Who will win CS_Summit 5?

Cover Image Courtesy: BTS CS:GO | Thumbnail Image Courtesy: Liquipedia

The CS_Summit 5 is here, about to start in less than twelve hours with $150,000 on the line, as six invited teams go up against each other in a round-robin group stage followed by the playoffs.

As the teams fly to the Summit Studio in Los Angeles, from where the matches will be streamed live exclusively on Twitch in eight different languages, and the audience gets ready to witness an action-filled weekend with the tournament taking place from 12^th - 15^th December, here is a quick rundown on all the teams participating.

OG CS:GO - All Eyes On Me?

OG will be the team under most pressure out of the six participating. Attending their very first event, the much-hyped and talked about European team, will be going up against some of the best teams in the world. All of whom have much more experience than them, but what they don’t have is Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen.

OG has been built around the hugely successful IGL, Aleksib, who took ENCE to a runner up finish at the Katowice Major 2019, shortly followed by a win at BLAST Pro Series: Madrid 2019. There was a lot of talk surrounding the announcement of the team and is probably one of the newcomers that everyone expects to do good at the international circuit.

They have a really solid line-up with all the players having a good amount of international experience and exposure, except for Mateusz “mantuu” Wilczewski. The 22-year-old from Poland is a fairly unknown player, having played for ALTERNATE aTTax before joining OG.

He has been on top of the tier two CS:GO circuit for some time now, and we all know how OG likes to take a chance on a player that shows potential. It has worked wonders for the team when it comes to Dota 2, and they seem to be implementing the same strategy, putting their faith in mantuu to be their fifth.

It will be interesting to see what type of a game they bring to the table, and how well are they able to adjust to various situations that they come across in a match. Will they be able to prove themselves right off the bat? Or will it be a slow rise to the top? Are the most important questions that will be answered by their performance at CS_Summit 5.

G2 Esports - The Other French Team

Last time around it was the French team of Vitality that lifted the trophy. Will G2 Esports be able to make it two in a row for their region? Is the question everyone would be asking themselves. If we were to go by stats, I wouldn’t be putting my money on them.

Over the course of this year, G2 Esports has slipped from being ‘The French Team’ to ‘The Other French Team’, as Vitality has consistently performed better than them. G2 did have a good two-month roll in June-July, but the good times did not stay for long, as the team crashed hard after that.

The last two months have been the worst for them but like every other team, G2 after the transfer period didn’t get a lot of practice and maybe now they might be able to kick up something special. The team has had a good break from the circuit from a while now, and this could ensure that the team ends the year on a good note.

MIBR, FURIA - Brazilian Duo

MIBR has somehow managed to maintain their rank just outside of the top 10. They have been plagued by a lot of roster shuffles, departure of their star player Marcelo “coldzera” David being the worst.

But despite having an inconsistency in their playing five, they somehow managed a top-four finish in big tournaments. Once again MIBR enters the ring with a new line-up, not much is expected of them but an entry into the playoffs should be easy, anything more is a bonus.

FURIA also had its moment, bursting into the scene out of nowhere, beating the bigger teams left, right and centre with their aggressive playstyle. Their advantage was the unusual timing of their executes, and the controlled aggression that they bought with them.

But soon the teams caught up with them, but instead of falling down they stood their ground, adapting and evolving, not losing their grip, currently standing 13th on the global leaderboard. A victory has eluded them for quite some time now, and ending the year with a victory would be the icing on the cake for them.

Image Credit: BTS CS:GO

Virtus.pro - The Dark Horses

We all know what a great fall VP has taken when it comes to CS:GO, from being one of the greats to dropping down and hitting rock bottom, they have felt it all. It has been a hard year for them, they have been absent from the majors, in fact they have barely seen any top tier action.

Already finding it tough to keep pace at the local and European circuit, the team has been shuffling around its roster to find that perfect line up. The current iteration has been together for a fair time now, but the question remains if they have enough to pull through.

A victory is not expected of them, but even if they manage to qualify for the playoffs, I guess it will be enough damage done by the Polish side.

Mousesports - The Champions of EPL S10 Finals

The victory at ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals had been a long time coming, but it showed how far the team has come under the guidance of their IGL, Finn “karrigan” Andersen. The line-up consisting of youngsters like ropz, woxic, and frozen, have hit their liftoff, and seem to be the strongest team of the six present.

But with woxic missing out on the event due to visa issues, NaToSaphiX would be replacing him. Will this replacement cause the team their third victory in a row is the big question.

Those are all the teams participating in the tournament, and what one could expect from them. Each of them will be going against every other team once in the round-robin group stage in a single game faceoff. Top four teams will proceed to the playoffs, where every match will be a best-of-three series.

Image Credit: BTS CS:GO

These matches will be streamed live on Twitch in the following languages,

English | Russian | Brazilian | French | Spanish | German | Finnish | Polish