The attention of the eSports world will be directed towards the Ningxia Coliseum in Yinchuan in the north of China next week, when 10 teams take part in a Counter Strike: Global Offensive tournament for the World Cyber Arena 2016.
Tyloo, one of three Chinese qualifiers along with VG.CyberZen and Born of Fire are matched with two teams each from Europe, the Americas and Southeast Asia along with the Wild Card EDward Gaming, who also happen to be from China. Tyloo, however, will enter the World Cyber Arena 2016 as the favourites, while one of the European entries, Epsilon, remains an unknown quantity and VG.CyberZen arrive as a dark horse.
Tyloo looks to regain past glory
Long considered a top team in China, Tyloo are primarily known for focusing around their aggression and willingness to take risks. Even though every player on Tyloo plays at a consistently high level, it’s obvious the impact that CaptainMo has on the team. Mo is one of the most dynamic AWPers (sniper rifle) in the world, willing to take aim duels and establish control of the map for his team.
Since bursting onto the international scene, Tyloo has slowly faded, even to the point of getting whitewashed 16-0 by North America’s Cloud 9 at the iBUYPOWER Masters 2016 on a decent map for them; Dust 2.
Domestically, however, Tyloo remain dominant and in a tournament lacking both top and middle tier teams (most are attending ECS in Anaheim, California), they could put their best foot forward and have a genuine chance to win it all. When it comes to map pool, look for Tyloo to ban out Nuke at almost every juncture, as the team has only played it one time, in a loss, since it came back into the map rotation.
Epsilon an unknown factor
Epsilon will arrive as a team from the European Qualifier with a lot of question marks hanging over them, following a recent roster move. Star player DiscoDoplan was picked up by Fnatic, and in his place joined BARBARR. Since BARBARR’s arrival, Epsilon have won two thirds of their matches, giving them some momentum heading into this week’s event.
As with Tyloo, the key player for Epsilon is their star AWPer Draken. DiscoDoplan and Draken were a formidable combo and following Doplan’s departure, Draken has become the cornerstone that Epsilon is built around. Look for Draken to perform well and be one of the front-runners for MVP of the tournament.
Experience the key for VG.CyberZen
Last, but not least, VG.CyberZen represent a quiet threat to win it all with a deep map pool and understanding of Tyloo’s play style. VG.CyberZen has a wealth of experience, coming from the same region as Tyloo and have matched up against their fellow Chinese team within the past week.
While VG.CyberZen were unable to take a map off of Tyloo, pushing them to Overtime on Dust 2 shows their ability to keep it close allowing the potential opportunity to pull off an upset at this event. Once again, expect the highest rated player and AWPer, Savage, to be the pillar that VG.CyberZen build their game around.
CaptainMo, Draken and Savage all have the ability to take over a game, but perhaps the latter is the most important in the context of this tournament. If VG.Cyberzen are going to have a chance of upsetting Tyloo and taking home the top prize, it will take a world-class effort from Savage.
Born of Fire, America’s qualifiers Ex-g3nerationX and Innova e-Sports, iGame.com from Europe, team Immunity and JYP Gaming out of Southeast Asia along with Edward Gaming round out the field, but it would be something of a surprise if anyone other than Tyloo, Epsilon or VG.CyberZen came out on top.
