Why is StarSeries i-League Kiev so unique? A detailed walk-through
Today marks the beginning of Star Series i-League CS:GO's Season 4. The championship's prize pool – $300 000.
StarSeries i-League CS:GO S4's main feature is the fact that the tournament's group stage is to be played according to the unique Swiss best-of-3 system - a previously unprecedented format in the entire history of competitive CS:GO.
Total of 16 teams will participate in the tournament; 11 of them have received a direct invite. The teams are to play 5 group-stage rounds, with a minimum of three victories required to advance to the play-offs.
Alongside VP, such teams have set sail to Kiev: Cloud9, Astralis, FaZe Clan, fnatic, G2 Esports, Gambit, HellRaisers, Heroic, TyLoo, Team Liquid, mousesports, MVP PK, Natus Vincere, Renegades, and SK Gaming.
Tournament's location – “Kiev Cybersport Arena”.
What to know about Virtus.pro's opponents
The Poles will face mousesports in the first round. Previously, the teams battled during ECS Season 4 (online) and ESG Tour Mykonos 2017 (LAN). Both times, the matches ended in favor of mouz.
In the previous Major, the international mousesports line-up reached the quarter-final, where they were defeated by FaZe with a score 0:2. Curiously, in the Major's LAN-qualifier, mouz have defeated both Natus Vincere and Astralis with a score of 16:2.
During the group-stage mousesports ended up on the short end of the stick due to an incredible comeback by Quantum Bellator Fire (16:14) after closing out the first half of the map 13:2. An impressive high-level tournament debut for the CIS team.
The Virtus.pro-mousesports match will commence 17th February, 18 CET.
Some statistics to shed light on mousesports' secrets
Maps played:
Mirage – 20
Train – 10
Cobblestone – 10
Nuke – 8
Inferno – 6
Overpass – 6
Cache – 3
Top 5 maps by win rate:
Nuke – 87.5%
Overpass – 83.3%
Mirage – 65%
Train – 60%
Cobblestone – 60%
Best map - Nuke
7 victories and 1 loss out of 8 (87.5% win rate)
Best result – 16:3 against Luminosity Gaming
Worst result – 16:19 against FaZe Clan
Worst map – Inferno
2 victories and 4 losses out of 6 (33.3% win rate)
Best result – 16:9 against Heroic
Worst result — 7:16 against Astralis
Player rating (HLTV.org)
oskar – 1.17
ropz – 1.16
chrisJ – 1.10
SuNny – 1.19
STYKO – 0.95
*according to the HLTV.org statistics for the last 3 months
Virtus.pro's previous StarSeries performance
A trip to StarSeries i-League CS:GO is hardly the team's first Kiev visit. The guys from Virtus.pro are the champions of StarLadder i-League Invitational #1 and vice-champions of StarLadder i-League Invitational #2.
VP have claimed the champions' title thanks to their win over Natus Vincere in the grand-final (2:1). Previously, they eliminated two other CIS representatives – Worst Players and HellRaisers. Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski has become the MVP of the Kiev's series.
The previous StarLadder series run ended in a loss to the Australian team Renegades in the grand-final (0:2). Previously, our team finished the group stage in the first place and defeated Heroic in the semi-final. StarLadder i-League Invitational #2's location was Shanghai.
Results of the Polish team in StarLadder series:
- StarLadder i-League Invitational #2 – 2nd place
- StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 3 – 12-14th place
- StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 2 – 13-16th place
- StarLadder i-League Invitational #1 – 1st place
- StarLadder StarSeries XII – 5-6th place
- StarLadder StarSeries IX – 4th place