CS Asia Championships group B favorites

Group B of CS Asia Championships starts tomorrow and features three of the world’s best CS2 teams. It also features a Chinese team that aspires to reach the same level. But for now, it’s clear that Europe and America are still years ahead of the other regions.

The competitive format of this tournament offers three of the four teams the possibility to advance to the playoffs. This means that almost certainly, the three big European teams will survive group B. But we still don’t know at this point who will end up being the winner, because both MOUZ and FaZe Clan have been playing well in the past six months.

If we only take the last month, there’s no doubt that FaZe will win this group. However, MOUZ won ESL Pro League S18 with a 3-0 score against Natus Vincere on October 1. So they shouldn’t be disregarded just because they lost against FaZe at IEM Sydney and Thunderpick World Championship.

STILL ON TOP OF CS2 ⚡️ #ThunderpickWC | #FaZeUp pic.twitter.com/Q4bCbQegPJ

— FaZe Clan (@FaZeClan) November 5, 2023

Group stage format and favorites

The group stage of CS Asia Championships has the typical double-elimination format. MOUZ have a big advantage because their opening match is against Wings Up Gaming, the local team that probably won’t stand a chance against them. As for FaZe Clan and Ninjas in Pyjamas, is very likely that FaZe will beat NiP convincingly.

After all, let’s not forget who won the last two CS2 tournaments. At the same time, NiP are going through a process of rebuilding the roster. The IGL, hampus, was benched recently and replaced with ALEX from Movistar Riders. Brollan was also benched and replaced.

NiP now has two Danes, two Swedes (but one of them is the coach), one Ukrainian, and one Spanish player. This is a truly international roster that will need months to learn how to compete as a cohesive group.

FaZe Clan are at the other end of the spectrum. They’ve had a stable roster for nearly three years. The last roster change occurred 22 months ago, when ropz replaced olofmeister.

The most recent results confirm that FaZe are in excellent shape at the moment and probably highly motivated to prove themselves just in case the organization goes bankrupt or gets bought by some skeptical investors. If there’s any team worth keeping by FaZe Clan, it’s the CS2 one. Under the leadership of karrigan, this team has thrived over the past two years.

Header: Perfect World