The review of IEM Beijing 2019

The teams, which have surprised

100 Thieves

We told in our preview that 100 Thieves would probably advance to the playoffs and believed in their successful performance but made it not that enough. The Australians exceeded our expectations and managed to reach the final where fought Astralis. 100 Thieves beat ENCE twice and didn’t win the Danes from Astralis in the group stage. In the semi-final, jks and his teammates defeated Vitality and another try to win the rematch against the Danes was not successful in the grand final. What is more, Astralis didn’t lose a map to the opponents in the final match.

The teams, which have disappointed

Evil Geniuses

Trying to predict the results of the championship, we put EG in the first place because the Americans were in a nice gaming shape. We don’t know if it was a climate change, which made a bad influence on the esportsmen or bad preparation but as a result, EG has become the most disappointing participant in the past competition. Evil Geniuses managed to beat only TYLOO, one of the main outsiders of the championship. In the match with FaZe Clan, the Americans were not able to prevail over their opponents twice. Some players and representatives of EG, by the way, were acting pretty pathetic in social media but it was not for a reason.

The rest of the participants

Astralis

Astralis showed the most usual and common scenario for a regular championship with the participation of the team. Odds on the Danes had been equal to 2 in the outright bets at bookmaker companies before the start of the event. Expectedly, Astralis made it to the grand final and achieved victory with a score of 3-0 without any surprises. The most successful match for them was the match with FaZe Clan in the semi-final where gla1ve with his teammates lost only 2 rounds on two maps. The first map was played dry, which became the public’s property. By the way, gla1ve received the MVP title of the tournament and in such a way, IEM Beijing 2019 has become the second championship in a row where the MVP is received by the playing captain. Lukas Rossander is considered to be one of the most valuable captains, according to HLTV Rating 2.0. Now, the Dane has been honored with a medal for the first time, having proved that he can not only coordinate but act when it is required. It seems that Astralis’ era is coming back and we will see the same as was in 2018 soon.

Team Vitality

We hoped to see a good play by Vitality and we received it. The team advanced to the playoffs as a result. The French prevailed over TYLOO and FaZe Clan in the group stage. It’s worth to notice that the match with the last ones was not easy and took place on three maps. In the semi-final, they lost in the handicap match with 100 Thieves and suddenly had a tough loss on the last map with a score of 2-16. The team earned a money prize in the sum of $25,000 for the 3rd-4th place. This time, ZywOo’s talent and shox’s famous captain qualities didn’t help Team Vitality to succeed at the championship but it would be impossible for the team to reach the playoffs without them.

FaZe Clan

In general, FaZe Clan’s performance can be called rather successful than not. Considering their performance at a long distance, their progress can be noticed. Despite the victory at BPS Copenhagen 2019, the Europeans didn’t make it to the final of the championship. They defeated the team, which still places the top of the world rate by HLTV, Evil Geniuses in the group stage. It was a bright event and entertained viewers with beautiful spectacular matches. Their match with Astralis was not less remarkable in the semi-final of the championship. There, we could see how the Danes were warming up before the final fight and NiKo with his teammates were able to win only 2 rounds on the second map, having lost the first one dry. We made the right call, saying that FaZe would advance to the playoffs but were not able to expect such a hard loss to Astralis. The Danes were preparing for the championship with all their confidence and avenged the unsuccessful BLAST Pro Series in Copenhagen.

ENCE

The quote of the famous journalist and insider Guillaume ‘NeL’ Canelo fits the performance of the Finnish team at the championship the best: «People say and joke a lot about ENCE but I think that it needs some time. I don’t think that we should talk about “the worst transfer of the year” now… because I really believe that the team is close to “the worst transfer in the history of CS:GO”».

Intel Extreme Masters Beijing 2019 continues the tendency of failed performances by ENCE. Probably, we should not tell that strictly from the first two championships but now, the Finns’ achievements at tournaments leave much more to be desired. This time, allu with his teammates, like EG, placed 5th-6th and earned only $8,500. By the way, we made this prediction in our preview and the tournament was pretty predictable in this regard.

Vici Gaming

At the Chinese tournament, the Chinese team had left the competition, unfortunately for viewers, before it had an opportunity to play on the scene in front of their fans. Initially, there was the match against Astralis, which was over with a score of 0-2, and then the match with ENCE with a result of 1-2. By the way, the Asians had good chances to win the last but they were too discouraged and lost to the Finns mostly in terms of shooting. Speaking about advantages for Vici Gaming, we can notice the fact that they didn’t need to go too far to participate in the championship and make visas.

TYLOO

The situation with TYLOO is similar to Vici Gaming - the Chinese team fully failed its performance at the championship in Beijing. Initially, TYLOO was not able to beat Team Vitality, after which was defeated by Evil Geniuses. As a result, BnTeT with his teammates, just like ViCi, held the last place in the group and, respectively, placed 7th-8th in the standings. The players earned a $4,000 money reward for their efforts.