The group stage ended on the evening of June 6 IEM Summer 2023 by CS: GO. The matches of the first stage of the championship turned out to be bright, and as usual, there were some surprises. Nikolai device Ridtz for the first time in two years played a tournament “in the red”, Astralis again left without a prize, and Fnatic continued to fall into the abyss. These and other results of the IEM Summer 2023 group stage are in the material from Cybersport.ru.
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A million dollar swing – will there be a blow?
Nicholas device Ridtz’s first months in Ninjas in Pajamas don’t seem to go as planned. After the scandal around the match against Anonymo Esports at Flashpoint Season 3, where the Dane did not hesitate in choosing expressions to address the tournament administration, followed by a disastrous performance at IEM Summer 2023. And there are indeed questions about the four-time Major Winner following the event.
It seemed that after many years of playing in the same team and a sharp change in the situation, the Dane’s level of play should automatically go up, because a kind of “honeymoon” had come. You don’t have to go far for an example: remember the first matches of NiKo as part of G2 Esports, in which the Bosnian consistently scored 20+ frags per map and led the team with all his might, realizing the responsibility entrusted to him. However, device has so far turned out exactly the opposite.
device. Source: Ninjas in Pajamas
The past IEM Summer 2023 became the first championship for Ridtz in two years, in which he played with a negative ratio of murders and deaths, and the Dane finished his debut tournament under the NiP tag with a rating of 1.12, which is noticeably below his average. In short, the adaptation of device in the Swedish club is being delayed, which certainly does not suit the management of the organization, and even more so its fans. Already on June 15, Ninjas in Pajamas will have to play at BLAST Premier: Spring Finals 2023, where device needs to be urgently rehabilitated so that its transfer does not change its label from the loudest to the most ambiguous.
What will happen to Astralis?
After device left Astralis, difficulties overtook not only him. The former Ridtz team again did not reach the top places and this time they did not even manage to overcome the group stage. Of course, at IEM Summer, the Danish team was not quite lucky with the grid – its path in the tournament ended in defeat to Gambit Esports, but the failure in the match with FPX on Ancient, which sent Astralis to the lower bracket, can hardly be explained.
dupreeh & Xyp9x. Source: Astralis
Astralis has a whole month ahead without official matches – the nearest tournament for the team, IEM Cologne 2023, starts on July 8. Now the team has two obvious paths of development: change the roster and begin a long restructuring process, or try to do everything possible in the time remaining before Cologne to play with Bubzkji. Which option looks more preferable, given the protracted crisis in the team, it’s hard to say. But even if Astralis decides to disband the current line-up, fans will probably understand her – after all, everything in this life tends to end.
How much more will Fnatic suffer?
The only thing that seems to never end is Fnatic’s defeat. Another tournament and another elimination without victories – this is how IEM Summer 2023 went for Jasper JW Veksel’s roster. Over the past three months, the roster has won only three matches, and, frankly, there are no preconditions that the situation may change soon.
Watching the matches, you involuntarily catch yourself thinking that the team simply lacks the notorious chemistry. As if the players do not agree on some parameters, in connection with which the roster is doomed to failure even before the start of the matches. Fnatic members not only make many strategic mistakes within the game, which often cost them matches, but they also perform extremely poorly from an individual point of view. The same JW recently broke his own anti-record in terms of statistics, having held the worst tournament of his career (rating 0.5 at Flashpoint Season 3).
KRIMZ. Source: ESL
Frankly speaking, the only way out for Fnatic is to completely disband the roster and possibly build a new team around the young Brollan and Jackinho. Fnatic has already lost all possible qualifications, so the next two months will be taking a break from official matches (that’s for sure at major tournaments). In this regard, it seems to me that there is no better time for change.
Virtus.pro – kryptonite for Team Spirit?
Following the results of the group stage of IEM Summer 2023, Team Spirit left the championship. And once again the roster of Abdul degster Hasanov stumbled over Virtus.pro: Spirit suffered the second defeat from VP in two weeks, and both times Jami Jame Ali’s team knocked the opponent out of the tournament. In total, over the past six months, the teams have met four times, and Virtus.pro turned out to be better all four times.
Jame. Source: EPICENTER
The next tournament, where Spirit will have the opportunity to take revenge for defeats from VP, will be IEM Cologne 2023. But first, the degster team needs to go through the Play-In stage, which starts on July 6. At the moment it is not known whether the teams will face off in the German championship, but the fact that another derby is emerging in the CIS cannot but rejoice.
Vitality is back?
To the surprise of many, Team Vitality reached the playoffs following the results of the IEM Summer 2023 group stage. It seemed that after the departure of RpK and Nivera, the team was facing hard times, which was confirmed by the first results, but apparently, the French team decided not to linger at the bottom and reminded the fans of their strength. The main thing that the team can boast of now is 2: 0 against Gambit Esports. Since the team of Mathieu ZywOo Erbot is able to confidently beat the first number in the world ranking, it means that it will be able to cope with other opponents.
ZywOo. Source: ESL
But it is obviously too early to talk about the final return of Team Vitality to the top. Let’s turn to one more fact – 0: 2 against G2 Esports. Of course, Dan’s roster apeX Madesclair fought to the end, but at the decisive moments he failed and was forced to go to the quarterfinals, where he would face Virtus.pro. Summarizing the above, Team Vitality continues to search for their game, and, as we can see, at times they do quite well. It will be interesting to take a look at the team in the decisive matches of IEM Summer 2023, after which it will be possible to discuss in more detail the roster’s comeback to the elite of the world CS: GO.
