With 3rd Place Play-In event ending, we list the names of Berlin Major participants. In this article, we are going to do an analysis of StarLadder Minors and try to figure out which team can go deepest at the Major.
Europe Minor
Mousesports
Despite their early blunder against NoChance, mousesports showed us they were favorites for winning Europe Minor for good reason. Each of mousesports’ players was performing at a high level as they all had a positive rating. Even their In-Game Leader, karrigan was performing relatively well.
In comparison with 2018, this year wasn’t so successful for mousesports so far. Truly, they won Europe Minor and DH Open Tours and played Semis at ESL Pro League, but they lacked the consistency that they had last year. Additionally, they failed to qualify for Major in Katowice.
Anyway, big roster changes in March turned out to be beneficial for them as it was the period when their good results started. They had some really good wins so far this year, such as two triumphs over FaZe Clan, where karrigan defeated his former team. With a good combination of players and a decent game, we can expect mousesports to advance to New Legends Stage. But, if they want to go step further and reach the New Champions Stage, they really need to step up and upset some big teams on their way to Champions.
CR4ZY
The Serbian team has been one of the brightest stories of StarLadder Minors. CR4ZY managed to edge out Fnatic and North on their way to Major. As a result, Fnatic will miss Major for the very first time.
Stickers are ours, see ya at Berlin Major on August 23rd #dontfakeit #CR4ZYstickers #BerlinMajor2019 pic.twitter.com/KE3HSvqL06
— CR4ZY (@gocr4zy) July 30, 2019
In addition to all said, CR4ZY topped their group with two smooth wins. Nexa and co. showed impressive individual performance and significant mental strength. Their In-Game Leader, nexa, led his team by an example as he had the best rating among all players. The only part of the team that didn’t work so well was EspiranTo who was the only player with a negative rating.
Nevertheless, CR4ZY have improved their game so much over time, and 2019 has been their best year so far. They won United Masters League and played the Grand Final of DH Open Tours. The Major in Berlin will be their first Major appearance and the second appearance at big events in total. With not so much experience, the chances are not good-looking for CR4ZY to reach New Legends Stage. Their result at Major is going to depend a lot on their opponents in the Swiss Group Stage.
North
Just like mousesports, North also failed terribly at last Europe Minor. They also didn’t succeed in finding their way through 3rd Place Play-In even though the competition wasn’t that strong. This year, they had to play 3rd Place Play-In again, but the outcome was different as they qualified for the Major. Their run at Europe Minor was almost perfect until they lost two games in a row against mousesports and CR4ZY. They didn’t look like themselves, especially in the game against CR4ZY.
Great team effort today! Qualified for the major 😍 we will see you again Berlin in 3 weeks 🙌 Thanks for the support guys, it wasn’t pretty the last month, but I feel a new and better energy on the team again 💪 5 days player break for us, and we go back to work🔥@TheNorthIsHere pic.twitter.com/vIo7CS1fot
— Markus Kjærbye (@KjaerbyeCS) July 29, 2019
None of their players were playing particularly well at Minor, and gade and JUGi finished the event with a negative rating. Apart from ECS Season 7 Semi-final and GG.Bet Ice Challenge title, their showings in 2019 were pretty bad for their standards. It’s obvious that North is not the same North from 2018, and if they want to get to the New Legends Stage, they need to seriously step up and show what they are capable of. However, the Champions Stage looks like a long shot for the Danes at this moment.
Americas Minor
NRG Esports
There is really not so much to say about NRG. It seemed like the whole qualification system was just unnecessary in their case. Stanislaw and his team just cruised over their opponents without dropping a single map. They are definitely the strongest team that got to the Major through StarLadder Minors.
As they have been one of the most consistent teams in 2019, anything except reaching Legends Stage would be a failure and a huge upset for NRG. However, it’s questionable if they can reach Champions Stage, as they will have to beat some of the best teams in the world. Regardless, they definitely have the best chances to go deepest at the Major among all teams that qualified through Minors.
FURIA Esports
FURIA is only the third top ten team that found their way to Major through StarLadder Minors alongside NRG and mousesports. They didn’t step in Americas Minor in the best possible way as they lost to INTZ, but eventually, they made it to the Major through Lower Bracket considering they also lost in Upper Bracket Semis against NRG. All their players excluding VINI ended Americas Minor with a positive rating.
Just like NRG Esports, FURIA also repeated their result from the previous Minor where they finished as the second team. Their run at Katowice Major wasn’t good, but afterward, they played Grand Final of ECS Season 7, DH Open Rio da Janeiro, Semis at Moche XL Esports and DH Masters Dallas, and on top of all said, they won ESEA Season 31 Global Challenge and EMF CS:GO Invitational 2019.
Although the majority of these events are small ones, FURIA can be proud of their season so far, and they definitely have a good chance to reach New Legends Stage, but it will be hard for them to make one step further and take part in Champions Stage.
INTZ Esports
INTZ are going to make their first appearance at Majors in Berlin. They failed to qualify for Major through Minor, but they defeated MVP PK in 3rd Place Play-In to book tickets for Berlin in August. Their performance at Minor wasn’t so promising considering that yeL and destiny both had pretty bad ratings. Also, we could say that they were sort of lucky to secure their spot at the Major, so we cannot expect much from them in Challengers Stage. If they don’t finish the Group Stage with a 0-3 score, it will be a success for them.
Moreover, participating at Major is already a success for INTZ who didn’t record any significant result in their entire history.
Asia Minor
Grayhound Gaming
Excluding the last match where Grayhound encountered TYLOO, the Aussies showed quite a dominant game at Asia Minor. They absolutely crushed the competition and their all players finished the Minor with a positive rating. However, we must not be deceived by their dominance because the competition in the Challengers Stage will be much more fierce than one in Asia Minor.
Grayhound did pretty well at the last Minor as well, but then got destroyed at Major failing to win a single match. Their only notable result this year was their victory over FaZe Clan at IEM Sydney where they almost player Play-offs in front of the domestic crowd. But, apart from that, they didn’t see so much success so far this year. Hence, it would be a surprise to see Grayhound in Legends Stage.
TYLOO
TYLOO almost had a perfect run at Asia Minor before Grayhound stopped them in the Upper Bracket Final. Nevertheless, they overcame MVP PK in Lower Bracket Final easily.
At last Major, TYLOO almost reached Legends Stage but failed at last step. They were Legends at FACEIT Major last year, but they changed the core of that roster. This year, TYLOO wasn’t successful in big events and they didn’t have any big victory. Therefore, it’s not so likely to see TYLOO in Legends Stage this year.
CIS Minor
ForZe
Alongside CR4ZY qualifying for the Major, forZe winning CIS Minor was one of the main headlines when StarLadder Minors ended. It was expected of them to accomplish such a thing, but it’s still a huge success for the Russian team that is going to play their first Major in Berlin. Their all players were playing so well at CIS Minor, but their AWPer and entry fragger xsepower was especially good with 1.39 rating.
ForZe dominated the competition given that they didn’t concede a single map. They completely outplayed all their opponents to win their third LAN title this year. The Russians mostly spent this year playing at small and Online events where they had decent success. They won three LAN and two Online titles. Because they don’t have enough experience at the big stage, the odds for them reaching Legends Stage are pretty low.
Syman Gaming
The achievement of Syman Gaming at CIS Minor really came out of nowhere. Although the competition was relatively weak at CIS Minor, as a team that played exclusively Online events, Syman wasn’t on the list of favorites for qualifying for the Major. But, despite the odds and weak overall performance of their two players, Syman secured the spot in StarLadder Major.
However, because of all mentioned, it would be a huge shock to see Syman Gaming in Legends Stage. On paper, they are perhaps the weakest team alongside DreamEaters. Hence, the fact they are taking part in Major is already a big deal for them.
DreamEaters
As said, DreamEaters are one of two weakest teams on paper that came to Major through StarLadder Minors. Apart from CIS Minor, they played only one LAN event. This is going to be their debut at Majors and Legends Stage looks impossible for them at this moment. In 2019, they didn’t play a single map against Top 30 teams, which would make their potential upset even bigger.
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