The StarSeries i-League Season 7 is now out of the Swiss System and into the knockout stage with the four quarterfinal matchups set and seeded. With the action coming this Friday, we take a look at the teams and their way to the quarters, as well as how they scale up to one another.
The Fnatic squad plowed through the Swiss stage with a 3-0 scoreline and dropping only a single map to NiP as they face North in the all-Scandinavian matchup for a spot at the semis. And while FNC looks extremely well, North had to overcome both mibr and FaZe to deserve their spot and get a ton of “practice” on the 12 maps they played during StarSeries. FNC only managed to play Mirage, Nuke, Cache and Overpass so far, which gives North plenty of angles of attack when it comes to map pick/bans. This first matchup will also set the tone for the entire quarterfinals stage.
© Igor Bezborodov
Renegades is the other team yet to drop a match at SS i-L since they come up in their quarterfinal matchup against the Ninjas in Pyjamas. The Renegades squad overcame both of the better seeded mibr and FaZe to get the top seed. We covered the downfall of mibr in our previous article, as for FaZe; Renegades had to overcome adversity in a flat out brawl on three maps against FaZe where rounds could go either way at every map. The win in this series secured Renegades playoffs and probably broke FaZe mentally for their following two matchups which they managed to lose and get themselves eliminated from the competition.
The opponent of Renegades comes in the form of NiP, who had a “relatively” easier path to the playoffs dropping their opener to fnatic and then handing defeats and eliminations to both ViCi and Spirit for their spot at the quarters. Ever since William “draken” Sundin was added to the squad, NiP has been trying to figure themselves out in terms of what works for them on every map. As a squad they work well on every map, apart from Inferno which is a bonus in the upcoming matchup as long as Inferno is banned. Additionally, the pistol rounds seem to end up on NiP’s side at this event, so they might just be able to overcome Renegades in the quarters.
© Igor Bezborodov
The Vitality squad has had an amazing showing in Shanghai so far. They bested both BIG and ENCE in the early stages and only dropped their matchup versus the undefeated Fnatic in their 3rd match of the Swiss phase. They secured their playoff spot by knocking Spirit down to their NiP matchup (2:1) and showed they are in good form coming up in the playoffs. Opposite to them are NRG who come out of the 2-2 pool where NRG had to fight hard to best BIG in a bo3. It was the squad of BIG that came out swinging in the early stages of Mirage with a 3-0 lead on CT side. However, they came out short once the economy bounced back as NRG took 4 in a row to bring the half closer, which in turn ended with a 9-6 lead for BIG. The second half saw BIG do a good pistol round and everything after that until the remainder of the series started falling apart. Clutch rounds were lost on Mirage and they came up short losing the map 16:13 followed by a whitewash on Cache where NRG completely dominated (16:4) and secured they spot in the playoffs against Vitality.
© StarLadder
The final matchup of the quarterfinals is the sweetest as we get a repeat from the IEM Katowice semifinals between NaVi and ENCE. Will it be an #EZ4ENCE or will S1mple get his revenge for the defeat they were handed out at IEM? It should ultimately come down to the performance of Edward and Zeus versus Allu and xseveN as both teams come into this quarters matchup. With both teams having good stats on Train and Mirage, it may come down to maps, NaVi doesn’t have a solid win chance on. That would give ENCE the edge in this matchup. As this is the last quarterfinal it will also be played a day later on Saturday, April 6th at 6am CEST.
Finally, our predictions are as follows: (*predicted winners in bold)
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