With the four qualifiers out of the way, the final line-up of the FACEIT London major for CS:GO is complete. Eight teams have joined those fortunate enough to survive the culling in Boston, and while so much time has passed since the last Valve-sponsored Counter-Strike tournament that the list of participants very much feels like a snapshot frozen in time, there are still some interesting takeaways from the events leading up to the exciting conclusion in September.  

Americas: the status quo has been shattered

The biggest story coming out of the first minor was the surprising collapse of NRG in the playoff stage, a team that has grabbed a lot of attention with its recent uptick in LAN performances, famously including a final appearance at StarSeries 5—an impressive run that was nevertheless aided by a fairly favorable bracket. They were very much considered the favorites coming into this event, and the failure to qualify for the minor could potentially spell the end of this lineup – not necessarily because of a knee-jerk reaction or a desire for change, but due to the disintegration of the Cloud9 roster which could very well lead to some sort of an NA shuffle in the scene, especially considering how eUnited’s impressive performances could also attract potential suitors.   Rogue’s qualification marks Hiko’s return to the biggest stage of them all, but he was lacking consistency throughout the event, which, paradoxically enough, is a good sign: the team isn’t entirely reliant on the veteran’s performances. Realistically, there are three slots up for grabs in the New Challengers Stage, seeing how far Gambit, Virtus.pro and Vega Squadron have fallen – but the performances put up by Rogue and complexity didn’t give them much more than an outside chance to progress beyond what used to be the final qualifier before the major’s format change.  

CIS: the benefits of gaming the system

It’s been a while since HellRaisers participated in a major, missing out on consecutive ones since ELEAGUE Atlanta in January 2017. Their roster changes allowed them to leave the stacked European qualifiers behind, and swapping to the CIS edition gave them a much easier road back to the summit. In fact, it was somewhat embarrassing how they haven’t even dropped a single map until the admittedly close but ultimately meaningless final against Team Spirit, showcasing a significant difference between the depth of the different regions. It’s especially impressive if you consider how long they’ve been carrying the dead weight that is DeadFox, an AWPer that never lived up to his promise and whose role has been rendered obsolete by woxic on the team.

In the first half of 2018, we were among the eight strongest teams in the world in terms of the "rating 2.0 LAN statistics". Also, HellRaisers' star, @w0xic, is the third best sniper right now. @HLTVorg ? pic.twitter.com/RcjCIaARD1

— HellRaisers Esports (@HELLRAISERSgg) July 23, 2018

There was also no real surprise on the second spot as Team Spirit only missed out on qualifying by a single series the last time around – though shed a tear for AVANGAR, the Kazakhs who were perhaps even closer to London overall if you consider that they were also a single series away from the last eight in Boston, ending with a 2-3 Swiss record and then losing the consolidation match in overtime against Team Liquid. Now they ran into both of the eventual finalists in the playoff bracket early on, barely missing out once again. In terms of intra-regional battles, there are certainly close contests; however, neither of these teams would be anywhere close to the major if the qualification slots were anywhere near proportional to the depth of the different territories.  

Asia: the usual suspects and the recurring visa issues

While a few unfortunate cases of visa denials have also plagued the CIS minor—the Belorussian roster of Nemiga completely missing out due to such issues—the Asia one was almost farcical after Thai team Signature suffered the same fate but even their replacement BOOT-d[S] had to field a stand-in. Two other teams (Uniquestars and VG.Flash) also had to play with only four of their regular roster, though the latter was due to an injury – but the icing on the cake is 5Power, a team that only had two members of their actual line-up available to them for the event. In the end, Renegades and TyLoo made it five in a row in terms of minor qualification: the other teams’ performances at the event don’t inspire confidence about anyone breaking this deadlock anytime soon.  

Europe: the war between past and present

Predictably the most stacked minor of them all, 1244 teams attended the European open qualifiers—a humongous number compared to the 735 CIS teams, the 357 in the Americas or the 244 in the Asia minor—featured the highest level of play, and some interesting storylines about the rise and fall of old veterans and the growth of promising newcomers. In the end, the legends prevailed, though the games gave me the feeling that it’s only a matter of time until a changing of the guard. NiP are back to the promised land, even if it sometimes felt like despite rather than because of the veterancy factor, at least in the early portion of the tournament. There’s certainly even more room to improve, as their pistol rounds are pristine but the ones with guns could use a bit more oomph.   Still, this very much feels like the twilight struggle of GeT_RiGhT and f0rest, the great duo raging against the dying of the light one last time. They’ve managed to swat away the challenge of ENCE, but the Finns are certainly here to stay for the future. sergej’s incredible performances at the tender age of sixteen could be a harbinger of things to come. As for the other qualifiers, it’s nice to see OpTic rebound so quickly after their ill-fated attempt at a mixed Danish-American roster, but their surprising defeat to the Ninjas in the final certainly raises some questions about their fragility, especially if you consider how straightforward their other game against the Swedes was earlier in the upper bracket. All in all, the minors have provided us with an interesting mix of known quantities and promising upsets, and the high-quality broadcast of the qualifiers have given a very nice sense of context about even the lesser-known teams. This should help the unfortunate situation where even the casters have sneered at and looked down upon some of the low-level qualifiers, some of which have even managed to make it past the first stage’s meat grinder. Since the New Challengers Stage will feature an incredibly wide spectrum of form and skill from Astralis to Virtus.pro, upsets are certainly not out of the question, and though it’s not likely, it’s also not out of the question that one of the minor qualifiers could go all the way to the playoffs. History is on their side: if Quantum Bellator Fire (now Winstrike) could shock the world in Boston, there’s no reason why one or more of them couldn’t do the same in London…

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