Cover Image Courtesy: Hotspawn
The last few weeks have witnessed a lot of Counter-Strike action take place in Berlin with all the Minors being played before the Major. They were much more competitive than expected with a lot of upsets taking place across the board.
With the team list now being finalised for the Berlin Major 2019, let’s take a look at some of the players and teams that will be missing in on the action.
It will be a bit disheartening to see MIBR compete in a Major without its star player Marcela ‘coldzera’ David. Since requesting MIBR to not field him in its active line-up, there have been speculations linking his transfer to FaZe Clan.
Though nothing of sorts has been announced by the player or FaZe, MIBR went ahead to accept coldzera’s request while further stating that he will be benched for the Berlin Major 2019 as well, followed by zews replacing him in the active lineup.
MIBR has already played IEM Chicago 2019 without coldzera being a part of their roster and surprisingly the team did really well, placing 3rd-4th in the tournament. This was way better than how they have been performing in other recent events.
Maybe MIBR could surprise us again, but still, it will be sad to see the Brazilian superstar miss out on the event.
Fnatic having made their way to EU Minor Championship through the EU Closed Qualifier but failed to make it through to the Major after facing defeat in the playoffs against mousesports and CR4ZY.
The Swiss gents did perform exceptionally well in the group stage, leading their group at the very top, but could not replicate the same in the playoffs. A team that had high hopes to make it to the Majors went out in a poor manner, everyone will surely miss the three-time Major winners as they bow out of this one.
It will also be the first time that Jesper ‘JW’ Wecksell will be missing out on a Major in CS:GO history.
Cloud9, the winners of the ELEAGUE Boston Major 2018 are not even a part of Berlin Major 2019 all because of roster shuffles. Due to finishing in the 9th-11th position at IEM Katowice Major 2019, Cloud9 was supposed to be the returning challengers for the Berlin Major. But as they replaced three players from their roster, all of whom were part of the team in the last Major, they had to give up their slot.
This is because a team cannot replace more than two players from its roster, who have played in the last major and secured the team a slot as returning challengers for the next major. Cloud9 still tried to make it to the Major but fell short of its intended target by losing in the American Closed Qualifier
Both RUSH and autimatic who were part of the first NA roster to ever win a Major will be missing out on all the action that goes down in Berlin.
BIG, the hometown favourites will not be playing in front of their home crowd in Berlin following the teams disappointing performance at the EU Minor Championship. The German squad could not even make it past the group stage leave alone qualifying for the Majors.
It has not been a great year for them with a constant 5th-8th position finish at various tournaments. Tough it was a bit of a challenge to go through the EU Minors, still, the expectations were high due to the tournament taking place in their own backyard.
Image Credit: Liquipedia
The local fans will be mighty disappointed with no German team being amongst the 24 teams playing in the tournament.
Though there might be a handful of things that we might miss out on in the upcoming Major, it is going to be yet another banger of a tournament without a doubt. Let’s see who walks away as the champion in Berlin, as the strongest teams in the world go up against each other starting 23rd August. Stay tuned as we keep you updated on all the action.
