IEM Cologne 2021 playoffs: Five players to watch ESLIEM Cologne 2021 is down to its final six teams. Only one will be crowned champion in the Cathedral of Counter-Strike, and these five players will be a big part in dictating whether CIS lifts another title in 2021, or a new contender arises ahead of the Major. It\u2019s truly been CIS vs the world in Counter-Strike so far in 2021, and IEM Cologne 2021 is no different. While it\u2019s not like Katowice (where all four CIS teams made it to playoffs), there\u2019s still considerable representation in the top six. However, they\u2019re not all in form. In fact, G2 Esports and FaZe Clan have been more of the surprise, pushing through to the top six despite fluctuating results. It\u2019s also hard to look past Astralis too, who are trying to relive their glory days without dev1ce. So, who do you need to watch this weekend in the Cathedral of Counter-Strike? We\u2019ve got five players you must keep an eye on (and trust us \u2014 it\u2019s going to be a battle of the Big Green). Oleksandr \u2018s1mple\u2019 Kostyliev (Natus Vincere) Okay, let\u2019s just get the obvious out of the way. S1mple is one of the greatest of all time, everyone knows that. However, he\u2019s been playing well above even his own lofty expectations. His 1.52 rating is 0.18 higher than anyone else in the tournament \u2014 and 0.27 higher than anyone else in the playoffs (which is, funnily enough, his right-hand man in electronic). Read More: Why no team is safe at IEM Cologne 2021 – He\u2019s just had an unbelievable amount of impact, both with the AWP and without it. It\u2019s truly s1mple\u2019s Cologne to win, and while it\u2019s not a Major, it\u2019s certainly telling of his form ahead of PGL Stockholm in November. Abay \u2018Hobbit\u2019 Khasenov (Gambit) Hobbit might not be Gambit\u2019s IGL anymore, and it might be for the best. He hasn\u2019t been for a while with Nafany taking up the reins, but the veteran has been the cool head the squad of rising stars has needed to raze the field and become the indisputable best team of 2021 (so far). While every part of the Gambit squad has shone so far in Cologne, Hobbit is the consistent rock, always posting up well \u2014 especially on CT side. While they had a slight slip-up against G2 before playoffs, you just know that Hobbit will be able to rally the troops with his experience to get them back to the top. Timur \u2018buster\u2019 Tulepov (Virtus.pro) If it wasn\u2019t for Buster, we wouldn\u2019t be talking about Virtus.pro right now in the IEM Cologne playoffs. He had not one, but two huge clutches against Complexity, when VP\u2019s back was against the wall, to dig them out of a hole and advance to the top six. He\u2019s not as electric as Jame or YEKINDAR \u2014 although his 1.36 rating and +13 KD against NiP shows he\u2019s got the flair \u2014 but Buster\u2019s clutch ability is exactly what you need once you hit the playoffs of a big event. Francois \u2018AmaNEk\u2019 Delaunay (G2 Esports) AmaNEk has some big shoes to fill on the G2 Esports roster. Is he doing well so far in kennyS\u2019 absence in taking up the AWP? Well, as far as stats go, he\u2019s one of the lowest performing AWPers at Cologne, barely scraping together a rating above 1.00. However, what his selflessness has allowed is for G2 to bounce back to their explosive best. His more supportive style gives NiKo and huNter- the chance to really thrive on the server. If AmaNEk can truly step into his own come playoffs though, they might be the first real threat to CIS supremacy in Counter-Strike this year. Helvijs \u2018broky\u2019 Saukants (FaZe Clan) Has broky finally matured into his role on FaZe Clan? His recent performances certainly indicate that. While Twistzz firmly remains the star of the show, the 20-year-old looks clean on the AWP. It was a big question looming over FaZe ever since GuardiaN left, but that\u2019s been firmly answered \u2014 even if it\u2019s almost two years later. While he did struggle against ZywOo (hardly unexpected), the level of competition is only going to go up. Twistzz does need that help on the rifles, and while Rain has stepped up somewhat at IEM Cologne to do so, a big part of their game plan relies on broky holding down the fort with the Big Green. It\u2019ll be interesting to see if he\u2019s up to the task. The IEM Cologne 2021 playoffs kick off on July 16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
IEM Cologne 2021 playoffs: Five players to watch ESLIEM Cologne 2021 is down to its final six teams. Only one will be crowned champion in the Cathedral of Counter-Strike, and these five players will be a big part in dictating whether CIS lifts another title in 2021, or a new contender arises ahead of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38482\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}