Review of FACEIT Major: London 2018

Recently the last second Major tournament of 2018 has ended up and it means that it's time to summarize it.

The teams that were the first to leave the Major tournament

It was especially interesting to observe the results of Space Soldiers at this championship. It is connected with the fact that the sniper of the Turkish collective ngiN wasn't able to get a visa to visit the tournament so the coach of the team hardstyle had to play instead of him as a stand-in. The coach’s game was the main topic of discussions as many spectators weren't satisfied with the stand-in while the others supported hardstyle. Many teams had to play with temporary players but this reaction of the audience was directed to hardstyle only. As it had been expected, Space Soldiers’ performance resulted in a failure and losing all the maps the Turkish team left the tournament at the third round of The New Challengers Stage.

Virtus.pro disappointed their fans before the tournament as they had reported about byali’s leaving. Taking into account the fact that after the end of the championship the Polish player had to leave the championship, we can also guess what the moral part of Virtus.pro was. It became the main reason of why VP were considered to be outsiders.

The Australians from Renegades were the team that was disappointing for the audience. Many people thought that their participation would be more lasting, but Renegades ended their participation in the tournament with the statistics of 1-3 and were one of the first to leave the competition.

It was useless to hope that Rogue would make it to the next stage. During several championships Rogue were demonstrating that they were not able to compete with the teams of the world class and FACEIT Major: London 2018 proved it. Rogue managed to take the second place at the American Minor tournament, but, nevertheless,it wasn't enough to get to the next stage. Hiko and his team, the same as Renegades, managed to win over only Space Soldiers, the weakest participant of the tournament and ended their participation in the first stage with the statistics of 1-3.

Almost no one hoped that Gambit eSports would enter the next stage. Before the tournament started, one of the players Rustem “mou” Telepov had reported that he would pass to the most convenient positions for his best performance at the Major tournament and promised his fans to leave Gambit eSports, is it wouldn't help the team. Gambit managed only to win over Renegades and finished their participation in the championship with the statistics of 1-3. mou didn't wait for a long time and kept his promise leaving the CS:GO roster after their failure at FACEIT Major: London 2018.

Observing the participation of OpTic Gaming before the start of the Major tournament, it was difficult to entitle the Danish team as the favourites of the tournament. As a result, OpTic Gaming managed to win over Virtus.pro and TyLoo, but had no good results at the match with Team Liquid, HellRaisers and BIG and left the tournament with the statistics of 2-3 as it had been expected.

Team Spirit weren't expected to win over North and Rogue and to have such a performance at the tournament in general. Spirit were considered to be one of the clearest outsiders but after their good start a lot of people started to think if the CIS team could make it to the next stage. Team Spirit were close to getting to The New Legends Stage, but they weren't able to win the severe battle against TyLoo, so after that the CIS roster ended their participation in the championship having the statistics 2-3.

North deserve the title of the biggest disappointment among all the participants of FACEIT Major: London 2018. Before the Major tournament the Danish had become the champions of DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018 and got a money reward of $100,000. Many people thought that this team were one of the favourites of the tournament while HLTV.org placed this team on the 4 place in the list of the best CS:GO rosters in the world at the beginning of September. As a result, North managed to defeat one of the weakest participants in the tournament, Virtus.pro and Rogue and lost against such opponents as HellRaisers, Team Spirit and Vega Squadron.

The teams that ended their participation at The New Legends Stage

mousesports got a place at The New Legends Stage thanks to their amazing performance at the first Major championship in 2018. There the European players took the 5-8 position in the tournament bracket performing in a great way. After the ex-player of Virtus.pro Snax joining the team, many people expected mousesports to show more than they showed. mousesports played with Ninjas in Pyjamas, MIBR and FaZe Clan and couldn't take any win leaving the competition by the score 0-3.

Winstrike (the same as mousesports), got their place at The New Legends Stage thanks to their good performance at ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018. There the players, representing the tag Quantum Bellator Fire, managed to make an unexpected performance and took the 5-8 position. The fact that Winstrike lost the battles against Team Liquid, Fnatic and Cloud9, wasn't unexpected. Many people were ready for such results from the CIS team. As a result, Winstrike left the participation with the statistics of 0-3.

TyLoo were not favourites of FACEIT Major: London 2018 for sure, but it was also difficult to say that they were outsiders. The Chinese team managed to surprise a lot of spectators with their getting to the The New Legends Stage. Many analysts claimed that TyLoo had a little chance to make it to the next stage, but CaptainMo with his team proved that he could compete with the team of the world class and the 11 place in the world rating was deserved by them. TyLoo showed a very beautiful game many times and their upgrade which is xccurate says that we will see TyLoo on the world stage many times. The Chinese made a lot of efforts to defeat MIBR at the first battle making a great comeback but at the other matches against BIG, HellRaisers and FaZe Clan they performed well and ended their participation in the second stage of FACEIT Major: London 2018 with the statistics of 1-3.

Despite the fact that Cloud9 won the previous Major tournament, nothing big was expected from the North American team. It is connected with the fact that the collective changed two players after the won championship. Stewie2k and tarik moved to the Brazilian team MIBR. Cloud9 managed to win only Winstrike at The New Legends Stage, lost against Vega Squadron, HellRaisers and G2 Esports there and left the tournament with the statistics of 1-3.

Unlike the mentioned participants in The New Legends Stage, Vega Squadron managed to make a good surprise for the audience. Many spectators thought that the CIS roster was an outsider but Vega Squadron managed to show great results. Making it to The New Challengers Stage, they were able to win such opponents as Team Spirit, BIG and North. At the matches against Liquid and compLexity Gaming, the were defeated but it wasn't an obstacle for them to get to the next stage of the tournament. Unfortunately, their route ended after four matches at The New Legends Stage. There Vega Squadron defeated Cloud9, but couldn't oppose such opponents as Astralis, Fnatic and Ninjas in Pyjamas and left the tournament.

G2 Esports got their slot at The New Legends Stage thanks to their 5-8 place at ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018. This opportunity wasn't completely realized. G2 didn't perform well enough. At the matches against HellRaisers and Cloud9 they got the win, but at the battles against compLexity Gaming, MIBR and FaZe Clan they lost. So this way G2 Esports became the sixth team to leave the Major tournament at The New Legends Stage.

Fnatic and Ninjas in Pyjamas are two Swedish teams which got close toG2 Esports. The distinction between Fnatic and NiP is the fact that Ninjas in Pyjamas made it to The New Legends Stage through The New Challengers Stage, and Fnatic got a slot at the stage thanks to the 5-8 place at ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018. Both of the collectives performed well but they didn't meet the expectations and ended their participation in Legends Stage with the statistics of 2-3.

The participants in The New Champions Stage

The Germans from BIG and the North American team compLexity Gaming are the first representatives of Eight Best teams of FACEIT Major: London 2018. This collectives were able to surpass the expectations of the spectators as BIG and compLexity Gaming were not expected to get to The New Challengers Stage. We want to remind that BIG and compLexity Gaming were trying to get to the final stage of the tournament beginning with Challengers Stage. BIG got their place at the first stage thanks to their results at the previous Major tournament and compLexity Gaming became the champions of Americas Minor Championship - London 2018. At the quarter-final, BIG couldn't oppose the team Natus Vincere, losing by the score of 0-2, and compLexity Gaming couldn't overcome the match with Brazilian-American team MIBR.

HellRaisers and the two collectives managed to get to Top-8 when nobody expected that. The route of the European team towards Eight Best wasn't easy. At the Minor tournament HellRaisers took the first place and got an invitation to The New Challengers Stage. Having got to the first stage of the Major tournament, HellRaisers lost against Team Liquid only, and at the battles against North, Gambit eSports and OpTic Gaming, HellRaisers got the win and made it to The New Legends Stage with the statistics of 3-1. At the second stage, HR were closed to leaving, but managed to postpone the ending of their participation in the tournament up to the next stage. Playing against G2 Esports and BIG, HR lost, but they defeated such opponents as Cloud9, TyLoo and Fnatic. At the quarter-final, HellRaisers faced one of the main favourites of the tournament, the team Team Liquid and there was a great fight. The first two matches were ended by the score 16-10, and one of them was won by the team Liquid, while the second one — by HR. At the third battle, HellRaisers couldn't show anything serious and lost against 16-8 and ended their participation in the tournament on the 5-8 place. Thanks to their achievements, HR got an invitation to The New Legends Stage of the next Major tournament, which, by the way, will be held at the beginning of 2019 in Katowice. The money award of the European team was $35,000.

FaZe Clan haven't been able to win a main tournament for a long time. More than three months have passed since their win at ESL One Belo Horizonte 2018. FaZe Clan weren't the main favourites of the win at the Major tournament as there were such pretenders as Natus Vincere, Astralis, Liquid, MIBR, but also we couldn't say that they had no chance. At the quarter-final, FaZe faced the future champions Astralis and lost against the Danish by the score of 0-2. As the other quarter finalists, FaZe Clan ended their participation being among Eight Best, having no chance to make it to the semi-final and got a money reward of $35,000 and an invitation to The New Legends Stage of the next Major tournament.

MIBR and Liquid showed a great performance at this championship and but were not powerful enough to defeat their opponents and to get to the grand final. Thanks to their results Boston Major championship, they got invited to The New Legends Stage. It was difficult for them to make it to the next stage, so they lost the matches against TyLoo and Astralis, but won the battles against mousesports, G2 Esports and Ninjas in Pyjamas. At the quarter-final, MIBR played with compLexity Gaming, where they had no difficulty winning over their North American opponents. At the semi-final, the Brazilians performed against Natus Vincere and couldn't oppose the CIS team that got to the grand final. As a result, MIBR ended their participation in the tournament at the semi-final and got an invitation to The New Legends Stage of the next Major tournament and their money reward was $70,000.

Unlike MIBR, Liquid got their first invitation to FACEIT Major: London 2018, but not the second one, and made it to the next stage having the statistics of 3-0. At the first stage, Liquid won over OpTic Gaming, HellRaisers and Vega Squadron. At the second stage, the North American team had the same success. There Liquid got the win at the matches against Winstrike, Ninjas in Pyjamas and Astralis and made it to the playoff by the score of 3-0. At the quarter-final, Team Liquid played against HellRaisers and their uneasy battle resulted in a win over the European opponents getting to the semi-final. At the match for getting to the Grand final, Liquid performed against the most difficult opponents for them, who have been their enemies for several tournaments. At the semi-final, Liquid lost against the Danish players from Astralis by the score 0-2, showing no opposition and ended their participation in the tournament on the 3-4 place, receiving the same as MIBR. This tournament has proved again that Liquid are a very strong team, but Astralis are “kryptonite” for the North American as it had been before.

Finalists

Natus Vincere have done a great job at this championship. After their failure at DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018, some of the spectators started to doubt in their success at the championship. Nevertheless, Na’Vi managed to show good results and they have made it to the grand final where they faced Astralis. It was a pity for the fans of “Born to Win”, the CIS team were not able to overcome psychological barriers and at their fight with Astralis resulted in their failure. The first map for the battle was nuke, that ended by the score 16-6, and at overpass Natus Vincere won three rounds more but it wasn't enough to win. If the CIS team had been able to win the second map and pass the meeting to their favourite взяли на три раунда inferno, the results could have been another, but eventually Na’Vi lost overpass and took the second place at the Major tournament. The got a good money reward of $150,000 and the invitation to The New Legends Stage of the next Major championship.

Astralis proved the status of the main favourite of the tournament as the majority of viewers and bookmakers had thought. We want to remind that the coefficient of the win for Astralis before the championship started had been only 2,75 and after the end of the championship it was clear why the the coefficient was so low. As a reminder, Astralis started their way to the top with The New Challengers Stage, where they were invited thanks to their success at Boston Major. At the first stage the Danish performed against a strong opponent and lost the match against Ninjas in Pyjamas. At all the other meetings of the initial stage, the Danish had easy win over such teams as compLexity Gaming, Rogue and Team Spirit, so they entered The New Legends Stage with no difficulty. At the second stage of the tournament, Astralis played against more difficult opponents and it has been the first time that they couldn't win over Liquid for a long time. All the other meetings were held against Natus Vincere, Vega Squadron and MIBR, they got all the wins getting to the playoff by the score of 3-1. At the quarter-final, Astralis performed against the European team FaZe Clan, that could be one of the favourites of the tournament according to the opinion of the majority of viewers. FaZe Clan showed a good opposition taking 14 rounds on the first map, and 12 on the second one. Nevertheless, Astralis managed to win the meeting and got to the semi-final where they met their main opponents Team Liquid. It was always interesting to watch the battles of Astralis and Liquid, but that time the Danish were a good opposition for their North American enemies losing only 8 rounds on nuke and 7 rounds on mirage, and made it to the final where the players from Natus Vincere were expecting. The spectators were divided into two almost equal groups: one of them claimed that Natus Vincere had achieved a lot and couldn't lose while the other were sure that Astralis would protect the title of the best CS:GO team in the world. As a result, the second group was right while Astralis enlarged the sum of the won money and it was 4 million dollars. We can't say that it was unexpected, as initially Astralis were the main favourite of the tournament and at the match against Na’Vi the coefficient for the Danish team was equal to 1,4. We want to remind you that it is the fourth win for Astralis at the main event in last four months. Recently they have become the champions of such tournaments as EPL #7 Finals ($250,000), ECS #5 Finals ($250,000) and ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier ($500,000). We want to remind that at the beginning of 2017 Astralis became the champions of the Major tournament but then Magisk played instead of Kjaerbye, who represents the team North. So, Astralis are a double champion of the Major competition and if the collective continues playing the same way, in 2019 the Danish will be able to become the second team that will be able to keep the win at three Major tournaments. Only the Swedish players from Fnatic, who became the winners of DreamHack Winter 2013, ESL One: Katowice 2015 and ESL One: Cologne 2015 managed to do it.