2015 MLG X Games CS:GO Aspen Invitational

Hello everyone,

            Quite a bit transpired today in the CS:GO scene. This weekend is the 2015 MLG X Games Aspen Invitational. This is a great opportunity for CS:GO to become more mainstream and potentially increase the popularity of its overall scene. The event through invitations and qualifiers obtained an impressive lineup that would ensure lots of action and plenty of thrilling moments. However, today MLG announced that GX, aka clutch cats, aka former iBP aka, aka Wicked Masterminds, aka Hugh Jass Construction (seriously guys, pick a name and go with it) have decided not to attend the event, despite qualifying for it. While the event hosts have selected another team to fill the vacancy (team liquid), overall the event did lose some steam as well as add controversy.

Rigged Match Controversy

            According to some sources, the reason GX did not want to attend the Aspen event stemmed from allegations of the team rigging a match for weapon skins that took place months previous in a Cevo match. Personally, after looking at the documented evidence available, there appears to be enough evidence to suggest that some sort of rigging took place. Traditionally the GX team (who at the time of the match was iBP) regularly beat the opposing team NCG. However, when the match took place iBP had already secured a playoff lan spot and really had no reason to “play to win”. One of the players on iBP also co-owned NCG (Dazed) and NCG needed a win to get into playoffs. At this current time most sources cannot 100% confirm the egregious act occurred. But seriously I have to ask, does it really matter? If people believe this is the first or last match to be thrown or rigged for various reasons they are surely in for an awakening. The fact is the betting of CS:GO weapon skins on sites such as csgolounge has proven highly profitable. In the case of the match in question, an alleged 7,000.00 or more may have been gained. And in NCG’s case, this may have been more than they made all year in CS:GO winnings. Most users who bet on the match feel like they were cheated but honestly they shouldn’t. It’s gambling. You win some, you lose some. If you didn’t have the means to lose the skins you shouldn’t have bet them in the first place. As with any competitive match or event, someone is always trying to gain an edge. We currently only have to look at the NFL and “deflate gate” or “spy gate” that organizations bend or ignore the rules to get advantages. I’m not saying we should just ignore cheating or put up with it, but what I’m stressing is this is not the first or last situation where the fix was/will be in.

            Acordding the Hiko’s facebook post the members of team GX (who he is standing in for) are waiting to hear from an outcome about the rigging of the match from Valve (the game maker) before attending another event. My question is what role does Valve have anything to do with this? Csgolounge is a third party entity as well as the league’s or events that these conduct the matches. Frankly, it’s not Valve’s job to ensure the integrity of these sites or organizations. If these organizations feel there is enough evidence to rule a judgment and/or enact a punishment then they should do so. Immediately. If Valve or the other organizations are just waiting, I feel as though they are pulling a classic case of the NCAA; where the event occurs but a verdict and judgment/punishment is handed out months or years later. Honestly, that’s quite lame, doesn’t punish the guilty party’s’ in a timely manner and in this case hurts the scene. No one can argue that the GX roster is not talented and potentially had a shot at winning the event. But, we will never know now because GX is not attending and in my opinion, NA’s dream of winning the event went with GX leaving the event.

Selection of Team Liquid

            Before I assess and predict the outcome of the MLG Aspen event I would first like to discuss the replacement selection of Team Liquid. In my opinion, this was a solid selection. Many have come out and cried that Torqued (a team that finished further than Liquid in both qualifiers) should have been selected. However, I disagree with this for two reasons.

11)    Two members of Torqued were on teams in the alleged-rigged match (steel and dboorn). If GX stepped down because of the scandal, why would another team that had individuals involved in the scandal be replaced for the event?

22)    If you follow the CS:GO competitive scene you know m0E. Is he an accomplished and good player? Yes. Can he help teams achieve success? Certainly. But is he one of the most harmful, infamous and potentially incident generating individuals? Absolutely.

The MLG event is a tremendous opportunity for CS:GO to further building its scene and to risk it on a player who has had a shaky track record would be a mistake. I believe this is why Team Liquid was selected and ultimately I believe it was the right decision.

MLG Aspen Event

As stated earlier, a NA team will not win the event. I’d be even more surprised if they even made it into the top 3. Why? Well, we only have to look at previous event’s outcomes to know that Europe is ahead of North America. With potentially the strongest NA team backing out of the event, the remaining NA teams will have a difficult task ahead of them to prove me wrong. All matches appear to be a best of 1. This could lead to some upsets but until I see it, I’m not going to believe it. This is how I see the event unfolding (Yellow/bold is the predicted winner).:

Friday

10:30 AM   Pregame Show

11:00 AM   Pool B – Team Liquid vs. Fnatic

12:00 PM   Pool B - CLG vs. Team LDLC

1:00 PM   Pool A - Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. Team Dignitas

2:00 PM   Pool A - KaBuM.TD vs. Cloud 9

3:30 PM   Pool B - Team LDLC vs. Fnatic

4:30 PM   Pool B - CLG vs. Team Liquid

5:30 PM   Pool A - Cloud 9 vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas

6:30 PM   Pool A - Team Dignitas vs. KaBuM.TD

Saturday

11:00 AM   Pool B - Fnatic vs. CLG

12:00 PM   Pool B - Team Liquid vs. Team LDLC

1:00 PM   Pool A - Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. KaBuM.TD

2:00 PM   Pool A - Cloud 9 vs. Team Dignitas

3:30 PM   Semifinal #1: Fnatic vs. Team Dignitas

5:30 PM   Semifinal #2 NiP vs. Team LDLC

Sunday

10:00 AM   Bronze Medal Match: NiP vs. Team Dignitas

12:30 PM   Gold Medal Match: Fnatic vs. Team LDLC

Here are the rules and groups for the event:

2015 MLG XGames Aspen Invitational - CS:GO - Format

Bracket Format, Match Format & Seeding

1.   The Tournament will support 8 Teams and will be separated into Pool Play and a Single Elimination Bracket.

2.   In Pool Play, the Teams will be divided into 2 Pools of 4 Teams each, with the Europe Teams divided evenly among the 2 Pools and the Americas Teams divided evenly among the 2 Pools.

3.   Teams will play one Game against each of the other Teams in their Pool.

4.   Teams finishing their Pool in 1st and 2nd place will be placed in the Single Elimination Bracket.  Teams finishing their Pool in 3rd and 4th place will be eliminated from the Tournament.

5.   In the Semifinal Matches of the Bracket, the Pool A 1st Place Team will be scheduled to play the Pool B 2nd Place Team and the Pool B 1st Place Team will be scheduled to play the Pool A 2nd Place Team.

6.   Teams that lose a Semifinal Match will play in the Bronze Medal Match.  Teams that win a Semifinal Match will play in the Gold Medal Match.  The Team that wins the Bronze Medal Match will win Bronze Medals.  The Team that loses the Gold Medal Match will win Silver Medals.  The Team that wins the Gold Medal Match will win Gold Medals.

7.   All Bracket Matches will be Best of 3 Games.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive – Qualified Teams

Teams that have earned placement include:

Top three Counter Strike: Global Offensive teams:

·         NiP

·         FNATIC

·         Cloud 9

Five qualified teams from the recent MLG/CEVO XGames qualifiers:

·         CLG

·         LDLC

·         KaBuM esports

·         Team Liquid

·         Dignitas

Pools:

Group A:

·         NiP

·         Cloud 9

·         Kabum TD

·         Dignitas

Group B:

·         FNATIC

·         LDLC

·         Team Liquid

·         CLG

Despite Fnatic’s forfeit/disqualification at the last major event, I believe they are still the best CS:GO team in the world. As stated earlier EU > NA (this coming from a NA homer who would love to see a NA claim the title) and thus I believe no NA team makes it to the semifinals. Maybe Cloud9 or CLG will prove me wrong but they will have to prove it to me before I believe it. Unfortunately for NA this looks like EU’s event to lose.

Thanks for your time and thanks for reading. More to come as the event unfolds and I’m hoping tomorrow to have a rant or two regarding the LCS, which is starting up this weekend too I believe. Good weekend for E-Sports!

-       McCl0uDY

CS:GO ESEA-Invite week 1 de_nuke

Hello everyone,

This past week ESEA started back up and the map of the week was de_nuke. I dislike nuke due to its clear CT advantage. I personally would like to see some changes made to the map so as to even the side disparity. Despite the almost-universal acknowledgement that nuke is heavily CT sided, I decided to look at the numbers from this week's matches in the Invite division. Here is what I came up with:

- Green = highest value per team (Frags and RWS) and then for ADR, FPR, highest player over the 2 matches
- G1 & G2 = Sides the team started on the match
- Rounds below the sides are the number of rounds the team won on their T sides for each match.
- Red meant they lost the game, blue meant they won the game.
- Overtime rounds were not accounted for

Things I took away:
- GX only team to win both matches despite starting T side each time.
- No team had a positive T half: GX & NCG were able to achieve the most rounds won on a T side with 7 rounds
- Average number of rounds won on the T side was ~4.6.


Thanks for your time, let's discuss below!

- McCl0uDY

McCl0uDY’s Rants: Twitch Gaming/E-Sports Show

Hello everyone,

            2015 has arrived and with it the annual reflection of your life and the improvements you’d like to see and make. This past year has been quite a life-changer for me. My wife and I welcomed our first and only child. The amount of free time I had previously available has dramatically decreased and as a whole, I have been unable to pursue as many hobbies as I’d like: predominantly blogging/writing. This year, I have set some goals and aim to reverse course and potentially expand.

            Some years ago I was introduced to the Jim Rome Sports Radio show by some coworkers. I have to admit that I was initially not a fan. I thought Jim was arrogant, condescending and his pauses during his thoughts aka “takes,” drove me nuts. However, as a sports fan and by majority rules, I was forced to continue to listen to the show and slowly but surely, I became a fan (and ultimately became a clone). These days I do my best not to miss The Jungle that airs daily all over the United States.

The gaming and e-sports industry has been growing for decades now and I believe it is close to becoming mainstream (such as on Television Networks). Over the past few years I have determined that my passion is in gaming and e-sports industry. So for about a year I have been trying to come up with ways as to how I could get involved in this industry. Currently, I go to work on weekdays, do the motions that are required of me, but at the end of the day, I am ultimately unsatisfied. These factors have been motivators in me wanting to do a show of my own, which is related to gaming and e-sports. I feel over the course of my life I have always immediately had an opinion/perspective about something when watching, hearing or reading about it. I believe that I have enough intelligence and a great sense of humor that others would enjoy. Therefore, I believe that with the help of talented and passionate others, there is a chance this venture may become possible.

Just about nothing is given in life. All valued things are sought after by many and then concealed by the few whom attain them. There is a large chance of failure and/or making myself look foolish. And yet there is a possibility that I may succeed and potentially reach a dream I’ve had for years. Or even better, I create a new career for myself and other passionate individuals, one that I look forward to participating in each day. I know there is an opportunity for this due to individuals like Jim Rome and other personality innovators. They all started small but with enough hard work and dedication were able to make something of their opportunities. Thank you to Jim Rome for giving me inspiration, I hope to one day be “The Jim Rome of gaming/e-sports” (and maybe one day have some drones of my own). I would also like to thank my wife who has supported me in my random endeavors, even when they haven’t panned out.

“All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible.”

T.E. Lawrence

I would now like to present: McCl0uDY’s Rants

I Need Your Help!

If you are passionate about gaming & e-sports, have a positive personality, enjoy working cooperatively and aren’t afraid of hard work; please contact: McCl0udysRants@gmail.com

There will be a vetting process before admission to the team.

My tentative goal is to start out with a weekly show and expand to daily show as resources become available. I currently foresee needs in the following areas:

·         LoL coverage: Follow, assess and report/write about the happenings of league of legends scene

·         Dota 2 coverage: Follow, assess and report/write about the happenings of Dota2 scene

·         SC2 coverage: Follow, assess and report/write about the happenings of SC2 scene

·         Fighting Game coverage: Follow, assess and report/write about the happenings of FG scene

·         CS:GO coverage: Follow, assess and report/write about the happenings of CS:GO scene

·         Console coverage: Follow, assess and report/write about the happenings of Console scene

·         Show Director: Run the twitch stream: required extensive knowledge of streaming program such OBS

·         Graphics and web development: Help create graphics for show and promotions

Any and all support would be greatly welcomed. Be sure to follow @McCl0udysRants on Twitter for updates on the latest happenings.

Thank you for your time

-          McCl0uDY