The preview of Intel Extreme Masters Season XIV — Chicago 2019

The championship will be hosted in Chicago on July 18-21. United Center will be a venue and the overall prize pool will amount $250,000. The winner will earn half of the money pool.

8 teams will take part in the competition, 6 of which have received direct invitations. Team Liquid, MIBR, Renegades, ENCE, G2 Esports, and Team Vitality were the lucky ones. Team Envy and Heroic made it to the tournament through the North American qualification and GG.Bet Invitational — Chicago 2019. Initially, forZe had to perform instead of Heroic but the first one was not able to resolve visa issues in time and will miss the championship due to this, having given its spot to Heroic, which placed 2nd at GG.Bet Invitational.

The group stage will be carried out by the GSL system. Eight participants will be divided into two groups. The top two teams from each of them will advance to the playoffs and all matches of the group stage will be held in a bo3 format. The grand final will be hosted in a bo5 series.

The analysis of participants

Team Liquid (a place in the rate by HLTV — #1)
Odds on a victory: 1.6

Team Liquid is definitely the main favorite at the upcoming championship. The Americans took down Astralis from the top of the world rate a couple of months ago and have a series of five won tournaments in a row at the moment. All players are in a nice gaming shape and the fact that NAF received the title of MVP at the recently finished BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles 2019 reflects high individual skills of each representative of Liquid. Team Vitality is the only team, which can make some serious problems for Liquid. ENCE will probably be able to do something against the Americans but we have doubts about the possibility of this. Team Liquid got in the easiest group for them. Besides the American roster, G2 Esports, MIBR, and Team Envy will be fighting for getting to the playoffs in Group A.

The roster of Team Liquid and the players’ rate:

Nicholas ‘nitr0’ Cannella — 1.07
Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski — 1.22
Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken — 1.18
Keith ‘NAF’ Markovic — 1.19
Jacky ‘Stewie2K’ Yip — 1.11
Eric ‘adreN’ Hoag — a coach

Team Vitality (a place in the rate by HLTV — #2)
Odds on a victory: 4.7

The French roster is the second in terms of power both in the world and at the championship. Vitality might confirm or disprove this statement at the upcoming event. They were put in a difficult group where ENCE, Renegades, and Heroic will fight for advancement to the playoffs, besides them. They placed second at the recently hosted ESL One Cologne 2019. Despite the team held the second place in the standings, ZywOo received a status of the best player. This means that one of the best performers in the world plays in Vitality at the moment. We think that Vitality has very good chances to win the tournament and we see nothing that might stop the French from getting to the grand final.

The roster of Team Vitality and the players’ rate:

Nathan ‘NBK-’ Schmitt — 1.07
Dan ‘apEX’ Madesclaire — 1.06
Cedric ‘RpK’ Guipouy — 1.03
Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut — 1.31
Alex ‘ALEX’ McMeekin — 1.07
Remy ‘XTQZZZ’ — a coach

ENCE (a place in the rate by HLTV — #4)
Odds on a victory: 9

Despite the 4th place on the list of the best CS:GO rosters by HLTV, the Finns are in a bad gaming shape. The proof of it is their performance at ESL One Cologne 2019, which was hosted on July 2-7. There, ENCE lost the match to Heroic first, after which lost the battle to Team Vitality. It’s worth to notice an interesting fact that both Vitality and Heroic and also Renegades will be in Group B together with ENCE. ENCE has all chances to make it to the playoffs if only they prepare well to the tournament and beat Heroic together with Renegades. Considering their current gaming shape, the possibility of the success of the Finns is very low at the tournament. In the best case, allu and his teammates will advance to the top 4 and finish their participation in the semi-final.

The roster of ENCE and the players’ rate:

Aleksi ‘allu’ Jalli — 1.12
Aleksi ‘Aleksib’ Virolainen — 0.96
Jere ‘sergej’ Salo — 1.16
Jani ‘Aerial’ Jussila — 1.08
Sami ‘xseveN’ Laasanen — 1.02
Slaava ‘Twista’ Räsänen — coach

G2 Esports (a place in the rate by HLTV — #9)
Odds on a victory: 11

G2 Esports is one more famous and successful representative of the French CS:GO scene. G2 showed a great performance at ESL Pro League Season 9 - Finals, which took place in France, having proved that it is not worth to write off the team. The team managed to get to the final where lost in the match against Team Liquid. G2 placed first at Good Game League 2019, which was over on July 14, but the line-up of participants can’t be called strong compared to the line-up of IEM Chicago. However, G2 had a good practice in official matches and might play well at Intel Extreme Masters Chicago 2019. The French, by the way, got in Group A where will have beat MIBR and Team Envy together with Liquid and advance to the playoffs. In our view, G2 will not advance further than to the semi-final but they will have to make it to the playoffs without special efforts.

The roster of G2 Esports and the players’ rate:

Richard ‘shox’ Papillon — 1.08
Kenny ‘kennyS’ Schrub — 1.14
Lucas ‘Lucky’ Chastang — 0.98
Audric ‘JaCkz’ Jug — 1.05
Francois ‘AMANEK’ Delaunay — 1.06
Damien ‘maLeK’ Marcel — a coach

MIBR (a place in the rate by HLTV — #13)
Odds on a victory: 17

MIBR can be safely called one of the outsiders of the championship and the outsider of its group. The Brazilians got in Group A together with Team Liquid, G2 Esports, and Team Envy. They will not defeat the Americans from Liquid for sure but they might struggle with G2 but the French will not give up without a fight. MIBR has recently made two replacements: LUCAS1 came to the team instead of felps and coldzera was benched and the coach zews, whose experience leaves much more to be desired, now plays on the roster instead of him. MIBR with the coach on the roster is unlikely to show a nice performance, so the Brazilian team will place 5th-6th or 7th-8th, in our view.

The roster of MIBR and the players’ rate:

Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo — 1.17
Fernando ‘fer’ Alvarenga — 1.12
Epitacio ‘TACO’ de Melo — 0.93
Lucas ‘LUCAS1’ Teles — 1.04
Wilton ‘zews’ Prado — 0.75

Heroic (a place in the rate by HLTV — #15)
Odds on a victory: 17

The first thing, which is worth to be noticed, speaking about Heroic, is that the team made it to the championship due to forZe’s visa issues, which were not resolved in time by the last ones. The Danish team will try to realize this opportunity as best as they can. It’s worth to remind that Heroic beat forZe with a score 1-2 in the final of GG.Bet Invitational — Chicago and it means that they are not in that bad gaming shape. The team got in Group B together with Team Vitality, ENCE, and Renegades. Everything will depend on the preparation of friberg and his teammates to the upcoming event. They are unlikely to defeat Vitality but it will be interesting to follow the fight against ENCE and Renegades. It’s worth to notice that they managed to enter the top eight at ESL One Cologne 2019 and the list of opponents defeated by Heroic included the Finns from ENCE. All of this was achieved without the coach’s help who left Heroic on July 1. That’s why the possibility of the advancement of Heroic to the playoff stage is pretty good.

The roster of Heroic and the players’ rate:

Patrick ‘es3tag’ Hansen — 1.03
Adam ‘friberg’ Friberg — 0.99
Benjamin ‘blameF’ Bremer — 1.16
Martin ‘stavn’ Lund — 1.02
Christian ‘NaToSaphiX’ Sillassen — 0.98

Renegades (a place in the rate by HLTV — #16)
Odds on a victory: 32

The performance of Renegades had a very serious decline after their participation in the Major tournament. The Australians held the last place at the past BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles 2019, having beaten only Cloud9, which had a debut at BPS with the renewed roster, in the group stage. This achievement can’t be called a good result and Renegades were not able to shoot MIBR, which plays with a coach instead of coldzera, in 1x1 duels at BLAST Pro Standoff. If RNG didn’t beat anyone at BLAST Pro Series, except Cloud9, is it worth to say that their chances to advance to the playoffs are pretty low? Renegades got in Group B together with Team Vitality, ENCE, and Heroic.

The roster of Renegades and the players’ rate:

Aaron ‘AZR’ Ward — 0.94
Justin ‘jks’ Savage — 1.16
Joakim ‘jkaem’ Mybostad — 1.10
Jay ‘liazz’ Tregillgas — 1.00
Sean ‘Gratisfaction’ Kaiwai — 0.91
Aleksandar ‘kassad’ Trifunovic — a coach

Team Envy (a place in the rate by HLTV — #50)
Odds on a victory: 250

Team Envy comes to the championship as the main outsider and has the highest odds, with which we agree. Despite this, we do not exclude the chance that the Americans might surprise and beat MIBR and G2 Esports, for example, and advance to the playoffs, however, the possibility of the event is pretty low. The last replacement on the roster was made at the beginning of June and the players had enough time to start playing well due to this reason.

The roster of Team Envy and the players’ rate:

Noah ‘Nifty’ Francisr — 1.04
Sam ‘s0m’ Ohr — 0.96
Bradley ‘ANDROID’ Fodorr — 1.03
Jacob ‘FugLy’ Medinar — 1.00
Aran ‘Sonic’ Groesbeekr — 1.10
Zachary ‘Eley’ Stauffer — coach