EMS One Katowice: Group A preview

The first major CS:GO event in 2014 is just around the corner as EMS One Katowice will kick off on Thursday and we will begin our previews for the event.

Once more the prize purse has been set at $250,000 with the champions going home $100,000 richer after four days of action on March 13-16th at Spodek Arena in Katowice, Poland.

Top eight finishers from the previous major, DreamHack Winter 2013, were directly invited, as were two teams from overseas with no chance to qualify for EMS One Katowice.

Final six teams were determined through online qualifications in Europe, thus giving us the final team list of sixteen participants determined to make their mark next week in Poland.

Below is our first preview for the event, focusing group A with Titan, former Astana Dragons now known as HellRaisers, Poland's only hope Virtus.pro as well as German mousesports.

Each group will be played out using the GSL-type format, which means a four team double elimination bracket will be played out. Two wins gets you through, two losses means you're out.

As the top seed Titan will face off against mouz in the opening round, while Virtus.pro will tackle HellRaisers. Continue reading for the full group A preview of EMS One Katowice.

Counter-Strike returns to the biggest stage 

Titan (Ex6TenZ, NBK, ScreaM, shox, SmithZz)

Titan are to be considered the world's best Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team, and are thus favorites to go through group A untouched in Katowice on Thursday. They weren't able to convert their strong run in the fall into a win at DreamHack Winter, but they've made multiple key adjustments since then and once again proven they have NiP's numbers by taking them down at DreamHack Stockholm Invitational. With that out of the way, we can safely say there should be no way that Titan doesn't advance out of group A; the only question is whethere they can do it as the first seed an avoid an early date with NiP, such as the one at DreamHack Winter.

Prior to DreamHack Winter the two giants went for completely different strategies in preparation for the event. NiP pulled themselves out of nearly every event and online tournament to focus on their bootcamp while Titan decided they'd better go to every event and keep raking in the money, which they did. Now the French-Belgian side lives together in a gaming house in Belgium and have shifted their focus from other events and online leagues to Katowice, while their main competition has been active as ever online. I believe we can safely assume Titan are better prepared than ever, which we can't say for their competition, who spent much more time preparing for DreamHack.

The most often heard knock on Titan is their ESEA Invite Season 15 global finals loss against iBUYPOWER, but as explained before, it shouldn't matter too much and the squad has since proven they're back in tip top shape with solid play in Stockholm. Although the grand final was plagued with problems due to a DDoS attack, Titan bested NiP in an overtime match prior to any issues beginning, and then completely wrecked fnatic in the upper bracket finals. Since then they've had a few weeks to fix any mistakes and problems they noticed in their play, and there's little reason to question Kévin "Ex6TenZ" Droolans' preparation.

The only questionmark for Titan is Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom, whose play has been in nosedive since late November last year. Benrlitom was considered by many, including yours truly, a top five player in the world during VeryGames' run last fall, but he hasn't been able to play to that level consistently since then. In fact, his stats for three months prior to November 3rd 2013 were 0.79 KPR and 0.64 DPR, while he has only been able to muster very measly 0.61 KPR and 0.69 DPR since then, meaning he has been a net negative statistically. Those numbers speak wonders, and it's hard to understand what could have possibly made his level of play drop from one of the world's best to a borderline weakest player on a top team.

ScreaM statistics comparison (LAN only)
Aug 3rd - Nov 3rd	Nov 3rd - Present
0.79 KPR	0.61 KPR
0.64 DPR	0.69 DPR

However, Edouard "SmithZz" Dubourdeaux has elevated his play by a ton since then, and if he can continue being the monster with an AWP we've seen at some of their most recent events or if Nathan "NBK" Schmitt has more MVP-like performances up his sleeve, Titan can win it all without Benrlitom in top shape. It's worth pointing out that the main difference statistically at ESEA finals in Titan's wins in the upper bracket and the grand final collapse was Dubourdeaux' individual play, so there's a lot of pressure on him to perform as well.

Opening their run in Katowice will be a match-up against mousesports, who should be far outmatched by Titan. The team led by Chris "chrisJ" de Jong has been labeled online by many, and though they can be dangerous, it's hard to see any conceivable strategy for them to overcome Titan, even in a best-of-one. It is very important that Titan not falter against HellRaisers or Virtus.pro in the second match and advance as the first seed to avoid a tough bracket draw though. The Poles of Virtus have never been able to match the ex-VeryGames side, and the French-Belgians also have a spotless record on LAN versus ex-Astana Dragons. Expect them to go through to the playoffs in first place.

PTW: NBK - Goes without saying the best player on Titan is Richard "shox" Papillon, a favorite to win the MVP in Katowice, but he's not necessarily the one who can shift their performance the most. A strong performance is not only expected from Papillon, it's needed. On the other hand, Schmitt's EMS One Summer grand final performance versus Virtus.pro, then CIS-based with three players from HR, rivals just about anyone's play in CS:GO. Schmitt sometimes goes off and carries his team to map wins, and Katowice is where they need him the most if and when the other stars struggle.

Prediction: 1st in group A

What happened to ScreaM in early November? 

HellRaisers (AdreN, ANGE1, Dosia, kucher, markeloff)

HellRaisers might not be the world's best team, but for anyone who likes to watch them play knows they probably are the world's most frustrating team. For some reason they haven't been able to play on a high level for any extended period of time since removing Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev, and if not for Friday's upset over NiP in a hardly meaningful online match, it'd be hard to even see HellRaisers going through to the playoffs at EMS One Katowice. They simply haven't figured things out, and losing their sponsorship from Astana Dragons surely didn't help.

Despite having four members from the very successful Virtus.pro squad, Kirill "ANGE1" Karasiow struggled so much in figuring out a good playing style for HR that they actually let Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev start calling the shots in the team, despite Karasiow's strong record in both versions of Counter-Strike, and especially against NiP in CS:GO. The team's peak, as of right now, still came with Sukhariev still donning the squad's colors as they bested NiP in two consecutive matches last fall, those being ESWC and SLTV StarSeries finals. Since then, not so much.

HellRaisers have a ton of skill on their roster and therefore have a huge potential upside, in my opinion the largest of anyone in attendance from Katowice in comparison to their usual level of play. Their defensive play is often very strong, especially on maps that favor the counter-terrorists, but they struggle mightily on terrorist sides at times, and have a terrible tendency of playing very slowly and individually when the going gets tough, completely forgetting whatever gameplan they ever had going into the match. If they can play at a higher level in Katowice they can make top four, but so far we have no basis to expect that.

"Honestly, we couldn't prepare well for the tournament. Travel details and other stuff bother us all the time. Because of visa problems AdreN still can't join us for a bootcamp at Kiev CyberSport Arena. But I'm really happy that in these days we found new home called HellRaisers and we can at least concentrate on the training process," Karasiow told HLTV.org.

"Our EMS One group of was expected to be hard, it can't be any other way in a high level tournament. Key for our success is match the against Virtus.pro, who are really strong right now. In addition they will play in their homeland, with a lot of fans behind them."

Yegor "markeloff" Markelov has been very good individually lately, and Mihail "Dosia" Stolyarov is one of the world's best players. They could easily stomp Virtus.pro in the group stage, go to the playoffs and get a favorable draw there, but knowing the history of Virtus.pro's players in major events, something only Markelov can match from HR, and especially the fact they will be playing in Poland, you have to wonder if HR have what it takes to advance. It's been very frustrating to watch HR, and just about everything, ignoring Friday's NiP match, point to the same continuing in Poland.

If HR have some aces up their sleeves and they can continue playing as they did versus NiP, they can advance from his group and get a top four finish at EMS One. However, if they happen to not be in top form in what will likely be a second match-up versus Virtus.pro in group A's decider game, their journey could end already in early Thursday. HR has everything at stake, another failure for a team now without proper backing would likely force more changes, if not worse. The pressure is on, and we will see how HR responds next week.

PTW: Dosia - Ever since clearly giving Duncan "Thorin" Shields the win in his [POD]Cast argument with co-host Patrik "cArn" Sättermon by becoming a superstar in CS:GO while Richard "Xizt" Landström has struggled, Stolyarov has been one of the world's best players, as evidenced by his fourth place in the top 20 players of 2013 ranking. Look for Stolyarov to play a huge part if HR make it through the groups and beyond.

Prediction: 3rd in group A

Despite Dosia and markeloff's star power, HR continues to struggle 

Virtus.pro (byali, Neo, pasha, snax, TaZ)

Virtus.pro, formerly known as Universal Soldiers and AGAiN, have been doing relatively well since they formed the squad under the US flag last fall. They placed 3-4th at EMS One Fall finals and barely lost TECHLABS grand finals versus Astana Dragons, but then failed to close out a 12-3 lead versus Recursive on de_inferno at DreamHack Winter, what should have been the strongest performance for Filip "Neo" Kubski and Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas, both of whom are known for stepping up their game at the majors when it matters the most. Now they're well prepared, and have a major event on their home soil awaiting.

Virtus will likely have a massive fan base on-site at the Spodek Arena, but the problem is whether they will get to play in front of it, or even close enough to them to get any real support. Known as a vocal team who can go on huge runs, both negative and positive, they probably would have quite a lot to gain from their fans if they got deep enough in the tournament to get to play on the big stage. This will be by far the most important tournament for Virtus.pro in CS:GO simply due to being on their home soil, so I think this will be the one chance they truly have to break through as top team, something they looked to be on the verge of doing a year ago.

"We are focused on this event for about 2 months now. We were training alot, at the moment we are bootcamping in Warsaw, for the first time with this lineup. Our group is to say the least interesting, but for us all teams are the same danger. This tournament will take place in our home country, and we have only one target, to win", Wojtas told HLTV.org

The Poles devoured HellRaisers on de_inferno just under a week ago in SLTV StarSeries, but lost in a head-to-head match in TECHLABS grand finals back in November, the previous time the two Eastern European giants met on LAN. It's tough to draw conclusions from online results, especially for two teams filled with players best known for their LAN performances, so we won't spend too much time and effort analyzing the de_inferno victory. 

Aside from a narrow loss on LAN on de_inferno_se in late 2012, the Poles have never matched up well against VeryGames, now known as Titan. They've often struggled to even keep their games competitive, and it's hard to imagine that changing too much when Titan should be prepared as ever. mousesports shouldn't be too much of a threat to Virtus if their play is consistent, so all the attention will be drawn to HellRaisers, whom they should expect to face twice. If Titan wins out and mouz bottoms group A, the second match between HR and Virtus will decide it all. Simply due to HR's struggles, I think Virtus.pro look better, especially in Poland, to clinch a playoff spot.

PTW: Neo - Kubski has seemed to be playing better as of late, recording a pair of strong maps against ALTERNATE and playing well in the HR win. If Virtus were to place in the top four in Katowice, it would likely require help from whom many considered the best ever player in Counter-Strike 1.6. We know what Wojtas and Jarosław "pasha" Jarząbkowski can pull off in CS:GO, but a resurfacing of the old Kubski could really push Virtus.pro over the top.

Prediction: 2nd in group A

Could we see this trio celebrating next Sunday? 

mousesports (cadiaN, chrisJ, LEGIJA, tabseN, tiziaN)

There unfortunately isn't too much to say about mousesports. They go into EMS One as underdogs for whom a dream performance would be getting out of groups before being slaughtered in the quarter-finals. That's not to say it couldn't happen, as mouz have had some solid online results that have made the community label them as onliners, but the true star in the team, Chris "chrisJ" de Jong, has definitely proven he can have great matches on LAN as well. The questionmark lies on top of his four teammates.

mouz have had some promising results online, such as the wins over both LGB eSports and HellRaisers in fnatic's FragOut League's third season, but then again the Reason loss in EMS One qualifiers doesn't exactly paint them as world beaters, even online. They also had to go through a very late roster change as Anil "cLy" Gülec was ousted in favor of Johannes "tabseN" Wodarz, which couldn't have helped their team' preparation for the most important event in their careers.

"Our preparations have been okay. But considering how long our opponents in the group have been practicing together I'm pretty sure we are not near their preparation. Yet we feel confident going into the group stage, we had some success in recent online matches and I actually think we have a good shot at showing how good we can play in Katowice", Chris "chrisJ" de Jong told HLTV.org.

"I feel our biggest chance for a victory would be against HellRaisers, since we have already defeated them once before. Nonetheless I think we have a chance against Titan and VirtusPro as well in a BO1, but I wouldn't be surprised if both teams ended up in the top 3 of the tournament."

"Our preparations have been okay. But considering how long our opponents in the group have been practising together I'm pretty sure we are not near their preparation. Yet we feel confident going in the groupstage, we had some succes in recent online matches and I actually think we have a good shot at showing how good we can play in Katowice", Chris "chrisJ" de Jong told HLTV.org.

"I feel our biggest chance for a victory would be against HellRaisers, since we have already defeated them once before. Nonetheless I think we have a chance against Titan and VirtusPro aswell in a bo1, but I wouldn't be surprised if both teams would end up in the top3 of the tournament."

Coming from the star player of the team, mousesports aren't exactly full of confidence going into EMS One Katowice. A team with their players could potentially surprise at a lesser event where others might not be in top form, but as de Jong said everyone else has been putting in so much work it's simply tough to go through as tough of a group as they were dealt. I don't think mouz have much of a chance against Titan in their opening match, so their main hope for success would be to face HellRaisers, whom they feel more confident playing, in the second match of the group, which still guarantees nothing. Unfortunately it looks like mouz' days in Katowice are numbered.

PTW: chrisJ - Despite being on a team that won't be contending for a title, de Jong has shown some spectacular performances in the German EPS league mousesports have been dominating since he teamed up with them. He's proven to be a top notch AWPer in CS:GO after struggling to break through in CS 1.6, and if mouz are to upset one of the three teams in their group, it will have to be thanks to the Dutchman.

Prediction: 4th in group A

chrisJ is the player to watch out for in mouz 

This wraps up our EMS One Katowice group A preview. We will be releasing one preview per day starting today, each focusing on one of the four groups for the $250,000 tournament.