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IEM Katowice 2021: MiBR vs. Fnatic Result Eliminates The Swedes

After a shocking start to the IEM Katowice 2021 event, Fnatic has departed the tournament after failing to win a map. The Swedish squad played their final series against MiBR, which ended in a 2-0 sweep. As a result one of the most decorated teams in Katowice history is out. Although far from the predicted result, it’s emblematic of the beauty of Katowice. So what happened?

Fnatic’s Drop to Lower Bracket

Fnatic started off the event in a bad spot. In their first series versus OG, the roster failed to amount to anything. Starting Overpass on CT side, the squad started at a deficit to their opponents 10-5 . Moving onto the next half, things weren’t much better. OG started off strong on the weaker side transitioned into the new half where they snowballed a 16-9 win.

As for the players themselves, only Freddy “KRIMZ” Johansson of the old guard performed well, with a 0.93 rating. The IGL, Maikil “Golden” Kunda Selim, had to step up with his 0.9 rating. This was against the likes of OG’s Nathan “NBK-” Schmitt’s Deagle 3k, Issa “ISSAA” Murad’s near pistol ace, and other clutch moments.

MiBR vs. Fnatic

The MiBR vs Fnatic series, compared to the OG match, was quite surprising. The new MiBR lineup consisted of the former BOOM roster, after MiBR’s temporary fix late last year backfired. This roster is decent, but heading to one of the biggest ESL Pro Tour events with a lineup that wasn’t part of the team’s 2020 journey was sketchy. However, taking down Fnatic is a good sign.

This series was again a straight 2-0, with MiBR winning Dust 16-12 and Overpass 16-9. The trend continues of Fnatic losing Overpass on the same score. But as for the player ratings, the result was flipped on its head. Younger stars Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin and Jack Ström “Jackinho” Mattsson took the reins while the old guard and IGL fell off.

With the defeat, Fnatic says goodbye to an event they have won several times. It seems likely that Fnatic can bounce back as, they have done before. Hopefully, the roster can come out of this slump and learn along with their new younger talent.

Goodbye Fnatic

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

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CS:GO

MiBR unveils its male and female CS:GO rosters

MiBR has announced two brand-new CS:GO rosters, with one male lineup and a separate all-female team. The Brazilian organization looks to further show the world they’re committed to building and developing talent in the South American region.

The team announced that the primary roster is gaining four members of the former BOOM Esports lineup: Gustavo “yel” Knittel, Ricardo “boltz” Prass, Marcelo “chelo” Cespedes, and Bruno “shz” Martinelliare. The final member of the team is the young star that only recently featured on the Bravos roster back in July to November, Daniel “danoco” Morgado. This MiBR CS:GO roster is all-new – There are no core members of the previous MiBR lineups, completely reshaping the team.

As a whole, MiBR has been in a state of flux since Summer 2020. The roster got rid of the old lineup that had earned fame and fortune since 2016. However, the team fell off in 2020, and the results proved not worth the investment. Just before the old guard was dropped, the team was involved with several dramas, including involvement in the CS:GO coach cheating scandal, while the squad accused members of other teams of cheating as well.

With this in mind, MiBR chose to completely rebuild their CS:GO roster. In final months of 2020, the team unveiled a new roster, containing some of the prodigies of Brazilian CS:GO. The team had some success and was something to be proud of at the time. Built on loans, this roster unable to continue heading into 2021.

In the new year it was expected that Alencar “trk” Rossato and Vito “kNgV” Giuseppe would play in a new iteration of the roster. Ultimately, this wasn’t meant to be, with the pair finding themselves on the bench. The two players opted to bench themselves after communications broke down over new lineup for 2021. The duo were insistent on continuing to play with the temporary roster they played with at the end of 2020.

Female squad

MiBR’s female roster. Image via MiBR

MiBR’s second, roster was quickly announced following the reveal of their other 2021 lineup. The team would consists of Bruna “Bizinha” Marvila, Jessica “flyzinhaa” Pellegrini, Julia “julih” Gomes, Ana “annaEX” Carolina, and Gabriela “Bokor” Bokor. Several of these players are familiar faces in Brazilian CS:GO. A few have played on pug teams, as well as being a part of FURIA’s female roster in the past.

MiBR states their female roster are set to compete in the WESG Latin America, as part of that event’s separate female CS:GO division. While players will have the opportunity to compete for their own prize pool in that event through January, it is unclear whether other female-only Brazilian events exist. It is speculated that they will compete against teams like XSET, who also signed an all-female CS:GO roster.

Regardless, it’s great to see a brand which is know for developing Brazilian talent acquire a female team. The MiBR brand has a bright future ahead of itself if it can prove it’s capable of applying its brand philosophy to multiple rosters.

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

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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