Copenhagen Games group preview

The main Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament at Copenhagen Games 2013 kicks off in the morning and it's finally time to preview the group stage of the event.

After today's on-site qualifier finished, the thirty-two participants for the two day, 33,000€ tournament have been found and drawn into eight groups of four.

Due to the interesting tournament format, no one will get knocked out in the group stage. Instead, the top two teams will advance to a sixteen team upper bracket, while the bottom two are headed to lower bracket.

Copenhagen Games is live 

Upper bracket, like the group stage, is played out in best-of-three, while lower bracket games will be decided in best-of-one, making each map there that much more crucial.

With the tournament system explained, let's take a look at the groups that have been drawn and who are the likeliest to advance from each of them.

Group A ( VeryGames, Lemondogs, 3DMAX, iRage)

VeryGames are the obvious favorites in group A, especially after hearing just about everyone talk about how good they have been in practice and how well Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom has been playing individually; something the team definitely needs to offset Kevín "Ex6TenZ" Droolans' poor fragging.

With that being said, they have shown signs of streakyness and inconsistency lately, but maybe they have finally figured out some of their old issues and will show better form in Copenhagen, especially after deciding to drop out of SLTV StarSeries V to focus on practice.

Lemondogs were a very underrated team up until a month ago, when their house of cards was brought down by e-Sports.rs in the group stage of Mad Catz Invitational, where they finished 0-3 with a round difference of -25.

3DMAX have proven to be heavily reliant on Ladislav "GaurdiaN" Kovács, who has been one of the best AWPers in CS:GO for a while now. While they are favorites to beat Lemondogs for an upper bracket spot, they'd need a lot of luck to beat VG in a best-of-three.

Prediction: 1. VeryGames, 2. 3DMAX, 3. Lemondogs 4. iRage

SmithZz' VeryGames needs a win in Copenhagen 

Group B ( Na`Vi, fnatic, BX3, Epsilon

fnatic and Na`Vi will probably have a close series and I expect their match to be one of, if not the most entertaining group stage clash in the morning. However, I think this time fnatic will have their number, as Na`Vi is more likely to struggle more in the group stage.

This group isn't anywhere near as deep as the first one, as Epsilon simply can not be expected to do much in Copenhagen, regardless of if they cheat or not. They proved to be just above average on LAN in Sweden, and there won't be a huge improvement here.

BX3 will likely lose against Epsilon, just to give the Swedes some hope, but both are most likely headed for an early exit in the lower bracket while last year's finalists will truck along in the upper bracket, hoping for top four finishes each.

Prediction: 1. fnatic, 2. Na`Vi, 3. Epsilon, 4. BX3

Will trace do better at Copenhagen Games this year? 

Group C ( Curse, Anexis, Reason Gaming, LowLandLions)

Sam "RattlesnK" Gawn's Anexis are huge favorites in group C, which features North American Curse. I don't expect Curse to do much in Copenhagen, although they will likely improve on their weak performance from Jönköping.

Curse would need a huge performance from Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham in order to beat Anexis, and I don't really see him being able to perform that well on LAN; in fact I even think people are making a bigger deal about his online performances than they should.

LowLandLions could potentially ruin Curse's upper bracket plans, while I don't think Chris "chrisJ" de Jong's team can truly challenge Anexis in a best-of-three. I can't say I know anything about Reason Gaming, but based on their roster it doesn't seem like they should be much of a threat in a best-of-three series.

Prediction: 1. Anexis, 2. Curse, 3. LowLandLions, 4. Reason Gaming

Michael3D & co can't afford another group stage exit 

Group D ( Quantic, ALTERNATE, Temp.no, fm.TOXiC

Quantic are definitely favorites to clinch the first place in group D despite all the roadblocks the Copenhagen Games organizers have thrown their way. They didn't look amazing in today's qualifier, but I wouldn't expect them to actually give it their all against DISH or Karont3 with the real tournament looming ahead.

ALTERNATE showed promise at Mad Catz versus VeryGames and Anexis.dk, but fell short against logiX. I think they have improved since then and especially with fm.TOXiC imploding after getting beat by dignitas they are favorites to clinch the second seed.

The Danes would have to step up a lot for the formerly British side to have a shot at not heading directly to the lower bracket, and with how late their roster change came, I don't see that happening. Temp.no, like LowLandLions, could ruin someone's day, but I can't see them making top two.

Prediction: 1. Quantic, 2. ALTERNATE, 3. fm.TOXiC, 4. Temp.no

This will be Quantic's first event with frozt 

Group E ( Western Wolves, Copenhagen Wolves, plan-B, Server Forge)

The Danish Wolves duo were given a very favorably group draw, as one might expect in Denmark, and will advance without any issues here. Neither plan-B nor Server Forge will be much of a threat, as both will bow down and head to the lower bracket, and face an early exit there.

The matchup versus Mad Catz finalist, former Anexis team, and the former organization of two of their members, will be an interesting one. Both are fighting for the title of Denmark's best, together with fnatic, and a first place in the group would certainly help either one in the playoffs.

I think Western Wolves are clear favorites to win the head-to-head match, although Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen's interview showed the underdogs also have confidence. We'll just have to wait and see how it plays out. For what it's worth, Dennis "rytter" Rytter's Server Forge will get an easy third place.

Prediction: 1. Western Wolves, 2. Copenhagen Wolves, 3. Server Forge, 4. plan-B

Rytter's Server Forge were drawn a hard group 

Group F ( n!faculty, mousesports, ESC Gaming, KILLERFISH)

ESC Gaming are, despite having come from the on-site qualifier, the clear favorites to clinch the top seed from group F. n!faculty have yet to prove their capabilities on LAN, and mousesports are simply not a good team until proven otherwise.

Finn "karrigan" Andersen has finally had some big performances in his last twenty or so games, but he still remains very inconsistent based on his online play. Same can be said for mousesports, who have scored some promising wins, and then lost against complete punching bags at other times.

This group could end up in a three-way tie, but I think ESC will take the top seed. n!faculty remain a question mark, and although I'm not sure I really believe it, I'm going to go with mousesports this time. KILLERFISH are headed home quickly, but at least Sune "crZy" Hansen won't get to add too many negative matches to his ever-growing list in CS:GO.

Prediction: 1. ESC Gaming, 2. mousesports, 3. n!faculty, 4. KILLERFISH

kuben looks confident heading into group F 

Group G ( NiP, Curse, EYES ON U, myRevenge)

NiP will win this group. If it was best-of-one we could dream about an upset, assuming this Curse team is good, but it's not. Just seeing the myRevenge name makes me assume the Danes are just as bad as every other team who has represented the organization in the past, so they are ruled out as well.

That leaves us with EYES ON U, a reasonably strong Danish team, and the Finnish Curse squad. I honestly could see this going either way, depending which Curse shows up tomorrow. They have been known to be very streaky, and we haven't really seen them play yet in 2013.

I do think the Finns' ceiling is a notch higher than the Danes', but who knows how close to it they will be. Regardless, I will have to go with the odds here, which would put EYES ON U to the lower bracket in the beginning of playoffs.

Prediction: 1. NiP, 2. Curse, 3. EYES ON U, 4. myRevenge

KHRN's Curse would need to pull a miracle to top group G 

Group H ( Virtus.pro, Nostalgie, Publiclic.se, Xapso)

This group is a perfect example of why the invitations by Copenhagen Games were so terrible. Group F will send a much better team to lower bracket, than whoever will advance as the second seed here. The groups are not balanced.

It's too bad Publiclir.se has an easy enough group that placing second literally means nothing at all, because I can already see the accused cheaters saying they advanced through the group stage on LAN. Bleh. As if that meant anything with this draw.

I have no clue if Danny "BERRY" Krüger's Xapso are in good shape, but they probably have a good chance to get second. It's anyone's game outside of Virtus.pro, who obviously are miles ahead of their competition. Nostalgie could advance, but since I'm not sure how their young guns will do, we'll go with the Swedes.

Prediction: 1. Virtus.pro, 2. Publiclir.se, 3. Xapso, 4. Nostalgie

ANGE1's group is a walk in the park for Virtus.pro 

Who do you think will make top two in each group? Who will prevail, and who will be headed to the lower bracket quickly? Leave a comment below and let us know. Matches start at 10:00 .