E-Frag CS:GO World Championship Asia: Group D Preview
The groups for the Asian leg of E-Frag CS:GO World Championship Asia have finally been drawn! Let’s have a look at the group where the Philippine national Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO) team has found itself in.
Group D is arguably one of the lesser-stacked groups in this tournament. Many of Asia’s heavy firepower are found either in Group A, with China at the helm, or Group B with countries such as South Korea and Malaysia in it. Group B can be easily be dubbed as the “Group of Death”.
As for Group C, it is widely expected that India will get through easily unless Kyrgyzstan or Palestine will be able to step up their game to a whole new level.
It is time to focus on each of the countries in Group D.
Indonesia: The Power of Experience
In a general sense, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam are all considered to be at the top of the Southeast Asian (SEA) Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO) scene at the moment.
However looking at the maps that nxl, considered to be the country’s flagship team has played lately, one can see a completely different story. Out of the five latest official maps that they have played, nxl lost four of them and was only able to grab one win. They played Dust 2 twice and they fought on Inferno, Nuke and Mirage apiece.
Granted that three of their maps were against MVP.Karnal, touted as one of SEA’s hottest CS: GO teams, nxl had good matches against the Malaysian powerhouse despite losing twice (10-16 in Inferno and 10-16 in Dust 2). They only managed to win against MVP.Karnal once (16-6 in Dust 2).
The other maps were against Renegades, then named Vox Eminor, (1-16 on Nuke) and the Chinese team ZZCY (7-16 on Mirage). However, these results just provide a rough estimate of the Indonesian scene at the moment and these should be taken with a grain of salt.
Any form of experience in an international event counts. If they put it to good use, the Indonesians are poised to be able to take the group.
Philippines: A Long Road To Glory
The Philippines has always been home to many of Southeast Asia’s most vibrant first-person shooter (FPS) teams. Whether it be the Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the 1.6 days, CM Storm FGW of Point Blank fame or the numerous top-flight CrossFire teams that never ceased to be among the best in the world, this country has always proved that it can stand against the rest of the world in the FPS genre.
In CS: GO, the country was able to do it once at the Asian Cyber Games back in 2012 when The DC Smackdown came out on top against the best SEA teams at the time. Many of the members of the current Philippine team actually belong to Raised by Wolves, which is considered to be one of the best PH CS: GO teams of the current generation along with 5Peaks, Expendables and Strategic AC Gaming.
In the official maps that they have played recently against 5Peaks during the grand finals of the Mineski CS:GO Invitational, the Wolves team lost Mirage on double overtime with a score of 23-26, followed by a 14-16 result on Overpass. Then it was a 16-13 scoreline on Cobblestone and an overtime score of 19-21 on Dust 2. It can be clearly seen that these are all very close games and that if there is one thing that should be learned from these results, it is that teams should remember to close out their games.
While Indonesia has much more experience, it can be argued that the Philippines has greater potential in terms of talent, strategy and execution.
The question is, will they be able to do it again?
Nepal: A Bag of Surprises
There is not much known about Nepal, but the other teams in the group should be wary of them as nobody knows exactly what they are capable of. It is expected that they will focus on creating counter-strategies for the teams in the group.
However, when it comes to individual talent and raw firepower, both Indonesia and the Philippines are bounds and leaps away from them. Both of these teams should, at least in theory, get a comfortable win over Nepal.
Who is expected to win?
If both Indonesia and the Philippines bring up their A-game, then it would be difficult to determine which among these two teams will proceed to the next stage of the tournament. Nepal has a chance to upset any of the teams above, provided they hit their shots and devise pocket strategies. However, it is expected that the two neighbors will be able to power their way through Nepal.
It is going to be a tossup between the Philippines and Indonesia. It will boil down to which team has the better map pool, execution and aim on the very day of the tournament.
What happens next?
Provided that China wins Group A and India wins Group C, the main event to watch out is Group B, where Malaysia, South Korea, Vietnam and Japan are all in one bracket. All of these countries are known to boast good FPS rosters, so it would be interesting to see who will dominate Group B.
If the Philippines wins the first group stage and go to the Winners Group, they must be prepared to fight against Asia’s best teams. India has already appeared in ESL Cologne 2014 in the form of Team Wolf and there is absolutely no need to introduce the Chinese.
The Philippines must win at least one of their matches in the Winners Group for them to have a shot at making it to Belgrade.
For now, the real test is here: Will they be able to get their game together? Or will they crumble under the pressure of the hunt?
Featured image taken from the E-frag official website.
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