Photo: HLTV
The CS:GO season is starting to get carried away and the teams will be chaining the big tournaments over the next few months. The pace promises to be grueling and players will have to be tough to try to pull out of the game, while pulling their structure up. During the month of July, we will watch carefully what will take place at the IEM Cologne. The tournament can claim to compete with a Major, since it has a million dollar cash prize. The competition promises to be fierce and there will be some great people to fight for the crown.
ESL has already formalized the list of participating teams. The invitations were distributed according to the recent results on ESL tournaments (EPT Invite and ESL World Ranking).
The list of invited teams
In all, 24 teams will be entered into the competition. It’s as much as during the last Major in Antwerp! There will obviously be a few small thumbs, but overall, we will find mostly very big teams.
The Play-In teams
- Team Vitality
- Heroic
- Underdogs
- Complexity
- Godsent
- Tyloo
- mibr
- Sprout
- Order
- Astralis
- Movistar Riders
- BIG
- MOZ
- TeamSpirit
- Imperial
- Bread Gaming
Of these teams, only 8 will get a place for the group stage. The qualification will be played in a double elimination bracket where there will be the right to make a mistake.
Teams already qualified for the groups
- Navigation
- FaZe
- G2
- Cloud9
- PIN
- IN THIS
- Furia Esports
- Team Liquid
Team Vitality, a “second zone” team?
There was no miracle for Team Vitality. The bees have accumulated 2872.50 circuit points and will therefore have to go through the Play-In. To avoid this first phase, it would have been necessary to have at least 3455.00 points (IN THIS). The gap is not huge, but given that there is a team sandwiched between the two (Heroic with 3350.00 points), there is really nothing to regret. Besides, we only get what we deserve. The Franco-Danish roster is still purring and the latest results were not particularly convincing. Seeing the team start in Play-In may be a blessing in disguise. Players need training and practice to find their full potential.
Some may be wondering why Team Liquid, though in great difficulty this year, was directly invited to the group stage. The team collected “only” 1193 points, but there is a distinction between the European ranking and the American ranking. Even if TL is struggling, it remains 2nd in the NA ranking.