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Vitality crowned BLAST Fall Premier 2020 Champions

Team Vitality has walked away with the BLAST Fall Premier 2020 trophy after taking down Astralis in the Grand Final. Vitality seems to have peaked at the right time, also showing the world that a proper six-man roster can be incorporated to take home trophies. With the win, the team earns $225,000 USD and has huge momentum to the final event of the year, the IEM Global Final.

The Playoff Run

The French side found their path to the Finals, similarly to how easy they recently found their path to the IEM Beijing Finals and their group showing. The side moved through the Upper Bracket with glee, taking down a recently resurged mousesports and Natus Vincere. The best part about this is that Na’Vi was looking like a world number one with the way the team was on fire.

The mouse series was the opening stomp that we expect from Vitality. Mousesports capitulated fairly early on in the series, going down 0-2 with a 16-7 loss on inferno and 16-8 on Dust II. Moving on, Team Vitality had a real fight against the best CIS team in Natus Vincere. While the score reads 2-0 for Vitality, both maps did go to overtime. Vitality had to win the map 19-15. On the other hand, Vitality won 19-17 on Dust II, showing it was the final round of overtime that mattered. Furthermore, the final round of that series was insane. There were quality spray transfers, pinpoint accuracy and amazing utility use from both sides. However, Vitality somehow secured the map victory despite all their players being dead. Mind-blowing!

One of the most memorable moments of CS:GO in 2020

With the Upper Bracket journey almost over, they met BIG in the Upper Bracket Final, where they achieved a 2-1 victory. For Vitality, this was a bit of a surprise, since they lost the first map of the series on Vertigo, 16-9, a map Vitality seem competent on. However, Vitality came back stronger with an unbelievable 16-1 on inferno, followed by a 16-2 series on Dust II. What is interesting about this is that while Mathieu ” ZywOo” Herbaut was Vitality’s most consistent performer, the in-game leader of Dan “apEX” Madesclaire performed admirably. ApEX achieved a 1.84 rating on Inferno, which isn’t something you see from an in-game leader every day.

The Final

Vitality eagerly awaited their opponent from the Lower Bracket. Out of the potential opponents, it was BIG Clan, Astralis, and Natus Vincere. But the story of the Lower Bracket was Natus Vincere losing to Astralis, which is a shame. Na’Vi was forced to use a sub for map one, tagging in Valerii “B1T” Vakhovskyi from there Na’Vi junior team. This situation hurt Na’Vi as the lower Bracket Buff Astralis recently gets seems to drive them to Finals without fail. Astralis won Inferno 16-11 and Train 16-7, a map Na’Vi are normally amazing on. This was the trend for the story, as Astralis beat BIG 2-0. winning Nuke 16-14 and then Dust 16-6.

With the opponent decided, it was a tense final between both teams. The opening match saw Vitality pull out what feels like a one-sided classic. Vitality battered Astralis in a 16-4 Vertigo, with ZywOo, not even the best player on the map. Kévin “misutaaa” Rabier dominated on a 2.12 rating with le tank Cédric “Rpk” Guipouy also dominating in his own right.

With that stomp set, the Danes woke up and returned for the second map. Nuke was the map of choice with Astralis beginning to take the lead from the get-go. They started off on the CT side and got 11 rounds. This seemed done and suited considering that Nuke is one of the popular maps for every team. However, Vitality made a great CT half off their own, but Astralis got three round wins in a row to cement themselves as the map two winners.

The final map of inferno once again saw Vitality gain a strong round. Vitality won 16-5 with everyone on Vitality popping off. One of the more notable players going off was once again Vitality’s best player in the world ZywOo and RPK popping off once again. With this result, Vitality is the BLAST Fall Premier 2020 Champions.

He certainly rolled back the years.

The end of 2020

With Vitality winning yet another trophy, they line themselves up well for the last event of the year, the IEM Global Finals. Here both Astralis and Vitality are set for potentially a rematch as these two teams are the finalists of the last few events they both attended. It will certainly be interesting to see who prevails over there.

Furthermore, one of BLAST’s analysts gave us a rundown of what the event meant for CS:GO at the present. These are solid narrative points as we watch the end of year event kick-off on the 15th December.

The narrative points to watch for the end of 2020 and the start of 2021

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 BLAST.

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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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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.

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Vitality impress at BLAST Premier Fall 2020 Group B

Vitality is the champion of the BLAST Premier Fall 2020 Group B, and they pulled off the victory in an impressive showing. The French organisation unleashed their six-man roster on the CS:GO world for the first time, and it was indeed a sight to behold. Let’s see what happened through the Group.

Vitality’s path

Vitality is one of those teams that have been consistently good near enough all year long. Unlike many top teams, Vitality hasn’t faltered in the online era, and they consistently put up good showings in almost every tournament. However, the roster seems to choke on the final hurdle, as they have been to four finals and failed to lift a trophy in 2020.

With the context set, Vitality entered their BLAST Premier Fall Group B with a fresh start. The team brought its six-man roster forward, and it got better and better as the event went on. On the other hand, Complexity had their new player, Justin “jks” Savage begin playing for the team after recently departing from 100T. So the series was definitely a warm-up for both sides. The French started off against the juggernaut, Complexity. The series went the full distance, wit Nuke going 16-14 to Vitality. Nabil “Nivera” Benrlitom then got his debut match on Dust ii, but unfortunately, Complexity had a great map and won it 16-12. The final map had the new player head to the bench, and that was the recipe for Vitality claiming another 16-14 win on Vertigo.

Moving on, they faced BIG in the Upper Bracket of Group B. BIG found their way to this after facing off against FaZe Clan in the other opening round of Group B. FaZe just lost their best player, but the roster put up a good fight forcing them into overtime in the first map, and taking the second map. However, BIG ended up winning it. But the same could not be said about their series vs Vitality as they lost 2-0. Int eh first map both Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut and Richard “shox” Papillion combined to have 36 kills in the first half of Dust II. Vitality took Dust II 16-10, with Overpass a 16-11 win.

Vitality had to make the odd comeback here and there to get the series win

Vitality’s Final

Once again, Vitality met BIG in the Grand Final of the BLAST Premier Fall 2020 Group B. BIG came in a bit more prepared this time, but it wasn’t enough to stop the reformed French side from taking the Group win. Vitality once again showed off their favour for Dust II and won it 16-12. Vitality’s T side was nigh unstoppable, as the working combination of Nivera and ZywOo shared 25 kills opening and clearing the CT side.

BIG may have lost the series, but they had grand moments of their own throughout the series

Big did get their own back against Vitality on Nuke. 16-14 seems to be the default for Nuke in this Group B event, and that’s how BIG won against Vitality. BIG dominated the first half with a 12-3 showing, but somehow Vitality almost managed the same scoreline on the next half. It was only in the key moment of round 30 that BIG switched the narrative on its head and secured the third map.

Inferno made an appearance as the final map of the series. Vitality would once again earn a 16-12 to take the series 2-1 and win BLAST Premier Fall 2020 Group B. Once again, Vitality’s new pairing of ZywOo and Nivera popped off again, and that was the key to a successful 10-3 half, claiming the map at a 16-12 win.

Vitality has done nothing but impress throughout this Group B showing. The ability to mix and match to the team with strategies and setups in mind obviously proved crucial in Vitality’s aim to get wins on the board. With them and BIG in the final, they both Head to the BLAST Premier Fall Showdown Finals later in the year. We look forward to seeing how Vitality redefines the six-man roster.

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 BLAST.

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G2 Esports comeback to win BLAST Premier Fall 2020 Group C

G2 Esports has pulled off a huge victory at the BLAST Premier Group C with their brand-new team. G2 Esports is temporarily running a six-man team has the roster is attempting to step up after falling off a bit over the last few months. The organisation recently brought on Nikola “NiKo” Kovač to the roster, to reunite the Kovač family as he and his cousin Nemanja “huNter-” Kovač are finally on the same team.

A slow but steady climb

G2’s new roster was no doubt going to be a big deal when they announced NiKo as the new player on the team. The star player on FaZe Clan is one of the best European CS:GO players in the game. However, he sometimes has the odd difficulty here or there. Teams with new rosters tend to take time to gel, but they started strong against North America’s #1 team, FURIA.

The series was quick and efficient for G2, as they managed a 2-0 series. This is a bit fo a shock considering the strength of the FURIA roster and the newly formed G2 roster. Anyway, G2 took Mirage 16-10, followed by a Nuke win on 16-11. Moving on, they faced Astralis in the Upper Bracket.

However, the freshness of the roster caught up with them, as the reuniting Astralis five-man core had returned. The major winning team won the series 2-1, but thy did have to reverse sweep it. G2 pulled off a 16-11 win on Dust II, but that isn’t too much of a surprise. The major winning era of Astralis had two weak points, Cache and Dust II. The biggest factor about Dust II was the arrival of NiKo onto the team. The new player found himself getting his first ace on G2, only three live games into his tenure on the team. It may have been against pistols, but the shutdown clearly encouraged him as he went on to 38-16 kill death, and a 135.1 ADR.

NiKo’s first ace on G2 Esports

With Astralis’ loss out of the way. They bounced back with a classic Nuke 16-12 victory, and a 19-15 Inferno win. Astralis’ T side Nuke earned an 8-7 lead, which is always bad news for Nuke’s CT sided favour. Over on Inferno, the match was super close. Once again, NiKo was getting some insane clutches to get G2 rounds. On the other hand, Astralis was pulling off smoke rushes with a UMP. Inferno was completely feral, which explains why the first half went 8-7 to Astralis and won 19-15 in overtime. Also, Astralis had the gameplan in mind, with one of the greatest fakes we’ve seen in a while on Inferno. Round 28 was certainly exciting.

How does this even happen?

The comeback

G2 is the only team to get sent down to the Lower Bracket and return to win a BLAST Premier Fall 2020 Group. The roster met MiBR’s new temporary roster after they succeeded in the Brazillian darby against FURIA.

The series was looking a little doom and gloom as G2 Esports was forced to contend overtime on Nuke. The G2 side managed the victory, even with the MiBR T-side getting 8 rounds to 7. The scary part was players like Vito “kNgV” Giuseppe pulled out a server high of 31 kills and 93.1 ADR. MIBR’s roster was looking great for a team that had only just reformed.

The narrative continued in the second map, as MIBR secured themselves the third map. Dust II went to overtime, with MiBR taking it 19-17. G2 started well with their players dominating on the T side of Dust II as expected. Potential bench candidate, Francois “AmaNEk” Delaunay even got on the top of the leaderboard with his 1.22 rating by the end of the map. Although, Alencar “trk” Rossato bodied everyone on the server with his 1.4 rating. The young Brazillian star came in when it mattered for his new teammates., ensuring big frags and stopping G2 getting to match point when they were rounds behind

trk coming in clutch

Although, the temporary Brazillian squad’s dreams were dashed as the roster found themselves falling out of the BLAST Premier Fall 2020 Group C. G2 Esports came out of nowhere on Train to destroy this tense series. Train was the decider, and G2 secured it 16-5, which is one of the biggest stomps throughout the Fall event. With the hype map win coming in at the right time, G2’s momentum was strong heading into the rematch with Astralis.

The rematch

G2 Esports was definitely prepared for the rematch against Astralis as they took the finals 2-0. Nuke and Dust II were the maps back in play, and they certainly took them in style. The first map on Dust II was good for G2, as they started the series off strong with a 16-11 win. The entirety of G2 put out a relatively equal contribution to the team, as they floated around the 1.13 – 1.19 rating area. The exceptions here are for Nemanja “nexa” Isaković, who played a more supportive role, and NiKo, who dragged out of his mind with 27 kills and 106.7 ADR.

G2 with the pistol rush to get their first Dust II round, which snowballed them rounds after.

G2 found Nuke a much easier experience compared to their last few runs. Astralis fell 16-13, thus ending the series. The likes of NiKo dominated the map with his 1.59 rating; the highest NiKo has had on G2 the entire event. No doubt this result had shaken Astralis, and the world will watch G2 much closely as the new roster is already dominating against top EU teams.

With the win, G2 Esports advance to the BLAST Premier Fall Finals. G2 Esports is one of the hottest teams heading to the event, and there’s no doubting why after this incredible showing her in the BLAST Premier Fall 2020 Group C.

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 the BLAST

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OG dominate Group A of the BLAST Premier Fall 2020

OG are the champions of the BLAST Premier Fall 2020 Group A. The team took out Na’Vi and EG in their path to Group victory, with them missing out on facing NiP. The win advances them to the BLAST Premier Fall 2020 Finals in December.

How OG won

OG took the group by surprise as the team managed to take down Natus Vincere twice in the Group, once in the Upper Backer and once again in the Finals, and beat Evil Geniuses in the opening round.

The win against Evil Geniuses was quite the surprise, this is one of the only times a North American team has faced off against a European team all year long. Evil Geniuses was looking like the best team in North America for the majority of 2020. Although they have recently fallen off their pedestal as FURIA and the now-disbanded 100 Thieves roster stepped up and entered the last two Grand Finals of North American events.

The surprise here is that EG, even with them looking like the 3rd best NA team as it stands lost to one of Europe’s more beatable teams that exist in Tier 1 European CS:GO. The series went 2-1 to OG, with EG getting reverse swept after their opening win on Mirage 16-9. OG took Inferno 16-9 and Overpass 16-14.

OG came online on the final map precisely when they needed to

Moving on, OG faced Natus Vincere in the opening bracket. Surprisingly, OG got the win as they met the not so great version of Na’Vi. Mirage was a close opener with OG creeping in the 16-14 win, but OG took the reigns on Dust II and won 16-9.

The rematch in the Group A Grand Final was something else. Na’Vi got progressively stronger the more the tournament went on, especially after their long haul series against NiP in the Lower Bracket FInal earlier in the day. The likes of Na’Vi’s Denis “electronic” Sharipov and Egor “flamie” Vasilev woke up and the three pillars of Na’Vi’s fragging sides had come online. The momentum moving on from NiP to OG was scary, but OG was able to withstand.

The Final

There was a bit of a repeat in the opening of the Group A Grand Final. OG gave us a blast from the past with another 16-9 win on Dust II. However, Na’Vi had their own game plan on Mirage, and they won that 16-10. Both teams had somehow managed to take the win on the other team’s map pick, which made the decider on Nuke even more interesting.

While the last map was close, the scales began to tip in favour of OG by the half. Nuke is notoriously a CT sided map, but recent events have shown top teams are getting better at the T-side of Nuke. After losing the first four rounds of the map, OG managed to pull off seven straight wins on the T side. This is big momentum on Nuke, especially since the T’s won more rounds overall in the first half of the map. From there, OG had the advantage and managed to claim the map 16-12.

Just one of the many reasons why OG managed such a great T side

The biggest drawback for Na’Vi this series was the disappearance of both Flamie and Electronic in the final map. Electronic only scored a 0.72 rating, while Flamie fell to 0.88 ratings. The three pillars of Na’Vi had collapsed when it mattered the most, and Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostylie was not strong enough to keep the roof from falling down.

With the Nuke win, OG become the BLAST Premier Fall 2020 Group A Champions. Because OG and Na’Vi both made it to the Group A Final, they both head to the BLAST Premier Fall Finals on the 8th December. It was great seeing OG coordinate well with each other, with the likes of Mateusz “mantuu” Wilczewski having a great series with a 1.27 average rating across the three maps. The rest of the team on average scored between 0.98 to 1.09 ratings across all three maps, showing OG’s individual consistency throughout the entire series. It will be interesting to see where they go from here.

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 the BLAST

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Heroic topple Vitality at DreamHack Open Fall 2020

Heroic continue their rise to the top of European CS:GO as the Danish roster took down Vitality in a full best-of-five series to win DreamHack Open Fall 2020. This is the second time that Heroic has taken down Vitality in a Grand Final, as they did so at ESL One Cologne. With the victory, Heroic earn themselves $33,000 USD and a trip to the IEM Global Challenge in December. Let’s take a look at how they won DreamHack Open Fall 2020 and all the big storylines to come out of the event.

The Road to the Championship

Heroic had no right to win the tournament the way they started. The side started off the event poorly, leaving the group with a 1-2 scoreline, only beating out Endpoint to survive the Group Stage, with G2 and Astralis coming out ahead above them.

With that Group Stage result, they began their journey through the Lower Bracket playoffs where they would be forged through the flames of war.

The start of the journey began with eliminating North from the event in a 2-0 series. The first map was too close with Nuke heading to Heroic 22-20. The series closed on Vertigo with a 16-10 win. Heroic then moved on to face Sprout, which ended 2-1. The results of that series was 16-11 on Mirage, 10-16 on Train, and 16-12 on Nuke.

Although the Danes picked themselves up there and really began elevating their game. With the weaker teams eliminated, they were onto the big guns of BIG. Big and Heroic are no strangers to each other, with both teams rising up the World rankings in 2020. The series was a banger as expected, with the result going 2-1 to Heroic. Vertigo was won 16-5, with Big returning to stomp in a 16-8 Mirage win. The decider followed the stomping ground of a 16-5 victory for Heroic.

The following series was a sign of the improvement the team made as they took down NiP and then Astralis. Both series had close maps, losses and big wins. But these themes were not enough to stop Heroic. Both series went 2-1 to Heroic, which is a sign of that Heroic’s run has been one of continuous improvement with their backs against the wall. Not to mention that different player’s coming in clutch at the right time.

The Danish derby is one of the best narratives in CS:GO right now

The Finals

With the victory against Astralis in the final round of the Lower Bracket, they took on Vitality, who had a perfect run through the event. Despite a perfect run through DreamHack Open Fall 2020, Heroic managed to clinch the series 3-2. The thing about this series is that both teams put in the work to claim the trophy, however, fatigue seems to have got to Vitality since their game slipped at the very end.

Vitality started off the series with an overpass victory. Vitality earned the win after beating Heroic 19-17. The disappointing part of about this is that vitality was 14-7 at one point. But clutches from all members on the Heroic side was key to cementing overtime comebacks.

Niko with a great clutch to get them back in the game

Nuke too was an overtime battle, with both teams battling with intense plays and set pieces. The battle came to an end when Heroic won yet another 22-20 on Nuke, proving they can keep it cool on one of CS:GO’s hottest maps.

Things started cooling off come the third map, as Heroic managed to claim a win on Inferno 16-11. With the fatigue and clear map wins moving in, Vitality responded with a 16-10 Vertigo win of their own. However, it seemed like the fatigue had finally got to the teams. After an intense series, Vitality appeared to capitulate, as Heroic won the final map of Mirage 16-7 and took home the trophy.

Vitality has amazing moments of their own this series.

The Narratives

Through DreamHack Open Fall 2020, we have seen strong narratives play out. One of the biggest storylines is this is Vitality’s fourth Grand Final, yet they have failed to pick up a trophy. The roster is now heading into its six-man roster transition. Perhaps this is exactly what the roster needs to get a trophy. The French side has everything it needs to win, yet it isn’t picking the vital wins when it matters. Hopefully, the side gets their act together, otherwise, it will be awkward cliff note for one of the best teams in the world.

One the other hand, Astralis and Heroic are becoming the hottest rivalry in CS:GO. Both teams are trading series wins, and the results are pretty close with each team taking a series off each other every event. Both teams went 1-1 this event, which is a sign of how competitive both teams are. Also, Casper “cadiaN” Møller is achieving a 1.3 rating against teams in the top 5. It is a sign that the Danish scene is improving and Astralis has some serious competition ahead of itself as the Danish scene grows stronger.

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 Heroic.

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FURIA win IEM New York NA, advance to Global Challenge

FURIA Esports has taken down 100 Thieves to win the IEM New York NA event and has booked themselves a trip to the IEM XV Global Challenge. The Brazillian side also earned $25,000 USD prize for their victory and had the honour of facing 100 Thieves in the teams final ever match. Let’s break down what happened.

FURIA win IEM New York NA 2020

FURIA continue their dominance over North American CS:GO as they once again took another trophy. It was only three weeks ago when FURIA last one a North American event at the ESL Pro League Season 12 Finals where they once again played 100 Thieves in the finals.

Their path the finals was also a difficult one. In terms of name recognition, FURIA had to play Team Liquid and Evil Geniuses in the Playoffs to make it to the Finals. In the Quarterfinals, they competed against Team Liquid and won the series 2-1. FURIA lost the first map of Inferno 19-22 to Team Liquid and had to win the second map of Mirage in overtime too. Liquid stepped up big time on Vertigo but the Brazilian side managed a 16-13 win to advance to the semi-finals.

Team Liquid giving their all to remain in the series

In the Semis, FURIA had Evil Geniuses number. They have proven time and time again they are the Evil Geniuses kryptonite and nothing changed here. FURIA demolished EG 16-4 on Nuke before closing the series 16-13 on Train. With that victory, they found the 100 Thieves in the grand final to give the roster their last match as a team.

100 Thieves owner Nadeshot, recently announced that 100T CS:GO would cease operations, and the team will split up after. With that in mind, 100 Thieves gave it their all in their last ever match as ‘the boys’. They won the first map 16-9 on Nuke, but FURIA found the next three maps at 16-14 on Inferno, 16-4 on Vertigo, and 16-11 on Mirage.

FURIA once again dominating 100T on Vertigo

With the victory at IEM New York NA 2020, FURIA sends themselves to the IEM Global Challenge in December. The event is aiming to be the first event to take place on LAN since the pandemic began. With FURIA’s strong performance all year in North America, it is going to be interesting to see how they match up against the best teams that EU and the rest of the world send over to Cologne in December.

Farewell, 100T

With the conclusion to the series, 100 Thieves are no more. The team has already disbanded with Joakim “jkaem” Myrbostad already signed to a new team. The shame about this is that 100T has just managed to recement themselves as a top-two team in North America. They are matching FURIA’s rise to power in NA and are both consistently outperforming other teams.

With the boys finally disbanded, North American skill level is going to take a hit for the moment. One of the teams on the rise is no more and now the hole will be filled by another team. Who that maybe is up for debate, but it’s such a shame to see this occur at a pivotal momentum in North American storytelling.

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 DreamHack / Stephanie Lindgren.

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100 Thieves make shock departure from competitive CS:GO

After a rough year of competing, 100 Thieves have decided to pull out of CS:GO due to the “ambiguity, vagueness and uncertainty” in the scene.

The organisation, founded by former CoD pro Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag, entered competitive CS:GO in 2017 but it was only a brief stay.

They then acquired the Renegades roster in 2019 as they burst back onto the scene. Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the roster saw a downturn in performance and results began to worsen.

100 Thieves’ roster remained outside the top 10 ranking since May 2020 and it never seemed to look up for the Aussies.

Rumours began to crop up regarding the organisation’s departure after star player Justin “jks” Savage was linked with a move to Complexity.

Nadeshot later confirmed the rumours in a social media post where he outlined all the reasons for their CS:GO exit.

In the heartfelt announcement, Nadeshot said: “What’s happening right now in CS:GO is that everything is transitioning over to Europe. We talked to our players about what solutions we could find because they’ve been competing their butts off.

“They’ve done the best job that they could to bring the results that we strive for. Unfortunately, we have fallen short quite a bit.”

Nadeshot emphasised the organisation’s efforts to keep all teams and players based in their Los Angeles headquarters. Due to the majority of CS:GO events moving to Europe, this placed a big obstacle in the way of their vision and goals.

He then added: “Even if we wanted to make roster changes, there were still hurdles in our way. Right now, with the qualifications and the points system for Majors, any roster movement that we would have made could have jeopardised our position or our opportunity to even compete at a Major. And that was a gigantic roadblock.”

The 100 Thieves organisation has made clear that they put their players first. With many CS:GO players moving to Europe, it was only right for the roster to be dropped to allow the players to further their own careers.

Nadeshot did touch on the possibility of a return to CS:GO in the future. However, at this moment in time it is not the right move financially and from a competitive standpoint.

What are your thoughts on this news?

Let us know!

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Astralis win third ESL Pro League trophy

Astralis has emerged victorious of the ESL Pro League Season 12 Europe after beating Natus Vincere in the Grand Final. This is the third time Astralis has earned an ESL Pro League trophy in their team’s history, and they did so after coming through the Lower Bracket.

The Path to Redemption

The main story of Astralis in the EPL this season has mainly been about bedding in a new team. Astralis has opted in for a seven-man roster after their players have repeatedly taken time off for burnout. Throughout the event, Astralis has played with Lucas “Bubzkji” Andersen, Patrick “es3tag” Hansen, and their returning IGL, Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander.

Astralis found mixed results early on in the EPL after having a slow start. Nevertheless, by Week Two of the regular season, the team got glaive back and began to play with es3tag more for the regular season. Then by the end of the Regular Season, Astralis had managed to push themselves at the top of their group.

Although, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for Astralis in the Playoffs. The Danish side lost their first match against Danish rivals Heroic and then made their way into the Lower Bracket for the ESL Pro League Season 12 European Playoffs. From there, the side began the next stage of their redemption story as they looked to advance through the Playoff bracket.

The redemption story started off strong. Astralis drew Team Spirit in the Lower Bracket First Round, and they beat them 2-0. Moving on, they then matched up against a weakened Complexity as the team is playing with a substitute since the departure of Owen “oBo” Schlatter. Astralis too won the Complexity series 2-0, but things started to get a bit difficult with their next event against mousesports.

The series went 2-1 to Astralis, but the score doesn’t tell the full story. The opening match on Dust II was a heavy stomp for Astralis with a 16-3 victory. It appeared the Danes were about to get another stomp of a series, but mouz returned the favour with a 16-6 on Inferno. The final map on Nuke was super close, where Astralis ended up taking the map 19-17 in a hotly contested series.

Just one of many highlights from Astralis in the EPL Season 12

The final hurdle for Astralis was Heroic, which set off a rematch between both of these teams. Heroic’s 2-0 victory had set Astralis on a warpath of redemption in the Playoffs, so this series meant everything to the team. Once again, Astralis secured another 2-0 for themselves taking down Heroic 16-13 on Vertigo and 16-12 on Overpass. With that storyline conquered, there was only one trophy left, the final.

The Grand Final

Natus Vincere was the team they met in the Grand Final after they had a successful Upper Bracket Playoff run. The team earned themselves a free win because of the success, so the pressure was on Astralis to make a comeback. The challenge of coming back only became harder as Na’Vi won Dust II 16-12. With the scoreline 2-0 to Na’Vi, Astralis needed to win three maps to win the series.

Lo and behold that is exactly what Astralis did. With their back against the wall, they then reverse swept the series with a 16-14 win on Nuke, 22-19 win on Train, and finally a 16-11 win on Overpass. Astralis overcame so many obstacles through the entirety of the ESL Pro League Season 12 Europe event. Above all, this Grand Final victory shows how much work they have put in to embed a new seven-man roster. Not only this, but they showed great adaptation and remained strong even when it looked like they were on the verge of elimination multiple times.

In hindsight, this series was certainly exciting for all the right reasons

Astralis now has some time to prepare for the next few events they have to compete in. In addition, Astralis’ next big event is DreamHack Open Fall 2020 on 15th October- 25th October, followed by the BLAST Premier Fall starting on 29th October.

Follow Dartfrog for all the latest news and analysis on CS:GO and follow our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitch. Image via ESL / Helena Kristiansson.