The review of IEM Chicago 2019

Generally, the tournament was very predictable both in the group stage and in the playoffs, except one event, which we will consider later in our material.

MIBR

The Brazilian team managed to surprise the public with its performance. Few people believed that FalleN with his teammates would fight decently at the championship and make it to the playoffs. The reason for the skepticism, which was related to the Brazilians, is that MIBR’s coach, zews, took the place of the player after condzera’s departure.

MIBR was not able to cope with the power of G2 Esports in the first match, due to which lost with a score 0-2. They successfully performed against Team Envy in an elimination match, having sent the last ones to follow the championship as viewers. MIBR faced G2 in the final match where they won a rematch against the French, surprisingly for many viewers. They had to play with ENCE in the semi-final, which enters the top five, and the Brazilians expectedly lost but had a good struggle with the Finns.

As a result, MIBR placed 3rd-4th and earned a money reward in the sum of $25,000. This is the only team, which managed to surprise us in a good way and made the tournament less predictable.

G2 Esports

As G2’s sniper, kennyS, said, the French team “sucked with the performance at the championship”. Many people, including us, expected to see the roster in the top four. The reason for that was G2’s recent good results and the factor that MIBR had a long dark line and nothing predicted the successful performance on the outcome of the group stage. In the first match, G2 dealt with MIBR without special problems, however, they had issues in the second and third matches of the group stage. In the match with Liquid, they managed to win one map and 13 rounds on the second one against the Americans, however, it was not enough for the victory of shox and his teammates, on the outcome of which G2 moved to the decisive match to fight for its further existence at the championship. There, they had to fight with MIBR against and, despite this objective was real, the Brazilians turned the match in their favor and achieved victory in it. G2 was defeated with a score 1-2 and finished its participation in the tournament.

The French team placed 5th-6th in the standings and earned a money prize in the sum of $8,500.

Team Envy and Renegades

The rest teams performed in accordance with expectations at the tournament. Team Envy and Renegades didn’t become an exception and didn’t disappoint us, having held the 7th-8th place in the standings. Envy was not able to show something against their opponents in the face of Team Liquid and MIBR, having won one map against the last ones, and Renegades didn’t even win a single map, playing against ENCE and Vitality.

It’s worth to remind that unlike Renegades, Envy hadn’t received an invite but made it to the LAN final through the North American qualification. Each of the above-mentioned rosters received $4,000 as a consolation prize.

Heroic

Heroic’s situation is similar to G2 Esports. They also placed 3rd in their group, having good chances to advance to the playoffs and lost to the team, which they had beaten in the first match. By the way, Heroic prevailed in it over Vitality with a score 2-0 and they didn’t win a map in the match against ENCE. In the decisive match against Vitality, the European team managed to win one map against the French but it was not enough to make it to the playoffs.

Heroic earned a money prize in the sum of $8,500 for the 3rd place in the group and the 5th-6th in the general standings.

Team Vitality

We can’t call Vitality’s result disappointing because their performance was over in the semi-final in the match with Team Liquid. The French first match was honestly failed. There, playing against Heroic, Vitality was not able to win a couple of rounds on the first map and lost the match with a score 0-2, however, they rehabilitated in the battle with Renegades and gained the required gaming shape to win a rematch against Heroic. In the decisive match, Vitality won the first map but lost the second one. They managed to prevail on the third map without getting rattled and, having defeated Heroic with a score 2-0, the French advanced to the semi-final where they were waited by Liquid. If Vitality had performed better in the group stage and placed first there, they would have beaten MIBR in the semi-final without efforts and advanced to the final where would have fought with Liquid. In our case, the French team faced the American CS:GO roster and was not able to show a decent game and was defeated with a score 0-2.

Team Vitality placed 3rd-4th and received a money prize in the sum of $25,000.

ENCE

The Finnish team played pretty well at the championship, except for the last match. In Group B, they defeated the outsiders of the group with a score 2-0 without special issues: Renegades and Heroic. By the way, the last ones can be hardly related to the underdogs because they fought well at the championship but RNG received this title for a reason due to obvious reasons. ENCE made it to the playoffs and they had the easiest opponent out of three possible, MIBR. The Brazilians with two recently-joined players didn’t have enough time to start playing well together and due to that, won only one map against ENCE. After that, the Finnish team advanced to the grand final and had a match against Liquid, which will be a nightmare for the players of ENCE for a long time.

ENCE placed second at Intel Extreme Masters Chicago 2019 for a reason and earned the second prize in the sum of $50,000. Possibly, ENCE will be able to play way better at the Major tournament where they, by the way, are listed as the legends, however, they were not able to achieve victory at this championship.

Team Liquid

Team Liquid achieved victory in the sixth LAN final of a large tournament in a row. The remarkable thing is that the Americans only lost on one map during the whole championship. It was Dust 2 in the second match of the group stage but it was not surprising because they were playing against G2 Esports, which play on Dust 2 in an incredible way. In the rest of the matches against Team Envy, Vitality, and ENCE, they achieved victory with a score 2-0, 2-0, and 3-0, respectively. The grand final looked like a one-sided football match than a full CS:GO match. Liquid lost 2 and 3 rounds on Overpass and Nuke, respectively. After they relaxed a bit on the 3rd map, ENCE managed to win 14 rounds but, despite this, the American team prevailed over the Finns dry.

Team Liquid earned the main money prize in the sum of $125,000 for the victory at Intel Extreme Masters Chicago 2019 and in such a way, continued its series of victories to the seventh triumph.