There were upsets across the board at the Starladder Starseries offline finals today as three of the world’s best left Kiev early.
Just weeks after a game-changing roster swap, in which Godsent acquired three of the best players in the world from Fnatic, they find themselves struggling to adapt to the new lineup. The side started their campaign with a victory over Team Dignitas, but a loss to fellow Swedes Ninjas in Pyjamas meant that a rematch with Dignitas was on the cards. A star performance from Emil “Magiskb0y” Reif helped secure a swift 2-0 victory over Godsent, sending one of the favorites out.
The defeat wraps up a disappointing showing from the side at the Starseries finals, especially from Jesper “JW” Wecksell and Andreas “Znajder” Lindberg.
FaZe Clan were next to disappoint. They fell out in the group stage after a shocking loss to Flipsid3, who entered the tournament in a terrible run of form. Before today’s win over FaZe, they’d failed to pick up a best-of-three victory since defeating NiP at ESL One Cologne two months ago. Despite the best efforts of Joakim “Jkaem” Myrbostad, who picked up 75 kills over three games, Flipsid3 emerged victorious, securing the final map with a scoreline of 16-14.
Chinese side TyLoo were up to same old tricks with a surprise upset victory of Na’Vi in the opening group game. That put the side against Astralis in the survival match. The showdown took place on Dust 2 and required one overtime to see Astralis take the victory, sending Na’Vi crashing out of the tournament on their own home turf. New pickup Oleksandr “S1mple” Kostylev was underwhelming and could have made the difference with just a slightly better performance.
All three sides have recently undergone roster changes which could have impacted their performance at the tournament. Godsent brought in three players, while FaZe and Na’Vi both have one new addition each. It’s unlikely a disappointing performance at one event will cause major issues, but they’ll all be hoping to get back on track in the near future.
