Europe Minor preview

Eight teams, ranked from 12th down to 39th, will attend the Europe Minor this week. The tournament will have the same format as the other Minors leading up to the FACEIT Major, with GSL groups that start off as BO1 but switch to BO3 for the lower bracket kicking off the action, and a BO3 double elimination bracket following suit. In the end, the two best teams of the tournament will advance to the FACEIT Major's New Challenger Stage.

GeT_RiGhT and f0rest are looking to make their first Major in over two years

Calling a clear favorite for the Europe Minor will not be easy, Ninjas in Pyjamas and OpTic are two big names struggling to live up to expectations, while teams such as ENCE and Kinguin are less experienced but approach the Minor in good form. LeftOut and Red Reserve, formerly EnVyUs and GODSENT, are also sides who can't be taken easily, leaving us with only two real outsiders - the 37th and 39th ranked teams, 3DMAX and Sprout.

Group A	Group B
OpTic	Kinguin
ENCE	Ninjas in Pyjamas
LeftOut	Red Reserve
3DMAX	Sprout

The groups seem fairly balanced, and the format doesn't allow for upsets to sway the way the tournament will play out too much, so let us dive into the teams and see how they look leading up to the event.

Group A

OpTic (#20)	Age	Rating
Jakob "⁠JUGi⁠" Hansen	21	1.18
René "⁠cajunb⁠" Borg	28	1.17
Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke	21	1.16
Nicklas "⁠gade⁠" Gade	23	0.99
Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer	28	0.89

Offline placings in the last three months
2nd	DreamHack Open Summer 2018
5th-6th	DreamHack Open Austin 2018
7th-8th	ESL Pro League S7 Finals

Ever since this roster was announced, the idea of having two Danish young stars in JUGi and k0nfig on the same squad has excited many. The duo has been delivering as JUGi, who is probably the strongest sniper at the event, leads the fragging department for his team and k0nfig follows closely behind, while the rejuvenation of cajunb, who has been putting up big numbers on LAN, has been the added cherry on top for OpTic.

Without the burden of the AWP, cajunb has been putting up big numbers

With youngster gade and IGL Snappi making up the rest of the roster, OpTic have found a stable mix of roles and personalities, but are still looking for big results. They started well offline as they beat Ninjas in Pyjamas and Space Soldiers at the ESL Pro League S7 Finals in May, but bombed out of DreamHack Open Austin shortly afterwards and couldn't claim the title at DreamHack Open Winter, falling to Imperial.

OpTic haven't blown off the roof with their showings, but they are attending the Minor with just enough time to have everything set—the squad has been together for three months and hasn't played too many online or offline games, which should see them amongst the better prepared teams in London. That, combined with impressive star power and a serious amount of experience across the board, makes OpTic a solid pick to make a good run at the Minor.

ENCE (#17)	Age	Rating
Jere "⁠sergej⁠" Salo	16	1.21
Aleksi "⁠allu⁠" Jalli	26	1.20
Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen	21	1.15
Jani "⁠Aerial⁠" Jussila	25	1.08
Sami "⁠xseveN⁠" Laasanen	23	1.01

Offline placings in the last three months
7th-8th	ESL One Cologne 2018
1st	Vectorama LAN 2018
1st	GG.BET Majestic - ESL One Cologne Qualifier

The Finnish superteam captained by veteran AWPer allu is seemingly peaking at the right time to make the Major, as recent showings have been far better than what we had seen from ENCE initially, when they struggled to beat unknown teams and make it through open qualifiers. The switch was flipped around the GG.BET Majestic ESL One Cologne Qualifier, in which ENCE first made it through the online stage and then beat AVANGAR, ALTERNATE aTTaX and Spirit to make it to the prestigeous event. Winning a local LAN, Vectorama, was a small stop before attending ESL One Cologne, where ENCE had a very good, yet somewhat overlooked run.

allu and co. eliminated both Ninjas in Pyjamas and MOUZ 2-0, but a narrow loss to Natus Vincere and a heavy one to Astralis saw them finish only 7th-8th. The final placing and the impressive run by BIG at the same tournament overshadowed the fact that ENCE didn't advance to the playoffs only because they lost to the two best teams in the world.

Three generations of Finnish Counter-Strike combined for a great showing in Cologne

Besides having a solid overall team-game, ENCE also stand out as a team making an uncharacteristically low number of mistakes and misplays for a side so young and inexperienced. Some credit for that has to go to the team's in-game leader, Aleksib, but the key man for the side is 16-year-old sergej who put in some marvellous displays in Cologne. If ENCE are able to repeat what they did in Germany, if they cope with the pressure of not being the underdog anymore, ENCE could easily take one of the two spots that lead to the Minor.

LeftOut (#24)	Age	Rating
Fabien "⁠kioShiMa⁠" Fiey	23	1.19
Adil "⁠ScreaM⁠" Benrlitom	24	1.10
Ali "⁠hAdji⁠" Haïnouss	22	0.97
Christophe "⁠SIXER⁠" Xia	27	0.90
Alexandre "⁠xms⁠" Forté	23	0.86

Offline placings in the last three months
3rd-4th	CS:GO Asia Championship
5th-6th	DreamHack Open Tours (3/5 players)
3rd	ESL Pro League S7 Relegation (3/5 players)
9th-12th	DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018 (3/5 players)

Removing a two-time Major winner and a Counter-Strike: Source legend from the picture turned out to be the formula for success for the former Envy team, who played their best tournament in ages with SIXER and xms coming in as stand-ins at CS:GO Asia Championship. Even though the two new-old players didn't have insane games themselves, kioShiMa and ScreaM were able to find some of their old mojo and carry the squad to a semi-final appearance.

hAdji could be the x-factor for LeftOut at the minor

The French team, now playing as LeftOut, is hard to quantify due to the limited number of games played. There is a decent amount of experience among four of the members, but their chances might just come down to the performances of the least seasoned one, hAdji. It feels like the young gun will have to rediscover some of his EnVyUs Academy level if LeftOut want to have a serious run at the Minor.

3DMAX (#39)	Age	Rating
Audric "⁠JACKZ⁠" Jug	26	1.22*
Lucas "⁠Lucky⁠" Chastang	20	1.14*
David "⁠Davidp⁠" Prins	23	1.10*
Gaëtan "⁠JiNKZ⁠" Jamin	23	1.04*
Bryan "⁠Maka⁠" Canda	21	1.03*

Formerly known as NOBO, 3DMAX are a team that unexpectedly sneaked through the closed qualifier and made it to the Europe Minor, but they are not a fully unknown, young team. JACKZ is a 26-year-old who has been around the French scene for a while, most recently representing EnVyUs Academy, Davidp was a part of PENTA alongside Kevin "⁠kRYSTAL⁠" Amend, Maka got some spotlight when he made the playoffs of the WESG EU & CIS Finals with Limitless, and they will also have the coaching support of ex-Envy Damien "⁠maLeK⁠" Marcel.

The Frenchmen have been decent in ESEA MDL, sitting on an 11W-5L record and beat some quality teams to make it to the Minor—Ninjas in Pyjamas, Japaleno and Windigo—, but they are still the clear outsiders of the group, with not even a single LAN played in their last three months for us to have an idea of how they will fare in an offline environment.

Group B

Kinguin (#26)	Age	Rating
Paweł "⁠reatz⁠" Jańczak	23	1.14
Jacek "⁠MINISE⁠" Jeziak	24	1.14
Karol "⁠rallen⁠" Rodowicz	24	1.13
Mikołaj "⁠mouz⁠" Karolewski	22	1.07
Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas	32	1.06

Offline placings in the last three months
1st	ZOTAC Cup Masters 2018 Europe
5th-8th	Good Game League 2018
2nd	ESL Polish Championship Spring

Similarly to ENCE, Kinguin are a team that didn't explode onto the scene when it came together, but has started to show promising signs as of late. Some good online results were followed by a disappointing 5th-8th at the Poland Good Game League 2018, but they were placed in the only competitive three-team group of the tournament, along with x-kom and Fragsters.

TaZ, who took over the calling and allowed MINISE to focus solely on AWPing, led his squad to a victory at the ZOTAC Cup Masters 2018 Europe and to a 3-0 run in the Minor Closed Quaifier, but it must be pointed out that the teams that they defeated weren't the toughest out there: Fragsters, Nordavind and Sprout. The team's fragging is balanced out fairly, with reatz and MINISE having been the key players so far alongside rallen, who is known for his high impact plays.

TaZ is looking play a Major with a different crop of Polish players

Veteran smarts and young talent are a decent mixture for Kinguin, who will be hoping to go through the group with back-to-back BO1 wins if possible, especially if Ninjas in Pyjamas fumble, as avoiding playing the Swedes in a BO3 is imperative.

Ninjas in Pyjamas (#12)	Age	Rating
Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg	30	1.12
Jonas "⁠Lekr0⁠" Olofsson	25	1.06
Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner	20	1.04
Dennis "⁠dennis⁠" Edman	27	0.95
Christopher "⁠GeT_RiGhT⁠" Alesund	28	0.92

Offline placings in the last three months
13th-16th	ESL One Cologne
5th-6th	CS:GO Asia Championship
5th-8th	StarSeries i-League S5 (4/5 players)
13th-16th	ESL Pro League S7 Finals (4/5 players)
5th-8th	DreamHack Masters Marseille (4/5 players)

ESL One Cologne was a tournament that Ninjas in Pyjamas will be hoping to forget as soon as possible as dennis' men had one of the worst showings ever for an invited team, finishing with just 11 rounds from three maps. Despite the most recent disappointment, Ninjas in Pyjamas haven't been that bad overall, with decent placings across the last three months, including top eight at DreamHack Masters Marseille and StarSeries i-League S5. Still, they have not been anywhere near winning titles, which is what saw them make their latest roster move, replacing William "⁠draken⁠" Sundin with Lekr0.

Making it to the Major would be a great relief for GeT_RiGhT and co.

We haven't seen the new roster reach any new heights yet, and the issue of not having a dedicated AWPer is apparent, but even with all of that taken in account, Ninjas in Pyjamas have a roster capable of beating anyone at the tournament—and they are the highest ranked team coming in. One of the struggles is their overall inconsistency, which seems linked to an up-and-down player like f0rest being their best player in the last three months.

Working against them is also the pressure they have going in: not only does a team like Ninjas in Pyjamas always expect to be at the Major, but they have not been present at one for so long, the last one being ESL One Cologne 2016. With a lot of pressure on their backs and the field at the Europe Minor being very stacked, the Swedes won't be able to start out slowly or lose their footing half-way through without being severely punished.

Red Reserve (#25)	Age	Rating
Hampus "⁠hampus⁠" Poser	19	1.13
Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin	16	1.10
Joakim "⁠disco doplan⁠" Gidetun	22	1.07
Simon "⁠twist⁠" Eliasson	23	1.05
Fredrik "⁠freddieb⁠" Buö	24	0.96

Offline placings in the last three months
7th-8th	DreamHack Open Summer
9th-11th	StarSeries i-League S5
3rd-4th	DreamHack Open Tours 2018
1st	Qi Invitational

The third-best Swedish team is still floating around the 20th-30th place in the world ranking, with their sporadic LAN outings not being too impressive. The squad did win the Qi Invitational, but they failed to impress at their last three events, finishing 3rd-4th at DreamHack Open Tours, 9th-11th at StarSeries i-League S5 and 7th-8th at DreamHack Open Summer.

hampus has been making the calls and hitting the shots for Red Reserve

Red Reserve's online form has been somewhat better, they are in the ESEA MDL playoff zone and made it through the closed qualifier for the Minor in convincing fashion, only losing to Sprout, who they could have a rematch against in the group stage here. Their first opponent is Ninjas in Pyjamas, though, which will set up a domestic matchup, in which upsets are always more likely. If the opening game goes their way, it isn't hard seeing Red Reserve in the playoffs, but that's when they will need twist to step up his game a bit if they really want to make the Major.

Sprout (#37)	Age	Rating
Denis "⁠denis⁠" Howell	23	1.13
Martin "⁠PERCY⁠" Wessel	24	1.06
Timo "⁠Spiidi⁠" Richter	22	1.06
Niels Christian "⁠NaToSaphiX⁠" Sillassen	21	1.03
Dennis "⁠sycrone⁠" Nielsen	22	0.91

Offline placings in the last three months
2nd	PMU Challenge 2018 Finals

A rocky ride through the closed qualifier, which began with wins against Windigo and Red Reserve but then almost turned sour following losses to Kinguin and ENCE, was concluded successfully by Sprout after all. The Danish-German squad managed to defeat AGO in the final game as their AWPer NaToSaphiX shined with 50K-21D in the two-map series.

sycrone's addition as in-game leader was a key roster move the team made recently, while former MOUZ support player denis stepped up and became the main fragger for this squad. Aside from him and Spiidi, the rest of the team isn't that experienced in terms of facing big teams on LAN, which could make this event a tough one for Sprout. Their only recent LAN was at the four-team PMU Challenge 2018, where they finished second, but that can hardly give us a lot of confidence about their performance at the Minor, where they will face in-form youngsters as well as legends of the game such as f0rest and TaZ.