StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 7 is fast approaching. Between March 30th and April 7th, Shanghai (China) will host one of the premier CS:GO events of 2019, bringing together 16 teams from all around the world.
StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 7 offers a substantial prize pool of $500.000 and promises to be an amazing event. And with Astralis, Team Liquid and mousesports missing, the battle for the title is truly open, making everything a lot more unpredictable.
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In this article, we will give you a preview of StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 7, as well as an analysis of the main contenders and the weakest competitors. More precisely, the kinds of teams that you might be interested in betting on or against, if you happen to be interested in that aspect of CS:GO.
StarSeries i-League CS:GO Season 7 Teams and Competitive Format
With several exceptions, which we already mentioned, StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 7 brings together the best teams in the world. In total, there will be 16 of them present at the event and they will play in the Swiss System format. Interestingly enough, only 4 of these teams had to go through qualifiers. The other 12 received direct invitations.
Whether Astralis, Team Liquid, and mousesports refused the invitation or were simply not on the list, we don’t know. It’s certainly possible that they refused to participate, but maybe the organizers didn’t want to ruin everyone’s chances by bringing a bunch of cats among the pigeons.
The teams are the following:
- Renegades
- NRG Esports
- ENCE eSports
- FaZe Clan
- Fnatic
- TYLOO
- Natus Vincere
- BIG
- MIBR
- Team Spirit
- paiN Gaming
- Panda Gaming
- HellRaisers
- Ninjas in Pyjamas
- North
- Rogue
The strength of these teams is impressive in most cases. Very few of them are not in the top 20 if any. However, when compared to each other, we can clearly spot several tiers. The tier 1 teams are much stronger than the tier 2 and tier 3 teams. And it’s important to know what you’re dealing with when watching their games.
Tier 1 Teams
- ENCE eSports
- Natus Vincere
- MIBR
- Renegades
Tier 2 Teams
- FaZe Clan
- Ninjas in Pyjamas
- Fnatic
- North
- NRG Esports
Tier 3 Teams
- Rogue
- HellRaisers
- TYLOO
- BIG
- Team Spirit
- paiN Gaming
- Panda Gaming
Prizes-Pool Distribution at StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 7
StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 7 offers an impressive prize pool of $500.000. That’s half of what Majors offer, so the event is guaranteed to be full of disputed matches. This prize pool will be divided among the participants in the following way:
- 1st place: $250.000
- 2nd place: $80.000
- 3rd – 4th place: $30.000
- 5th – 8th place: $15.000
- 9th – 11th place: $8.000
- 12th – 14th place: $5.500
- 15th – 16th place: $4.000
Team Analysis
Here’s a brief analysis of some of the best and worst teams present at StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 7.
ENCE eSports
They recently rose to fame after defeating Team Liquid and Natus Vincere on their way to the Grand Final at the IEM Katowice Major. After that, they went on to place 3rd at BLAST Pro Series Sao Paulo 2019. And that’s no small feat, considering that all of the 6 competitors at that event were formidable teams. #ezforence
Everything indicates that ENCE eSports is now a top 5 team and should be regarded as a very serious competitor at any event. Going into StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 7, we expect them to perform well and get a top 4 result.
Natus Vincere
Na’Vi suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of ENCE at the recent Katowice Major. It’s not yet clear how much it has affected their morale and playstyle, but given the team’s experience and strong individual characters, we’re pretty confident that they’ll bounce back even better than before.
Overall, Na’Vi is still a top 4 team in the global rankings and should be taken seriously when it comes to tournament favorites. At StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 7, we expect them to either win or at least play in the Grand Final. There are only 3 other teams that can realistically stand in their way, so there’s a pretty high chance that this event will be Na’Vi’s chance to shine.
MIBR
MIBR’s 3rd – 4th place result at the recent IEM Katowice Major showed that their newest lineup has a lot of potential. With zews and TACO back on the team, communication problems should be a thing of the past, simply because everyone is Brazilian.
The main concern regarding MIBR is their map pool. At the most recent BLAST Pro Series, they somehow managed to lose every single Bo1. Five matches, five losses.
Going into StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 7, we expect MIBR to reach the Quarterfinals. At that point, they are likely to fail if they play the way they did in recent weeks. However, a weak opponent may compensate for their lack of form and allow them to advance. But it is hard to imagine them going further than the Semifinals.
Renegades
Renegades are very similar to ENCE. They emerged out of very little and are now one of the most capable teams in CS:GO. Easily a top 8 team in our opinion. At the recent IEM Katowice Major, Renegades went 6 W – 1 L during the first two competitive phases and then lost to MIBR in the Quarterfinals. However, it was a great effort and it’s likely that they’ve continued to grow as a team since that event.
The whole lineup plays with impressive precision and the two newest members, Gratisfaction and liazz, proved themselves to be fully capable professionals, in spite of having little experience at this level of the game.
With their current roster, Renegades could easily get a Semifinals result at StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 7. It remains to be seen if they have managed to keep their Major form intact and improve upon it, but we’re optimistic about their chances.
FaZe Clan
It looks like FaZe Clan lost karrigan entierly after selling him to mousesports. The team is now stuck with AdreN, who is still a stand-in, and relies on NiKo to lead the team. YNk will probably give them valuable input as well, but we simply don’t have much faith in NiKo’s ability as an IGL. He’s just too inexperienced in that role and would benefit a lot from being allowed to do his own thing as a superstar player.
FaZe Clan’s recent results have shown what kind of lineup we’re dealing with. This is a team that will likely beat anyone that isn’t a top 10 team, but will just as likely get crushed by serious competitors. Subsequently, we expect them to finish 5th – 8th at StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 7.
Weaklings
These are the teams that have little to no chance of playing in the Playoffs of StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 7. So you may want to follow their matches and bet on their opponents. Examples include: Panda Gaming, Team Spirit, paiN Gaming and Rogue. All of them lack a number of elements that are essential to succeed at this level and should go out with 0 W – 3 L and 1 W – 3 L records.
