SLTV StarSeries VIII Finals preview

SLTV StarSeries VIII Finals will kick off tomorrow in Kiev's CyberSports ARENA where four teams will gather and compete for $15,000 in cash prizes.

This season saw both Ninjas in Pyjamas and VeryGames, as well as DreamHack Winter champions fnatic drop out in order to focus more on the grandest tournament of the year.

Nevertheless plenty of top teams took part with Astana Dragons, AGAiN (ex-Universal Soldiers), Clan-Mystik and LGB eSports scoring the four top finishes to qualify for the finals.

In the end both LGB eSports and Clan-Mystik had to withdraw from the calendar year's last tournament, and they will be replaced by Natus Vincere and GamePub, the former iNation squad.

Continue reading to find out what to expect from the last Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament of 2013, with Na`Vi's new roster making its debut on home soil.

CS returns to CyberSports ARENA with SLTV 

Astana Dragons (AdreN, ANGE1, Dosia, kucher, markeloff)

Astana Dragons were one of the clear favorites to finish on the podium at DreamHack Winter despite removing Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev in the final weeks leading up to the $250,000 tournament. However, in Jönköping the team likely lost a match on purpose to avoid the NiP-VeryGames side of the bracket, then almost got knocked out by Reason Gaming in the deciding game and ultimately fell short against the Americans of compLexity in the quarter-finals for a, by their standards, measly 5-8th place finish.

The team hasn't looked back on their roster change though as they've continued putting in work online with Emil "kucher" Akhundov, finishing on top of the standings in SLTV StarSeries VIII where they scored twelve wins, a tie and a loss. In Fragbite Masters they were once again upset, this time by Swedes LGB eSports, as they failed to make the semi-finals. Their struggles continued in ESEA as well, as they were easily defeated by VeryGames, and they even lost against Finnish ENCE in the final round of the season, theoretically costing them a trip to Dallas, though they will likely get to go either way due to sponsorship issues for the qualified teams.

With that being said, Astana Dragons are still the favorites going into this weekend's tournament. Both AGAiN and Natus Vincere can put up a strong fight against Kirill "ANGE1" Karasiow's team, but in a best-of-three series, especially using the double elimination system with a best-of-five grand final, I have to assume the strongest team over the course of the past few months will prevail, as they did last month in Moscow for TECHLABS Cup Finals, where they were knocked down by Na`Vi before winning it all against the very same team and then-Universal Soldiers.

GamePub tied Astana online but de_inferno is the only map they've been able to compete on so expect Yegor "markeloff" Markelov's side to avoid that map. On each of the other maps Astana should win fairly easily, moving them to the upper bracket finals. Na`Vi are an interesting roster on paper but they're still new, while AGAiN have the whole backs-against-the-wall-thing going for them, but I still have to favor the team I consider to have been the strongest in the long term. If Astana don't win SLTV Finals and skip ESEA I wouldn't be surprised if more changes took place, so especially if they can't go to Dallas, SLTV is a must-win.

Prediction: 1st

markeloff's team are favorites in Kiev 

AGAiN (byali, NEO, pasha, snax, TaZ)

AGAiN once more have their backs against the wall in a situation where they lack financial support, having gone through yet another organization that wasn't able to give them the support they need to perform at the top level. They've had some memorable wins under the AGAiN tag in the past, but obviously those were in a different version of Counter-Strike and with their old roster. It remains to be seen whether they can once again surprise everyone and end the year on a high note, much like they did last December as they took down Virtus.pro at the SLTV Finals that rounded up 2012 and the first months of competitive Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

Had AGAiN not done as poorly at DreamHack Winter as they did their stock would be doing a lot better, as they did edge Na`Vi out in their second match-up to finish 3-4th at RaidCall EMS One Fall 2013 Finals in late October, but a DreamHack showing that saw them give up a 12-2 lead against Recursive to get eliminated in the deciding game murdered their global ranking. Up until then the Poles actually looked good; Janusz "snax" Pogorzelski was playing especially well, and they scored an easy win over iBUYPOWER in the opening round, but seeing them lose a match where all they needed was some killer instinct, something AGAiN was known for back in their golden 1.6 days, would make anyone doubt their chances from there on out.

As shown at TECHLABS Cup Finals last month the Poles can compete against both Na`Vi and Astana Dragons, but overall their level of play simply hasn't been up to their foes. If they can avoid making big mistakes in the key rounds and we see at least two of their three old guards playing at their top level we could even potentially see AGAiN surprise by winning SLTV Finals, but it simply seems farfetched to expect that to happen; it would have to be just that, a surprise. Already losing two maps to Na`Vi this soon after their roster change also rings alarm bells. AGAiN are under pressure to do well if they wish to secure a sponsorship for ESEA Finals, and they can't afford to give up any free meals like they did in Jönköping.

Realistically I don't think AGAiN can place last, I think they have too much routine and experience to not take down at least GamePub. I also think that if Astana Dragons runs through the upper bracket with two wins, then whoever loses the first Na`Vi-AGAiN match, will actually win the second one and make the grand finals. For AGAiN it wouldn't be a bad deal to suffer a loss on day one, make up for it with a comfortable GamePub win to boost their confidence on day two, and then battle it out with Na`Vi for a spot in the finals on day three. Then again, even Astana aren't out of reach for them by any means, so they could once more head to the grand final through the upper bracket.

Prediction: 3rd

snax was a key player for US at DreamHack 

Natus Vincere (Edward, GuardiaN, seized, starix, Zeus)

Since the disappointing group stage finish at DreamHack, Na`Vi re-added former star member Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev as well as Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács to their team and made Danilo "Zeus" Teslenko the in-game leader after a brief stint that saw the nineteen-year-old Denis "seized" Kostin at the team's reigns. They've had plenty of practice in the form of online matches and likely have put in even more work behind the scenes, suggesting they should be in reasonable shape despite only making the changes ten days ago. Both Kovács and Sukhariev are surely motivated, and especially the former has put up impressive numbers in their first online matches.

When Na`Vi changed leaders prior to DreamHack they stated Teslenko's inability to come up with new strategies as one of the reasons. Now with a full-time AWPer in Kovács, the team can actually revert back to a more AWP-heavy playing style, similar to the one that saw them dominate the scene in 2010 when Markelov was using the big green rifle for the team. Na`Vi have also added quite a bit more firepower than they'd had previously in CS:GO, and we've already gone through just how vital it is for your team to possess a ton of individual skill in CS:GO if you hope to compete for one of the podium finishes at stacked tournaments with all-star rosters.

They are 7-5 online since the roster change with their losses coming in against NiP, Astana Dragons, ALTERNATE and Clan-Mystik, twice. At the same time they've scored wins over the likes of AGAiN, twice, mousesports, and Clan-Mystik in one of the three maps they played. So far so good for Na`Vi considering some of those matches took place the same day their roster change was announced, so they have definitely had some time to improve as a team since then. Playing on their home soil near their homes in Kiev also helps, though they are going up against another team from the region as well as the Poles, who must have made dozens of trips to Ukraine's capital by now.

As I said in the AGAiN paragraphs above, I think what will most likely happen is one of these two wins the first game, loses to Astana Dragons and then goes out in third place in the consolidation final. However, Na`Vi have a real shot at winning the event; a much bigger one in my opinion than AGAiN. Even their previous lineup took a series from the current Astana team at TECHLABS, and I could easily see strong performances by Kovács and Sukhariev being able to overpower a Dragons team similar to the one we saw playing in Jönköping. Expect Na`Vi to make their LAN debut with a second place finish, but don't be too surprised even if they finish third, or wind up finishing the year with a championship.

Prediction: 2nd

Edward makes his return in a Na`Vi jersey 

GamePub (1NTEL, emi, k1Ng0r, NENO, NiKolinho)

GamePub, the former iNation squad, are on paper far outmatched against any of the other three teams vying for the SLTV season eight championship. Though not a bad team by any means, and they have a recent tie versus Astana Dragons on de_inferno to show for it, they simply don't possess the kind of depth that is required to go through such storied and experienced teams as the Eastern European trio they are matched up against this weekend. GamePub have played a vast majority of their matches on de_inferno; clearly a map they enjoy, but have recently struggled on it with single digit losses to Clan-Mystik, mousesports and ALTERNATE.

I wouldn't count a team with the firepower of Nikola "NiKolinho" Kovač out when it comes to any single map; Kovač is one of the rising stars on the scene and SLTV StarSeries VIII Finals could turn out to be his breakthrough tournament, but it just doesn't seem reasonable to expect them to take down any of the teams they will have to go through in Kiev. Most likely they will play two series and get knocked out, but even a map win against one of the three wouldn't be a disappointment for GamePub who simply lack experience internationally and have yet to deliver a memorable performance. This could be the beginning for the mostly-Serbian team.

Prediction: 4th

NiKolinho is GamePub's player to watch in Kiev 

SLTV StarSeries VIII Finals will kick off tomorrow at 14:00 with Astana taking on GamePub, followed up by Na`Vi versus AGAiN in the other upper bracket semi-final at 19:00 .

Full viewer's guide for SLTV StarSeries VII Finals is available here. HLTV.org will be covering the event from home with hot matches, GOTV demos, statistics, match reports and more.