Can kennyS lead his team to Paris?

Group A of the European RMR starts tomorrow. We have taken a look at some of the storylines and tried to predict the event down below.

16 teams are slotted into group A, where eight teams will advance to the BLAST.tv Paris Major. Teams placed from 9th-11th will play in a last chance stage against the teams in the same position in group B. The six teams will fight for the 17th European spot for the Major.

The group will be played out in the Swiss format. This means that you will always play against a team with a similar score. If you win your first game, you will face another winner from the opening round and so on.

Opening round Thursday: (CEST)

11.00: Virtus.pro – SAW
11.00: MOUZ – B8

12.30: Fnatic – Viperio
12.30: Natus Vincere – Into the Breach

14.00: Bad News Eagles – 1WIN
14.00: Sprout – Falcons

15.30: FaZe – OG
15.30: Apeks – GamerLegion

The group is significantly weaker than group B. The average world ranking is 29 for group A, while the number for group B is 19!

FaZe and NAVI on top

It would be hard to not place FaZe and NAVI as the two teams who are predicted to go 3-0 in the group. The number two and four on the world ranking should be able to qualify without any problems.

The same could be said about Virtus.pro. The reigning Major champions are also expected to ease through the group. The team might be a little rusty having only played one competitive match in the last month, which they lost 2-0 to forZe.

Fnatic, OG, and MOUZ should also be able to go through with a 3-1 or 3-2 score. Fnatic is probably the team hardest to predict with their recent results in mind. A weak map pool could be a problem in the bo1 matches.

Can BNE bring the hype again?

Bad News Eagles have qualified for the last two Majors but outside of the biggest tournament in CS:GO, the team almost seems to go into hibernation. The team has not won any of the smaller tournaments that they have attended since the IEM Rio Major. Their opening match against 1WIN will be a very good indication of the form.

GamerLegion is somewhat in the same category. The team has mostly played against lower-tier opponents since they were knocked out of the IEM Rio Major. Their last match was against a bunch of Germans called EPIC DUDES, where GL actually lost. So, what can we expect from them?

kennyS is the key

The former NAVI in-game leader Kirill "Boombl4" Mikhaylov leads 1WIN, who has been inconsistent in the past months. They seem to belong in the contenders' group alongside SAW, B8, and Falcons. They could all have the chance to go 3-2, but are probably most likely to be among the teams, that have to play against the teams from group B for the 17th and last European ticket to the Major.

Boombl4 is back. If things pan out, he could face his former teammates for the first time since he was benched on NAVI.

It will especially be interesting to follow Falcons, who are fighting for the right to play on home turf in Paris. The team has had some okay results lately, but they need to see a stronger performance from their legendary AWP’er Kenny "kennyS" Schrub, if they are going to make it. kennyS is rated 0.92 on 12 maps in the last month.

Apeks, Sprout, Viperio, and Into the Breach are to be considered the clear underdogs in this event. Sprout has been playing poorly lately with only a 26.9% win rate during the last three months. Into the Breach will for the first time in its history face a team placed within the top 30 of the world ranking. They start out with NAVI.

Viperio has not been able to follow up on their fine results at the closed qualifiers. The Irish/English team has lost 13 matches in a row against the likes of ENCE Academy, Iron Branch, Partizan etc. They are currently placed 80th on the world ranking. If they make it to Paris, it will be one of the all-time biggest upsets.

That leaves us with Apeks. The Norwegian-owned team has some fine players in Martin "STYKO" Styk and Joakim "jkaem" Myrbostad, but the roster seems to be stuck in the tier-2 scene at the moment. They have recently won against BIG, which gives some promise.

Here is our prediction for group A of the European RMR:

1st-2nd: NAVI and FaZe

3rd-4th: Virtus.pro and MOUZ

5th-8th: Fnatic, OG, Falcons, and Bad News Eagles.

9th-11th: GamerLegion, SAW, 1WIN

12th-16th: Apeks, Sprout, Into the Branch, and Viperio

The tournament is played on location in Copenhagen and will last from Thursday to Sunday.