12.8.2021 - 16:00

The Fall season kick-off

The regional Swiss Stage of the Elisa Invitational Fall 2021 is starting on Monday, the 16th of August. The Fall edition is packed with quality teams consisting of the Nordic qualifiers teams and the invited teams. In the Fall season, the teams will be competing for the coveted $100,000 prize pool where the winner will take home $50 000!

The Regional Swiss stage will run through September 9th with 8 of the 16 teams making it through the Main Swiss Stage. The competition will run weekly Monday to Thursday in classic Best-of-3 fashion.

Let’s take a closer look at the teams and their chances of moving forward in this competitive environment where nothing can be taken for granted.

“The should-be-sure-to-be-top-8”

Lyngby Vikings

Lyngby Viking is one of the highest ranked teams of this stage. They had a disappointing end to Elisa Invitational Summer 2021 going 0-3 in the group stage. This being said, the Vikings’ floor of performance is so high that they definitely should be in the top eight.

Apeks

Apeks got an interesting addition in June when AcilioN joined the team as their new in-game-leader. The Dane won the million dollar Flashpoint 1 tournament just over a year ago and is expected to bring that winning touch to the team. 

777 Esports

The surprise of the last season is coming back. The team had clearly put in a lot of time into the game in the Summer Invitational which we also heard from their winners’ interviews from Haris “H4RR3” Hadzic. He has also been the shining light in “Triple 7” posting an impressive 1.15 rating. Will lightning strike twice in the same place though?

Finest

Finest is building something great, at least that’s what they’re hoping for. Most of the team has just come together all over Europe, Israel, Poland, Estonia and Bulgaria. This roster is one of the most exciting in this stage of the tournament. To mention one, the Isreali player Guy “anarkez” Trachtman has been hyped up for some time. We’ve heard other Israeli players talk about him as the next big thing. If Finest can find synergy, they’ll bulldoze their way to the top eight.

Young Ninjas

The Young Ninjas have deservedly gotten a lot of exposure during the year with a couple of their players, Erik “ztr” Gustafsson and Linus “LNZ” Holtäng, getting the chance to showcase their skill in the main roster of NIP., LNZ still playing in the world-class roster. This academy team has already reached rank #45 in the world and they are one of the more dangerous teams at this stage.

“The Dark Horses”

Galaxy Racer

This Swedish roster has sported some decent results lately. They’ve managed to win a respectable 58% of their matches over the past 3 months. Galaxy Racer has been consistent but their playoff hopes aren’t written in the stars.

GORILLAZ

If there’s one thing you can say about GORILLAZ it’s that you can’t call them boring. This team that has yet to reveal their teased organization has showcased disappointing results in their first few months. In Elisa Invitational Summer 2021 they didn’t manage to qualify from the Regional stage onto the Main Swiss stage. They have experienced stars in the team but can they finally start to make it work?

AaB

AaB entered the summer break with a really strong performance in the Danish POWER Ligaen Season 17 where they topped the tournament beating Tricked and MASONIC. The trajectory is going upwards – maybe even to the top eight?

Tricked

Like their countrymen from Lyngby Vikings, Tricked had a disappointing ending to the Summer season going 0-3, losing to Young Ninjas, AGF and DBL Poney. They also lost their star awper Philip “Lucky” Ewald to Astralis. A top eight spot doesn’t seem self-evident anymore.

“The Underdogs”

Dusty

A rare sighting in the CS:GO scene can be found here, and Icelandinc team. DUSTY is a very young squad with an average age of 20.7. 

KOVA

This Finnish squad has seemingly plateaued in the world rankings and they’re looking to make a change to that. Adding a new IGL in Jussi “Airax” Airaksinen hasn’t been a miracle cure but the team’s highs have always been impressive. It’s just a matter of finding a way to reach that high more consistently. 

SAW Youngsters

The Portugese organization’s academy team is coming into the tournament as one of the team’s we know the least about. The Academy team was announced just August 6th – how much time will they have had to prepage is the biggest question.

hREDS

Making it through the closed qualifier looked at times easy for hREDS. Since adding the awper Topi “LYNXi” Kauppi, the team’s level of performance has risen. The roles make sense but still these Finns are in tough company. Making it to the playoffs would be a surprise.

X-Gamer

Coming in hot from the Swedish closed qualifiers is X-Gamer. The line-up has a wide distribution of ages ranging from 16 to 25. It will be hard to see them beating some of the bigger names in this stage. 

Oilers Esports

Oilers Esports made it through the Norweigan qualifier narrowly beating Apeks Rebels 16-14 in the decider map of the Final. Everything will have to go perfectly for the Oilers to reach the next stage of the tournament.

MASONIC

Coming in as the fourth Danish team, MASONIC managed to push their way through the Danish qualifier. Jonas “Queenix” Dideriksen put on a great show in the final ensuring their team’s victory. 

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