With BLAST Premier World Final 2024 now less than a week ago, we spoke to STYKO to get his thoughts on who he considers to be favourites and underdogs for the event.
The veteran outlined two for each, stating that the favourites are "teams who are going to go into World Finals with solid chances to grab that trophy," and that underdogs are teams who he thinks "can go further than people expect and potentially finish in the top four."
The first team STYKO highlighted as a favourite will be a surprise to no one, as he picked out NAVI.
NAVI have been on a tear this year, winning four events and competing in the grand finals of multiple others, including Spring Final and Fall Final.
"Clearly, NAVI are competing for being a best team of 2024 and so far they are on incredible path to actually establish an era. An era in a time where everyone says that CS2 is random, hard to be consistent but they are doing it.
String of consecutive finals and winning IEM Rio despite being fatigued is showing me that there is very little amount of factors that take the wind out of NAVI.
For me, clear favourites but I wonder how long they can keep up the momentum throughout the season before the steam runs out... if it ever does." - STYKO
Despite playing with a stand-in for the event, STYKO also marked Vitality as another favourite for the event.
Vitality won a huge event this year, taking down NAVI in he grand final of IEM Cologne, and they also have ZywOo, so how can they ever be counted out?
"To me, Vitality actually play the most consistent Counter-Strike throughout the year if I disregard NAVI. They have their moments where they seem out of place but it is extremely rare.
On top of that, I feel like Vitality can be the only team who can challenge NAVI in competing for team of the year. If they manage to end the season on a high note with consecutive wins at World Finals and the Major, there is a good argument that they should dethrone NAVI as they grabbed that Cologne trophy earlier this summer.
Now, the biggest question mark is around JACKZ, obviously this can backfire a lot, but I have to say that role for role, this change might actually be a decent advantage in Vitality. They can play without any pressure and JACKZ is known to do decently in new environments especially in a role that requires a lot of sacrifice, similarly to what mezii was providing for the likes of ZywOo, Spinx or flameZ to shine." - STYKO
The first team STYKO highlighted as an underdog is Spirit, the team many people expected to run away with 2024 after their dominant showing at IEM Katowice 2024.
Also victorious at BLAST Premier Spring Final, Spirit have seemed somewhat out of sorts recently, and they'll be looking to get some momentum in Singapore ahead of the Perfect World Shanghai Major.
"This is an obvious one. The team that skipped last big event in order to properly prepare and practice for World Finals.
Remains to be seen if this approach was correct one but Spirit really needs to feel that fire in order to do better than they did since summer break. After all, if things go south for the remainder of the year roster moves might be on the horizon for them.
I think the last place finish at Fall Finals can be attributed mostly to mental problems, rather than in-game problems... I truly believe that was what they worked on the most in past weeks and they might be an underdog team who can actually make it into top four at least, if they play their match ups right." - STYKO
The dominant team in the opening exchanges of CS2, FaZe have since struggled to recapture that form for most of 2024.
They've faced some difficult losses this year, but they're never to be counted out, and as STYKO says, they've already lifted gold in Asia once this year.
"I think the recent struggles are obvious for FaZe but I think they are on the right path. Individuals are playing a little bit better and that is the main key point for the team, to feel sharp individually.
karrigan will do his best when it comes to calling and experience, but others need to back it up. I truly feel like FaZe should have been in the finals of Fall Finals but the blunder against NaVi should only make them hungry for revenge.
If anything, that BO3 proves that FaZe are capable of beating Nr. 1 team in the world and they had the game in their hands until NaVi pulled a miracle comeback.
FaZe also seem to just like this part of this world, we all remember what happened when they played last event in Asia!" - STYKO
BLAST Premier World Final 2024 begins on October 30th at 07:00 CET - You can read full details on the opening matches here.
When the action starts, there's now better place to be than right here on BLAST.tv.
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