Bruno Pereira · @insQC
31st Oct 2017 from TwitLonger
ESWC 2017 QC Tournament Preview
With most of the top players participating in the Italian LAN (and therefore unable to attend the ESWC), the French competition will be a great opportunity for those who lack international LAN experience. Let's see if their online results can translate well into high stake games.
Favourite:
Raisy
Ranked #1 in the World
At Dreamhack Denver Raisy proved his worth; he came out on top in spite of his favourite weapon and champion being "nerfed" shortly before the event. As a result of this convincing victory, he's the favourite to win the ESWC. We'll see if this additional pressure will have an impact on his performance!
Contenders:
Garpy
Pikawa
Spart1e
Garpy’s phenomenal performance at Denver gave him a much needed confidence boost, which should easily carry him through groups and to the later stages of the tournament. If he remains in good spirits, he will have a good chance of getting to the finals again, and maybe even taking that final step to victory. Ranked #12 in the World.
One of the most anticipated players at a LAN tournament, Pikawa, has been getting impressive results online. With a 15 games win streak, mainly using “vanilla” physics champions, and a calm yet aggressive style, he managed to qualify for the DHW and currently sits at #10 in the World Rankings.
At #14 in plusforward.net World Ranking, Spart1e is perhaps the most inconsistent top player in QC. He managed to reach the playoffs in the QWC coming through the BYOC tournament, but couldn’t advance from his group at Dreamhack Denver. He managed to beat Toxjq during the DHW qualifier, but just a few hours later, when they met again in the losers bracket, he was unable to secure the win, which he needed to qualify. With that said, if he’s on a good day, he might just win the whole tournament.
Dark Horses:
Strenx
Base
Strenx is rated at #25 in the world, surprisingly low, given his great successes in previous Quakes. This suggests that Strenx has not yet peaked in Quake Champions. He has had a few strong results online, topped his group in QWC, but failed to qualify for either Denver or DHW. He’s looking to use the hometown advantage to achieve a LAN result, which will put him back in the top 10 in the world.
Base is the second highest ranked player attending ESWC and although he has attended a couple of Russian LAN’s, ESWC will be his first international event. With a World Ranking of #6, a history of being VAC banned and not attending International LANs, he has a huge amount of pressure to perform strongly if he wants to avoid more backlash.
Neither Nitrino, Karwick, Cnz nor Phaze attended international Quake LANs before, but they’ve had good results online so far. Despite inconsistency, they might cause a few upsets, and getting through them won’t be an easy task for any player.