CS:GO: The end of 2017 has brought some changes to key CS:GO teams and a number of them will bear watching in early 2018 to see if they can fulfill their potential.
Renegades on a roll
Renegades are one of the hottest teams in Counter Strike right now, continuing their run of good form ever since the addition of NAF-Fly, aka NAF, to the roster in September. Renegades have had quality placements in the past few months, with a second-place finish to Cloud9, a top five team, at the iBUYPOWER Masters 2017 joining a first-place finish at StarLadder i-League Invitational #2, where they beat a Virtus.pro side that appear to be coming out of their prolonged slump.
One major player for Renegades is their young leader Nifty, who is one of the few top players (FalleN being the notable other) able to perform at a high level in terms of both AWPing (sniping), while also In-Game leading. Nifty’s all-in-one abilities make up for the occasional inconsistent displays from other team members, while the addition of NAF’s firepower has been a surprising boon.
However, Renegades’ ceiling is a bit of an unknown, with the ELEAGUE Boston Major representing a perfect measuring stick coming up.
VP look to shine once more
Virtus.pro finally appear to be emerging from their slump, with back-to-back quality finishes, second at both EPICENTER and StarLadder, including winning two maps off of SK Gaming.
VP are a team entrenched with inconsistency, with the ability to win a tournament as easily as they fail within the group stage. Yet the final few months of 2017 have given hope to VP, something they have lacked for quite some time. While perhaps not expected to rise into the top two again, VP are a threat to become playoff regulars once more in 2018.
Absence of dev1ce still an issue
Astralis are a team with limited momentum going into the 2018 season, given the health-related absence of star-AWPer dev1ce. However, they are expecting him back soon into the new year, enabling them to focus on battling FaZe and SK Gaming to reach the Finals of events.
Astralis are still an incredibly talented team with brilliant tactics, showing off the abilities of players such as dupreeh in recent months. In dev1ce’s absence, dupreeh has been the clear star of the organisation, even while completely changing both his role and style for the good of the team.
The key for Astralis is if durpeeh can continue his run of good form after dev1ce returns, as having two stars grants Astralis a much better shot of beating the likes of FaZe and SK given each of them also have at least two star players. One concern is the continued inconsistency of Kjaerbye, who was originally brought in as the second star. Regardless, the return of dev1ce should coincide with a rise in Astralis’ overall performance.
100 Thieves a dark horse
One team that will almost surely skyrocket up the rankings soon is 100 Thieves, an outfit recently created from the previous Immortals line-up. With the Immortals core of LUCAS1, kNgV- and HEN1, this roster has top ten talent throughout, with the ability to make deep playoff runs.
This core reached the Finals of the most recent Major, DreamHack Open Montreal 2017, showing just how far this team can go, although losing Boltz to SK does diminish the overall ceiling of the team. The major concern for 100 Thieves is whether or not this squad can control themselves while outside the game, as this ex-Immortals trio have forfeited a Finals map before due to being late to the stadium (amongst other issues).
However, the skill within the server is undeniable within this squad. While perhaps no guarantee to maintain themselves long-term, a short-term success story is absolutely within reason. Given at least three players were together at the previous Major, this squad will be playing at the ELEAGUE Major in Boston with the whole world watching. 100 Thieves are an incredibly risky team, but given their current ranking, 29th on HLTV, there appears to be room to go up.
The four aforementioned teams are ones to watch for different reasons, but all should be fascinating to track over the coming months. This is particularly so of 100 Thieves, who could well be the early story of the year in CS:GO
