An Early Look at ESEA Invite

[Aries]

ESEA INVITE Pre-Season Thoughts

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m starting to get the pre-season nerd chills. I’ve sat here for the last hour or so pouring over rosters and transactions. I’ve delved into the online activities of players I don’t know well to find out what they’re all about. This season has all the ingredients to make a delicious Invite soup. There’s fresh meat in the form of Vindicated, Summit, and Just Cause Project. There’s the spicy storyline of a seemingly unbeatable Dynamic. There are rivalries and characters and stories behind nearly every match up, and that will only become more true as the season progresses.

First let’s talk about Dynamic*. 5 consecutive titles. An epic season in the most competitive division of the most competitive league. Arguably the best individual players with almost certainly the best chemistry on the continent. What we have here is a juggernaut. It’s my opinion that few of the teams playing this season can take a map of Dyn on their best of days. Looking at the rosters I see a glimmer of hope with Check-Six, Cyber Revolution and MAYBE, MAYBE X5K. That being said, if Dynamic loses a match it will probably be more do to their own screw-ups (not practicing, not having five etc.) than to the other team’s greatness. Frankly, until LAN time, I’m much more interested in whether they will go back to Europe and face off against the new VeryGames squad than how they perform in the regular season. Oh, and they will be at the LAN too, in case you’ve been under a rock for the last five seasons.

So who will Dynamic get to sit on at LAN this season? Last season was an interesting one; we had Dyn, Check-Six, Scumbags United- now Devastation- and Cyber Rev (who earned the last spot) / Lion Crew (who took it.).
First, Check-Six. This squad impressed the hell out of me last season. Even missing a star player at the start they managed to get secure a 13-3 regular season finish. I was especially impressed by COLO’s AWP, which is stunning.
After playing together for a while, the team is starting to develop that eerie chemistry that looks like telepathy. If they’ve kept their practice up in the off season (as their scrim record indicates) they will be a force to be reckoned with.

Devastation is in an odd position, having lost one of their (if not the) star players from their squad. 4shot made the plays happen for them last season, and when they won and lost, it was often by his performance. This season he’s gone, but Shaffer is back in action. Shaffer is (assuming no rust) like 4shot only more so. His aggression, used properly by a clever start caller like sasquatch, can win rounds singlehandedly. He’s got the LAN experience and sheer enthusiasm to carry a team’s spirit through any event, and his aim is almost silly. Seriously guys, Shaffer is the player to watch if you want to get excited about shots. If you want to learn about “proper” play you’re better off looking at Sasquatch’s POV, but for sheer aim and balls, Shaffer is your man. Having a player like that is a risk though, because if the other team’s strat caller or awper can get his number and neutralize him with smokes or isolation your team can fall to pieces. Shaffer will have plenty of competent support this season joining a team that’s been under Sasquatch’s control for a whole season. I expect them to go far as long as Shaffer isn’t rusty and his attitude doesn’t bother his teammates.

Cyber Rev is crippled again. I wish I could take them in and nurse them back to health like a puppy found in the rain with a broken foot. It’s really a shame to see these guys competing sans DaZeD after last seasons’ Marlin debacle. They will no doubt do great this season; with players like they have, you can’t go wrong. I doubt they have the umph to be the “Dynamic Killers” they set out to be, though I’ll reserve final judgment until I see them in action. They’ve been together for quite a while now, and they’ll know each other fairly well.

I’ll mention Lion Crew briefly out of courtesy. They are a good team; a great team. They played fairly well against everyone (notably Dynamic) at LAN and are returning this season with one of my favorite players ever, Junks, and nikoN. Nikon will be a good addition to the team, provided his abrasiveness doesn’t get in the way of his leadership. I haven’t seen Junks play in a long time, so I reserve judgment on how he will affect the team until I see them play. He’s just a really fuckin’ cool guy. Lion Crew definitely deserves to be in invite, but they didn’t deserve to go to Dallas last season and I don’t see them doing it this season. Who knows, maybe a bunch of teams will decline to go again.

One of the things that kills invite seasons for me is dying teams. Last season there were all sorts of problems before the season even started, which seem to be absent this time around (knock on wood). However, looking at these rosters I see a few potential troublespots.

I already mentioned Shaffer and nikoN having big personalities, and they aren’t the only ones. Nukem of Summit is an explosive (although, I think, ultimately friendly) fellow. He’s got enough bluster for the whole team, but ilmer and caseyfoster are no slouches on the ego scales either. Teams with too much strong feeling have trouble losing and improve slower because emotions get in the way of analysis.

Even more worrisome is Just Cause Project. Those of you who remember the unbelievable volume of the Mika drama will know that this bunch has some issues staying low key. They are a younger group, especially Connor, and it shows in their behavior at times. I’m not sure how well they’ll deal with being the bottom rung after a dominant season in main. Do you remember what it was like moving from junior high to high school? Or from high school to College? All of a sudden everyone is taller than you, stronger than you, meaner than you. That’s how this season will be for jCp, and it may be a bit much for a collection of dramatic personalities. That being said, if they survived Mika, maybe they can survive anything.

Vindicated has Darth who’s just…incredible. I’m fairly sure that on some level his bragging and blustering and blithering is satirical, and I don’t know how much he exposes his team to that, but these guys are fun to watch with chat enabled, let’s just leave it at that. Actually, let’s not! Paradox is back! Whooooo! This guy learned me how to counterstrike back on Juansource.com, and you can tell from those videos that he has a good, calm head on his shoulders. Back in the CGS days he was the best all-round player; His AWP was silly and his rifle was cheats. If he’s still got his Mojo you better stay low in the canoe, cause he’s gonna make waves.

Speaking of returning players, we have a good crop this season. Devour is taking Brawwrski’s spot on eMg. On the face of things this seems like not much of a change. Much as I’m loath to say it, Brawwrski didn’t really impress anyone last season, and Devour has been lackluster since the post-CGS rule changes. Ryan is also making a comeback, which is great for me, because I love nothing more than to sit and pick apart detailed strategies, and he’s one of the best theory crafters. With a team as raw-talenty as X5K, he may just push them over the edge. Again, I’ll have to reserve judgment until I see the teams play, but it seems like ex-pros have a lot of trouble competing the young superstars of the day.

Overall I think this season will be great, and I look forward to seeing how things shape up once matches start. As a mental exercise, I’ll be ranking the teams every time I write an article so here goes:

1. Dynamic-CSS
2. Check-Six Gaming
3. Cyber-Revolution
4. XTiNAMD5K Gaming
5. Devastation CSS
6. Crucial Connection
7. Lion Crew
8. Vindicated
9. Summit CSS
10. eMazing Gaming
11. Fighting Irish
12. Just Cause Project



*I admit to a colossal bias on all subjects related to Dynamic. I was a huge fanboy of them before they picked up Anger, and since they did, I have been perpetually offering to massage their giant gilded balls. I also worked for them last season. And I exchange sexual steam messages with Todd Williams. I no longer even attempt to remain impartial on this subject, so take everything with a grain of salt.

[Origin]

Not being part of the CS scene, this means little if anything to me. The only thing that's even vaguely familiar to me in the whole thing - besides the guns, obviously - is Check-Six.

But all that aside, I read through the whole thing and found it to be a good read. So, nice work. xD

[ikon]

good read

[French]

Very nice read, taught me a lot on US CSS already!

[jeranine]

What an incredibly awesome article. I don't know ANY of these people - nor even about the game itself - but I still read the whole thing and felt like I was really "getting" the personalities of the players, so now it's interesting to me and I may follow more.

+1

[brawwrski]

i didnt even play last season =[