Category: Counter Strike

Titan through to Cluj from DH day four

Titan have qualified for DreamHack Cluj-Napoca from day four at DreamHack Open Stockholm. The Asian representatives from Skyred on the other hand have exited the competition after two straight losses.

The fourth day at DreamHack Open Stockholm saw the opening battle of the only Asian representative at the LAN qualifier in quite an uphill battle against Titan, who have recently brought back Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom in Mathieu “Maniac” Quiquerez‘s stead.

The newcomer himself turned in quite a display in his debut with his new-old team, and while Titan did fulfill expectations and beat the Vietnamese on two straight maps (de_dust2 16-7, de_inferno 16-8), Skyred showed some promise with inventive ideas and individual play.Demo – http://www.hltv.org/?pageid=28&demoid=18822

Next to match up against each other were Vexed and HellRaisers, another team who have undergone a lineup change, bringing inAleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev after Mihail “Dosia” Stolyarovdecided to leave the squad.

Same as with Titan, even this time the newest addition turned up in the best form out of his team, with big help from Dauren “AdreN” Kystaubayev. After a reasonably close de_cbble (16-11), HellRaisers crushed their opposition on their Terrorist-side of de_dust2 14-1 and closed it out at 16-7.
Demo – http://www.hltv.org/?pageid=28&demoid=18823

The winners then fought for the spot at the major, and it was de_overpass to start it all off. Kostyliev turned up with a beastly performance, racking up a 34-13 score (2.09 rating) to help his team take the advantage at 16-8.

de_dust2 wasn’t quite the same from the Ukrainian, while he did have numerous multi-kills during the game, Titan proved to be able to deal with him and took map two 16-13.

The map to decided all was de_cbble, but there HellRaisers had little chances after only taking two rounds as Terrorists, and the French-Belgian squad ultimately took the Cluj-Napoca spot early on at 16-7.
Demo – http://www.hltv.org/?pageid=28&demoid=18824

As in the previous three days, the elimination match took place last and it was between the Vietnamese and the Poles to see who goes on in the competition.

The fight for survival started out on de_cache and it went all the way down to the wire, with stand-in Cong “crazyguy” Anh Ngoturning heads thanks to unconventionally agressive multi-kills. In the end it wasn’t enough though, as Vexed took a stand towards the end for 16-14.

While nobody really stood out as much from the Polish side on map one, map two was led by Karol “rallen” Rodowicz, who helped his team come back from a 1-8 deficit as Terrorists to make it a 16-12 victory at the conclusion.
Demo – http://www.hltv.org/?pageid=28&demoid=18825

Four spots at the major remain in the competition, each of which will be going to winners of respective deciders tomorrow, starting with dignitas up against one of the Australian representatives, Immunity.

DH Open Stockholm Group B synopsis

With Group B the final group of DreamHack Open Stockholm, we present a synopsis of the four teams in the group fighting to qualify for DreamHack Open Cluj next month: Titan, Skyred, Vexed, and HellRaisers.

Today, Group C at DreamHack Open Stockholm saw mousesports stop the trend of North American teams qualifying for the next major with a successful qualification by the German team while the third team to go out of the tournament was Winterfox.

Group B will kick off next in Stockholm, and we will see a fourth team officially qualify for DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca, as well as a fourth team leave the tournament. Two teams from Group B will survive until Saturday when they will play a do-or-die match at the Annexet Global Arena.


Like the DOOM II map, things could be dead s1mple for HellRaisers tomorrow

With the full schedule for this week’s remaining games at DreamHack Open Stockholm available here, we conclude with our attempt to briefly introduce all 16 competitors to you as well as to provide short historical overviews of recent occurrences in each respective team.

Today’s feature is Group B, which features a French team that underwent a high profile overhaul yesterday, a Polish underdog, a Ukrainian-Kazakh juggernaught, and a mysterious Vietnamese team.

Titan

With our original report of the recent signing of Gamers2 BelgianAdil “ScreaM” Benrlitom to Titan reaching over 1,000 comments, it is unlikely that many have not heard of the power move which took place just yesterday.

The replacement of the recently improved Swissman Mathieu “Maniac” Quiquerez with Benrlitom should bring an entirely new playbook to Titan’s style of Counter-Strike come tomorrow.

Titan of course have had to contend with a continuing series of disappointing performances as of late. After being knocked out in the group stages by Renegades at ESL One Cologne, the Francophone team did passably at Gaming Paradise with a third place finish but then flopped at the more illustrious ESL ESEA Dubai Invitational, where they finished in 5-6th place, only defeating Na`Vi.


I scream, you scream, we all scream for Titan.ScreaM

Titan’s opener against Skyred tomorrow should pose no issue, as there is nothing to suggest that the Vietnamese team have the necessary collection of experience and skill to be able to take down the French-Belgian team. However, the match-up of Titan against HellRaisers, if it does occur as the winners’ match, should send sparks flying.

Player Age Majors Rating (past 3 months)
Richard “shox” Papillon 23 6 1.12
Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom 21 4 1.09
Cédric “RpK” Guipouy 26 2 0.99
Kévin “Ex6TenZ” Droolans 25 5 0.98
Edouard “SmithZz” Dubourdeaux 26 6 0.91

Skyred

Skyred have had an odd path to DreamHack Open Stockholm. The Vietnamese team, who are widely held to be one of Asia’s best outfits, actually lost the DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca Asian pre-qualifier to QeeYou, but then had to scramble to get travel preparations in order when the Chinese team unexpectedly dropped out of the event.

The team will also have to make-do with a stand-in in Cong “crazyguy” Anh Ngo for one of the team’s most consistent fraggers, Vu “cLb” Hoang Nguyen, who will be unable to attend due to a family emergency.

Skyred nevertheless remain a dominant force in Asia, having defeated their Chinese rivals of TyLoo to win Rising Stars Asia #1,nearly making it to the semifinals of the ESL One Cologne Asian qualifier in Kuala Lumpur, as well as topping their group at the first season of the mixBOT Pro League Invitational.


Zac has proven to be an impact player for Skyred

With Asia given another opportunity to impress, Skyred won’t be hard pressed to one-up QeeYou’s dismal ESWC 2015 performance, where the Chinese team only managed to beat LDLC White and played with a “P90 rush” style that was certainly eyebrow-raising.

With a ratings-stacked lineup (which should deflate following the team’s match ups against better equipped teams tomorrow), it will be interesting to see who emerges as the star of Skyred.

Player Age Majors Rating (past 3 months)
Cong “crazyguy” Anh Ngo 19 0 1.69
Ngoc “Zac” Thien Nguyen 21 0 1.26
Hoang “JohnnyP” Tri Phan 23 0 1.06
Hoang “d@rklord” Giang Phung 20 0 1.04
Tuan “TuKoN” Tu Nguyen 24 0 0.95

Vexed

Vexed Gaming are the eBettle lineup, with the gambling organisation deciding to take the plunge and separate its competitive lineup as a new brand aside from the organisation’s other functions.

Vexed’s qualification run back at the ESL One Cologne 2015 European qualifier was a thing of legend, and saw Karol “rallen” Rodowicz & co. take down Epiphany, HellRaisers, and Titan. The Poles went on to win Assembly Summer 2015 in Helsinki, and manged to save face at the Cologne major in a stacked group that included fnatic (as well as nearly defeating CLG).


All-in on rallen?

Vexed have been playing quite well in online matches since Cologne, however many of these matches have been against lesser talented teams. Tomorrow will show if the team can once again defeat HellRaisers and Titan (which they did in July) to qualify for DreamHack Open Cluj. The team will be hoping that lightning does indeed strike the same place twice.

Player Age Majors Rating (past 3 months)
Karol “rallen” Rodowicz 21 2 1.11
Bartosz “Hyper” Wolny 25 1 1.07
Piotr “peet” Ćwikliński 24 1 1.06
Dominik “GruBy” Swiderski 20 1 0.97
Damian “Furlan” Kislowski 20 1 0.95

HellRaisers

HellRaisers did not attend ESL One Cologne, and have generally had a quiet few months aside from the team’s marathon run at the Acer Predator Masters finals, which the team won over mousesports.

The sudden departure of a longtime veteran of this team’s core,Mihail “Dosia” Stolyarov, came as quite a surprise, although it had been undeniable that the Russian player’s performance had been in a slump for quite some time.


mou continues to deliver in recent performances

Reduced to a Ukrainian-Kazakh lineup, HellRaisers bit the bullet and took-on one of CS:GO’s hottest, and most volatile, properties of 2015: bringing in Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev as a stand-in for the event. With experience playing with the HellRaisers team back during DreamHack Winter 2014, Kostyliev will be returning to familiar waters.

The team now have the firepower that is required in order to mount a successful major qualification campaign, and are well poised for the opener against Vexed Gaming tomorrow. Controlling potential communications fireworks should they erupt however, may prove a second battle in and of itself.

Player Age Majors Rating (past 3 months)
Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev 17 1 1.12
Rustem “mou” Telepov 23 0 1.07
Kirill “ANGE1” Karasiow 26 5 1.06
Dauren “AdreN” Kystaubayev 25 4 1.02
Emil “kUcheR” Akhundov 27 5 0.99

Saturday, September 26th

By the end of Friday, we will have four teams officially qualified for DreamHack Cluj-Napoca and eight more teams ready to enter the Annexet Global Arena and do battle come Saturday.

Given the action of the past three days, the match-ups that will go down on Saturday are as follows:

12:05 dignitas vs. Immunity
15:05 FlipSid3 vs. CPH Wolves
18:05 Liquid vs. Renegades
21:05 Group B winners’ match loser vs. Group B losers’ match winner

We will continue posting actively on Twitter and HLTV.org as the matches get underway tomorrow, and you can also check out theGroup AGroup D, and Group C synopses if complex words and witty writing are to your taste.

Titan sign ScreaM

Titan have announced that they have completed the signing of Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom from G2 for an undisclosed fee.

The Belgian hot-shot will step into the shoes of Mathieu “Maniac” Quiquerez with immediate effect and will make his first appearance for the team on Friday, at DreamHack Open Stockholm, which is playing host to the qualifying tournament for the Cluj major.

The move signals Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom‘s return to Titan, whom he previously represented from January 2014 (when the Singapore-based organisation signed VeryGames’ roster) to August of that same year. Months later, the 21-year-old stated that he would like to rejoin Titan, who were on the lookout for a new fifth player following Hovik “KQLY” Tovmassian‘s VAC ban, but the team went in a different direction and picked Cédric “RpK” Guipouy.


ScreaM returns to Titan

During his time in Team Kinguin/G2, Benrlitom finished 5th-8th at ESL One Cologne and won Gaming Paradise. His last appearance for the team was at DreamHack Open London, where G2 finished 5th-6th following defeats against TSM and Copenhagen Wolves in the group stage.

“I have decided to quit G2 for personal reasons,” Benrlitom said in a statement. “The communication on the team had disappeared, and, as a result, the pleasure of playing together as team had diminished.

“I would like to thank G2 for all they did, we did not miss anything and they were always there for us. It is very important for players to have such an organisation and this kind of support! I hope I will have the chance to work with them again one day! I wish them the best of luck.”

This is the third roster change for Titan in the space of two months, after they acquired Edouard “SmithZz” Dubourdeaux andRichard “shox” Papillon in a trade with EnVyUs that saw Dan “apEX” Madesclaire and Kenny “kennyS” Schrub move in the opposite direction.

At the same time, Quiquerez announced that he was quitting his job to play Counter-Strike full time. Still, criticism targeted at the Swiss’ performances continued with Titan’s disappointing campaigns at Gaming Paradise and the ESL ESEA Pro League Dubai Invitational. He now finds himself on the chopping block as the team aim to qualify for the Cluj major.


Maniac is now looking for a new team

Despite the blow, Quiquerez stressed that he will continue playing on a professional level and vowed to “come back stronger.”

“After one year of great collaboration, my adventure in Titan has come to end,” Quiquerez told Titan’s website. “I could not adapt myself quickly enough and find my place in the new line-up. Shox does everything I used to do but he does it better. I truly respect and acknowledge this decision.

“I will learn from my mistakes, bounce back and come back stronger. I am absolutely not done with professional gaming. Expect to hear from me very soon. Thank you for your endless support.”

Titan, who will face Skyred on Friday at 12:30 in the opening round of Group B, featuring also HellRaisers and Vexed Gaming, now have:

Kévin “Ex6TenZ” Droolans
Cédric “RpK” Guipouy
Richard “shox” Papillon
Edouard “SmithZz” Dubourdeaux
Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom

Benrlitom‘s departure leaves G2 with just four players just one month before the next major. In their statement, the organisation revealed that the team “will be holding tryouts for the fifth position” and did not rule out the possibility of signing a player outside of Europe.

Until a new fifth player is found, G2 will be fielding stand-ins in their online matches, “who may not necessarily be the players” who are being tested, the organisation added.

G2 currently have:

Mikail “Maikelele” Bill
Håvard “rain” Nygaard
Ricardo “fox” Pacheco
Dennis “dennis” Edman

Nikola “LEGIJA” Ninić (coach)

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