What can we expect from EPIC CIS League 2021?

The rating CS: GO championship EPIC CIS League 2021 starts today, in which 16 CIS teams will take part. We will tell you what we expect from this tournament and remind in what form the most interesting participants of the event are in our opinion.

NAVI

One of the main favorites of this event is, of course, the Natus Vincere team. Recently s1mple and his teammates won the DreamHack Masters Spring 2021 championship with a prize pool of $ 250,000. The main reward for the team was $ 100,000 and 1,000 ESL Pro Tour rating points. The team made an incredible journey and prevailed in the grand final 3-0 against Gambit Esports, the team considered the best in the world by HLTV. Gambit, by the way, became the first CIS roster after NAVI, which managed to score 1,000 points in this version of the list of the best CS: GO teams in the world, and therefore the victory over Gambit can be considered a serious achievement for NAVI.

In this championship, we believe that Natus Vincere will definitely reach the top 4, but we are not sure of their triumph, since the team may show an unstable game, and if NAVI reach the grand final, then the motivation is in the form of the main prize in the form of $ 15,000. which is only $ 5,000 more than the second highest prize would be somewhat dubious.

Gambit Esports

Gambit Esports, as mentioned above, is the leader in the world ranking, which still has 1,000 points from HLTV. The team has shown an excellent performance for a long time. Even during their constant participation in tier-2 tournaments, Gambit proved that they have such strengths as perseverance, constant striving for improvement, self-improvement, and so on. After their offensive defeat in the grand final of DreamHack Masters Spring 2021 against NAVI, for some reason we are confident that the team will not tilt and show bad results, but prepare for the tournament in a special way, which will most likely allow them to reach not only top 4, but also to the grand final.

Virtus.pro

Against the background of the last performances, Virtus.pro look a little faded compared to their fellow countrymen from other CIS teams. At the end of February, they managed to surprise the audience and take second place at IEM Katowice 2021, losing in the grand final against Gambit Esports, but after that the team's results began to decline. We do not think that the team will show an amazing result in the EPIC CIS League 2021, but we cannot rule out this, since in such events with not very large prize money everything can happen very unpredictably. We think that Virtus.pro must go to the top-8 and if they cannot reach the playoffs, then they will need to think about changes in the roster.

Team Spirit

Leonid 'chopper' Vishnyakov with his teammates is another interesting representative of the CIS fauna that will be interesting to watch. The last changes in the "dragons" team took place in early January with the arrival of Abdulkhalik 'degster' Hasanov. It was rented from ESPADA, and at IEM Katowice 2021, the team together with the rest of the CIS teams were able to surprise the audience with their results. If anyone does not remember, IEM Katowice 2021 was remembered by the public for the fact that all four, representing the CIS region represented by Gambit Esports, NAVI, Team Spirit and Virtus.pro, were in the top six of the playoffs. After that event, Team Spirit became the winners of the Winstrtike CIS Cup Spring 2021 and received their legal invite to BLAST Premier Spring Showdown 2021. There the team entered the top four and repeated the same result at the Pinnacle Cup. The team was able to make it to DreamHack Masters Spring 2021, but took the 9th-12th place there. As we can see, the results of the CIS team were good until recently, but it is possible that the team will show its maximum again and reach the top 4 or even the grand final. For this reason, we expect interesting matches with Team Spirit.

bankaPEPSI

The bankaPEPSI mix was compiled quite recently and it includes xsepower, which once shone in forZe, lyNNN, and three players from HellRaisers represented by kalinka, ProbLeM and JIaYm. The latter two still have contracts with HR and have been leased there, and kalinka has already become a free agent. The team has played only six matches so far and won four of them. This allowed the team to climb to 84th place in the HLTV rating in a short time. We believe that watching xsepower at the EPIC CIS League 2021 will be at least interesting.

Entropiq

Let's not forget about Entropiq, who, after leaving Winstirke, hardly found a new club with which they can cooperate. It will be extremely important for the team to show good results in order to strengthen the relationship with the management of Entropiq, and therefore the team will not be motivated.

EPIC CIS League 2021 started on May 12 and will end on the 30th. The total prize fund of the rating CIS-league will be $ 40,000. The winner will take with him $ 15,000 and 1,600 RMR points, which will be needed to advance to the next Major CS: GO tournament, PGL Major Stockholm 2021.