StarLadder i-League season 3: What you need to know

Starladder i-League Season 3 kicks off next week, Tuesday 4th April, and we have all the information you will need to enjoy the $300,000 event at it’s fullest.

What: StarLadder i-League Season 3
Where: National Palace of Arts, Kiev, Ukraine
When: Tuesday, April 4-Sunday, April 9
Prize Fund: $300,000 ($125,000 1st, $50,000 2nd, $25,000 3rd & 4th, $2,500-$10,000 16th-5th)
Teams: Astralis, FaZe Clan, Gambit eSports, Natus Vincere, Ninjas in Pjamas, North, SK Gaming, Virtus.pro, Fnatic, G2 eSports, HellRaisers, Immortals, Counter Logic Gaming, MVP Project, UYA, TyLoo

The tournament is the third in the StarLadder i-League series and will use the swiss system for the group stages. The 16 teams were seeded into four pools, with pools 1 and 2 containing invited teams, while pools 3 and 4 contain teams that qualified for the event. Pool 1 will face Pool 4 while Pool 2 will face Pool 3 in initial matches. Below are the groups and a list of the initial round of matches — all of which will be best of 1 games.

Pool 1: Na’Vi, Astralis, Virtus.pro, SK Gaming
Pool 2: North, Gambit, FaZe, NiP
Pool 3: Fnatic, G2, HellRaisers, Immortals
Pool 4: CLG, UYA, TyLoo, MVP Project

Initial matches:
Astralis vs. CLG
Virtus.pro vs. MVP
SK Gaming vs. TyLoo
Na’Vi vs. UYA
NiP vs. G2
North vs. Immortals
FaZe vs. HellRaisers
Gambit vs. Fnatic

As always with the swiss system, following the initial matches, teams with a 0-1 record will be drawn to face each other and teams with a 1-0 record will be drawn to face each other. This continues until eight of the teams have a three-win record and advance to the play-offs.

The favorites:

Astralis: Current major champions and world No. 1, Astralis are the favorites to win the tournament and rightly so. Since in-game leader Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander joined at the end of October last year, the Danish outfit have earned over $1mil in prize money, won the ELEAGUE Major and placed top four in every tournament they have attended.

Virtus.pro: Perhaps the only team in the world that have pushed Astralis to their limits in the last six months. The Polish giants were on the losing end when they met Astralis in the ELEAGUE Major final in January in a breathtaking match. Snax and company got their revenge less than a month later at DH Masters Las Vegas but crashed out of IEM Katowice 2017 in the group stages in March.

SK Gaming: Although the Brazilian outfit are yet to win a tournament in 2017, they are still a force. Placing top four at the major and coming runner-up to VP at DreamHack Vegas, SK Gaming will be looking to get back to their best in Kiev.

The ones to watch:

Na’Vi: On paper, Natus Vincere have a line-up of dreams — but on-paper hasn’t translated in-game thus far. When the CIS team added s1mple to their line-up mid-2016, it was thought they could be a top three team in the world. The team were able to win ESL One New York in August, but have been disappointing since. If, however, s1mple and GuardiaN can show up in Kiev, they could go far.

Gambit: While not a name that immediately springs to mind of most, Gambit have shown they are a solid, organized team under Zeus. The former Na’Vi IGL joined Gambit late in 2016 and was able to steer his men to 1st place at DreamHack Winter 2016. They have also pulled off some big wins in recent tournaments, beating both Fnatic and VP in the group stages of DH Vegas. Definitely ones to watch.

FaZe: With the addition of Bosnian superstar ‘NiKo’ to an already talented team, IGL Karrigan recently said he wouldn’t change any member of his team. Just a couple of days after ‘NiKo’ arrived, FaZe managed to reach the final of IEM Katowice 2017 and put up a very good fight against Astralis. With more time to bootcamp and practice, the new FaZe line-up could well surprise.

North: Whilst not quite reaching the heights they did under the Dignitas banner in 2016, the North line-up have shown signs they are growing under MSL’s leadership. Having reached the semi-final of DH Masters Las Vegas, the Danes crashed out of IEM Katowice 2017 to Immortals in the quarter-finals. They have the ability to go all the way, but with the swiss system it could be hit or miss early on.

The outsiders:

Fnatic: One of the greatest line-ups CS:GO has ever seen is back together, but the huge question is whether or not they can rekindle their legendary form. When Olofmeister, dennis, KRIMZ, JW and Flusha ruled the Counter-Strike world in 2015 & the first half of 2016, they looked untouchable. However, after months of player trading with GODSENT can they really be that good again? It’s such a big question that it leaves them lingering down the lower tier of my predictions. They haven’t shown anything like the form they are capable of since re-forming and they’ll need something god-like to go all the way in Kiev.

NiP: Similar to Fnatic, the Ninjas once ruled the CS:GO scene but have been in a major slump for a while. Winning tournaments here and there, but never reaching the “major” status of 2014. The original four of Xist, f0rest, GeT_RiGhT and friberg will be playing their first LAN with new addition Draken. Online, in ESL Pro League, the Swedes have looked much better since Draken joined, but it’s a really big unknown as to how Draken, and the team, will perform at a LAN event.

G2: When the long-await French Shuffle happened after the major, it was G2 who seemingly came out with the better end of the deal. The shuffle saw shox and bodyy joined by former EnVyUs members NBK-, apEX and kennyS. The dream combo of shox and kennyS had people foaming at the mouth. Online, in ESL Pro League, the Frenchmen have disappointed and currently sit second from bottom. We all know the capabilities of each member of G2 but it’s a question of whether they can put it all together as a team on the big stage.

Immortals: While the Brazilian outfit have shown much promise since the addition of ‘fnx’ from SK Gaming, they still remain a relative unknown in terms of what they can bring on a constant basis. They reached the semi-finals of IEM Katowice 2017 winning some big matches on the way, but the question is whether or not that was a one-off. It will be interesting to see how hen1 and co perform in Kiev.

HellRaisers: The CIS team have been on a run of form lately. With impressive online victories in ESL Pro League, they currently sit fourth in the Europe table. The big question is whether or not they can turn online form into LAN form.

The unknown:

CLG: While they have been around for a fairly long time, in terms of big LAN tournaments, CLG are unproven. Their best LAN performance came at the MLG Columbus Major in early 2016, where they placed 5-8th. They’ve had some decent online results but nothing too special so they remain an unknown.

TyLoo: Whilst not unknown as an organization, Chinese outfit TyLoo are yet to really progress in tier 1 Counter-Strike. They most recently had a 13-16th place finish at DH Masters Las Vegas but didn’t look to threaten the top teams at all. While playing solid CS, they would seldom threaten a top five European team.

MVP Project: A team most people will likely never have heard of, MVP are a South Korean team formed in late 2015. They attended i-League Season 2 in 2016 and were sent home by FlipSide with a 13-16th place finish. It will take a mammoth effort and some god-tier strats to see them get to the playoffs alone.

UYA: The second of the Chinese teams attending the tournament are UYA, formerly 5Power Club. Formed in May 2016, they are yet to attend a global LAN such as this, so they are really a complete unknown.

Your desk host for the event will be Alex ‘Machine’ Richardson who will be joined by analysts Duncan ‘Thorin’ Shields, Jason ‘moses’ O’Toole and Janko ‘YNk’ Paunovic. Commentators for the event are Anders ‘Anders’ Blume, Auguste ‘Semmler’ Massonnat, Matthew ‘Sadokist’ Trivvett, Henry ‘HenryG’ Greer and Tom ‘Tombizz14’ Bissmire.

We will have full coverage of the event here on FanSided.com.