IEM5 Europe Preview: Group B

With only one day left for the IEM5 European Championship Finals to kick off, we now take a look at the second and last group of the competition.

Group B, consisting of six teams, with Sweden the only country with two representatives, will kick off on Thursday at 15.00 (CET time). The winner of the group will automatically progress to the semi finals, while the runner-up and the third-placed team will meet the third-placed side and the runner-up from Group A, respectively.

Lions	Natus Vincere
Niklas "niko" Johansson	Arseny "esenin" Trynozhenko
Frej "kHRYSTAL" Sjöström	Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko
Emil "FYRR73" Karlsson	Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev
Björn "threat" Pers	Sergey "starix" Ischuk
Rasmus "Gux" Ståhl	Yegor "markeloff" Markelov
TCM-Gaming	fnatic
Baljit "zE-" Lal	Patrik "cArn" Sättermon
Danny "BERRY" Krüger	Harley "dsn" Örwall
Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer	Marcus "Delpan" Larsson
Michael "Friis" Jørgensen	Richard "Xizt" Landström
Taymaz "TAY" Babaiasl	Faruk "pita" Pita
forZe	ALTERNATE
Aleksey "HEL1" Novikov	David "CHEF-KOCH" Nagel
Dmitry "hooch" Bogdanov	Sebastian "zorn" Weber
Sergey "lmbt" Bezhanov	Christian "ChRRRRp" Porten
Emil "Kucher" Akhundov	Christian "crisby" Schmitt
Alexey "OverDrive" Birukov	Eduard "eddy" Schmidt

Natus Vincere…

Ukrainian giants Na´Vi, the only local team at the event, are the main favourite to pick up the gold, not only because they play in front of their crowd, but mainly because of their tremendous feats in 2010. Having picked up $220,000 last year, Na´Vi have every right to feature in the Counter-Strike Hall of Fame, and they are looking to extend their run in 2011,but will they be able to add the European Championship trophy to their already packed cabinet?

Na´Vi to continue where they let go in 2010?

Na´Vi underperformed at times in 2010, mostly after big tournaments they managed to win, which I believe tells more that they grow tired of the game after putting so much practice effort before a big competition rather than overconfidence. Their latest online results have not matched the fans’ expectations, but the team could be saving up tactics to kick off 2011 with a bang.

and the rest…

Like SK Gaming, fnatic travel to Kiev hoping that the winter roster changes will produce some effect and help the team improve on their 2010 results. However, that is no easy task, after losing their killing trio – Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg, Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund and Rasmus "Gux" Ståhl. In Richard "Xizt" Landström, fnatic have picked up arguably the most impressive player still in the Swedish outskirts, but that alone will not be enough to cause some serious damage.

Marcus "Delpan" Larsson and Faruk "pita" Pita are two great players, but with Harley "dsn" Örwall also on the team, it will be quite interesting to see how fnatic will position itself on the various maps, now that they have three quality AWPers. Time is not on fnatic's side, and the team is under huge pressure to deliver, in order to prove Sam Mathews that he made the right decision to go for Patrik "cArn" Sättermon’s project rather than the one which now lies in SK's hands.

The other Swedish team in the group, Lions, closed the curtain on 2010 with the bronze at DreamHack Winter, a result which looked to pave the way for a great year of 2011. However, shortly after this result, the team lost Richard "Xizt" Landström to fnatic and were forced to bring in Rasmus "Gux" Ståhl, gaining in experience what they had lost in firepower. Although fnatic have a much bigger tradition at events like this, Lions appear to have a more solid and better planned roster, so it should be no surprise if they finish the group above their fellow countrymen. And there must be a reason why Niklas "niko" Johansson turned down the chance to move to fnatic to stay with his boys.

Gux: New Lions wonderboy

Not many took the time to look at them, but TCM-Gaming, who played the regular season as Copenhagen Wolves, managed to survive a group with fnatic and Meet Your Makers and beat Iron Will in the relegation stage. After securing qualification for the event in Kiev, the team bolstered their squad with the addition of Michael "Friis" Jørgensen from Full-Gaming. Taymaz "TAY" Babaiasl's form in recent matches has received great praise from the community, but his lack of experience at big LAN events may hinder his contribution to the TCM cause. The Danes will probably have no trouble to finish at least in fourth place, and they will benefit from the fact that they will be the last team to meet Na´Vi in the group stage. With an inspiring performance against the Swedish duo, TCM-Gaming may well eye the third place in the group.

Group B  is expected to provide a different battle, one to see who avoids placing last, between ALTERNATE and forZe. Both teams come into this event with very low expectations, the Russian side because they are not even a team anymore and their players have gone their separate ways, while the juvenile German squad will be without Kenyon "KenaN" Temmel and Direnc "seraph" Öz, their substitutes being Eduard "eddy" Schmidt and Sebastian "zorn" Weber. Between these two teams, I would go for ALTERNATE, because three of their players at least have something to prove.

HLTV.org's final placing prediction:

1. Na´Vi
2. Lions
3. fnatic
4. TCM-Gaming
5. ALTERNATE
6. forZe

Group B schedule (all CET times):

Thursday, 20 January

15:00 forZe vs TCM-Gaming
15:00 fnatic vs Na´Vi
16:00 ALTERNATE vs Lions
17:00 ALTERNATE vs TCM-Gaming
17:00 forZe vs Na´Vi
17:00 fnatic vs Lions
18:00 ALTERNATE vs Na´Vi
19:00 Lions vs TCM-Gaming
20:00 fnatic vs forZe

Friday, 21 January

17:00 fnatic vs TCM-Gaming
18:00 ALTERNATE vs forZe
19:00 Lions vs Na´Vi
20:00 forZe vs Lions
20:00 Na´Vi vs TCM-Gaming
20:00 fnatic vs ALTERNATE

What about you? How do you think that Group B will end? Make your voice heard by using the comment box below. Remember to create your Dreamteam to compete against other HLTV.org users.

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