IEM6 WC group A preview

The time has come to preview group A of the first major tournament in 2012, the Intel Extreme Masters season six World Championship taking place on March 6-10 in Hannover, Germany.

Featuring a total of twelve teams split up in two groups of six, the IEM6 World Championship features just about every top team in the world right now. Although certain teams dropped out, ESL was able to keep the tournament full with replacements.

In the group stage each team plays each other once in a best-of-one format where both teams eliminate three maps from the seven map pool which consists of de_dust2, de_forge, de_inferno, de_mirage de_nuke, de_train and de_tuscan.

SK Gaming(f0rest, face, GeT_RiGhT, RobbaN, trace)

Following a demolition by Na`Vi in the grand final of IEM6 GC Kiev, SK Gaming went through with a roster change which saw Markus "Delpan" Larsson get replaced by former mTw star Martin "trace" Heldt. The new lineup debuted in TECHLABS Cup where they lost against ALTERNATE in their opening match, but took down Virtus.pro, WinFakt, Vifort and KerchNET to qualify for the grand final which will take place roughly three weeks from now in Moscow. On paper this team has the most skill out of anyone in attendance, but as we know so well, skill isn't everything in Counter-Strike. SK has been putting in a fairly good amount of practice.

SK is a big favorite over mousesports, TyLoo and Anexis and should have no problem advancing. I think Na`Vi are favorites over them on most maps, and ESC is a really close match up which will depend a lot on the map. ESC's style of playing mid round scenarios might cause problems if trace's communication isn't up to par yet as well. SK will finish in the top three of group A, but surprisingly to many, I think if Na`Vi and ESC don't lose a map against Anexis or mousesports, they could even end up 3rd, but still advance.

Prediction: 3rd in group A

IEM6 WC will be trace's first real test in SK 

Natus Vincere(ceh9, Edward, markeloff, starix, Zeus)

Natus Vincere are the two time defending champions of Intel Extreme Masters and they won the last big tournament, IEM6 Global Challenge Kiev over SK just over a month ago. They also qualified for the grand final of TECHLABS Cup after wins against SharkGaming, Lions, Moscow Five and fnatic, despite of a tie against Vifort. Overall the switch to having Sergey "starix" Ischuk call strats instead of their long time leader Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko seems to be working out, and they will bootcamp roughly ten days prior to IEM.

Natus Vincere is a favorite over everyone in their group on paper, with the closest matchup being ESC Gaming. They lost against Anexis at ESWC but I don't see that happening again after their strat caller change presumably fixed the problems with arguments happening during matches. I think Na`Vi is the most likely out of the top three teams in this group to get upset by mousesports, so it's really hard to pick a winner in this group as the best three teams aren't likely to defeat the other teams without a single upset. Na`Vi will advance out of the group stage though, whether its as first, second or third.

Prediction: 1st in group A

Can the world's best sniper win his third IEM WC title? 

ESC Gaming(kuben, Loord, neo, pasha, TaZ)

ESC Gaming hasn't seen much time in the headlines since winning the World Cyber Games for the third time, as they failed to qualify for the Global Challenge in Kiev but magically once again found their way to the World Championship. The Poles are currently bootcamping in Frankfurt and will continue to do so until heading over to CeBIT, so you can count on them being fully prepared and in good shape for in time for the event's kick off.

Interestingly enough, ESC has a good chance of beating both SK Gaming and Natus Vincere in the group stage, but their level of play also varies the most I think, so if they have a bad day and Filip "neo" Kubski doesn't play well, they could get upset by Anexis or mousesports, although I wouldn't bet on either one happening. ESC has always defeated all Chinese teams with ease so I doubt TyLoo will cause them problems, but they have to be careful with mousesports and hope to defeat at least either SK or Na`Vi to guarantee advancement even if upsets happen. They should advance as well though.

Prediction: 2nd in group A

ESC's main fraggers have to put in work if they wish to make finals again 

Anexis (BERRY, Nuggi, SFM, Snappi, zE-)

Anexis has struggled a lot ever since losing Michael "Friis" Jorgensen and joining the organization. They have since then dropped out in the group stage of IEM6 GC Guangzhou, ESWC, MSI Beat It Russia and TECHLABS Cup, while their only glimmer of light happened at DreamHack Winter where the team's star player Nicolaj "Nuggi" Larsen was missing and Martin "trace" Heldt acted as a stand-in. They were also unable to qualify for IEM6 GC Kiev, and have yet to attend a LAN tournament in 2012. They are a solid, good team for sure, but so far they have never been able to show it when it really matters.

Luckily for Anexis all hope is not lost, as they have often managed to upset a team that is clearly above their own level if you look at the big picture (fnatic in Guangzhou, Na`Vi at ESWC) but if I had to bet money on it, I just couldn't predict the Danes to make it out of this group. One of their problem is their inability to secure wins over the teams they shouldn't have much problems with, as they fell against eFuture in Guangzhou and Defining Stars in Paris. In Hannover that team would be TyLoo, and even on top of them, they would have to take down at least one of the top three teams in the world, as well as mousesports who you would currently have to rank above them as well.

Prediction: 5th in group A

Can BERRY lead his team out of the group stage? 

mousesports (gob b, karrigan, roman, zonic, zonixx)

mousesports' new lineup was probably the most hyped up one prior to IEM6 Global Challenge Kiev and the qualifications leading up to it, but also disappointed a lot. Despite of managing to place sixth in the qualifer and claim a spot after the Asian team dropped out, mousesports wasn't able to take out any of the three same teams in Kiev that they lost against in the online qualifier - fnatic, Moscow Five and WinFakt. They opened up with a tie against M5, but two straight losses put them out in last place.

Since then the team has had quite a bit of time to practice, and it was rumoured they were very close to signing Martin "trace" Heldt right before he chose to go with SK Gaming instead. Assuming the player who was going to get the boot was aware of this, that might also create some problems within the team that will only escalate if they continue to be unable to produce results in Hannover. Unfortunately with how hard of a group they were dealt at IEM6 WC, it's really hard to predict this team to advance out of it. I think they will beat Anexis and TyLoo, and even stand a chance at upsetting one of the top three teams, but I don't see it happening so mousesports will likely have to settle for a 7-8th place.

Prediction: 4th in group A

Pressure's on these guys to prove their worth at CeBIT 

TyLoo (Kingz, Mo, Savage, tb, xf)

It is extremely hard to even begin to comment on TyLoo who haven't seen international action since the IEM6 Global Challenge Guangzhou, where they fell short against mousesports and WinFakt, unable to advance from the opening group stage. The Chinese teams haven't seen success since the retirement of Zhengwei "alex" Bian, partly due to not having attended as many international events but also because the few times they have, they were unable to make any noise. In fact, eFuture actually seemed to be stronger of the two in Guangzhou as they took down Anexis on their way to a fourth place finish, but were unable to attend the World Championship.

TyLoo has their work cut out for them in Hannover as they've been placed in a very tough group with four teams you have to assume are stronger than them, and one who could be roughly on the same level. I think they are probably at around 40-60 type odds against Anexis and even against mousesports on certain maps, but I doubt they stand a chance against any of the top three teams and will go out in the group stage, probably as the second to last or dead last team. On the plus side of things, this time they did manage to get visas, so we will actually see a Chinese team in Europe.

Prediction: 6th in group A

Savage in action for TyLoo at e-Stars Seoul last year 

As in the past two years, the number one team of each group will qualify directly to the semi finals while the second and third placing teams will play each other in the quarter finals. All of playoffs will be played in a best-of-three single elimination bracket.

Who do you think will top the group ESL titled as the "group of death" and who will round up the top three teams making it out of this group? Leave a comment below with your predictions!