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These Are The Favorites of Flashpoint Season 2

The second season of Flashpoint, the FACEIT-sponsored CS:GO league, is bound to commence soon. The tournament started off as... Fabio | 10. November 2020

The second season of Flashpoint, the FACEIT-sponsored CS:GO league, is bound to commence soon. The tournament started off as an offline event, but had to be halted and reorganized into an online competition amidst the ongoing pandemic.

Now, Flashpoint is back, albeit as another online tournament during the height of this worldwide pandemic. This time around, the battle is taking place on European soil and the North American teams have travelled far in order to partake. Three groups will fight for a spot in the playoffs. The winning team will receive $500.000 in prize money and 3000 points counting towards the BLAST Global Standings.

GROUP A

This group is full of newly revamped rosters. Fnatic are the only ones who have kept their lineup intact since their last tournament. But c0ntact Gaming, Dignitas and MAD Lions are entering the stage with some fresh talent. After Owen “smooya” Butterfield has unsuccessfully completed his trial period with c0ntact, they have brought in Rigon “rigoN” Gashi and Lotan “Spinx” Giladi. The former has had a longer stint with Team Secret, unfortunately to no international success. Spinx, however, is a relatively young player and will have his first professional experience under the c0ntact banner.

After their victory at Flashpoint Season 1, MAD Lions had to switch things up quite a bit. Due to the departure of Lucas “Bubzkji” Andersen to Astralis, they were forced to find a new fifth. They took a look at the international market and picked Paweł “innocent” Mocek. However, this multi-national experiment has apparently failed, as innocent and Asger “Acilion” Larsen soon were out of the roster. The Lions eventually replaced them with Rasmus “HooXi” Nielsen and Ismail “refrezh” Ali.

Dignitas made quite a few headlines when they signed the former NiP core. In Håkon “hallzerk” Fjærli, they have found a capable young AWPer, but the team has been unable to meet the (already quite low) expectations. Now, Richard “Xizt” Landström and Christoper “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund are out of the roster again, making place for Haris “H4RR3” Hadžić and Ludvig “HEAP” Alonso.

So fnatic are the only team whose performance is at least predictable to some degree prior to this event. The MAD Lions recruitments sound promising, after all HooXi has already got experience as an in-game-leader. The leadership reins in the Dignitas camp were taken over by friberg, who had already proven himself under the Heroic banner. But it stands to question whether these two teams will really have a chance going up against fnatic.

GROUP B

Two American teams, Envy and MIBR, will be part of this group. The Brazilians had to wave goodbye to their historic core, consisting of Fernando “fer” Alvarenga, Gabriel “Fallen” Toledo, and Epitacio “TACO” de Melo. On very short notice, they have recruited some replacements. Players from Sharks and DETONA will have to fill some temporary roles until the MIBR management agrees on a new squad. However, this temporary team is actually doing quite well. With just a few days to prepare, they put up a solid display versus teams like Astralis and G2 during BLAST Premier. They even managed to boot their domestic opponents, FURIA, off the event.

Team Envy, however, haven’t been successful lately. Actually, they haven’t really played at all, with their last official appearance being during cs_summit 6 in June. Since then, a lot has changed, as Nikola “LEGIJA” Ninic has transitioned from coach to player. Signing Thomas “Thomas” Utting, they have uncovered a promising young Brit, who already managed to shoot some heads during his stint with NoChance.

These teams have been put in a group alongside BIG, which should prove to be quite a problem. Right now, the Germans are playing at the top of Europe’s online competition, so MIBR will probably feel a little nervous in their Opening Match. The Russians of forZe are part of this as well. While they haven’t had a lot of international success lately, they should be quite a challenge for a team like Envy.

GROUP C

Cloud9 haven’t been a relevant part of Counter-Strike in over two years now. Ever since their Major victory in Boston, the team has undergone constant changes and has endured some really bad decision-making. After their last North American lineup played below expectations, they attempted to pull off a complete reset. Henry “HenryG” Greer has assembled a new superteam. Players like Alex “ALEX” McMeekin, Özgür “woxic” Eker, and Patrick “es3tag” Hansen certainly inspire a lot of trust in this endeavor. But are they really ready for the likes of OG and Virtus.pro?

These two teams have put up a great show in recent time. Virtus.pro managed to win the CIS portion of IEM New York, even beating Natus Vincere in two separate Best-of-Threes. OG made it to the Grand Finals of IEM New York EU. Even though they had to take quite a beating there at the hands of FaZe Clan, they made first place of their BLAST Premier group shortly after. So Cloud9 will experience an absolute stress-test from the get-go.

The same holds true for Gen.G Esports. The North Americans have filled their roster up with Swedish talent after Damian “daps” Steele and Sam “s0m” Oh announced their exits. Xizt will take over the IGL role at this event. Rasmus “kreaz” Johansson is there for support, but how much damage can these players actually do? In a group alongside es3tag, Mateusz “mantuu” Wilczewski, and Dzhami “JAME” Ali, Gen.G will hardly have a chance to perform.

WHO CAN MAKE IT TO THE PLAYOFFS?

BIG, fnatic and OG are the favorites for making playoffs. But teams like Dignitas or Envy do stand a chance, as the runners-up of each group gets a direct ticket to the playoffs as well. On third place, things get much more difficult. There, the teams will have to head to the Last Chance Stage.

Cloud9 are the dark horse of this event. With so much star power under the hood, they potentially have a shot at making a deep run, but how well did they manage to prepare for this? Is ALEX really capable of leading a team full of youngsters through such a tournament? In Vitality, lots of veteran players had his back. During Flashpoint Season 2, only his coach, Aleksandar “kassad” Trifunović, is really there for support and guidance. Should he manage to rise to this challenge, teams like BIG, OG, and fnatic will be waiting for him.