RC EMS One Fall Finals group preview

The time has come to take a look at this coming weekend's RaidCall EMS One Fall 2013 Finals team list in the form of a preview for Saturday's group stage.

Eight teams have fought their way into the RC EMS One Fall 2013 Finals after almost two months of grueling online play in weekly cups and finally the main group stage that finished just over two weeks ago.

$35,000 and this trophy will be at stake in Cologne, Germany

Almost all the usual suspects will be making the trip to Cologne, with Astana Dragons being the most notable team missing from the list, as they fell short versus Chris "chrisJ" de Jong's Party Daddlers, now known as mousesports.

Defending champions VeryGames have high hopes after besting their competition at SLTV StarSeries VII finals early this month, and NiP hope to recover quickly from their third place finish.

With the likes of Na`Vi, Filip "Neo" Kubski's UniversalSoldiers, n!faculty, Copenhagen Wolves, fnatic and mousesports challenging them, it will be a weekend full of action and solid Counter-Strike.

As opposed to previous seasons, EMS One will not be using a best-of-three single elimination bracket to determine the Fall champions, opting to instead use a group stage followed up by playoffs.

The GSL group stage system will be used with the decider games to be played on Sunday, followed by semi-finals and the grand final. Continue reading to find out who you should expect to see in the latter stages of the event.

Will VeryGames' form give them another tournament win?

Group A ( VeryGames, Copenhagen Wolves, n!faculty, fnatic)

VeryGames have been favorites among this group of teams since the inception of CS:GO, but their recent performances have seen their stock soar to heights not seen before. With that being said, they are definitely favorites and will likely finish atop group A at RC EMS One Fall Finals, but they do have a reasonable threat in their group in the form of Copenhagen Wolves, a bad matchup for Kèvin "Ex6TenZ" Droolans' team. Regardless of that, the French-Belgian team is in such a great shape that I can't imagine them throwing away an important game that might see them face NiP earlier than in the grand finals.

PTW: Nathan "NBK" Schmitt. Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom and Richard "shox" Papillon are expected and will be the team's top dogs in the long haul, but Schmitt is the swing vote of this team. Schmitt is also the best one-on-one clutcher on the team, as he sports a 73% winrate. If he plays well and the others don't drop the ball, there's almost no way VeryGames loses. We've seen Schmitt carry his team in the past, and if the trio were all on at the same time, I can't imagine even NiP touching them.

NBK was really impressive in last season's grand final

Copenhagen Wolves managed to take down VeryGames roughly fourty-five days ago in the first RC EMS One Fall Cup, and have since then seemingly improved after the addition of Jacob "Pimp" Winneche to the roster. The Danes were undefeated with Winneche all the way up until Monday evening, when group B's Universal Soldiers finally broke the streak that lasted two domestic events and a number of online matches. The Wolves were dominant in the group stage as well, losing just five rounds total in two matches en route to a first place finish and a top seed at the finals event this weekend.

PTW: Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen. Rasmussen has sported an astonishing 0.88 KPR to go with his 50.6 HSP in the online season of RC EMS One, and can easily turn matches around by himself when he's doing well. The Dane is also the number two entry killer in this season of RC EMS One with 0.18 eKPR. That being said, the Wolves are fairly even in terms of fragging power, so he doesn't have too much weight on his shoulders, but has arguably the most upside based on latest results.

dupreeh became the Wolves' top fragger after device's departure

n!faculty have been on their way out since the addition of Finn "karrigan" Andersen, and with Jacob "pyth" Mourujärvi leaving for the greener pastures of SK Gaming, it's hard to imagine Markus "pronax" Wallsten's team becoming stronger than they were a few months ago, which suggests they won't be making a lot of noise in Cologne. However, they've surprised before, so you can't exactly rule them out either, even if you have to question how Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander will fit in a team with another in-game leader and such a different playing style. It's hard to tell what the team will do in the future if they were to fail this weekend, but to me it doesn't seem like they have what it takes to advance, even on their organization's home soil.

PTW: Finn "karrigan" Andersen. Despite still struggling in CS:GO according to just about everyone, Andersen put up impressive numbers when representing Playing Ducks, and has been n!faculty's top performer when disregarding the now departed Mourujärvi. His online season statistics of 0.78 KPR and 33,3 HSP aren't magnificent, but he'll need to do at least that, and likely even more, for n! to stand a chance. Andersen has however put in work in terms of entry kills, as he ranks third in the season of all players at the Finals, with another third place in AWP kills.

karrigan must step up now that pyth is gone

The fourth and final team in group A is fnatic, whom I expect to defeat n!faculty but make little noise against the two toughest teams in the group. fnatic were trying to convince ESL to allow their Chief Gaming Officer and long time Counter-Strike 1.6 in-game leader Patrik "cArn" Sättermon to function as a coach to help their leadership issues, but were ultimately denied. It would have been a very interesting experiment and likely would have given fnatic an edge over the other teams in that department, even if Sättermon isn't fully familiar with CS:GO, but now the Swedes are back to the drawing board with very little time left.

PTW: Jesper "JW" Wecksell. The Swedish youngster is one of the most promising players around the tournament circuit and will eventually get back to the level of play we all witnessed at DreamHack Summer, but until he gets a more consistent team around him and can become the aggressive entry killer who impressed all of us in June, all you can say is that his online season's 0.73 KPR won't be enough to carry fnatic to the playoffs, and neither will having just the fifth most AWP frags out of all participants, which he did in the online season.

Group A predictions: 1. VeryGames, 2. Copenhagen Wolves

Will the JW of DHS return this weekend?

Group B ( NiP, Na`Vi, mousesports, UniversalSoldiers)

NiP are still the best team in the world, despite their recent losses, and with mousesports robbing Astana Dragons of a spot in Cologne, they are heavy favorites to top group B with seemingly no challengers that have any track record of being able to put up a great fight versus the Swedes. They should be motivated after the train wreck that was their SLTV StarSeries VII Finals showing, and if they don't top the group after two quick and painless matches on Saturday evening, something is seriously wrong with the team that racked up eighty-seven straight wins before they were first stopped.

PTW: Adam "friberg" Friberg. As is the case with VeryGames, NiP's star duo will do their part, so what this team's performance will likely come down to is Friberg. He's been really impressive at times, even considered the third best player on the team for majority of the year, but lately has struggled in entry fragging, causing NiP issues. I don't see that being permanent, so look for Friberg to bounce back, possibly already this weekend. NiP is also the most likely to lose a round if it's Friberg who dies first; not by a lot, but still something to note.

friberg can make all the difference for NiP

Na`Vi are an odd team on paper. They don't necessarily have a single star level player, although it'd be easy to argue that the likes of Sergey "starix" Ischuk have taken on that role now that his two former teammates sport Astana Dragons jerseys. They rely more on strategy and teamwork than other teams, and based on the little we've seen it seems to work just fine under Danilo "Zeus" Teslenko's leadership. If this were any other event I'd say Na`Vi are almost a lock to advance to the playoffs, but I think their playing style is vulnerable against mousesports and UniversalSoldiers are probably extremely motivated after not attending events for more than three months. Don't be surprised if the Ukrainians make it to the final four, though.

PTW: Sergey "starix" Ischuk. Ischuk was already a good AWPer in Counter-Strike 1.6 without a question, but now that he's taken over the full time duties he's been showcasing stellar plays one after another. He might not have crazy stats to back it up, but Ischuk has been a consistent performer for years. Denis "seized" Kostin will have to put up numbers, as will Teslenko, but I believe Ischuk is the swing player of Na`Vi, who can be the difference between packing up on Saturday evening and competing in the semi-finals on Sunday.

starix has been impressing with his AWP

mousesports are an intriguing team because we've seen them play really well online, and Chris "chrisJ" de Jong won EPS Germany together with one of his teammates, but we really haven't seen them play a whole lot yet, and their team features many players who don't necessarily have as much experience as you would want when facing some of the biggest names in Counter-Strike's history. I think de Jong can carry the team to a win if he plays his very best, and Tobias "Troubley" Tabbert's play will also be key for the Germans, but I can't see them beating US or Na`Vi this soon; they need more time.

PTW: Chris "chrisJ" de Jong. Tabbert is arguably as big of a name as de Jong, but the Dutchman has put up an AWPing clinic lately with a number of highlights even appearing here on HLTV.org. His 0.86 KPR is one of the highest for everyone during the regular season, and with the AWP being more powerful than the other rifles, he holds more weight in how mousesports will do at their debut under the storied organization's name. de Jong had the most entry kills per round online at 0.20 eKPR, twice the average, and will need to continue that and topping the AWP charts if mouz want to see the playoffs.

chrisJ has been impressive as of late

Universal Soldiers are the sleeper team of the entire event in my opinion. We haven't heard from Filip "Neo" Kubski and Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas since mid-July when their mixteam managed to top Natus Vincere at Prague Challenge, and they've had some promising results online, including wins over teams such as Na`Vi, n!faculty and Copenhagen Wolves. If they don't get frustrated over a potentially meaningless first round loss versus Na`Vi, I think they are favorites versus mousesports and neck and neck in the second game, which will define US' final placing at EMS One Finals.

PTW: Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas. Wojtas was incredible in the first six or so months in CS:GO before his role was changed within the old ESC Gaming roster, and based on his online statistics of 0.87 KPR, fifth most of anyone in the online season, and 57% HSP he's at least on his way back to his old form, if not there yet. Wojtas can make UniversalSoldiers go, both with his skills and with his enthusiasm outside of the game, and that's exactly what they will need to advance.

Group B predictions: 1. NiP, 2. UniversalSoldiers

TaZ was arguably a top five player earlier on in CS:GO

RC EMS One Fall 2013 finals will kick off at 12:00 on Saturday and you can find our official viewer's guide here. You can expect a playoffs preview when action finishes on Saturday.