Congratulations to IBUYPOWER on
winning Season 15 ESEALAN. After the events that unfolded on Saturday I had
honestly written IBUY off and resigned to the fact that the American-CS scene
just couldn’t cut it with the European juggernauts. My thoughts were that
complexity was the only American team that could compete with the Euros, but
even at complexity’s best, they still weren’t able to take the gold at major
tournaments. Saturday night I had began the narrative process in my head about
a blog centered on American teams underperforming or outmatched. Fortunately I and
almost everyone else were truly surprised at what occurred on Sunday.
I’m not sure what exactly happened
but IBP found their mojo Sunday morning. Apparently they didn’t hear the talk
about IBP underperforming again or maybe they did and they decided to play with
house money. Regardless I was shocked to see IBP advance past complexity in the
lower bracket finals. There is certainly some history between these two teams
but prior to IBP’s ESEALAN win, I believe the general perspective was that
complexity was the better team. Thus my heart sank a little when IBP surpassed
complexity. I had an immediate fear that IBP was going to come up short against
Titan (like they did previously in the tournament) and this time in devastating/embarrassing
fashion (16-6, 16-4,etc). To me it seemed like the classic case of two teams
(complexity, IBP) that know each other quite well and have epic battles only to
have the victor go on and face another opponent (Titan) and get rolled. It
turns out IBP had other plans. They deserve major credit for winning 3 best of
3’s when the odds were completely stacked again them.
Congrats again IBUYPOWER, enjoy the
win, but remember it is much easier to get to the top than to stay at the top.
Just a little food for thought: Let’s
suppose that NiP and/or fnatic came to ESEALAN. Would IBP even have been given
the chance to make a comeback? If we look at previous results (i.e. dreamhack)
the answer would be no. IBP started off slow and failed to advance from the
group play in that event. As much praise as IBP deserves, they need to work on
getting “hot” from the very beginning. Otherwise they could completely miss the
opportunity to shock the world.
#MURICA
- Jeremy ‘McCl0udY’ Muller
Thank you for your time. I’m hoping to write a CS:GO/Gaming related blog once a week.
