OG, FPX, and G2 Pull Through to IEM Summer

The IEM Summer qualification event took place under tough circumstances. The Flashpoint Qualifier was held at the same time, which some teams took part in as well. But BIG and FaZe aren’t the only high-profile teams to not have made it through to IEM Summer.

Back during ESL Pro League, ENCE had put up a great show, but the honeymoon phase seems to be over already. Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer and his boys blew out of the IEM Summer Qualifier after their first game already. Movistar Riders performed incredibly well against them. Owen “smooya” Butterfield and his men were even responsible for a second upset in the bracket. In their follow-up match, they struck down FURIA and removed them from the Lower Bracket, who wound up exiting the tournament after a loss to FaZe later on.

OG AND FPX PULL THROUGH TO VICTORY

The new OG players inspire confidence in the team. Shahar “flameZ” Shushan plays an incredible brand of Counter-Strike, Nikolaj “niko” Kristensen fits the support role perfectly well. With victories over Trident, FaZe, and Movistar, they have proven their potential. But it’s still a long road until they can actually contend with the best teams in the world. Flashpoint Season 3 will be the lineup’s next big event.

FPX didn’t sweep the bracket with such confidence, though. Going up against SKADE, BIG, and G2 Esports, they dropped one map each, even though they eventually took over all these Best-of-Threes. Luka “emi” Vuković is doing a decent job as an in-game-leader and his individual performance in the qualifier was good enough to keep up with the team. Of course this might change as soon as he faces the likes of Heroic and Astralis.

WHERE HAVE BIG AND FAZE GONE?

The two top teams fell to the eventual qualifier winners. FaZe admitted defeat to OG and BIG suffered losses to FunPlus Phoenix. When the Germans then had to go up against mousesports in the Lower Bracket, they bombed out on two close maps. FaZe held their heads above water versus FURIA, but G2 proved to be too much.

So at the end, Nikola “NiKo” Kovač and his colleagues managed to snatch the last ticket from the Lower Bracket. Their IEM Summer journey goes on, after they have secured a quick 2-0 over mousesports. Unlike FaZe and BIG, mouz have a perfectly fine reason as to why they didn’t perform up to par in this event.

WHY WERE THERE TWO QUALIFIERS AT THE SAME TIME?

The mousesports experience serves as a great illustration for this problem. On the 27th of April, the team played out two Best-of-Threes in the Flashpoint Qualifier. In between, they had to compete in a tournament-fate-deciding game against BIG, which they fortunately managed to win. However, they lost their match versus G2 Esports the next day, failing right before the finishing line. Not only that, they then had to go up against Complexity on the same day. This match was for the qualification to Flashpoint Season 3! In a brutal Best-of-Three, which ended on two 13-16 maps, mouz had to admit defeat once more. These results beg the question whether they would have lost the match if they had only played out one tournament that day.

Circumstances like these shouldn’t exist. Especially during Covid times, when LAN tournaments aren’t blocking any time slots and planning should be easier than ever, things like this happen. For some teams, playing double tournaments might not have been an issue, but mousesports definitely suffered from it.

The players will have to live with the results. They will get more than enough chances to prove themselves during the remainder of 2021. Chris “dexter” Nong’s efforts are paying out and the team is on the rise – albeit slowly and carefully. OG, FPX, and G2 can enjoy themselves now. Their IEM Summer journey continues on. However, they’ll have to contend with Gambit, Astralis, and even more during the main event. It stands to question whether they’ll actually have the wits to make it there.