After five rounds of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive play in Poland, the PGL Kraków Major Championship playoff field is set.
The action came with a couple of big surprises.
With only eight spots available in the playoffs, there was plenty of room for major upsets. The last three matchups to determine the remaining playoff teams were indicative of that: Cloud9 against Virtus.pro, Fnatic against G2 Esports, and FlipSid3 Tactics against Immortals.
Virtus.pro, G2 Esports and C9 are arguably three of the top seven teams in the world, and the former two have earned "legend" status.
The top two teams from the group stage were Gambit Esports and BIG -- two teams that were not on the short list of tournament contenders. BIG was arguably the biggest surprise team of the Major, and it used a heavy defensive style to advance behind the veteran in-game leadership of Fatih "gob b" Dayik and the chemistry between the roster's former NRG Esports members: Nikola "LEGIJA" Ninić, Johannes "tabseN" Wodarz and gob. The path was not as easy for Gambit Esports. Victories over G2 Esports and Virtus.pro gave Gambit a well-earned playoff berth.
The group stage's biggest disappointments were Natus Vincere, FaZe Clan and G2 Esports.
Na'Vi simply cannot put it together. Despite having some of the biggest names in Counter-Strike in Aleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev and Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács and the individual skill on the roster, results have not followed. It's going to be an interesting time for this organization, and Na'Vi will have to decide whether this lineup is worth sticking with going forward.
FaZe Clan, had its worst placing since the acquisition of superstar Nikola "NiKo" Kovač. The team, at times, looked lost in its shotcalling and executes. It was a wake-up call for a team that has been relying on its ability to outplay opponents, and FaZe needs to balance its roster to have a shot at being the best in the world.
G2 Esports played a tough schedule, with Astralis, C9 and Na'Vi in its way, but exited the tournament with a 2-3 record. An early finish before the playoffs was definitely not in the books for a team considered among the top five in the world.
The upsets
In addition to the top two teams that qualified for the playoffs, there was a handful of matchups that shocked the Counter-Strike world. The biggest upsets were the FlipSid3 Tactics victory over perennial tournament favorite FaZe Clan and the Gambit Esports win over Virtus.pro.
FaZe Clan entered the major as arguably the No. 2 team in the world, and anything short of a top-three finish would be considered a disappointment. FlipSid3 rode a near-perfect T-side and Jan "wayLander" Rahkonen's play to an improbable 11-4 halftime lead against the favorites. After that, it was the team's patience on retakes that finished the match 16-10 in favor of FlipSid3.
Gambit Esports finished the group stage as one of the top two placers, but its victory over Virtus.pro was nothing short of an upset. Not only did Gambit win 16-11, but it did it on one of Virtus.pro's historically great maps, Train. Gambit's Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev played immaculate Counter-Strike and carried his team to victory with an insane 32-17 score. Between individual outplay and perfect executes to punish Virtus.pro's anti-eco rounds, it was a dominant win.