What’s the difference between a goal, and a dream?
In CSGO, it’s about 16 rounds. One map win, and all of a sudden the pipe dream of beating a top team is becoming real. Going 1-0 in the RMR, and the Major starts to become less of a hope, and more of a free shot at goal.
Counter-Strike - and esports in general - is volatile. The cock of the roost becomes the star of the roast in record speed, which gives space to plucky under…chickens. Not all analogies are created equally.
As the Major is the greatest event in Counter-Strike, it lends itself to the greatest stories. There’s plenty of tales told about the greatest teams in the world - the heartbreak, the agony, and indeed the glory.
But every Major, there’s one tall tale. The legendary underdog who come from nowhere. The surprise package who unravel to reveal a veritable Pandora’s box of chaos.
The goal for every team - who isn’t expecting to challenge for the big boy trophy - is to be the subject of the hushed whispers, to be the subplot to the main story, the team nobody wants to face.
In order to turn a hope or a dream into a goal, qualification to the Major is a must. For our first hoper, qualification isn’t just a hope, or a goal - it’s a must. A must to repeal the pain of a crushed dream just one year ago.
“Our line-up at the time was completely different, but I feel we as a team learned a lot of valuable lessons from that event. We grew” explained Bruno Marinheiro of SAW.
SAW were seconds away from glory last year. After they were outclassed by BIG, they hit back with two big wins in the BO1s. Unique bent the knee, and fnatic were swept away. SAW needed just one win to become heroes.
forZe won in three, and Outsiders stood in their way. But please don’t make us tell the rest of the story. It’s too painful.
If you're brave enough to watch it again, feel free.
“It's still difficult to think about that particular game vs Outsiders, being milliseconds away from the Major. But we've also learned a lot from that event. So we need to think about those lessons and not just about that horrible moment.”
Every hero has a tragic origin story. Batman lost his parents, Spiderman was bitten by a spider, and s1mple played in North America. What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.
And SAW aren’t dead. Not dead at all.
“Our main goal will be to fight for a slot in the Paris Major and not worry about anything else,” suggested Bruno - though he clearly grasped how important it would be. “It would be a massive boost for the whole scene. Although we've had a player in a Major before, this would mark the 1st ever full Portuguese team and organization at a Major.”
This is not the same team, though. Story and ewjerkz joined the team after an impressive run with FTW, and Bruno believes they’ve gone from strength to strength.
“They are highly talented, dedicated players who brought us a deeply needed breath of fresh air. Story helps a lot with mid game calling and decision making, as for ewjerkz, he is a massively explosive and aggressive rifler. So both of them contribute in a different manner, albeit both very valuable.”
SAW were huge underdogs last time, and that hasn’t changed. The magnitude of the task is the same as before, but SAW’s form hasn’t been amazing coming into the RMR. While they qualified to ESL Pro League, they took just two maps, and needed the Last Chance Qualifier to get here.
But once more, they hang on. Alive. Stronger. They'd picked up and won six of their last seven series, giving them some momentum to head into their first game.
Versus Virtus.pro.
How wonderfully symbolic. But Bruno wasn’t all that bothered by the rematch. “I just wanna qualify! I don't care if it's vs Outsiders or whomever!”
They'll have their work cut out, now, though. Two opening day losses leave our heroes on the brink.
They couldn't, could they?
They’re not alone in trying to become their country’s first representative, either. While the Balkan region has always produced excellent players, iNation are trying to be the first Serbian team to make it to the big stage.
Quite a few great players and big names have gone through the ranks at iNation - not least the Kovačs - but until now it has largely been a feeder team. Now, iNation are aiming to become a team dining at the top table..
“It would mean the world to me to be able to go to Major with a full Balkan team, I believe that would be a good day for our regional CS”
Those are the words of Nikola ‘Dragon’ Boskovic, who joined iNation 5 months ago, and has already helped them reach heights the organisation hadn’t yet reached.
But that is not enough.
iNation are in an extremely tough group. Every team in the EU RMR B is dangerous in their own right, and qualification cannot be expected of them, by even the most Serbian-tinted glasses-wearing hyper-fan. But it is the dream, and sometimes dreams do come true.
iNation can take inspiration from Bad News Eagles, who also rose from nowhere, out of a country who’d barely dared to dream of a Major. We know there’s talent in the region, and there’s no reason iNation can’t be the next big story.
They qualified, after all. They deserve to be here. iNation are not a team anyone will be happy to face. As Dragon put it: “I think that anything can happen. It's the first time for me and for the team to be at a tier1 LAN tournament and I hope we are gonna show our best and not crumble under pressure.”
Pressure, so the saying goes, creates diamonds. That pressure can make or break you, but for iNation, there’s nothing to be worried about. They have made their countrymen proud just by getting here. There is pressure, of course, but it’s more likely to help than hinder.
If they lose, nobody will mind. If they start winning… the pressure becomes heavier on their opponents than they could ever feel.
It’s not like they haven’t beaten legends of the game before, either. In qualification, JW, flusha and allu all fell to the Serbians - and while their scalps might not mean as much as they did a few years ago, it’s all confidence building.
“Every match that we won brought more and more confidence and beating legends like JW,flusha and allu felt really good and showed me that everything we worked for is slowly paying off.”
iNation’s story is endearing; the plucky little feeder team who’ve finally created the team they always wanted, who can challenge at the top and maybe show some of that Balkan steel. You’ll be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t want them to win, at least a few maps.
A team who have a more trodden path to follow, though, is Mongolia’s little brother, Eruption.
Few outside of the region will know, or expect, too much of them, but there’s high hopes within the region. The world has learnt of IHC (now The Mongolz), and by extension Mongolia, but there’s more to the region than just the five (or indeed, six) players of The Mongolz.
Hell, in one of the Closed Qualifiers for the RMR, they 2-0’d their Mongolian brothers on Anubis and Inferno - two maps that The Mongolz have taken down genuine top tier teams on. They are not to be underestimated.
This Major has eight teams in the Asia RMR, and Eruption are one of the beneficiaries of that. They weren’t afforded this shot in Rio, but now have vengeance in their hearts.
Their motivation? Prove that they are not the noisy neighbours, that Mongolia is not a one-team region, that the talent pipeline is deep, and that they can rise above the region. There are storied teams in the RMR, who’ve been through the rigmarole before and come out the other side intact.
But they’ve never had to do it against Eruption.
They have a nice balance of experience and youth, with shinobi and dobu who’ve been playing for Mongolian teams for around six years, with cool4st and y4mi who are relatively fresh to the scene. Similarly to their brothers, there’s no real superstar stand-out talent but instead a toolbox of quality players.
Eruption’s dream has already been realised - by their bigger brothers. But like any younger sibling, outdoing them and going one step further is the dream, and it’s possibly closer than it first appears.
One of their challengers will be Rare Atom, whose dream is probably closer to realisation than any of the others. Perhaps for them it’s a goal - but it was also a goal that they’ve failed to meet for the last few Majors.
It started as a dream, and it has stayed as one. At least, maybe, until now.
Rare Atom have shown in the last few months that they can play at the top table. Wins over MIBR and Team Liquid are two stand-out, marquee results - but more importantly is the series of domestic wins over The Mongolz, Eruption and TYLOO. Rare Atom are one of the best teams in the region, no doubt.
But they’ve always choked it at this stage. This time feels different, but is it?
Mercury and Moseyuh are more experienced, adding some composure to their blatant mechanical dominance. We’ve seen them do some dastardly things to great teams already, and combined with JamYoung, they have potentially the best three piece of riflers at the RMR.
Talent-wise, Rare Atom can beat anyone. Experience-wise, few are better. History, however, isn’t on their side.
History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does tend to rhyme; so says Mark Twain. But Mark Twain never saw Moseyuh’s spray control, so what does he know?
The Rare Atom dream is just to qualify, and repair the hurt of last time out.
The Major cycle is beautiful. It’s where the greatest stories are written, dreams are created, realised and indeed, dismantled, and where legends are made. Every time, there’s at least one new folklore hero.
Maybe our hopers and dreamers could be them.
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