IEM Oakland 2017 Preview: What to Expect?

In a few weeks, 12 teams will contend at the Intel Extreme Masters tournament in Oakland for their share of the $300,000 prize pool. With a variety of both European and North American teams attending the event, a huge amount of talent will be on show. So, what should you expect to see at this event?

Starting at the top, FaZe have been on dominant form recently. Coming off of two back to back wins at ESL One New York and the Eleague premier. FaZe look to be unstoppable. Whether it’s Rain securing entry-frags every round or Niko acting as a stalwart defender on CT sides, no team has managed to take a map from them in their last two tournaments. With a 17-map win streak before stumbling at EPICENTER, FaZe are certainly going into this tournament as favourites. Astralis are likely to be FaZe’s biggest competition from the number 1 spot at this event. Despite Dupreeh having performance issues in the last few months, he was firing on all cylinders at Eleague and contributed heavily to the team’s second place finish. Their tactical brand of Counter-Strike implemented by IGL Glaive has brought them huge success in the past and has even made them major champions. Will it be enough to conquer and in-form FaZe? Only time will tell.

IEM Oakland Format
IEM Oakland: Group Stage & Playoffs, Price Pool

Two teams with troubled results recently have been SK Gaming and G2 Esports. SK appear to be on their worst ever form with this current line-up. They were eliminated from Eleague in the group stages by the Danish team Heroic which has led to rumours of Felps potentially being benched. Despite winning EPICENTER whilst playing with Boltz as a stand-in. These internal issues have certainly had an impact on their performance within the server. However, due to the sheer firepower that Coldzera and Fer possess they still remain incredibly competitive and could be in contention to take home the title.

G2 have been dubbed by many as the ‘French Super Team’ due to their star-studded roster that features Shox, NBK and KennyS. While the team possesses an incredible amount of firepower, they’ve been criticised for reckless Economy mismanagement as they seem to force-buy too often. Despite placing first at DreamHack Masters Malmo 2017, analysts believe that the team cannot succeed unless they manage their weapon buying more efficiently. Perhaps this could be the tournament they realise the error in their strategy.

Representing North America at this tournament are Cloud 9 and Team Liquid. Cloud 9 will be eager to show off their skill with the additions of Tarik and Rush as they will be competing on home soil. The key factor for Cloud 9 will be Tarik’s ability to support his teammates mentally and him being able to prevent them from tilting after too many lost rounds. Team Liquid on the other hand just need to replicate their performance at ESL One New York (where they finished second) and make sure that Stanislaw isn’t being a negative impact on the scoreboard. If they do that, they could potentially meet FaZe again in the finals of a large tournament.

A wildcard to keep track of at this event would have to be Optic Gaming, as their new European line-up has been largely untested at LAN tournaments so far. So, it should be interesting viewing to see how much success this line-up of older stars can be.