Gambit are the Winners of IEM Summer!

After almost two weeks of brutal matches, Gambit claimed the trophy of Intel Extreme Masters. Even though they had a tiny slip-up at the event, they managed to sweep the bracket confidently nonetheless. Their victory should not come as a surprise. 

After we had to miss out on Gambit at Flashpoint, they have shown once again that their #2 spot is justified. With the exception of their loss to Vitality, they were already the favorites to win the event at the beginning of the playoffs. No one was shocked when they set themselves on top of Evil Geniuses, G2, and OG.

Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov and Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov were star players at the event. From the OG squad, only Mateusz “mantuu” Wilczewski managed to even remotely hold a candle to them. As always, Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut is at the top, and Pavle “Maden” Bošković also played exceptionally well. In the end, this didn’t help the Vitality and FunPlus Phoenix squads, though, as their remaining players weren’t strong enough to carry the teams forward.

THE OG TRANSFORMATION

During the Grand Finals, the Gambit boys effortlessly dispatched OG. They secured a quick 3-0 finish, but the achievements of mantuu and his colleagues shouldn’t go unnoticed. Unlike Gambit, who have been at the top ever since IEM Katowice, OG have lived through a rough few months. Without the possibility of having a bootcamp, no single roster iteration managed to show its full power. Nathan “NBK-” Schmitt and Issa “ISSAA” Murad had to go, and even after signing Shahar “flameZ” Shushan and Nikolaj “niko” Kristensen, things didn’t go well. But finally, the team has found together.

The improvements showed almost immediately after the bootcamp commenced. All that was missing, apparently, was to get the players out of their rooms and into the bootcamp environment. It’s a massive achievement to now have fought past all these teams and into the Grand Finals. Maybe they haven’t even reached their full potential just yet. Now that the players seem unleashed, we might finally experience an OG that’s bound for the Top 5.

GAMBIT ARE THE BEST TEAM IN THE WORLD

At the end of the day, this tournament has gone to show that the Gambit players have full control over the CS:GO scene. Sure, they can lose a Best-of-Three from time to time, but their trophy collection is growing with enormous speed. At the BLAST Premier: Spring Finals, they’re back in the game and are mostly facing teams they have beaten already – with one notable exception: Natus Vincere.

Their defeat at DreamHack Masters: Spring is still in living memory. There, Gambit were unable to contend with Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev and his men. They followed this up with another loss at the CIS RMR event. So at the BLAST Premier: Spring Finals, it’s not just about the battle against the old favorites, but they also have to defeat their only real rivals. There’s no other way if they want to hold onto their crown.