ELEAGUE Premier Group A preview

After organizing two events in 2016 and the first Major of 2017, ELEAGUE is back with a $1,000,000 tournament. The event is called ELEAGUE Premier and will feature 16 teams divided into four groups.

The group stage taking place in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, is kicking off this weekend with Group A. The GSL format will be used with best-of-one opening and winners' games, and best-of-three elimination and decider matches. The top two teams in the group will advance to the playoffs.

ELEAGUE Premier is set to kick off

Group A is headlined by G2, who recently won DreamHack Masters Malmö and will be looking to carry that level of performances over to the United States. They will be in contention with three teams who have seen their rosters changed in the last month—Natus Vincere, FaZe, and Renegades.

Ratings used are from the past three months on LAN

G2 (#2)	Age	Rating 2.0
Kenny "⁠kennyS⁠" Schrub	22	1.15
Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire	24	1.08
Nathan "⁠NBK-⁠" Schmitt	23	1.03
Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon	25	0.99
Alexandre "⁠bodyy⁠" Pianaro	20	0.96

Offline placings in the last three months
1st	DreamHack Masters Malmö
9th-11th	PGL Major Krakow
5-8th	ESL One Cologne
1-2nd	PGL Major Krakow Main Qualifier
5-6th	ECS Season 3 Finals

The favorites in Group A are the Frenchmen, who recently climbed to second place in the Ranking, inching ever closer to SK. G2's ascension was made possible by their victory in Malmö, Sweden, where they won all their matches (although, admittedly, they lost a couple of maps).

Coming out of the player break without making any roster moves and having a consistent lineup helped G2 in Sweden, and it can benefit them in Atlanta as well because all of their group opponents have renewed squads.

One of the biggest advantages for the Frenchmen will be their solid and steady map pool. They've been phenomenal on Inferno, which could be crucial for them as most teams don't shy away from playing it.

G2 will be looking to repeat their success from Malmö

G2's first opponent in the group will be Natus Vincere. Both teams like to play on Nuke, and G2 can finally get to play it again as it's usually banned by their opponents in the veto process. With their current confidence level, it's likely that G2 will win their opening game, but it's certainly not a given considering the talent that Natus Vincere possess. If shox & company win their opening game, they will get even more confident and will be the favorites to finish the group in first place over FaZe or Renegades.

If they lose against Natus Vincere, because the elimination and decider games are best-of-threes, they will still be in a favorable position to get through to the playoffs. After all, they beat Immortals, SK, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and North in best-of-three matches in Sweden.

FaZe (#8)	Age	Rating 2.0
Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač	20	1.21
Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács	26	1.11
Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard	23	1.11
Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer	25	1.01
Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen	27	0.88

Offline placings in the last three months
9-12th	DreamHack Masters Malmö
15-16th	PGL Major Krakow (3/5)
3-4th	ESL One Cologne (3/5)
2nd	ECS Season 3 Finals (3/5)

The European squad were one of the most active teams during the player break as they made a couple of changes, bringing in olofmeister from fnatic and Guardian from Natus Vincere to replace Aleksi "⁠allu⁠" Jalli and Fabien "⁠kioShiMa⁠" Fiey, making the team more intimidating than ever. karrigan already had a talented squad to lead, but these roster moves have given him more firepower than he could have conceived.

However, FaZe have had a rocky start to their expedition as they exited DreamHack Masters Malmö in the group stage in 9-12th place. They lost to Ninjas in Pyjamas in their opening match on Nuke despite starting on the more favored CT-side, with NiKo being the only player with a positive rating (1.05).

After avoiding elimination against MOUZ, FaZe found themselves facing Gambit in a best-of-three decider game. FaZe won the first map but lost on Train and Nuke, which spelled the end of the road for them.

GuardiaN's FaZe might face his old team Natus Vincere

Nevertheless, a single disappointing result doesn't mean that FaZe are in crisis. After Malmö, the new players have had more time to acclimatize to karrigan's system, and their individual performances might improve in Atlanta. It certainly helps that their opening match won't be against the heavy-hitters of the group, Natus Vincere and G2. Instead, they will play against Renegades, who brought Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic in after DreamHack Masters Malmö.

The skill gap between the teams is clear, but FaZe can't go into the game thinking it'll be an easy task. Renegades eliminated Virtus.pro in Malmö, proving that they can take advantage if their opponents are slacking. FaZe will need to concentrate and successfully implement karrigan's game plan in order to win the game and secure a place in the winners' match.

The ideal scenario for FaZe would be to win two straight best-of-one matches because their map pool might not be broad enough to take on Natus Vincere or G2 in best-of-three encounters. If FaZe fail to do so, they might set themselves up for another inconvenient group stage exit.

Natus Vincere (#9)	Age	Rating 2.0
Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev	19	1.23
Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev	20	1.07
Danylo "⁠Zeus⁠" Teslenko	29	1.03
Ioann "⁠Edward⁠" Sukhariev	29	1.01
Denis "⁠seized⁠" Kostin	22	0.92

Offline placings in the last three months
5-8th	DreamHack Masters Malmö
12-14th	PGL Major Krakow (4/5)
3-4th	ESL One Cologne (4/5)
2nd	Adrenaline Cyber League (4/5)

Zeus is back in Natus Vincere after winning the PGL Major Krakow with Gambit. Still, Natus Vincere couldn't go as deep as they would have liked to at DreamHack Masters Malmö, coming in 5-8th. Their victories came against Virtus.pro and Renegades , while they lost to Ninjas in Pyjamas and Astralis.

Unfortunately for Natus Vincere, they will face an in-form G2 in their opening game in Atlanta. The CIS-team's map picks/bans will be crucial as they haven't had too much time to work on their map pool, just like FaZe. The fact that the game will be a best-of-one will certainly increase their chances, but G2 will still be the favorites.

Zeus will be looking for a better result in Atlanta

Zeus & company beat Renegades 2-0 in Malmö, so it is unlikely that the CIS squad will struggle against the Aussies if they face each other in the elimination game, meaning that Natus Vincere will most likely find themselves in the decider match even if they aren't firing on all cylinders.

The CIS squad will need flamie & s1mple to step up; if the duo find their groove and Zeus drills his team well, Natus Vincere can definitely get through to the playoffs.

Renegades (#19)	Age	Rating 2.0
Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic	19	1.04
Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage	21	1.02
Aaron "⁠AZR⁠" Ward	24	1.01
Karlo "⁠USTILO⁠" Pivac	24	1.00
Noah "⁠Nifty⁠" Francis	19	0.95

Offline placings in the last three months
9-12th	DreamHack Masters Malmö (4/5)
3-4th	DreamHack Open Atlanta  (4/5)
12-14th	PGL Major Krakow Main Qualifier  (4/5)

It would be a bold claim to state that Renegades have even an outside chance of making it to the playoffs. They were drawn into a challenging group, making the possibility of them getting in the top two very slim.

Following DreamHack Masters Malmö, where they finished 9-12th, Renegades made a roster change, adding NAF from OpTic to replace David "⁠Jayzwalkingz⁠" Kempner, who wasn't given the chance to use the AWP - one of his most important attributes.

NAF will make his debut for Renegades

The addition of NAF brings in more firepower, but it doesn't take Renegades any step closer to out-aiming the teams they are about to face. However, they can pounce on these teams if they smell blood, just like they did against Virtus.pro in Malmö.

All in all, if their opponents play carefully and don't make unnecessary mistakes against Renegades, the Australians will have an extremely hard time to make it out of the group in Atlanta.