The Challengers - IEM Cologne Major Preview

These five teams are The Challengers - not quite good enough to be Contenders, but not far off, and capable of some massive upsets and getting deep into the tournament should the stars align.

This time around we're talking about Legacy, GamerLegion, BetBoom, 9z and BIG.

We'll start with Legacy, because they're the ones who've actually won tournaments.

There's a lot to like here.

Two star riflers in the 'overperforming' category is the stuff of dreams for an IGL. arT must go to bed at night smiling, ready to wake up for another day of leading his team. He couldn't have it any better.

Well he could. He could be apEX. But this is pretty damn good.

He's got dumau and latto sharing some of the aggression with himself, making Legacy extremely dangerous when they speed up. dumau's first bullet aim is sensational, and latto is just an all-round excellent player. Both excel more on the CT side, but given latto is anchoring the main site and dumau is the main rotator, that's a very good sign and an easy way to rack up nine-round halves.

n1ssim is pretty reliable as a passive player, and arT is... he's arT. He's going to do something stupid, but largely he's alright especially as a secondary rotator. If there was one place you'd worry about Legacy in terms of being a real contender (hence their placement at the top of Challengers) it's saadzin.

saadzin isn't bad. He's not great. He's fine. He's gotten better as the season has gone on to our eyes, and generally hits the stuff he should and doesn't go much over that. We like him as a player, and for where Legacy are, he's perfect. But if they really want to win more consistently, they could maybe get a small upgrade on him.

Still, we're picking holes in what is one of the best tier two teams out there, and importantly, a really fun one to watch.

Similarly, we love watching BetBoom right now.

They're not as good as Legacy, but they are as fun to watch as Legacy. Magnojez all season has been near the top of the star rifler's ranking for us, and when you watch him it's so easy to see why. The kid has 'it', whatever 'it' is.

He doesn't do much entrying for a star rifler, but you don't really want him to - especially now they've got FL4MUS. They sort of lucked into FL4MUS as a stand-in but he's been a livewire and a key part of the team that managed to beat Vitality. That's sort of BetBoom's whole allure - they slayed the giant, and maybe they're actually on the climb.

s1ren is a steady Eddie, as it were, though he's missing the opening games to be replaced by d1ledez, who is largely the same. Boombl4 comes off badly in the data, but we know he's got a big game in him when the time comes. Even if that duel swing made us visibly grimace, in real life.

Eesh.

The one thing that stops us fully endorsing BetBoom is zorte, who obviously doesn't come off great in the data. When you watch him, he's very inconsistent. It's clear the talent is there, he hits some very quick shots and tough ones too, but not with any level of consistency and that probably speaks to his positioning and anticipation more than his skill. He shouldn't have to take so many difficult shots.

There's a world where, in a more settled version of BetBoom where everything is firing, he shows up and can find his footing more. He has the talent to be a much better player than he is, and we'd like to see it. Magnojez and FL4MUS are too fun to watch to go out in Stage Two.

We're going onto BIG, because they're a sleeper pick.

There are reasons not to be excited about BIG, but there's one big reason to think they might go pretty far here.

blameF is still the same player he's always been, bar a brief foray into being aggressive for fifteen minutes. He's extremely passive, almost never in first, and he just wins his duels over and over and over again.

He doesn't die on executes, he doesn't die on the lurk, he gets his kills every single time and he will drag an average team into conversations and positions they would not otherwise be. Hence, well, BIG at the Major.

Critics will point to the fact he doesn't have that much impact with his lurking, and baiting (let's be honest here, we call it refragging, but it's the same thing), and... there's some nuance there, but neither side is entirely wrong.

blameF's duel swing is incredibly high, but his round swing is only moderately high. It's not that much higher than JDC's, and his duel swing is negative. It's still very good, but it's not at the elite level that his duel swing is, and to carry a team like BIG it'll need to be insane.

He's an excellent player who can take BIG pretty far, but not that far. He'll need help from gr1ks - who we like a bit more than the model - and JDC, whose round swing/duel swing we mentioned above, and that feels right. He's not the best player in the world, but when he does get kills you feel every one.

They'll likely be held back by tabseN being a non-entity on the T side and faveN, unless he can rewind and find his old self. We used to be big fans of him, and we'd like to see him back to his best soon.

Not sure why we haven't gotten to GamerLegion yet, but...

Yeah, GamerLegion are going to coast through the first stage.

REZ is back to his best, and by his best we mean that one tournament in 2017. You know the one. The guy is genuinely playing his heart out right now, and he's backed up by two more riflers who are both doing more than you'd imagine.

Tauson is going under the radar as a very solid support player, and PR everyone knows is good, and the data agrees. This is a rifle core that should not be in the first stage at all, and probably can get through the second stage.

Okay, Snax can't frag any more and hypex is pretty mediocre, but until the third stage we really don't think that matters.

Even in saying hypex is mediocre, he's still one of the better AWPers in the first stage, and won't look out of place in stage two. He's just not really a tier one AWPer, which is fine really. REZ, PR and Tauson are all capable of taking space, opening up bombsites and shutting them down, and Snax has an array of weapons that can all do everything at his disposal.

This is probably the best team in this chunk of teams, and probably a sleeper pick for a top 8. Seriously.

Last team for this article, 9z.

Look at those CT side ratings. Forget the fact their AWPer is a ghost on T side for a second, and just look at how good their CT side ratings are. That's ten-round-CT-side worthy.

They might not even need T sides.

We're long time fans of max and dgt as a duo, as both seem to overperform expectations constantly and are only locked into this team for so long because there's so few good Spanish speaking teams. If these two had perfect English, we don't think they'd be playing for this team. Both have been around for ages and have been good for just as long.

luchov has been the revelation in their last few events, and we're curious to see if this is a flash in the pan or if he's a genuine superstar. He's put up ridiculous numbers when 9z have been at big events, and if he does it again here somebody will pay for his English lessons in Europe, we're certain.

We know 9z have it in them to play spoiler and at the very least top 16, but we're unsure of their consistency. If luchov is actually the elite superstar he's been so far this year, then this is a team who can legitimately make playoffs if everything slots into place, in all seriousness.

It's likely it won't, as so often after the Lord Mayor's show they have fallen off at the next event - but we will be watching with a very keen eye.