Elisa Invitational Group B kicks off 12:30 EET on Tuesday 27th of October. Teams in this group are GODSENT, HAVU, Dignitas and Lyngby Vikings.

After ENCE forfeited and groups were seeded again, three teams must have breathed a sigh of relief. Originally, HAVU, GODSENT and Dignitas were in the same group with Heroic instead of Lyngby Vikings.

Both new and old seeding was made by teams rating each other, and there were no doubt about the two best teams in the tournament. In all the updated answers after ENCE’s forfeit, Heroic was rated as the best team, while GODSENT was rated right behind them by almost all teams.

GODSENT are definitely the biggest favorite to win the group. However, their recent performances have been anything but consistent. Dignitas has changed two players, so their form against HAVU is interesting to see in their opening match.

Teams were interviewed in the beginning of October, a few weeks prior to the tournament. Since then, a lot has changed. Main differences are that ENCE forfeited their spot, and two teams will qualify for BLAST Premier Fall Showdown instead of one.

Opening matches and Winners’ match are best-of-one, and they are played on Tuesday. Both Losers’ match and Decider match are best-of-three, they are played on Wednesday and Thursday.


GODSENT

GODSENT has definitely had its ups and downs lately. This tweet was made after difficult match against North, in which they lost 0-2 (6-16, 6-16).

HLTV rank (19th of October): #19th

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  • DreamHack Open Fall: #11th

Players

NickNameAgeCountry
zehNJesse Linjala28Finland
STYKOMartin Styk24Slovakia
kRYSTALKevin Amend27Germany
MadenPavle Bošković21Montenegro
FarligAsger Jensen21Denmark

GODSENT had a very disappointing Elisa Invitational, as they were eliminated by finishing last in their group. A few weeks later the organization announced that their AWP player Mikael “Maikelele” Bill was moved to bench, as Asger “farlig” Jensen was acquired from Copenhagen Flames. 

They didn’t have much time to practice with their new AWPer, because they played DreamHack Masters Spring, ESL Pro League S12 Europe and cs_summit 6 in a short timespan before the player break. The global pandemic also prevented them from bootcamping, until the beginning of October.

So far with this lineup, they have had promising results against good teams, but they have lacked consistency. DreamHack Open Fall was their latest tournament, in which they finished 11th. Once again, they had a huge gap between their good and bad performances.

Jesse “zehN” Linjala, farlig and Jonatan “Devilwalk” Lundberg represented the team during Elisa Invitational media sessions. In this article, comments are from zehN. Answers from both farlig and devilwalk can be seen in our broadcasts. Here are some of the topics we discussed.

In-game roles

zehN

– We can start with farlig, he’s the main AWPer for our team. Basically his role is to be the entry-fragger with AWP sometimes, doing aggressive moves. Sometimes he’s holding angles. If someone doesn’t know how AWPers usually work, he has to be very mobile around the map and do certain type of plays.

– Then we have maden, who is our entry-fragger on T sides. On CT sides he’s usually playing A sites with a second guy. His role is usually to create space for us, when we’re playing as terrorist and going for sites. Or as a CT he usually loves to do a lot of plays around the map and get info and room for us.

– Then we have kRYSTAL, who is the in-game leader. His role is to try to read and call what we should do in certain situations. Sometimes he’s mid-round calling, sometimes he sacrifices himself for maden or for our AWPer, so basically he’s doing a lot of dogwork, as people would use this word.

– Then we have STYKO, who is our lurkish player, lurking on the other side of the map. For example, in Nuke he’s usually anchoring alone on ramp on the CT side and lurking lobby on T side.

– Then it’s me, I’m usually on the other side opposite to STYKO. I will be also alone sometimes, I’m also lurking a lot and doing a lot of plays. I also play anchor on the other side of the map on CT sides, for example in Train I play inside [B-site]. I’m usually getting also a lot of info for us and try to make room and plays on CT-side.

Toughest opponent in the tournament

zehN: 

– I think it has to be Heroic. I just think their playstyle is hard for us a little bit. We have practiced and played a few officials against them. We have the potential to upset them, but I just think they play a little bit different. Under every Danish IGL it’s different. MSL calls different, gla1ve calls different and so does cadiaN. It’s a little bit different, so we just have to adapt and try to beat them if we face them.

Goals and expectations for Elisa Invitational Fall 2020

zehN: 

– Our goals and expectations are to move through the groups and obviously fight for the title, but we know that there is Heroic and other higher tier teams. We are at our bootcamp trying to fight our curse, so that we can close out games and upset teams like this. Basically our first goal is to get to the semi-finals.


HAVU Gaming

HAVU earned their spot in the tournament by winning the Elisa CS:GO Finnish Championship 2020 tournament.

HLTV rank (19th of October): #49th

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Players

NickNameAgeCountry
xseveNSami Laasanen26Finland
sAwEetu Saha28Finland
ZOREELasse Uronen27Finland
sLowiOlli Pitkänen24Finland
dotoJoonas Forss24Finland

HAVU surprised everyone during the first season of Flashpoint, but third place there wasn’t followed with success back in Europe. They were shocked in the Finnish Esports League final in July, as KOVA Esports surprised them 2-1. A few weeks later they announced that Aaro “hoody” Peltokangas quits CS:GO to start a new career with VALORANT.

They found the best possible replacement, as they acquired Sami “xseveN” Laasanen from ENCE. They have already won the FunSpark Ulti European qualifier and they also claimed their spot in the Elisa Invitational by winning Elisa CS:GO Finnish Championship 2020. In the final, KOVA won the first map Vertigo, but HAVU had no trouble winning the two following maps.

After ENCE forfeited, HAVU is the only Finnish team in the tournament. Their first opponent is Dignitas, who hasn’t played any officials with their two new guys. They aren’t completely in the dark about their opponent though. According to Dignitas interviews during Elisa Invitational media sessions, they have practiced against each other.

Taneli “disturbed” Veikkola and xseveN represented the team during Elisa Invitational media sessions. Here are some of the topics we discussed.

In-game roles

disturbed

– sAw is the in-game leader, controlling everyone else. ZOREE is the main AWP. Doto is the lurker extraordinaire. Then xseveN is kind of a support player with sLowi, who’s entering the sites.

Toughest opponent in the tournament

disturbed: 

– I think it’s Heroic. They’ve been playing pretty solid CS for the past 2-3 months. They’re the #1 team in the world right now. I think they’re the best team attending. GODSENT is another nemesis for us.

Goals and expectations for Elisa Invitational Fall 2020

disturbed:

– The main goal for us is to win the event. We have been trying to work out all things and make a big next step for the whole year after Flashpoint.

xseveN:

– It’s pretty simple, it’s to win the Elisa Invitational.


Dignitas

A month ago, Dignitas decided to bench both Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund and Richard “Xizt” Landström.

HLTV rank (19th of October): #71st

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Players

NickNameAgeCountry
f0restPatrik Lindberg32Sweden
fribergAdam Friberg29Sweden
hallzerkHåkon Fjærli20Norway
H4RR3Haris Hadzic23Norway
HEAPLudvig Alonso20Sweden

Dignitas surprised everyone in the last Elisa Invitational, by qualifying to BLAST Premier Spring Showdown. In the final they took down Heroic, who was making their comeback after the failed FunPlus Phoenix deal. In this tournament, Dignitas is the team that has recently changed two players.

In September, both Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund and Richard “Xizt” Landström were benched. NiP legends were replaced with young hitters Haris “H4RR3” Hadžić and Ludvig “HEAP” Alonso. Elisa Invitational will be the first tournament with this line-up, and their first official will be against none other than Heroic.

Dignitas lost a lot of experience, but these roster changes might give them a fresh start. If they lose their opener against HAVU, they need to win two best-of-threes to advance to playoffs. Just like last time, they aren’t the favorites to qualify.

Adam “friberg” Friberg, H4RR3 and Halvor “vENdetta” Gulestøl represented the team during Elisa Invitational media sessions. Here are some of the topics we discussed.

In-game roles

friberg

– I’ll be the new in-game leader. It’s a pretty new role for me. I’ve done it in the past, but I’ll still need a lot of work and time to become a better in-game leader than what I am today. Then we have f0rest, I guess he would be the star player, I don’t know how to say it, he’s usually the guy being put into clutching, entrying, he can do anything basically. He’s the secondary AWP as well. We have hallzerk, he’s our main AWPer. Young, aggressive, super-skilled AWPer who can change the game for us. 

– Then we have our two new players. H4RR3, he’s a really aggressive Norwegian player. He loves to be the first guy entering the bomb sites and being the guy jumping for anyone else to take the peek. He’s super good and individually skilled and most of the time he’s entering the site, he’s also opening up the site a lot. Which reminds me a bit of myself, when I was the entry in NiP back in the day.

– Our last player is HEAP. He’s a young Swedish talent. He has super good aim. He’s really good, I was really surprised by his way of communicating and individual skill. I think he’s a mix of everything. He’ll be our player maybe a bit further back in the field, helping out clutching the rounds and also taking one on one duels on the sides of the map.

Toughest opponent in the tournament

H4RR3: 

– Obviously Heroic is there, which I think is an absolutely incredible team. They have a lot of good players, good structure and just an amazing team in general. They will be very hard to beat, but you know, every team is possible to beat.

friberg:

– There’s a lot of good teams. I think both Heroic and ENCE are two teams to beat. I also feel like HAVU is a bit of an underrated team. We have practiced against them and they’re really strong. They have individually skilled players, but also pretty deep stratbook, so it’s definitely a team that will cause upsets in the tournament.

Goals and expectations for Elisa Invitational Fall 2020

H4RR3:

– Our goals are basically to do as best as we can. Obviously we want to win everything we participate in. It’s going to be our first event as a team, I’m really excited and I look forward to seeing what we can do against some really good teams.

friberg:

– Our goal for Elisa is obviously to try to place really high. We have a new line-up, so it’s really hard to put expectations on us. It would obviously be a really good start for our team, if we place well and feel that we can compete against some of the really good teams in the tournament. I think we can try to place super high. I would love to qualify, because we qualified last time for the BLAST. Hopefully we can get another good run here at Elisa and qualify.


Lyngby Vikings

HLTV rank (19th of October): #79th

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Players

NickNameAgeCountry
raalzRasmus Steensborg25Denmark
TwinxMalthe Jensen22Denmark
birdfromskyThomas Due-Frederiksen27Denmark
CabbiCasper Jensen22Denmark
MaccenMathias Madsen19Denmark

Lyngby Vikings lost Dust2.dk Liga Cup 2020 final against AGF, but got a spot for this tournament after ENCE forfeited their own. Similarly to AGF, they aren’t the best-known Danish team, but they are ready to do some damage.

At the moment they are sitting in the second place of ESEA Advanced, with a solid 11-3 match record. They’re also a team that can make upsets in the open qualifiers for bigger tournaments. They are used to playing best-of-ones where the whole tournament is on the line.

On a good day, they have the potential to upset GODSENT in their opening match. If they manage to do that, anything is possible since Winners’ match is also a best-of-one.


Schedule for Elisa Invitational

All the times listed as EET.

Monday 26.10.
12:30 Heroic vs. Apeks (BO1)
14:00 MAD Lions vs. AGF (BO1)
15:30 Group A Winners match (BO1)

Tuesday 27.10.
12:30 GODSENT vs. Lyngby Vikings (BO1)
14:00 HAVU vs. Dignitas (BO1)
15:30 Group B Winners match (BO1)

Wednesday 28.10.
11:00 Group A Losers match (BO3)
14:00 Group B Losers match (BO3)

Thursday 29.10.
11:00 Group A Decider match (BO3)
14:00 Group B Decider match (BO3)

Sunday 1.11.
16:00 Qualifier final #1 (BO3)
20:00 Qualifier final #2 (BO3)