Tag: FaZe Clan

Categories
Rocket League

What can we expect from The Peeps?

Don’t let the Faze Clan reveal fool you, The Peeps are still the underdogs. They emerged from Dreamhack Montreal 2019 with a Cinderella story that put them on the map. Fans have now gotten their first glimpse of what The Peeps can do in the Rocket League Championship Series with a big organization behind them. This season taught fans a lot about them as a team and will set the tone for expectations going forward. What are their biggest strengths, their biggest weaknesses, and how far will they take Faze next season?

Gyro, AYYJAYY, Allushin, and Moopy reaffirmed their ability to play aggressively while remaining defensively responsible. They also displayed their ability to maintain pace down the stretch, with or without a lead. It seems like AYYJAYY especially is all over the field at all times, making saves and scoring points. Faze always finds a way to transition the ball to the opposing half and apply pressure. They did begin to struggle converting this into points as the tournament went on…

When it comes to weaknesses, a lot of pitfalls in their game can be chalked up to inexperience. In their second game against Spacestation, they made a questionable call to go 2v2 down the stretch that ended up costing them the game. AYYJAYY is probably their biggest offensive threat and placing him out of position to utilize his strengths did them no favors. This was a good attempt at versatility though since they’ll need to find new ways of attacking and working outside their comfort zone. Teams they’ve beaten before, like G2, seemed to completely shut down any offensive momentum Faze could muster, and even scored more and more easily on their defense as the series went on.

So what does this mean for Faze next season? They got sent home early in round 1 after going completely scoreless in the final two games. Even AYYJAYY couldn’t come up with a goal for them, missing what should have been an easy conversion in series 2. Expectations will probably fall following such an exit, but The Peeps play their best Rocket League as the underdogs. If they want to continue this pattern on the RCLS stage though, they have to build their offense and rely less heavily on AYYJAYY and Gyro. Their ability to swarm the field and adapt to the pace of the game lends itself well to their defense, but seems to fatigue them as the games go on. Even if they find a way to focus that energy, they need more experience and versatility to place much higher next season.

Categories
CS:GO

IEM Katowice 2021: Narratives To Watch At This Major Event

IEM Katowice 2021 is finally here, with the Play-in event kicking off and the Main Event just days away. IEM Katowice 2021 is the first major event in the CS:GO calendar with so many teams involved for several months. Naturally, the best squads in the ESL Pro Tour are awaiting Play-in results to compete on Thursday. However, there are many lineups looking for a shot to make it into the big leagues. Here are the stories to watch:

Main Event Narratives

The Main Event of Katowice has brought many good stories over the years. Natus Vincere won 2020’s event, and previously, in 2019, ENCE had their incredible underdog babyface run to the final. Similarly, this year has no shortage of stories. Here are the best:

FaZe Clan’s First Real Test

FaZe Clan has rebuilt their roster once again. Only this time, the roster has Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken and Finn “karrigan” Andersen. The team recently looked solid with nothing to lose at the BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2021, and that was without karrigan. IEM Katowice is their first real showing, and it is going to be a great gauge to see how they’re performing.

Heroic’s Enigma

Heroic is a team that really grew into their own throughout 2020. The roster eventually peaked at the second half of the year, contending for finals in several events. And in the process, building an actual rivalry with Astralis. The roster did partially fall off in some events, coming 5th-8th at events like the Global Showdown and CS_Summit 7. Katowice is an event that will define Heroic as either a team falling off or still hanging one of the best in the world.

Vitality down to Five

Vitality is a team that has prided itself with its six-man roster, tactical substitutions, and winning events with their gameplay. However, the start of 2021 has not been great. A fine resulting from an accidental restream of an event noticed on broadcast, Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut getting his lowest ADR game on record at BLAST Premier Spring 2021, and now the temporary leave of Dan “apEX” Madesclair has got the roster shaken up. Vitality has plenty of prep time, so the opening game for them is one to watch.

Vitality down a player at time their six-man roster was working effectively

Play-In Narratives

The Play-ins is the first leg of the tournament, looking to advance eight teams to the quarter-finals. There are plenty of teams in that pool scrapping it out to make it to the one of CS:GO’s most prestigious events. While there are many decent teams, there are a few high profile stories to watch.

How Will mousesports Fare?

Mousesports has gone from one of the best teams in the world several times to falling off the face of the earth. The roster is currently experiencing the latter. Both the aged veteran Chris “Chris J”de Jong is benched and on loan to FPX and karrigan has returned to FaZe Clan. With the veterans out, there are plenty of young talent fending for themselves. Add in the new IGL and the roster is interesting. The question is has Robin “ropz” Kool graduated from young star to the star player and now veteran of the mousesports roster in time?

Karrigan returns to FaZe after several years of absence

The CIS Beast Awakens

Team Spirit, Virtus.pro, and Gambit are three teams on the rise in recent months. The tier 2 Russian squads have made it out of their region and began stomping teams like BIG, mousesports, and others in international online events. Both teams now arrive at their biggest challenge yet: IEM Katowice. Both teams have a darkhorse atmosphere to them, and it will be interesting to follow the growth of new CIS threats in the global scene. There is definitely potential for all these teams to break through the Play-Ins into the Main Event of IEM Katowice 2021.

Can Complexity Keep Up Appearances?

Complexity is a mixed-result team that has been in a weird spot since Owen “oBo” Schlatter left the team. The roster has rebuilt and recently won its group in the BLAST Premier Spring 2021. But now there are many more teams to face off against at of CS:GO’s biggest events. The question does the team have what it takes to keep up its appearances? the Play-Ins will be a perfect benchmark.

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 ESL Gaming

Categories
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.

Categories
CS:GO

ESL One Cologne 2020 Europe – Who made it out?

ESL One Cologne 2020 Europe is now halfway through with the Group Stages concluding 26th August 2020. The event has had a long group sage, with two groups going through a losers bracket round for 16 teams. With the dust settled, only eight teams remain heading into the playoffs. Let’s take a look at the story so far.

Group A Upper Bracket

Despite ESL One Cologne 2020 Europe being online, the magic of the event still exists. In a twist of fate, Sprout was surprisingly the first team to make it out of Group A. They beat teams like BIG, and OG to make it out of the group in the Upper Bracket. In both situations, Sprout was definitely the underdog in those scenarios. They somehow manage to compete against the world number 1 in BIG really close, winning 16-12 on Mirage then 19-16 on Nuke. The OG series was much closer, beating OG 16-9 on Train, then losing 16-13 on Mirage before winning 16-3 on Nuke. This is exactly the magic events like these can bring out in teams.

Read More: BIG exit ESL One Cologne 2020 Europe in joint last place.

On the other hand, Complexity had a great showing. This is a team that has been growing ever more slowly throughout the year, and this Group is a sign of their success. They began the event with a swift 2-0 over MAD Lions winning Overpass 16-3 then going 22-20 on Nuke. Then the surprise came against Natus Vincere, were they won 16-9 on Dust II and 16-8 on Nuke.

blameF showing how good Complexity are in 2020

Group A Lower Bracket

Moving into the Lower Bracket, Ninjas in Pyjamas had a storyline to follow. They too managed to beat BIG in the first round of the Lower Bracket and Na’Vi in the second round of the Lower Bracket. The big series finished 2-1, and NiP had to play catch up for most of the series. BIG won the first map on Vertigo 16-5, so NiP gave it their all on Nuke to win 28-26. Finally, NiP won Mirage 16-7. But the real surprise came from Na’Vi. NiP beat Na’Vi on Overpass 16-9 followed by a thrashing on Train 16-3. Both of these results are quite surprising, considering the talent in Na’Vi. Either way, congrats to NiP for making it through a difficult Lower Bracket.

NiP had a stunning performance against Natus Vincere.

OG had a relatively short run in the Lower Bracket after only fighting through one round against MAD Lions. As expected, OG mad quick work of MAD Lions with 16-10 victory on Nuke and 16-9 on Dust II.

Group B Upper Bracket

Astralis has come into ESL Once Cologne 2020 Europe with an almost brand-new team. The roster has two stand-ins with Lucas “Bubzkji” Andersen and Patrick “es3tag” Hansen temporarily standing in for sickness and leave. Considering the previous stand-in results for Astralis, these two players have put in work so far. Astralis dismantled Fnatic 16-5 on Nuke and 19-17 on Train. Moving on, they trashed Vitality 16-8 on Nuke and 16-7 on Dust II. Astralis has new life with their upcoming stars on their roster.

In the closest Upper Bracket Round yet, G2 Esports pulled through. G2 Esports warmup was against MiBR who they put to bed instantly. G2 won Vertigo 16-2 and Inferno 16-4. Their real challenge was against Heroic, which brought them to the edge. Heroic won Nuke 16-7, with G2 Esports winning Vertigo 16-7 and Mirage 19-17. Heroic was in the lead for the most part of Mirage but G2 pulled through (we think KennyS really wanted to watch the PSG Champions League Final match).

AmaNEK with the insane clutch to get G2 the round.

Group B Lower Bracket

The Group B Lower Bracket has the same level of excitement and disappointment as Group A. Heroic popped a NiP here by taking down Fnatic 2-0. Both Vertigo and Overpass went to Heroic 16-11. This is rather disappointing, especially with Fnatic being as good as they were at the start of the year.

Meanwhile, Vitality and FaZe had yet another amazing series against each other. Vitality managed to pull through 2-0 in the series, but the results were super close. Vitality won Dust II 19-16, and won Nuke 16-14. This is exactly the high stakes action we want from ESL Once Cologne 2020 Europe

Team Vitality had some great T side Nuke rounds.

With the Group Stages done, ESL One Cologne 2020 Europe continues with the playoffs. The remaining teams are competing in the playoffs from Thursday 27th August to championship Sunday on 30th August.

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 ESL.