CS 2
There are a lot of teams worth paying attention to at the European RMRs, but B8 and Monte deserve mentioning. The RMRs may become a breakthrough in their evolution for both young teams.
B8 close to a break through
B8 is a Ukrainian professional esports organization founded by Dota 2 player Danylo “Dendi” Ishutin. In 2021 B8 entered CS:GO with the signing of ex-Marlian eSports. The active roster includes Mykyta “Hkta” Reva (IGL), Artem “r1nkle” Moroz (AWPer), Arsenii “cptkurtka023” Derevynskyi, Denys “amster” Liashenko, Oleksii “alex666” Yarmoshchuk, and Ivan “Maddened” Iordanidi. The team usually plays at tier 2-3 events without notable success.
B8 has a powerful map pool with Overpass as a permanent ban; the best map is Dust2, with an 86% win rate on eight maps for the last three months. They also do great on Ancient and Nuke, with 80% and 71% win rates, respectively. Nuke can be a real trump card in the sleeve of the Ukrainians, as there is a win rate of 70% on 20 maps in 2022.
Considering CT orientation on this map (57%) among all teams this year, 54% for the terrorists from B8 looks very impressive, which allowed them to win Movistar Riders at IEM Road to Rio 2022 Europe Open Qualifier 3. Amster, who recently joined the team, makes unnecessary mistakes on Nuke sometimes as his former squad permabanned this map; but he is playing better from match to match. Inferno (64%), Vertigo (50%), and Mirage (25%) aren’t that good; Overpass isn’t played at all.
B8 wins 61% of 5v4 rounds and 25% of 4v5. They also succeed in 45% of pistol rounds and convert 76.0% of the second rounds after winning the pistol rounds. Another point that lets the team gain wins is the utility usage: the squad has 22.2 ADR with HE grenades, Molotovs & Incendiaries added to 0.21 flash assists per round.
The 17 years-old AWPer r1nkle is the B8’s star player, who scored a rating of 1.18 during the last three months. He is very aggressive and successful in gaining the first kill, with 66.2% success in opening duels. According to the rumors, Artem was considered the Abdul “degster” Gasanov replacement, but Spirit decided to pick Ihor “w0nderful” Zhdanov.
In the first match, B8 faces Cloud9 and has a solid chance to surprise the community, especially if the teams play Dust2, which is comfortable for both. BO1 is BO1, and the players are highly motivated to beat a strong opponent and get a head start.
A closer look at Monte's chances
Monte is a Ukrainian organization freshly founded by Volodymyr "Woro2k" Veletniuk. The team gathered for the open RMR qualifiers but turned out to be an organization after a short, prosperous period.
Monte also participated at CCT Central Europe Series 1 and finished 5rd-8th after losing 1:2 to MIBR. Except for Woro2k (AWPer), Frederik "Fessor" Sørensen (IGL), Hristiyan "REDSTAR" Pironkov, Serhii "DemQQ" Demchenko, and Joel "joel" Holmlund are playing in this squad. Former Avangar and Winstrike player Aidyn 'KrizzeN' Turlybekov is a temporary head coach. Monte is the youngest team of both RMRs, with an average age of 20.4 years.
The team's most popular maps are Nuke (64% win rate), Mirage (85%), and Dust2 (67%) after 14, 13, and 12 times played, relatively. Vertigo, Overpass, and Inferno are also acceptable but are not played too often, whereas Ancient is a permanent ban.
Monte win 53.8% of the rounds, having 51.9% success in opening duels. They are pretty successful in both 5v4 and 4v5 situations – 77.6% and 28.2%, respectively. Furthermore, Monte are stronger in 56.1% of pistol rounds, 87.0% of the second rounds after winning the pistol rounds, and 22.2% after losing the first round.
The team is new and doesn't have previous experience playing together. This explains low rates with stats that require time and training to establish – 17.3 ADR with HE grenades, Molotovs & Incendiaries, and 0.15 flash assists per round.
Being a mix of skillful players, Monte can impose their game in BO1s on any other squad. They played a lot in the tier 2 scene and could take responsibility for themselves at any moment. Similar to B8, Monte start at the RMR against a team ready to play Dust2 or Mirage, which may lead to unexpected results.
Feature Image: B8
