Tag: 2020

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CS:GO

Valve release 2020 RMR Stickers, limit coaches for 2021 RMR

Valve has released the 2020 RMR capsules to celebrate the year-long effort for the Rio Major that never happened. Teams that were in the running for RMR points have got stickers to celebrate the online era, with aa slightly gloomy outlook for the RMR 2021 event.

RMR 2020 Stickers

The RMR 2020 Stickers are out, with fans able to get capsules in CS:GO, buying keys to unlock items as with any other case. The 2020 RMR Stickers are the latest esports connection to enter the market. The capsule features the usual major classification, broken into Legends, Challengers, and Contenders.

The 2020 RMR Capsules are out

The Legends capsule features the teams that would have otherwise been invited to the Major as they were the top dogs of 2020 for the separated regions. The capsule contains stickers for:

  • FURIA
  • Evil Geniuses
  • Team Vitality
  • Heroic
  • Ninjas in Pyjamas
  • Natus Vincere
  • Team Spirit

The Contenders contain the teams that can be very well described as contenders. Teams making fresh climbs out of the t2 scene, or t1 teams getting their mojo back are in the capsule.

  • Virtus Pro
  • FaZe Clan
  • North
  • ESPADA
  • Gen.G
  • Boom
  • Renegades
  • TYLOO

The final capsule is the RMR Challenger capsule. The capsule contains the big T1 brands we know and love and the best performing teams in 2020.

  • Astralis
  • BIG
  • Fnatic
  • G2
  • OG
  • GODSENT
  • Nemiga
  • Liquid

RMR 2021 Changes

Alongside the 2020 RMR capsules, Valve announced the changes coming to the RMR 2021. The new changes see Valve’s dislike of coaches come to the forefront, with the 2020 RMR points getting reset to an extent.

The partial point reset is in effect as the new CS:GO season begins. Teams that made the most points in the 2020 RMR event have gained some form of Major Legend status. Teams in the Legends stage start the new season on 600 points, with the Challengers on 300 and Contenders on 100. The bonus points of the season are good as Valve will continue the RMR system for 2021. The recently announced PGL Major set for October-November 2021 will determine the 24 teams competing through the RMR system.

The 2021 RMR system will feature a few roster rule changes. The new RMR feature will allow teams to make substitutes for any player that is not already connected to another team, except for coaches. There is a slight punishment for subbing out players, but if a player is brought back in, then there is no penalty. It means that teams taking 6 player rosters can work heir strategies into different series, and still use emergency subs from free agents. However, it means that the coach can no longer play, and that isn’t the only thing affecting them.

RMR Coach changes

Valve has decided that coaches can no longer be in the room, server, or play for teams in the RMR events. Valve has continuously restricted the power of coaches in live games for a while, and the recent scandals of 2020 has only positioned them further.

Coaches for esports teams in RMR event can no longer be on the server or speak to the team during an online match. This also applies to any other non-player staff in the organisation. Valve believes this will prevent any other major drama that can devalue any competitive integrity.

The story dates back to September when ESIC banned 37 coaches for spectator bug abuse. Coaches caught in the ESIC ban wave can now miss a number of Majors because of their actions, ranging from one major to a permanent ban on Majors.

Valve has a full list of information regarding the RMR 2021 event 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 Valve.

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CS:GO

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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CS:GO

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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CS:GO

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