This article is part of our CS:GO series.
From November 16-20, The Oracle Arena will host the Intel Extreme Masters where 12 teams will face off for a chance to win the lion's share of $300,000 dollars. The tournament features eight invited teams from prior Major finishes as well as four teams who earned their spot after finishing in the top four of IBUYPOWER Master 2016.
The event will start November 16 at 10:30 am PST with Group A battling it out for a chance at advancing past their group, while Group B will kick off their march to the bracket stage the following day. Each team will play five matches, one against each other team in their group, with the top three teams advancing to the bracket stage of the event. The first place team in each group will receive a spot directly in the semifinals. Any tiebreaker matches will be played the same evening after the completion of the scheduled matches. The remainder of the tournament will be a bracket using seeding based off of Group Stage performance where the top team in each group will receive a bye directly to the semifinals and the second and third place teams from each group will earn a spot in one of two quarterfinal matches.
Group A Projected Results
1. Natus Vincere
2. Astralis
3. G2
4. Immortals
5. Team Liquid
6. TyLoo
Teams to Watch:
Immortals/TyLoo
It's no surprise that Immortals made it onto our list as a team to look out for during the group stage at IEM Oakland. Fresh off their first place victory at iBUYPOWER Masters against Cloud9, the team is looking stronger than ever. Despite placing in the lower end of both ELEAGUE Season 2 and ESL Pro League, they have seemingly found their form once again and have become a force to be reckoned with. Thanks to the team's recent acquisition of Lucas "steel" Lopes, they have a good chance to continue their domination, even though they've been playing together for a little over a week. Although they have a relatively difficult group, Immortals have the ability to upset teams such as Natus Vincere so long as they can play at their peak in each match.
TyLoo is another team that everyone should be keeping a close eye on during the tournament. With a recent string of dominant performances in Asia and impressive performances abroad, TyLoo has shown what it takes to upset some of the top teams at IEM. Although they had an extremely poor performance against Cloud9 at the iBUYPOWER Masters, the team has a volatile style that has the potential to catch others off guard and may allow them to pave their way to the bracket stage of the event.
Group B Projected Results
1. SK Gaming
2. Ninjas in Pyjamas
3. Cloud 9
4. Heroic
5. mousesports
6. FaZe Clan
Teams to Watch:
Heroic/Cloud9
Heroic have remained steady since placing first at the Power-LAN in August, finishing third at both Northern Arenas as well as a second place finish at League of Sharks CS:GO Championship. It certainly helps that Group B seems to favor Heroic, as a few other teams in the The groups are placed in more favor for Heroic as a few teams in Group B have put together rocky performances in recent offline-tournaments. Given the wealth of North American teams located in Group B, the Danish org could wind up playing the role of villain, as they are expected to challenge many of the regional favorites in Group B.
Cloud9 are also looking to continue their winning streak, as they managed to place first at ESL Pro League Season 4 as well as a second place finish at iBUYPOWER Master 2016. Despite the second place finish, in-game leader Jake 'Stewie2k' Yip identified their flaws in a post-game interview commenting, "We do have emotional players, we do go on tilt for a little bit and when we do it takes a couple rounds to recover."
There's a reason Cloud9 look to be the favorites to advance through Group B -- look no farther than their recent match against TyLoo. Despite being one of the better CS:GO teams in the world, Cloud9 absolutely stomped the Chinese team, winning 16-0 at the aforementioned iBUYPOWER Master tournament. Should they be able to keep their emotions under control, they are more than capable of finishing first in their group.
