IEM Chengdu 2024 — The Bish Bash Bosh from Josh

Well, the tournament after the Major is a tough act to follow. The major champion, Navi aren’t even coming for Chengdu either! This article will provide you all with a quick cliff notes on all the teams, their pros, their cons and their hopes of winning it all otherwise known as the bosh.

So put up your feet and relax as you doomscroll through this article. Enjoy!

Astralis — The Big Mess

Well, Astralis has had such a fall from grace after their failed Major. Infact, they didn’t even qualify. BlameF was sent packing with Device suddenly wanting to become Ingame Leader.

Pros: Dev1ce is in top form and still a strong primary awper. However, the strongest player is Staehr who is putting up great numbers as a rifler

Cons: Everything else. Dev1ce wanting to be a star player/IGL never ends well. We’ve had too many examples of IGL/Star Player hybrid failing such as kingmezii, niko, Yekindar and Astralis’s latest IGL, BlameF.

Why do these star players INSIST that they can lead the team forward?

The Bosh: Everything indicates that Astralis are on a downward trajectory. Their sabotage of Heroic by picking up Jabbi and Stavn hasn’t worked out. The past history of star players trying to be the ingame leader at the same hasn’t worked out.

There is one destiny in line for Astralis and that is underperformance. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were eliminated by one of the supposed lesser teams. ASTRALIS ARE A MESS.

Faze Clan — The Revenge Tour

They had it in their hands. They had it. They dropped the Major after defeating the heavy favourites, Team Spirit. I can only imagine that Faze are feeling the heat after losing to Navi. However, this team is fairly strong and are definitely contenders to win it all.

Pros: Karrigan despite a poor 3rd map against Navi is still capable of decent performance and out of the box calls. Frozen has slotted into the team incredibly well. Rain, ropz and broky are still firing and consistent.

A hint of revenge fills the air so expect Faze to be mercilessly humilating and decimating teams.

Cons: The only minor downside is that if Faze are blown out of the park. They do not have the resiliency to get themselves back into the game.

Also, the ghosts of losing to Navi could play into their mental game after the break. They only just played a Major Final, a week ago.

The Bosh: The minimum is a Grand Final. The maximum is winning this event. Anything else is an underperforming to Faze and Karrigan cannot afford this here.

Furia — The Eternal Disappontment (formerly known as the Last Dance)

Furia had an amazing run in the Opening Stage to sneak into the Elimination Stage. However, they bombed 0–3 but not only that. They lost to the rising side of Ecstatic. A team that they really should have beaten.

Furia is always a hard one to pick because they’re wildly inconsistent and have only made some sort of run at the RMR and Major.

Pros: Chelo, yuuri and Kscerato are really starting to get into their groove. Furia need one of these riflers firing if they want to get anywhere in Chengdu. It helps having a Veteran such as Fallen in the team.

Cons: As much as it is great to have Fallen in the team, his role would be greatly improved if he was the coach assisting his ingame leader, arT.

It feels like that game has definitely passed by Fallen as he is also wildly inconsistent.

The Bosh: I believe we’re going to see a return of the Furia Slump. Furia performed incredibly poorly against the Tier 1 teams at the Major. They were wildly inconsistent against Tier 2 teams.

They might be able to snipe a Lower Bracket slot due to a weak Group A though. The strongest team that they would face would be either a rebuilding Heroic or Liquid.

G2 — If we win, Hooxi is the greatest. If we lose, kick Hooxi

G2 did quite well at the major despite the punish pick of Ancient blowing up in their faces. It wasn’t as bad as kassad, YNK and everyone else touted it to be.

I feel like there is a murderous intent in the air with the wolves baying to have Hooxi replaced as an ingame leader. A stark reminder that Hooxi bought a CPH Flames outfit which had worse players to a deep run in the Major.

Pros: m0nesy is a godsent awper and has single handly been keeping G2 in games. An absolute generation talent. G2 need to do everything they can to keep him.

Cons: This will be a controversial take. It isn’t the ingame leading that is the problem. It isn’t the awper that is the problem. It is the rifling core that is a problem.

When they’re up, G2 are world beaters but when they’re all down, G2 fall over. Note that they won a game when Niko was the only one firing but when they lost, none of their riflers were performing well.

The Bosh: G2 will be aiming for Semi-Finals at a minimum. They want to win it all at a maximum. With an easy ride in the Group A (until G2 stuff it up that is), they should get atleast Grand Final or win the entire event.

m0nesy deserves some success. Also, Rasmus hopefully wakes up to compliements about his ingame leading rather than calls for his removal.

Heroic — The Team that just won’t die….

Heroic have had their core involuntarily turned over by a tale of Astralis/Heroic combination of horrible errors to kick their IGL and two of their star players.

Well, is it really an error for Astralis to constantly knife Heroic over and over again? Sometimes, you really have to buy yourself a stab-proof vest at this stage.

You think that this would just end Heroic’s dreams of ever winning a tournament or manage a deep run, right? Yes, you would be correct. That is exactly what happened.

However, they still performed better than their Saturday Morning Cartoon villianesque rival in Astralis. That is saying something about the resilience of this team.

Pros: Sjuush is a mainstay for Heroic. He is the ultimate anchor and contributes a lot to Heroic’s success. Their pickups, Nertz and Kyxsan have worked incredibly well probably a lot more than Heroic even expected.

And they can only go up from here, Heroic have the pieces!

Cons: However, you may have the pieces but for them to mesh together takes time. Heroic have a large amount of miscues and definitely need to build together as a team before they make any deep runs.

The Bosh: Expect Heroic to make a deeper run then you initialy think. Their minimum is to make the playoffs. Their maximum would be the semi-final. I do not think they’re winning this event.

Mouz — The Underachievers

You may think that the title is a bit harsh on Mouz but you don’t go 3–0 in both the opening stage, the elimination stage and then get bundled out by G2 (2–0).

The good news for Mouz is that Brollan despite underperforming ever since the Krieg got nerfed back in CSGO. (Yes, I know talking about CSGO is irrelevant but hey, let me tell my story!). Brollan is now finally putting up some number and did incredibly well at the major.

Mouz are loving it. However, the stench of being Faze Academy lingers after losing karrigan, ropz and now Frozen to them. Mouz need to get out of their shadow before Faze actually does make them an academy team. I wonder where that’d put Mouz NXT though.

Pros: A young IGL with big game experience, an awper who is literally insane and can rifle, three young and amazing riflers? The team has such a high ceiling that they can create an era.

Cons: Underachievement, Underperformance, Inconsistency. If Jimpphat and xertioN do not perform, there is no Mouz. They all fall apart.

Is it stage fright that is causing all of this?

The Bosh: Mouz need to make Grand Finals at minimum in this event. They need to win it all. However, I’m expecting them to not make the playoffs.

Lynn Vision — The Return of Chinese CS

Well, Lynn Vision roared upon the scene with a roaring victory over Grayhound to go to the major. They may have only got 1 win at the major over a struggling Furia but that is wonders for their confidence.

Lynn Vision has a big issue with composure like most Asian and Oceanic teams where when push has to be shoved. They fall down like a Jenga Tower.

However, two big hurdles have been shifted:

1. They beat Grayhound at a LAN event which they are known for a lack of composure.
2. They beat Furia at a LAN event outside of Asia.

Pros: Starry and Jee are firing off and firing big at LANs. They’re starting to get comfortable with big events. However, they’re not up to the level of the Mongolz just yet.

Cons: Even though with their best players firing off, their best is not good enough. They lost cleanly to Heroic and Ecstatic and the teams at this event are at a higher level.

The Bosh: Lynn Vision aren’t going anywhere in this tournament. Expect a Lower Bracket Semi-Final exit (maybe after beating Furia).

Steel Helmet — The Chinese Mythic

Steel Helmet are an esports team in China. Their team is essentially ex-professionals who became streamers after their careers were over.

They aren’t nobodies either! Captainmo used to be an icon for Tyloo back in the day (and Tyloo probably wish that they were back in those days….)

Steel Helmet aren’t expected to do anything given that they were last second replacements. They replaced Monte who really should have turned left at Alberqueque instead of right. This is just a long-winded sentence to state that Monte were replaced due to travel issues.

Pros: The event just got way more popular with CaptainMo back in the saddle. I can imagine ticket sales exploded because of this. Their first game against a struggling Astralis could be a winner too and can you imagine if it was?

Cons: The likely scenario is that these guys get bundled out 0–2 and have multiple signing sessions. The players on this team are incredibly popular in the streaming space. The lines for their meet and greets are going to make lines to meet Pokimane look small in comparison.

The Bosh: This team has 0–2 written all over it. They’ll be underprepared and probably cramming in counter-strategies right at this second. Underprepared and potentially outclassed. What a combo. Atleast, they won’t have stage fright.

Cloud 9 — Awpers are overrated

Cloud 9 performed surprisingly well at the majors given that they do not have a high quality awper. This is extremely unusual as most of the teams that have won trophies have an incredible awper to boot.

I guess behind every great team is an incredible person that can use the big green incredibly well. That adage will probably remain true for the rest of CS2.

However, Cloud 9’s run was ended by Vitality who have a high quality awper. It was not Zywoo who did them in but Flamez instead who just rode roughshod over anything Cloud 9 did.

Pros: They have an experienced ingame leader in Boombl4 who has a proven record. They have a star rifler in Ax1le and electronic. A true team player in Perfecto who picked up the big green to make the team work. (his best quality in Navi as well!)

Cons: No awp means you’re not going very far in many tournaments. Perfecto is a patchwork awper. He is probably very aware that it is only temporary.

Once an awper is on the market, someone will have to make way and I believe that someone will be hobbit.

The Bosh: An easy start against Flyquest but given their last Bo1 against this outfit, it could end badly. Cloud 9 will make quarter-finals at least. The only main challenge to them is Faze and Virtus Pro in Group B.

Virtus Pro — In Undique Salvamus

If you’re wondering why I wrote “In Every Round, We save” in latin then you do not know that Virtus Pro is a latin word. It is a latin word for Professional Prowess.

Virtus Pro play a very slow and conservative style of CS2 which reminds of an Anaconda slowly wrapping around its prey and squeezing it to death. It is how both the other team and spectators feel when watching games with VP in it.

Jame has an extremely high importance on conserving weaponry especially the Big Green. If a retake has a low chance of occurring, Jame will always choose to save. Effectively VP always play by the numbers in a cold and calculating demeanour.

Pros: They have a strong team on paper with Fl1t, Fame, Mir and N0rb3r7 putting up great numbers at the major. Jame put up great numbers despite being an awp/IGL.

Cons: Their playstyle could be holding themselves back where Mir and Fl1t are great players because of their aggressiveness and flair.

Their play by the numbers sort of strategy could be their downfall where players like Mir and Fl1t are restricted.

The Bosh: I am a fan of Virtus Pro so they’ll win the entire thing with Jame getting MVP. However, in reality land — it is likely that Virtus Pro will be looking to make quarter-finals at a minimum and grand finals at a maximum.

I reckon they’re not moving any further than the Semi-Finals.

Nemiga Gaming — The Young Upstarts

The only player remaining from the previous Nemiga outfit that I remember casting is 1eeR and I don’t remember him being that great. Box is the coach who was an ex-player when Jy0, lollypop and iDisbalance were in the team.

It’ll be interesting on how this unknown team will perform at once of their first big events. I don’t expect much from this Nemiga outfit. They have lost to a few Europe Advanced teams and have not taken on any Tier 1 teams in the last 3–4 months.

However, it’ll be good to see the potential of this team.

Pros: The only real pro is that they’re a largely unknown team and some teams may not even bother to study on them given who they’ve lost to.

Cons: They’re severely outclassed even compared to the weaker teams in Group A.

The Bosh: They’re going home very early.

Team Liquid — The Aftermath of a Star Player/IGL

You know how we talked about how you don’t let your Star Player also be the Ingame Leader? Team Liquid suffered that exact fate by having their young prodigy, Yekindar as an Ingame Leader.

Now after that experiment failed massively, Team Liquid has picked up a fairly decent team. They kept NAF, picked up Twistzz, Cadian and Skullz.

Twistzz and Cadian have performed beautifully but Skullz has been their achilles heel. Skullz has been the main focal scapegoat of Liquid’s failures. Their big failure was not being at the major.

Pros: Given that Cadian has only had this roster for 4 months means that this team has a higher potential and skill ceiling. It could be possible that Skullz is not used to Cadian’s style.

Cons: Skullz and Yekindar are criminally underperforming in big games. They also haven’t really meshed fully together. The core and leading has been overhauled to the point even Yekindar and NAF could be relatively new to Cadian’s style.

The Bosh: I could see Team Liquid winning that final spot in Group A over Furia and Heroic. It is going to be a tough dogfight for that one. Team Liquid to fall at the Lower Final.

Wildcard Gaming — True to their name

Wildcard are a relatively unknown team in North America and are often overshadowed by Complexity, M80 and Team Liquid.

However, they have been putting up some decent results by beating NRG and M80 in different qualifiers. However, they have also been losing to these teams just the same.

They ended up replacing M80 at this event but I feel that they are desperately outclassed here.

They have a few relatively known players such as Sonic, motm and Stanislaw but they’re shadows of their former selves.

Pros: They have the experience that comes with big LAN events.

Cons: They just don’t have the mechanical skills that are required for CS2.

The Bosh: Either, they are eliminated by Flyquest or eliminated by Astralis. This is going to be a very short run for them and their wildcard nature won’t be able to get them out of it.

9z — The Former Little Unknown Team that could

Do you remember 9z? That team that was given no chance of making any progress in the Americas RMR in Antwerp 2022? They were expected to go 0–3. They came back from an 0–2 start to make the major to go 3–2.

However, they went 0–3 in the Major anyways which ruins the little team that could narrative. Well, 9z aren’t really doing too much since September after losing to KOI.

However, the narrative revived itself when they upset Furia to make IEM Dallas.

With a purple patch of form and 9z being relatively unknown. It sparks as an unstable element in this tournament as we have no idea where 9z will possibly end up.

G2 must be sweating at the prospect as if there was a team to lose to randomly at this tournament. 9z is the prime candidate.

Pros: Relatively unknown team, there could be complaecency where top teams may not study 9z. They also upset Furia to make IEM Dallas. DGT and MartinezSa are looking great!

Cons: They have really only played in their own leagues. They’ve had no decent results and even forfeited all their ESL Challenger games before their upset of Furia at IEM Dallas. Their previous result could be an outlier.

The Bosh: As much as I’d enjoy G2 losing randomly to 9z, 9z will be going home to either Liquid/Heroic who will most definitely do their homework. Why? Liquid and Heroic cannot afford early exits at this tournament.

Flyquest — The Australians are back on the map, baby

First of all, to all the Twitter Experts who kept telling me that nobody should pick up this team. Have a serving of humble pie on the house of course.

This will be their first event under the Flyquest banner and further time has been spend integrating the Flyquest Roster in Dexter’s aggressive style of CS2. Flyquest have been lamenting their lack of practice partners.

However, the Australians are always there to lend a helping hand in getting scrims against Asian teams utilising OneQODE, weChat and a various other ways. Massive credit to Monitor404 and Metaphased.

Flyquest are a team that reminds me of Vox Eminor. Vox Eminor were a team that made it to Katowice via a LAN Qualifier which was extremely unexpected for an Australian team. They had a young prodigy (jks) that recently joined their team before Renegades picked them up.

The only difference is that Vox Eminor weren’t the clear top team in their region. There were a lot of competitors. Flyquest are the top team in their region by miles.

Pros: Vexite has an extremely high ceiling. He gets better with every tournament. He is getting to that stage that Twitter Pundits will switch up to praising him instead of calling him a fraud.

Let’s not ignore INS who has now been relieved as an IGL and can focus on fraggin and clutching it up.

Cons: Alistair hasn’t been super consistent and has been outclassed at some of these tournaments. He is definitely the best awper in Australia but completely outclassed on the stage. (I hate saying this. Ali is a great dude.)

The lack of stamina to keep up their intense level of play over the long period has been concerning. It was really only highlighted in the Asia RMR against Lynn Vision. They just seemed to be out of oompf on Nuke.

It may have been that it was the first time that they’ve played two long and grueling Bo3s back to back. (and trust me that Atox one was VERY grueling). Something to look out for.

The Bosh: I’m Australian therefore Flyquest will win IEM Chengdu 2024 and every single tournament that they will participate in ever.

Let’s get back to reality, Flyquest can make Lower Bracket Finals as I believe their toughest opponent to get there will be Astralis. If they do get there, they’ll just be bundled out by either Cloud 9 or Virtus Pro.

If they beat Cloud 9 in a Bo1 then they’ll likely be bundled out by them in a Bo3 instead. However, that’ll be a cracker of a Bo3 to see! As I said before in either scenario, their toughest opponent will be Astralis before the Lower Bracket final.

My call? Eliminated by Cloud 9/VP in Lower Bracket Semi-Final. They’ll beat Wildcard.

Tyloo — Do I even bother?

So if you thought Grayhound not making a major was a disappointment. Wait till you get a load of Tyloo. Tyloo are basically the Chinese Astralis at this stage but a few stages behind.

Firstly, they now have a 10 man roster. Secondly, they are now behind their rivals at Lynn Vision and thirdly, they constantly underperforming with the potential of their squad. Will Kaze start demanding to be an Ingame Leader next?

There are some serious problems at Tyloo and they have recently shuffled their roster again for this upcoming tournament. Honestly, not only are you already outclassed by most of the Oceania/Asia representatives at this tournament but you’re overhauling a core at the same time.

I must honestly ask this question. Why has advent not been moved on yet? You’ve added lyrics3 and zdr but not moved on the IGL who has been underperforming at Asia/Oceania Torunaments.

Pros: They still have Jamyoung and Mercury who have been mainstays on this roster. There is still the unknown factor that could help with lyrics3 and zdr

Cons: New core, Advent struggling and unproven players as well as being outclassed by their current competition? Let’s sprinkle some underperformance and being out of form as well. There are too many cons.

The Bosh: Expect Lynn Vision to massacre them to finalise their ascendency in being the best Chinese team in China. I wouldn’t be surprised if Steel Helmet last longer than Tyloo.

I hope you guys enjoyed reading this review! Now let’s kick back and enjoy the tournament! While I worry on how many of my predictions are going to go wrong and how badly they go wrong!