kassad: “I’d like to say that I never want to see the Swiss system in action at tournaments again.”

Thorin: Bad news for all karrigan defenders, myself included: he still has some of the worst frag stats in the history of this tournament. btrams has been watching and speculating throughout the entire IEM Cologne about whether the Team Falcons captain will break every negative statistical record there is. If I’m not mistaken, Maui has already checked, and if nothing changes and the team suddenly wins, it will go down in history as the one that managed to win a Tier 1 trophy with the lowest-rated player. So far, the team has mostly faced decent—or, let’s say, average—opponents, and even in those matches, they’ve run into difficulties. There have been plenty of overtime matches, third maps, close rounds, and incredible luck—in short: it doesn’t look like the Falcons are crushing everyone on the server. And what will happen next, when it’s Team Spirit, Team Vitality, and FURIA’s turn?

Mauisnake: To me, Team Falcons’ chances of winning this Major seem a bit slim and highly debatable, I’d say. Even if we set aside the head-to-head stats against Team Vitality—who are already waiting for them in the quarterfinals—I don’t really believe that NiKo is ready to conquer his inner demons and break the curse of playoff failures. If we take a closer look, I don’t think any of us would argue that karrigan will, 100 percent of the time, be the worst player on the server statistically, regardless of the match’s outcome. TeSeS, for his part, despite his stunning performance in the group stage, hasn’t been able to maintain consistent results in the later stages of tournaments throughout his career. In my opinion, Kyousuke hasn’t looked impressive in this championship; it’s as if he’s still not quite in his element with the new roster. It even seems as though NiKo has gained some confidence, while kyousuke, on the contrary, has lost some. I don’t know how all this will affect the results, but I’d probably rank the Falcons as the fifth-most likely team to take home the title.

kassad: I’d like to say that I never want to see the Swiss system in action at tournaments again. I think this Major and its early stages should be the final nails in the coffin of this format. This problem has been dragging on since the days when I worked as a coach for Renegades—even back then, we were already seeing all sorts of nightmarish tournament brackets. I want to see high-quality matchups in the semifinals and finals, not this nonsense. Don’t get me wrong—I’m not trying to downplay the achievements of 9z Team or BetBoom Team; they’ve proven their skill and made it to the playoffs, and I have no complaints about that. Let’s just imagine for a second that Natus Vincere beat G2 Esports—what would we have then? Team Spirit, Team Vitality, NAVI, and Team Falcons in one half of the bracket, and the rest of the teams in the other. That means the four best teams in the championship would be together, and only one of them would make it to the final. Of course, that wouldn’t stop people from watching the event, but just imagine how much more memorable the tournament could have been if those quarterfinal matchups from the current Major had faced off in the semifinals. <…>