The IOL Season 1 Finals came about rather quietly, in a month where all eyes were pointed at the recently disputed European Extreme Masters Finals as well as upcoming Arbalet Cup Asia. Even with a lack of spotlight on it, the Inferno Online Cafe brings fans some intense European action this weekend...
The IOL Season 1 Finals came about rather quietly, in a month where all eyes were pointed at the recently disputed European Extreme Masters Finals as well as upcoming Arbalet Cup Asia. Even with a lack of spotlight on it, the Inferno Online Cafe brings fans some intense European action this weekend directly from Stockholm, Sweden.
A clash of the giants awaits once more, with names like GuX or Tentpole, coming back out in the spotlight. Classical ambitions are on the line, as well as more recent rivalries are shaping up. Will it be Ravens pulling out the plug on SK once more, or will re-united Begrip, formerly ColdFrag, get back stronger than before? Do underdogs like PlayZone or ENERIC have any chance of stealing the show or more importantly, have H2K found their ultimate grail with the recent team changes? Hopefully a bit of everything will be answered in the pre-event, on-the-run, write-up below.
Will H2K finally confirm?
Starting rather 'anticlockwise' in terms of which team raises most eyebrows, standing high on a pedestal one can find the, so far struggling, Swedes from H2K Gaming. In terms of media and fans' attention, H2K are rated high, mainly due to the mounting interest in how their all-stars line-up will perform; in practice nobody is sure of how will the different in-game styles work together.
Ever since their initial Swedish team, former original squad Lemondogs, shook their elbows to make some space for themselves in the overly crowded national scene, H2K have pretty much passed by unnoticed. The addition of SpawN didn't necessarily bring an equal in-game impact as it did in terms of community reactions, with a less than over-joyous 9th-16th placement at the WCG Finals in Chengdu, followed by a minor improvement at Dreamhack Winter. The answer to all that was quite straightforward as either willingly or not, H2K have disposed of a large part of their line-up in the past two months. Although followers are already used with the idea of Snajdan and H2K, even for him this actually represents the first major event in which he will appear as H2K's in-game leader. Then, what more can one add about the level of integration or preparation for newcomers GuX or Tentpole. Not to be misunderstood, the concept of experienced and previously proved successful players coming together works quite well on paper, yet in practice things might prove more difficult than that.
On the other hand, most of the names in there have played with each other on previous occasions and therefore a Mousesports model of coming together with less practice, yet improvising as they go along might just work. Equally, the team's event performance will depend a lot on how rusty or in shape are both GuX and Tentpole, who come back after a shorter respectively a longer period of inactivity. All in all an ambiguous question brings about a similar answer, but in the words of Tentpole, H2K will probably go either at the top or at the bottom.
Ravens to kick-start the spectacle once again?
Sunday, 17th of January, Bruhl, Germany - The EM crowns its top teams following three days of intense Counter-Strike action and just what a refreshing view it was to see upcoming Ravens ending up third, after an amazing event participation. Their consolation final victory in front of SK represented both the glazing and the cherry on top of the cake, just as in the words of the Danes themselves. Additionally, their quest over some of the most consecrated names in the scene, was a success story supported by team-work and cooperation, two concepts that really go against all odds when placed in front of individually strong and experienced line-ups. Surely that's one of the things which made their performance unbelievable, as even if they benefited of experienced names, none of their players had the resonance of co-nationals like zonic or Sunde. With the celebrations over, the Danes then got their head back into the game, preceded with what was a natural thing to do, namely the addition of EM stand-in, Friis, and furthermore benefited from the addition of a valuable sponsorship to support them within their 2010 esports endeavours.
All in all, the situation looks pretty rosy, yet the rocky path starts only now, as its not as hard to get up there as it is to stay. The concept of 'one-time-wonders' are familiar to any esports follower and so is the idea of studying demos. Although the Danes can come up with a whole new set of strategies, their element of surprise is clearly missing this time and that might make a difference in their end of event placement.
SK - a variable constant
Although they seemed to miss their edge at the recent European EM Finals, SK are now back in action on home soil, an aspect which can bring out the best of them, reiterating an end-of-year 1st spot in the Arbalet Cup. Furthermore, even if they kind of miss the wow factor for the time being and fall short of old-times' 2003 or 2004 achievements board, their constant top appearances cannot be denied. Such a strong and well balanced roster, when focused and motivated, can always create good performances.
One more thing to mention here is that a preconception of comparing each and every SK line-up with the former HeatoN and co. team is flawed from the very beginning, simply because competition today looks totally different than it did back then. The gaps between teams' performances and abilities are way more shrinkable nowadays, a fact underpinned by all the events in the past months; so if walle and co. don't face up to old times' event by event appearances, that surely does not make them average or negligible.
Playzone, Begrip, LedPc, Eneric - count in or odd out?
It's quite difficult to create an opinionated guess about the performance of underdog teams at lan events. After all that's the whole logic behind their status, that they don't necessarily have constantly meaningful results but they always have the potential of creating them. A dose of luck, add ambition to the pot and you've got something potentially 'lethal' for any consecrated team. Not to count out the additional element of surprise, see for example Ravens, or Meet Your Makers at ESL's 2009 GC Dubai.
Taking an overview of the groups, Spanish side LedPc, is the one name which does not fit in the scenario of Nordic based attendees for this first season of the IOL Finals. Are they the odd one out because of that? That's one reason to say exactly the opposite, as covering transportation and accommodation costs for minimum 5 players (without taking into account a manager or additional individuals of that type) does create both a level of pressure and ambition to make or gain something concrete out of the investment; especially when we're talking about a team which does not get many occasions to attend European or international events.
What would you make of PlayZone though? They've recently won the Assembly 2010, a Finnish based lan event, with a squad created around driim and jigetus. They might not have natu's experience, but both certainly bring about some fresh vigour and eagerness to get acknowledged as Finland's new leading force.
Meanwhile the Swedes have had their good moments, positive matches, yet both Begrip and Eneric seem to have gotten lost on the path to success, somewhere in the incipient phase. Both teams suffered alterations, yet with Begrip back onto its integral roots, who knows, maybe they still have what it takes to pull off some success bringing coldfrags.
But enough talk-talk, let the show begin!
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