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CS:GO

Eight teams confirmed for IEM Global Challenge 2020

The IEM Global Challenge 2020 is confirmed, with the eight teams heading to Europe to compete in one of the 2020’s final events. The IEM Global Challenge 2020 will feature the four teams who earned their way to the event via recent tournament victories, with another four teams gaining their spot through the World Ranking system.

The first four teams to earn their spot through the events are Heroic, FURIA, Team Vitality and Chaos Esports Club. These four teams were successful at the DreamHack Open Fall, IEM New York NA, IEM Beijing-Haidian EU and NA events. While FURIA and Heroic were confirmed for months, Vitality and Chaos joust joined with the success at IEM Beijing over the weekend.

With the four teams confirmed, there were another four teams to earn direct invites through the ESL Pro Tour Rankings. Europe has two slots to the event, with Astralis and Complexity earning their tokens to the event. Over in North America, Evil Geniuses clinched their spot as they have had the next best run after FURIA Esports took the mantle over the last few months. Natus Vincere takes the final slot as they are the most dominant team in the CIS region.

What the Invited Teams means for the Event

The most interesting part of this is how Astralis and Complexity are the two European teams attending. With the recent Vitality victory at IEM Beijing, they secured themselves a spot. If they didn’t the competition of EU teams could have meant Vitality may have earned their invite through the EU top teams, while competing against the likes of BIG and Complexity for the spot.

The stars aligned for Complexity’s invite

On the other hand, the North American seeds are wild. With both Team Liquid and Evil Geniuses getting eliminated by Chaos E.C. and Triumph, it meant that one of NA’s T2 teams were going to a big event with intercontinental matchups. A typical final between EG and TL would have likely meant that both teams would have been invited, but the rise of Chaos has thrown a spanner in the works to really grow the success of the roster.

There was no question for Na’vi’s appearance at the event. If they won the EU Beijing event, they would have qualified via that route. But if they didn’t, then there was no doubt they would qualify through CIS. The only team close to them are VP and forZe, but both rosters are considerably far behind them in terms of quality.

With the amalgamation of teams at the event, the IEM Global Challenge 2020 is going to be an interesting event, with plenty of big teams competing against teams they normally never compete against. The IEM Global Challenge 2020 is set to start on December 15th to December 20th. The groups for the event are yet to be revealed.

Stay tuned to Dartfrog for all the latest news and analysis on CS:GO and follow us on our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitch.  Image via IEM.

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CS:GO

Chaos and Team Vitality win IEM Beijing 2020

Chaos E.C. and Team Vitality lock in their spots to the IEM Global Challenge 2020 after winning their respective region’s IEM Beijing event. Team Vitality finally takes a first-place victory after missing out on the last four finals they have attended. Meanwhile, Chaos topple NA giants to grant themselves a trip to the Global Challenge.

Vitality Dominate Europe

Vitality has been one of Europe’s most consistent teams, having reached several Finals this year. There was no end to this momentum either, with Vitality once again progressing through their Group and Playoff brackets well. They started the event a little slow, with a 2-0 victory over Team Spirit, before getting 0-2 by Faze in the Upper Bracket Final.

With an exit to the Lower Bracket, they survived by taking down the MAD Lions, qualifying for the Playoffs. With their lower seed into the qualifiers, they faced off against Heroic, a team that recently beat them at the DreamHack Open Fall 2020 event. However, Vitality had repaired their mistakes and found a 2-1 victory against Heroic.

Moving on, they 2-0 Complexity in the semi-finals, with the series looking considerably easy for them. Vitality won Vertigo 16-11 and then took Mirage 16-7, showing how they were snowballing the more the event went on. Then came the finals, were Vitality reverse swept their opposition.

Vitality staying calm and clutching in the semis

Natus Vincere and Vitality met in the finals for an epic battle. The gods of CS:GO, Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut and Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev met for supremacy. Na’Vi and s1mple led the charge off the bat, with two map wins in quick succession. Na’Vi won Nuke 16-5, and Dust II 16-12. It certainly seemed like Vitality that couldn’t quite make it in the finals returned.

But Vitality remained composed and turned the series on its head. Vitality earned quick maps of their own in, making Overpass a 16-6, Inferno a 16-9, and Mirage 16-8 wins. With that success, Vitality managed to defy the expectations their storyline projects and lifted a trophy for once. With the win, Vitality makes their way to the IEM Global Challenge 2020 and are one of the candidates for taking home the end of the year trophy.

Vitality certainly raised the stakes by the end of the series

Chaos Win the NA Beijing Event

Who really expected Chaos to win the North American portion of the IEM Beijing event. Rumours are circulating that Chaos is looking to exit CS:GO but that certainly didn’t stop the roster from giving it their all. Chaos made the underdog run in a region where T2 CS is falling apart, with their org set to leave, and still managed success.

Chaos started off the event as expected, winning against teams below them, but lost to Team Liquid in the Upper Bracket Final. With them escaping the group, they faced off against EG, the team that took first in the other group. But this is where the story for NA gets interesting.

Both Team Liquid and Evil Geniuses are the expected teams to make it to the Finals considering there was no FURIA and the old 100T roster has disbanded. However, Chaos and Triumph both succeeded as the underdogs with both winning 2-1. Chaos beat EG 16-11 on Overpass, lost 16-6 on inferno, and won 16-11 on Nuke. On the other hand, Triumph won Inferno 16-12, lost Dust II 16-8 and won Nuke 16-14.

Even on match point eco, Chaos had the tools to pull this off.

Moving into the finals, Chaos faced Triumph in the battle of the underdogs. Chaos won the series 3-1, taking Train 16-5, losing Mirage 16-11 winning Overpass 16-5, and Nuke 16-14. With the victory, Chaos join Vitality as the final event winning team to make it to the IEM Global Challenge 2020. This is a great achievement for one of North America’s rising stars, and one that is going to be interesting to watch unfold.

Stay tuned to Dartfrog for all the latest news and analysis on CS:GO and follow us on our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitch. Image via Chaos.