The World Electronic Sports Games CS:GO tournament wrapped up this weekend with Team EnVyUs taking the title. With a prize pool of $1.5 million and a first place prize of $800,000, EnVyUs took home the biggest prize in CSGO history. The prize pool for WESG was even larger than that of the upcoming ELEAGUE major that EnVyUs qualified for. While the WESG victory was great for EnVyUs, it could be seen as the curtains closing on this particular core lineup. They are no real threat at the major, and we know that there is a French shuffle looming.
Not Very Impressive Victory
EnVyUs did look formidable at times during WESG, but there is no evidence that should make someone believe they will be a factor at the upcoming major. WESG was a tournament full of tier 2 and tier 3 teams and strange national lineups pieced together. North (ex-Dignitas) pulled out of the finals for the tournament. GODSENT pulled out a day before the LAN finals were set to start. The only other tier 1 team at the event was Virtus.pro and nV never had to play them in the bracket stage. The WESG win was good, but it was severely lacking in competition.
nV’s run to the finals of WESG was quite the scrap despite the difference in pedigree and talent between them and their opponents. TyLoo took them to three maps in the quarterfinals, including a 16-14 finish on the final map. Then EmVyUs almost lost in the semis to the tier 3 lineup of Space Soldiers. After winning the first map, SS lost in overtime on map two and went all thirty rounds with EnVyUs on the final map. VP did nV a favor by losing to Team Kinguin in other semifinal, giving nV an easy road to victory.
Riding Off Into the Sunset
With all the rumored potential lineups that will result from the upcoming French shuffle, Vincent “Happy” Cervoni and Christophe “SIXER” Xia usually are not included. This may have been reflected in their play during the bracket stage of WESG.
While Kenny “kennyS” Schrub showed fantastic form on the AWP and won the tournament MVP, SIXER played terribly throughout the bracket stage. He was constantly bottom fragging and had terrible stats through the bracket stage. nV was able to win the final map of the tournament despite SIXER going 3-11 with an average damage per round of 46.7. He was part of the reason why nV struggled against lesser opponents in the quarters and semis.
Happy wasn’t terrible through the bracket stage, but he was fairly mediocre. There were some moments of impact but his stats were not great and he was just average at best. The poor play of these two may come from the fact that they know they will be left out of the shuffle. Or it can be viewed as justification for their non-inclusion.
Major Disappointment Coming Up
Some might see nV’s WESG title as a reason for celebration and proof that they may have something left for the upcoming major. However, I really think their form at WESG demonstrated the problems of the team and why the shuffle is necessary to break up the lineup. This is the first major since the era of parity in CSGO has begun. There are too many good teams attending the major for nV to get away with a win like at WESG.
Dan “apEX” Madesclaire, Nathan “NBK-” Schmitt, and kennyS all played well and this bodes well for the future French super team. But nV’s struggles as a whole reveal why they have been a nonfactor in elite CSGO for quite a while. Their performance and victory were commendable, but this was the last hurrah for the dying French team.