EMS One Katowice: Group C preview

Third EMS One Katowice preview article goes over group C, where fnatic will hope to triumph over iBUYPOWER, dignitas and Reason Gaming.

With EMS One Katowice's Thursday start two days away, it's time for the third preview of the event with group C, the third of four groups, in focus this time around.

Leading the way are DreamHack Winter champions fnatic, who will be challenged by recent ESEA Invite champions iBUYPOWER, as well as two Danes in the form of dignitas and Reason.

One of the biggest storylines of the event: can fnatic repeat? 

fnatic (Devilwalk, flusha, jw, pronax, schneider)

fnatic should probably be considered the third best team in the world simply because as of today they don't really have any competition for that spot based on LAN results. They aren't exactly on the level of NiP and Titan, as proven at DreamHack Stockholm Invitational, but they are good enough to beat them occasionally, and to survive everyone else. I don't think Patrik "cArn" Sättermon's team is necessarily consistent enough to be a lock or even a favorite for a top three placing, simply because they haven't shown enough consistency. Their online results, which don't mean much, are all over the place. They demolished dignitas in Stockholm, in a very convincing way, but I'm not sure how much that meant.

They are an extremely fun team to watch, and after Robin "flusha" Rönnquist developed to a star they have even more fire power at the disposal of in-game leader Markus "pronax" Wallsten. Wallsten has always had good results against NiP, which is a good sign if the two giants from Sweden were to meet in Katowice, but their luck against Titan isn't nearly as good. fnatic have always struggled against Kevin "Ex6TenZ" Droolans' team, and therefore their bracket draw could well dictate if they can reach the grand final of the second CS:GO major.

The past two main DreamHack events in June and November where fnatic (previously Epsilon) reached top two finishes had one big factor in common - Jesper "jw" Wecksell was in top form at both, and he had some of his career's best tournaments in Jönköping. He's clearly a key player for fnatic, and for a team riddled with consistency issues a lot will come down to how he plays in Katowice. There's little doubt in my mind he has put in a ton of hours to help him reach his top level. Andreas "schneider" Lindberg has also been fairly inconsistent, and peaked at both of those DreamHack events, while Rönnquist has been the consistent player in fnatic.

"We have been preparing pretty much for this event as we started off this year with a bootcamp early in january and have been praccing pretty frequently ever since, and now 5 days prior to the event we started our final bootcamp to fix the last things for EMS that hopefully will be the last puzzle pieces for the event. I hope that we can prove that Dreamhack Winter was not just a fluke, that we actually are one of the best teams out there," Jesper "jw" Wecksell said to HLTV.org.

"There is no team to underestimate at a tournament like this, so starting from groupstage the matchup im looking most forward to would probably be to play versus iBUYPOWER, but all matchups will be great, all teams are there for one reason - to win"

One of the strong points for fnatic is Wallsten's leadership. He is good at making mid-round calls and adjustments, a rare trait that helps fnatic come back to games where their initial plan isn't working, as seen in the comeback win on de_dust2 in DreamHack Winter's grand final. He will have to make a ton of good calls, and to make those calls work his star players have to put in work in the fragging department. It remains to be seen how much other teams have studied fnatic, and how effective their group stage opposition's playing styles will be against them, but generally speaking I think fnatic match up well against all three teams in their group.

iBUYPOWER should be in good shape thanks to their bootcamp in Poland, but it's still hard to put a finger on them as we've only seen them peak once on a single day on their home soil. They could continue playing great as they've always done in practice, according to Sam "DaZeD" Marine, but I could as easily see another collapse. dignitas' collapse in Stockholm makes me question them going into this match, and I think fnatic has them beat mentally as well. Reason shouldn't be a match for fnatic at all, they can't match the Black and Orange's individual skills and I can't see them beating fnatic in the tactical game either. fnatic should be a lock to advancing to the playoffs, especially as they get to warmup against Reason in their opener.

PTW: jw - Wecksell is one of the biggest impact players in the world. When he is on and hitting his AWP shots, especially with the way he plays, he can win maps by himself. His aggressive play can easily open up entire bombsites and lock them down, and given the freedom by Wallsten, he can win multiple rounds on both sides of the map for fnatic in any given match. It's extremely important for fnatic that Wecksell plays well in Katowice if they hope to finish on the podium, though even an average group stage performance by him should see them top group C. He's a ton of fun to watch, a player you should always keep your eye on when watching fnatic play.

Prediction: 1st in group C

fnatic look to celebrate another CS:GO major this week 

iBUYPOWER (adreN, anger, AZK, DaZeD, Skadoodle)

iBUYPOWER are as much of a mystery to anyone as any other team attending EMS One Katowice. On one hand they've crashed and burned, with at least the core of the squad, in three consecutive DreamHack tournaments. On the other hand, they just handily defeated Titan in the grand finals when coming from the lower bracket at ESEA Invite Season 15 global finals. It's hard to put a finger on what kind of iBP squad we might see in Poland this week, and the fact their ceiling can be so high up, at least in a single series, makes them an intriguing team to follow. Sam "DaZeD" Marine has led the former Area51 and Quantic Gaming teams to success abroad before, so it wouldn't surprise me if he did it again.

Someone who has always struggled at the DreamHack events is Eric "adreN" Hoag, whose strong play in Dallas was also a reasonable factor in why iBP were able to top Titan in the grand finals. Everyone on the North American team is actually reasonably skilled, and the fact they have at least four players capable of having big halves is one of the pros of the team. Even in-game leader Marine has proven he can frag with the best, and strong play by him would go a long way towards getting iBUYPOWER out of group C, and into the playoffs. To sum it up, iBP needs good individual play to go through. Strategies and team work alone won't be enough to top dignitas, who they will face in the opener.

I find dignitas superior to iBUYPOWER strategically, in terms of individual skills and team play. iBP could have another match where they play out of their minds again, as they did in the grand final of ESEA versus Titan, but looking at the potential deciding match-up on paper it's hard to see how they could overcome dignitas, assuming they don't show up playing as poorly as they did at DreamHack Stockholm. iBUYPOWER's bootcamp in Poland should help, but they also bootcamped last time before DreamHack Winter, and all it got them was lopsided wins in practice. I don't think Derrick "impulsivE" Truong's guys will lose against Reason, and they could very well tie dignitas 1-1 in their matches, so it will all come down to who wins the deciding one.

PTW: DaZeD - Ever since playing well enough to be considered for the MVP race in ESWC 2012, Marine has been a player to watch. He hasn't exactly played lights out recently, but as the in-game leader it's obvious he's done a lot of things right for his team to beat Titan twice in a row. If he can play like a top player individually while making good calls, iBUYPOWER, who I feel rely somewhat on momentum, can become very dangerous. I think Marine has a tendency of getting frustrated when things don't click, so that's the downside of it. He needs to show the way individually, and he is capable of doing just that.

Prediction: 3rd in group C

Can DaZeD lead his team to another strong performance? 

dignitas (cajunb, device, dupreeh, FeTiSh, Xyp9x)

dignitas had a case for being considered the fourth best team in the world with Nicolaj "Nico" Jensen on the team. They went out in quarter-finals of DreamHack Winter but only after a very narrow loss versus VeryGames, and have been placing in the 3-8th region for the better part of 2013. Unfortunately, although their placing didn't change when finishing fourth in the four team DreamHack Stockholm Invitational tournament, their stock did. After removing Jensen and adding René "cajunb" Borg the team has only played that one tournament in Sweden, and they did everything but to make you completely write them off with their lackluster performance.

DDoS issues didn't affect their matches too much, and they weren't able to even look competitive against either fnatic or NiP. It's worth pointing out those are both some of the world's best teams who can make anyone look bad, but after preparing so well for the event I find it hard to see where dignitas could have improved enough to truly be a new team in time for Katowice, a mere three weeks later. For a team who has been known for their solid tactical approach to the game, thanks to Henrik "FeTiSh" Christensen, it was an eye opening experience to see them completely shut down despite good preparation.

Our preperation for this event has been a lot better than the previous DH invitational tournament, it felt like we weren't playing as a team and we had minimum hours on steam all of us prior to the event. We missed a lot of individual skill and teamplay overall, which we have been working hard on. So hopefully we can go out and suprise after a bit of a downtime. 

I feel this is a group that we must go into playoffs from, it's not gonna be an easy task though. We have the 2 "flukes" as you lurppis, and thorin hinted they were, I don't know if you can call fnatic a fluke anymore, I guess thats going to be answered after the event. But having such teams can be dangerous and still very good for us.

We have won our group-plays in so many tournaments, so I'm sure we will go through the group!

"Our preperation for this event has been a lot better than the previous DH invitational tournament, it felt like we weren't playing as a team and we had minimum hours on steam all of us prior to the event. We missed a lot of individual skill and teamplay overall, which we have been working hard on. So hopefully we can go out and suprise after a bit of a downtime. I feel this is a group that we must go into playoffs from, it's not gonna be an easy task though," Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth explained to HLTV.org.

"We have the 2 "flukes" as you lurppis, and thorin hinted they were, I don't know if you can call fnatic a fluke anymore, I guess thats going to be answered after the event. But having such teams can be dangerous and still very good for us.We have won our group-plays in so many tournaments, so I'm sure we will go through the group!"

As pointed out by Jacob "Pimp" Winneche in his onGamers interview, Christensen's teams tend to rely quite a bit on strong individual skills despite the solid tactical background. None of their players did well individually in Stockholm, yet everyone but Christensen is known as a player capable of turning rounds around by themselves. Their three main fraggers can all top the scoreboard at any given time, and we should't underestimate Højsleth, who has also made waves with his skills. The only problem is that for the past two DreamHack events, those skills have not translated into big rounds won, for the most part, for the team.

I don't think the opening match versus iBUYPOWER will matter all too much, because I think the two will face off once again in the deciding game. In fact, despite the fact neither team will simply accept a mere second place finish and do it, in a weird way it would be smart not to play your top map choice in the first match, to give yourself better odds of winning the second and deciding game, assuming fnatic tops group C. I don't think Reason stand any chance against dignitas because the latter have been dominant in Denmark for a long time, and DreamHack Stockholm showed fnatic might be out of reach for dignitas right now. Nevertheless, they should advance as the second seed.

PTW: device - Nicolai "device" Reedtz has been one of the world's top performers statistically in CS:GO, but he has struggled mightily at the last two DreamHack events dignitas have attended. The Danes won't be seeing playoffs in Katowice if Reedtz finishes with a sub-0.61 KPR for the third event in a row, so the pressure that's on him to do well and his big upside make him the player to watch in dignitas. He can do great things when he's in shape, and you would expect this to be the time to shine for a talented player like him.

Prediction: 2nd in group C

device has been one of Denmark's best players for a while 

Reason (EXR, Friis, karrigan, LOMME, smF)

The one thing Reason have going for them is that they are underdogs, and no one will be expecting much from them. Statistically they have four players with sub-1.00 rating, a feat no other team matches in Katowice, and aside from a series win over mousesports online, they really haven't done a lot. Former star of the team Morten "coloN" Johansen quit CS:GO a while back, and the two players that were recruited are hardly an upgrade over him. Michael "Friis" Jørgensen can match his AWPing on a good day, but he hasn't proven to be anywhere near as consistent in CS:GO as he used to be in the previous Counter-Strike version.

"We've been practicing for a couple of weeks online now, sadly we couldn't bootcamp before the event. We don't feel completely prepared I think, because playing with two new players in the lineup is a different thing, and there are a lot of things to get used to. We know we're going into the group as underdogs, but I think we still have to prove a lot. I think we can make some upsets if we hit our shots that day," Frederik "LOMME" Nielsen revealed to HLTV.org.

"Fnatic have proved to be a clear topteam and they have a pretty unique playing style so it'll be tough to play them. Dignitas is also a good team with a lot of good aimers, so mapchoice is gonna be pretty important. We've never played IBUYPOWER as a team so I don't really know what to expect from them, but they've achieved some good results lately, but again, I think it may come down to what team is on fire that day. It's gonna be really tough for us anyhow."

However, it's hard to argue against Reason being outmatched as a team at EMS One Katowice. If they decide to stick together and try to build something on the experience they can come back stronger in the future, but I can't imagine them beating fnatic in their opener, and they probably don't have much of a chance versus iBUYPOWER or dignitas either, unless the North Americans implode following a first round loss. The fact that Nielsen also revealed they don't feel well prepared makes it even harder to predict anything but a two map exit from the tournament, and a fourth place finish in group C.

PTW:  Friis - In a team without any stars, and with mindbogglingly low statistics across the board (only one player with a rating above 1.00), the former fnatic member Jørgensen is the one who stands out due to what he has accomplished in the past, despite only competing in the qualification stages for EMS One Katowice so far with his current team Reason. Jørgensen's AWP is reknowned for a reason, and he can make things happen on a good day, we'll just have to wait and see if Friday will be one.

Prediction: 4th in group C

Friis will be key to Reason's run in Katowice

Our fourth and final EMS One Katowice group stage preview article, one focusing on group D, will be released tomorrow evening. The $250,000 tournament will kick off on Thursday.