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Nate Calverley takes a look at what we learned from this past week's performance by EG at KODE5 in Moscow. After a poor performance at ESWC Masters in South Korea last weekend, EG has been taking a lot of criticism, leaving some people wondering if EG is in fact the best American team. But after a strong showing against one of the best teams in the world in the first round of KODE5 Russia, it's time to assess EG's progress as an international competitor. Here is what we learned. EG is a complete team Although EG has two stars on their roster in fRoD and n0thing, their other 3 players are both equally important and equally capable of winning rounds for EG. At both ESWC and KODE5, Warden was been a consistent source of entry frags on both the offensive and defensive sides. Storm, who has been their in-game leader, has also been a fairly consistent fragger, an important ability for a strat caller to possess. And Lurppis was easily the most clutch player for EG against SK today, winning several 2v1s and 3v1s which accounted for any number of rounds going for EG that otherwise would have went to SK. EG is not a defensive team Although their play on dust2 today was extremely good on both CT and T sides, the defense on the other 2 maps was lacking, to say the least. Today on Nuke, which is arguably the second-most CT-sided map in tournament play, EG won 6 rounds as terrorists, but only 2 on CT. And on inferno, a number of their defensive victories came from retakes after losing a site. When the CT team loses a site, they essentially become the offensive team while the terrorist team becomes the defense. While EG was excellent at retaking sites in the offensive-CT role, it wasn't enough to overcome their weaknesses on CT. EG was mainly a one-sided team today, and if they can manage to improve their defensive teamwork and tactics, they will become a very good team. The CGS did not diminish Zet's skill Coming into today's tournament, Zet was SK's leading damage dealer and tied with 2 others for highest FPR. He showed EG today that he has clearly transitioned back to 1.6 and is still one of the best players in the world. Zet's defensive play at the B sites on dust 2 and inferno caused problems for EG all day, and he was also highly effective on the offensive side as well. Zet is arguably SK's most important player. fRoD is key While it is true that EG does not revolve entirely around 1 player, fRoD is without question one of EG's most important players. His formidable skills with the awp can change the opposing team's entire gameplan, and when fRoD is playing well, his teammates feed off of that. He is one of EG's most vocal and most competitive players, but when fRoD struggles, the whole team seems to struggle with him. In today's match versus SK on Nuke, fRoD was unable to hold outside effectively on CT, and EG lost the map. On Inferno, fRoD once again struggled on CT, and despite a heroic effort by Storm, EG once again lost the map. EG isn't the same team when fRoD struggles. Summing it up With only a week to analyze and fix mistakes from their ESWC performance, EG clearly used their time wisely. Their play today was at the level of other top international teams, and the amount of adjustments they were able to make in such a short amount of time is impressive. Look for EG to continue to evolve with their new lineup - they should be an exciting team to watch in the upcoming LAN and online league seasons. |
Friday November 27 2009 | |||||
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User Comments
Hmm. I disagree. 2005 zet was a monster.
regardless zet played amazing for SK, and EGs nuke was a mess and I think it would be interesting to see the results if EG had played SK after both teams had warmed up because after their loss to EG on d2 SK was on a roll and ended up placing 2nd
The CS 1.6 is not the same anymore, the skill of top players has improved a lot!
EG can be one of the strongest teams in the world, but they still have have so much to learn and improve... but with all that competition (with the best teams in the world) and support of EG organisation they can reach the level of the tops!
b) Deciding if we're a CT or T oriented team (esp after a good Dust2 CT, more rounds on Inf as CT than T, be it retake or not, and playing half of Nuke CT half) based on a map we have practiced once or twice and even then with Storm calling doesn't seem to make much sense
c) We had 0 days of practice between ESWC Masters and KODE5, in fact we stayed in Dallas for ~30h and then arrived in Moscow only few hours before the match which isn't very optimal :p
edit: It doesn't really matter to me what the article says as it's simply someones opinion, but A/C are completely wrong while B is just offering my opinion on it :P
Cheers for the support, we all know we'll get really good with some practice, it's just a matter of time.
I disagree, it seemed to me it was more like "good enough"
I only just watched the dust2 match last night and haven't seen the other two for context but it seemed like EG played somewhat on their heels most of the match, they just don't have that impressively solid teamwork and individual confidence that the top european teams have but a good outing vs SK is a step in the right direction
Again going off of seeing only the dust2 match, fRoD seemed a bit streaky to be the key factor for EG. It seemed like he would make a decent pick one round and miss 3 awp shots the next, i found my self thinking "what was that" quite a bit. In your defense though, I can't really go out and say anyone on EG has been consistent enough though
#7 thanks for clearing up who is calling and i cant wait to see more improvement after some more practice and time/experience together
keep it up guyz WE ( well I ) see an improvement and it's just the beginning
Sorry, but lurppis has been a massive positive factor for EG. I can't wait to see how much more he can do to keep EG heading in the direction they are at the moment (that is, improving).
All they need now is Warden to get some more motivation and hit more shots like he used to, they need frod to get his devastating awp back OR work a way to do without relying on it.
Also, "other 3 players both equally important" ? EH? Both would be two. :p
and this one Match does not show that EG is on a good way to be @ international Top
I didnt know nOthing was a star...
they are starting to get better now. maybe if they get some freaky playing style they wil get better
(BTW I'm the guy you met at ESWC Korea, to be honest I don't think I ever told you my name lol)
Get those CT setups down!
If you really want to see how well EG is doing, then base it off statistics over time. According to statistics, EG is basically being kicked out of group stage/1st round of every tournament so far....yet they fill up half of the news on this website.
those players are "both equally important and equally capable of winning rounds"
I think EG needs at least one player like NEO, who has been truly the soul player of PGS, MYM and now WICKED. He is an absolute monster with crazy aims and mobility. He is able to handle any rifle or even awp. He has been giving the rivals headache by doing so much damage on each game. Nomatter in an eco round or big gun round, he is always the one who steps up in the team and plays smart to frag. Also, never neglect the balance of the whole team because sometimes even the best player might not perform very well in a round. However, at this time the team needs other players to share the job that the soul player used to do. Just look at fnatic, when f0rest and Get_Right are down, Gux and cArn can always buffer it off with the back up from dsn. This is what we called teamwork.
Just some advises for EG, they should seriously evaluate their roster again and make the appropriate change.
d2 is awp map so That makes a lot of sense EG won againse SK.
both inferno and nuke, fRoD was completly useless.
quit bashing them they do pretty dam well for no practice between tournaments.
By the next big LAN, im pretty sure theyll have a pretty solid CT, and will a new caller theyll have an even more exceptional T once they get to practicing his strats
btw whens the next big LAN?
the only reason they lost to SK was because two key rounds(inferno) they lost a 3v1 and a 2v1? but of which i think walle clutched. if they won those rounds it would have been EG who advanced.
It makes perfect sense!
EDIT: the winning teams are swedish, therefore if you are swedish you will win cs!
The original title of the article was "what we learned: SK vs EG", thus a brief paragraph about Zet would be ok. However, Shrews changed to title to what it is now for his own reasons (probably because the focus of the article is obviously EG and not SK).
SK wasnt trying. Explains all.
my heart was beating really hard"
zet giving excuses for sk, bc he obviously tried very hard.
You need to improve on a few major topics here about your writing skills. You said some crap repeatedly over and over. Tbh I'm not gonna sit here and fix all your mistakes. Just read over your article about 5 times and you will know what needs to be fixed.
Noob stuff like "One of EG's best players". You said that numerous times. There's about 10 others. It also looks like you rushed the 2nd half lol.
sunman puns.
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