, you can never really say what form VP are in. They can bomb out in groups of one tournament, and win the next one; however, the reason I say they are under-performing is that those peaks haven’t been there. The last time they made a finals appearance at a notable tournament was DreamHack Masters Las Vegas, six months ago. For reference, this is their second-longest finals drought, since their drought at the end of 2015 into 2016. This drought is still in full effect, and I’m not sure I see it ending soon.

Noticeably, VP doesn’t seem to have that same sort of chemistry we are used to seeing. Usually, VP looks like a ‘hive mind’ sort of team, as if they know exactly what one another will do next; I haven’t seen that VP as of late. The under-performance of Wiktor ‘TaZ’ Wojtas, Filip ‘NEO’ Kubski and Janusz ‘Snax’ Pogorzelski doesn’t help (0.91, 0.93, and 0.97 HLTV ratings over the past three months on LAN, respectively).

At the end of the day, the poles are in serious trouble right now. If they don’t put it all together and do something, the unthinkable might happen.

SK Gaming

Let me be clear, I do rank SK as the best team in the world; they just haven’t been dominating the way we grew accustomed to since cs_summit. Following a group stage exit in SL i-League Starseries Season 3, they failed to win only one tournament until the PGL Major. From the PGL Major onward, they have yet to make a final, much less win a tournament.

SK Gaming at ESL Pro League Finals in Dallas, TX

Watching them play, they don’t seem to have that same discipline as the SK of 2016. They seem much looser, which I suppose has been to their benefit up to this point. In terms of individuals under-performing, there’s not much to speak of besides Epitacio ‘TACO’ de Melo not playing well (0.96 on LAN over the past three months). Although João ‘felps’ Vasconcellos is coming off his worst performance since joining SK at ESL One New York (0.89, negative 22 K/D), I personally am not concerned.

It’s likely SK will turn it around; on the off chance they don’t, my money is on G2 to take over their world number one spot.

I suppose we are in ‘the parity era’ so these under-performances are sort of warranted in a way. The nature of the game and the scene does tend to lean itself towards less dominance from teams, so you might think I am overreacting; the way I see it though, these teams have too much pedigree to not be performing.

You can ‘Like’ The Game Haus on Facebook and ‘Follow’ us on Twitter for more sports and esports articles from other great TGH writers along with Josof!

Featured image: WWG

To continue enjoying great content from your favorite writers, please contribute to our Patreon account! Every little bit counts. We greatly appreciate all of your amazing support! #TGHPatreon

in Counter Strike: Global Offensive / Esports 0 comments

August 25, 2017August 24, 2017 by Jack Wright

Mixing up the Counter-Strike calendar

We all look forward to the ESL Ones and the Dreamhack Masters of the year. They provide us with some of the most competitive and intense Counter-Strike. With the number of events from the likes of ESL, Dreamhack and ELEAGUE still on the rise, it’s important that the fans get something different from time to time.

Enter Blast Pro Series, ESG Tour and World Electronic Sports Games. Their various changes to the format and innovative ways of producing Counter-Strike inject some excitement into the scene for long-time fans. This article will take a look at these upcoming tournaments and suggest why you should tune in.

Blast Pro Series

Despite this tournament aiming to switch up the scene, it’s still one of Denmark’s first big LAN events in CS:GO. The venue for the Blast Pro Series will be the Royal Arena in Copenhagen, capable of housing 16,000 people at max capacity.

The Royal Arena will host the Blast Pro Series. [Source: magasinetkbh.dk]

The announcement on HLTV tells us that three matches will be played simultaneously and will all be shown on screens around the arena. Fans will be able to choose the sound of the match they want to follow using headsets.

This type of stage setup was used at the most recent Call of Duty World Championship where they had the Bravo stream setup below the main stage, and they dipped into the Bravo stream during breaks on the main stage to fill time. It was an interesting concept which fans liked, for the most part. However, it was said that there wasn’t really any way of fully engaging with the Bravo stream even if the game was better or closer than the one on the main stage. This looks to be something Blast has already covered with fans being able to choose the sound of the match they want.

The Call of Duty World Championship had four teams on stage at once. [Source: Reddit u/theesportstv]

My interest is how Blast will be able to translate the thrill of watching three matches at once in the stadium to those watching at home. Will it just be a simple three stream setup? I’m hoping there’s something a bit more exciting. There’s the potential to have something like the Final Score football show, where we have live feedback from all the games going on and show all the best plays from each game as they happen.

Unfortunately, the $250,000 tournament isn’t until November 24^th so we’ll have to wait until then to find out.

ESG Tour Mykonos

A new series of tournaments called the Electronic Sports Global Tour starts on September 7^th on the Greek island of Mykonos.

The beautiful island of Mykonos. [Source: The Telegraph]

One of Greece’s many party destinations may seem like an odd place for a Counter-Strike tournament. However, Stamos Venios stated in their press release that “ESG Tour | Mykonos 2017 will not just be another ordinary event. The stunning view, relaxing atmosphere and great service will make it special and memorable for the players, who are the ones making esports what it is today: fascinating, enjoyable and fun.”

From the information, I’ve seen the tournament seems akin to cs_summit of early last year. That tournament was very popular with fans, with their favorite professionals casting the games and comedic content to fill breaks. Summit replaced the intensity of competitive Counter-Strike and replaced it with entertainment all while still delivering what we crave most, top level CS. I believe fans have been waiting for another tournament like that for a while. If you missed cs_summit, below is one of the highlights.

It will be up to ESG Tour to try to match, or even better, out do the unforgettable cs_summit. With a Greek island and the stunning Destiny Villa at their disposal, it’s definitely possible. We’ll be able to find out soon as popular teams such as SK Gaming, Virtus.pro and Team Liquid will touchdown in Mykonos at the beginning of September.

World Electronic Sports Games

This tournament is essentially a normal tournament, much like an ESL or Dreamhack one, with a single exception: anyone can sign up for the $1.5 million dollar tournament.

Everyone loves a good upset from time to time and there’s no better time than at a tournament of such caliber. It’s always a pleasure to watch new talent rise up. Hopefully some players will set themselves apart from the rest of the pack. There are qualifiers all across the world, so grab a few friends and you never know what could happen. Even if you get deep in the qualifier and end up losing to one of the top teams such as Cloud9 or Virtus.pro, who’ve already signed up, that in itself is an experience.

Last year Team EnVyUs hoisted the WESG trophy. [Source: HLTV.org]

The main event isn’t until March 2018 but the qualifiers are already underway so get yourself a team as soon as you can and see what you can make happen.

You can ‘Like’ The Game Haus on Facebook and ‘Follow’ us on Twitter for more sports and esports articles. You can find me on Twitter at @JackWrightIGL. Feature image courtesy of youtube.com/blastproseries

To continue enjoying great content from your favorite writers, please contribute to our Patreon account! Every little bit counts. We greatly appreciate all of your amazing support! #TGHPatreon

in Counter Strike: Global Offensive / Esports 0 comments

August 5, 2017 by Jack Wright

Could have been graffiti plays from past majors

It’s an odd time for Counter-Strike fans at the moment. With the top teams agreeing to take a month off after the major there’s little professional CS to be watched. A rarity considering the esports’ usually hectic schedule. This makes it the perfect time to reminisce over some of the best major moments we’ve had. Some of the fondest will be Coldzera silencing the crowd with his jumping AWP or Olofmeister’s burning defuse, both of which have been commemorated by in-game graffiti. This article will pick out some of the best major plays that could have made their mark with graffiti.

Janusz “Snax” Pogorzelski sneaky beaky like – EMS One Katowice 2014

Probably the most memorable play from Katowice 2014, Snax’s triple kill almost guaranteed Virtus Pro the first map of the final. The play not only demonstrated impeccable decision making but also nerves of steel. Snax kept his cool in the grand final in front of a packed home crowd at CSGO’s biggest event in history at the time. If anyone ever asks how to describe him as a player just show them this.

For the design of the graffiti, I would take inspiration from Stuart “TosspoT” Saw who was casting at the time. I like the idea of the repeated use of “he waited, he waited, he waited” or a picture of a CT walking around in a “Snax wonderland”.

Josh “jdm64” Marzano’s 1v5 clutch – ELEAGUE Major 2017

This clip has all the makings of a perfect AWP highlight, flashy flicks and wall bangs. Partly allowed due to a Team EnVyUs blunder, there were calls for this play to receive a commemorative graffiti from pros such as SK’s Fallen. Had Liquid gone on to win the game in overtime or the feat occurred in the playoffs it’s likely that JDM would have left his mark on Cache.

As everyone would agree, the best way to honor the play would be with JDM’s signature playing position, better known as lounging.

Adam “friberg” Friberg’s ace – ESL One Cologne 2014

The King of Banana hit Fnatic hard when he single handily destroyed his rival’s three man stack. Not only is the clip a display of marksmanship but the context of the play was important in NiP’s only major win. Fnatic had a great start on the favored side of Inferno with NiP not looking too hot. Friberg took matters into his own hands earning the Ninjas’ second terrorist round, which seemed to be the catalyst for the rest of the half.

The newest iteration of Inferno has included a small testament to Friberg by including a sign which reads “Via Adamo”. In Italian, via means road and Adamo translates to Adam meaning that the sign reads Road Adam.

Håvard “rain” Nygaard’s 1v5 clutch – Dreamhack Cluj-Napoca 2015

This clutch says everything about Rain and his monstrous aim. The play is even more memorable because at the time G2 was the first international super team with many skeptical whether the team could make it to the top. The roster proved doubters wrong by reaching the semi-finals of Cluj-Napoca only losing to eventual champions Team EnVyUs in three maps. G2 even had the chance to sweep the series 2-0 but lost on Inferno in overtime. Had the team made the final it’s likely they would have won the tournament which would have made the play even more deserving of a memorial.

An idea for the Rain graffiti could have been something to do with raining terror down on the B bomb site or a white flag with Rain on it considering the play was against the French.

Abay “HObbit” Khasenov’s quad kill 1v3 clutch – PGL Major Krakow 2017

While Krakow did gift us with a graffiti for Dosia’s grenade into pit, there is certainly an argument that Hobbit’s clutch should have received the honor instead. While the grenade was huge in context because of the way it damaged Immortals’ economy forcing them to re-buy after a single round win, Hobbit’s play also had its own merits.

The Brazilians won the second half pistol bringing the map back into close contention. Gambit looked as if they were about to lose another round before Hobbit opened up his backpack. Similarly to Friberg’s ace, this opened up the floodgates for more terrorist rounds with the play filling his team with confidence.

At the time people started nicknaming the drain area as the “Hobbit hole” which would make for an appealing graffiti.

Unfortunately, Photoshop isn’t my forte so I can’t bring any of these ideas to life. So I’ll leave that part to your imaginations.

You can ‘Like’ The Game Haus on Facebook and ‘Follow’ us on Twitter for more sports and esports articles. You can find me on Twitter at @JackWrightIGL. Thanks to The Demo Vault, HLTV and the other respective uploaders for the clips. Feature image courtesy of gamesync.us

in Counter Strike: Global Offensive / Esports 1 comments