The balance of power between those two OG orgs has shifted in Liquid’s favor, but Cloud9 enter the battlefield with one of CS:GO’s all-time greats – Robin “flusha” Rönnquist - trying to restore the former status quo. Brazil’s two new ragtag teams, Luminosity and INTZ, face adversity already despite their veteran cores and Team Envy will look to put their first points on the bord.
Both Liquid and Cloud9 face a tough schedule in the upcoming week. nitr0 and his boys square off against several top contenders in NRG, MiBR, Renegades and compLexity, while Skadoodle & Co. will try to rack up points versus supposedly weaker opposition in Luminosity, INTZ, Envy and Ghost Gaming. The highlight for both however should be their clash on Saturday.
Cloud9’s LAN debut with flusha in Istanbul hasn’t been very successful. Only one victory against the Space Soldiers in five matches saw them finish in last place. By now however, Golden will have had some time to integrate flusha into the system and the three-time Major winner’s skill and experience will surely be beneficial for C9. Will it be enough against NA’s clear-cut number one though? Liquid are the region’s top dogs by some margin now and they won’t be satisfied with anything but a 2-0 here.
Luminosity & INTZ with rough results on MD1
Brazil has a remarkable 14 players in NA’s Pro League. Ten of which sit at the bottom of the standings however. A surprising picture looking at the names in both sides. INTZ have kNg and felps, while steel, HEN1 and LUCAS1 represent Luminosity. All of these players have been part of extremely successful line-ups before. In fact, the players above all made it into Major finals already. But those times are far gone, and the name of the game now is building from scratch again. On Wednesday INTZ and Luminosity face each other in a Brazilian derby and perhaps an early sign as to which of the two teams can claim a spot behind MiBR as Brazil's number two.
SEMPHIS’ new Envy
The Canadian IGL has gathered a talented bunch of players around him in Nifty, jdm64, reltuC and Drone. They squared off versus Liquid on MD1 and lost on both maps, an expected result if we’re being honest. Still, this is an exciting team that could do real damage in EPL. SEMPHIS has a chance of re-entering the limelight with this roster and 20 maps against some of the league’s hardest opponents on MD2 will tell us more as to where the team currently stands.
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