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
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