Coming to you from Saudi Arabia this summer, the Esports World Cup sees the best teams in the world face off in a unique tournament format, where basically every game is a playoff game. Let’s see what we can expect from CS2 matches and teams at the Esports World Cup 2024!

Contents

• Format
• Teams
• Winner Predictions

Format

With the first round, we will see 14 teams face off against each other. The winners will head straight to the knockout stage, while the losers will head to the Last Chance stage, where MENA qualifier JiJeHao will be waiting for them. The Last Chance Stage is a knockout bracket, where only one of the 8 teams will get the final, 8th spot in the Playoffs, guaranteeing hard-hitting, loser-go-home action from basically the very beginning.

Teams

Let’s see how the teams participating are getting on and how we see their future in the tournament.

Team Spirit

After being heavily favorited in the recent major and falling way short of expectations, Spirit’s reign of terror has ended just as abruptly as it started. However, they seem to have gotten out of their doldrums recently, winning the Blast Premier Spring Finals a few weeks back, granting them the no.1 HLTV Ranking spot for the first time in history.

The IEM Katowice 2024 champions will look to hold on to that spot. However, questions remain, as teams seem to have figured out how to stop the prodigy Danil “donk” Kryshkovets, forcing the rest of the team to pick up their performances. This isn’t to say that donk isn’t performing great. It’s just that he’s not the unstoppable beast we’ve seen in the wintertime, making Spirit far more beatable.

All that said, we’re predicting that these kids are going to go far in the tournament, and we wouldn’t bet against them. However, we’re much more reserved than we were in the case of the PGL Major.

Team Vitality

Despite having arguably one of the greatest CS players of all time on their team in Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut, Vitality has had a rough year in terms of wins. They placed high in basically every bigger tournament, but their last win came in December, leaving their 2024 a big ‘ole goose egg.

The big question has to be whether William “mezii” Merriman can step up, as his performance has been the outlier for Vitality with the lowest ranking on the team. The team has changed a lot since their Major win in Paris, but they’re always a danger to win the tournament.

However, all in all, we doubt that Vitality has what it takes to break their losing streak. We suspect they’ll do their classic semi-final exit, which might cause big changes before the IEM in Cologne.

MOUZ

The big question about MOUZ is… which MOUZ is going to show up. The dominant, 3-0 MOUZ from the Major Swiss Stage, or the MOUZ choking under pressure in the quarterfinals. The team is young, with room to grow and bounced back with a second-place finish in IEM Chengdu, and a win at BetBoom Dacha.

Kamil “siuhy’ Szkaradek and co. will have to show up in Riyadh, though, as the competition will be much bigger than at BetBoom, and MOUZ have to find their consistency. Although, with transfer season coming up, this might be a last hurrah should one of the big boy teams come calling.

FaZe

FaZe narrowly missed out on a Major win, but bounced back quickly in Chengdu, leaving them with two podium finishes in the last three top-tier tournaments. Finn “karrigan” Andersen is ever the mastermind. However, the team lacks pure star power with neither Robin “ropz” Kool, nor David “frozen’ Cernansky being able to really grasp CS2 to the level they’ve grasped CS:GO. Overall team consistency is still keeping them afloat, with Helvijs “broky” Saukants and Havard “rain” Nygaard holding their own and carrying out karrigan’s strategies to a tee.

However, if something doesn’t shift, the everdynamic FaZe might be looking for another change. With many young up-and-comers showing their skills of late, who knows what comes next for the Clan.

Natus Vincere

The Major Champions come into Riyadh looking to prove that their success hasn’t been a fluke. Having not attended Chengdu and falling in the group stage at IEM Dallas, they’ve managed to take 2nd in the much smaller Blast Premier Spring Final. However, it’s easy to see that doubts about their consistency are creeping in. Michi “iM” Ivan has been struggling to make an impact expected of him after the high-profile transfer from GamerLegion, and the team has lived and died by the trio of Valeri “b1t” Vahovskiy, Ihor “w0nderful” Zhdanov and the trash-talking Major legend Justinas “jL” Lekavicius. With Aleksi “aleksib” Virolainen being the X factor—when their in-game leader shows up, the team does really well.

Na’Vi is ever a threat, but we do feel that their Major run was more of a one-hit wonder than a base for consistent performance. We sense upset potential in their game against FURIA.

G2

If you follow Counter-Strike, you’ve been waiting for this one! After losing in the Major and IEM Chengdu 2024 semi-finals, and winning IEM Dallas, G2 still decided to change their roster, benching Nemanja “nexa” Isaković and Rasmus “hooxi” Nielsen, and replacing them with Mario “malbsMd” Samayoa from M80, and Janusz “Snax” Pogorzelski from GamerLegion.

The first transfer is a pretty expected one in a way. malbsMd was the young standout for the South American mix and his rifling skills will be a serious upgrade on nexa. On the other hand, Snax comes as an absolute surprise. The 2014 Katowice Major champion is one of the most legendary Counter-Strike veterans, however, in many ways he’s considered to be way past his prime. It also marks his reunion with Virtus.Pro teammate Witkor “TaZ” Wojtas, who coaches G2. They’ve famously disagreed on tactics (and on TaZ getting a Mercedes from VP’s owner) for years, leading to TaZ’s departure, but now have apparently patched things up. Will this new relationship work? Definitely not immediately.

Snax will take the role of IGL, so we doubt we’re going to see the best version of G2 during this tournament. However, we will see potential, and a new approach with an entirely new leader. It will be interesting to see this team, although they will have a hard first game coming up against Major darlings TheMongolz.

Virtus.Pro

The Russian outfit has been an ever-present danger since their win at the Rio Major. While they’ve won some minor tournaments of late, they’ve failed to make a splash in the top-tiers of Counter-Strike.

However, we wouldn’t count them out. With the format being very shortened, Dzhami “Jame” Ali grinding out every round might benefit them in Riyadh and push them to the top. It’s a long shot, but who the hell knows with these guys, they’re out there.

Complexity

Complexity is a… complex matter. The NA outfit has been struggling anytime they’re let out of their region. The Roster has been together for over a year now and have failed to really get anything going, despite Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski’s best efforts. With nothing to brag about, they’re there because a NA team needs to be there.

We don’t think they’re gonna go far, and with their first match being against Virtus.Pro, they’re definitely in trouble.

The MongolZ

The MongolZ took the CS world by storm during the major, and while they didn’t achieve much, qualifying to the Elimination Stage was a big deal for the young Mongolian outfit. Ever since, they’ve dominated the Asian scene, winning the MESA Pro Series, Nomadic Masters Spring, and YaLLa Compass.

With an aggressive playstyle and fans behind them as the underdogs, they might just pull off another one. With them facing a G2 squad that will have just around 2 weeks to practice with a new IGL and CT-side Anchor, we see a chance of seeing the Underdogs from Ulan Bataar in the Playoffs.

FURIA

One of two Brazilian teams in this tournament, FURIA is currently still in search for a fifth player. After a failed experiment in replacing Andrei “arT” Piovezan with Kayke “kye” Bertolucci from FURIA’s academy, they’ll be joined by Liquid’s Felipe “skullz” Medeiros.

With their roster in flux, it’s unlikely Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo will be able to lead the team to success, despite the powerhouse duo of Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato and Yuri “yuurih” Santos leading the way. We think FURIA might be one of the first ones out.

FlyQuest

The Australian team is dominating its region, but has struggled to get going internationally, unlike previous iterations of top Australian teams. The roster has a lot of talent, led by Christopher “dexter” Nong.

Ranked #20 in the HLTV rankings, they have upset potential, but to get into the playoffs the easy way in, they’ll have to face off against FaZe, which might be a bit too much to handle. We don’t think they’re going far, but they have surprised us in the past.

MIBR

Making this tournament has been a big change for MIBR who have failed to qualify for the Major. They have bounced back since, qualifying for this tournament, and also winning ESL Challenge Melbourne to start building towards a comeback. The roster has been with each other for a while, with Felipe “insani” Yuji being the standout of late.

However, with them facing Spirit in the first round, we just can’t see them fluking their way to a playoff spot, and the Last Chance bracket is also unlikely to be friendly to the Brazilian outfit.

M80

M80 is another roster in flux after the aforementioned malbsMD left for G2. With two Germans and two Americans, out of which Elias “s1n” Stein is a very new addition, it’s unlikely that M80 will be able to pull off any surprises without their top player.

Facing off against Vitality in the first round, they’re pretty much DOA if you ask us.

Sashi

It wouldn’t be an Esports World Cup without a Danish team. Sashi came onto the scene with a bang, beating GamerLegion, Ruby, Guild Eagles, Cloud9, and Eternal Fire on their way to the final European spot at the tournament. Ever since then, however, they haven’t really been tested by top-level competition. Coached by Danish CS legend Nicolai “HUNDEN” Petersen, they’re sure to have some interesting strats, but their performance will be heavily reliant on the performance of Casper “Cabbi” Jensen who has been carrying the load for the team.

Facing the mercurial MOUZ in the first round, they do have a small chance at an upset… although we doubt karrigan would allow himself to underestimate his countrymen.

JiJieHao

The final team is one that won’t even have a chance at heading straight to the playoffs, being immediately placed in the last chance bracket. A very peculiar roster, featuring former Major MVP Markus “Kjaerbye” Kjaerbye and OG standout Issa “ISSAA” Murad, complete with Bulgarian Denislav “dennyslaw” Dimitrov and two MENA standouts, Lebanese superstar Hussein “m1N1” Hijazi and Palestinian Osama “0SAMAS” Orabi, the team has some interesting talent… that only came together over the last month, with the two European signings being announced this week.

The team is far different than the one that qualified, with only ISSAA and m1N1 remaining from that squad. 0SAMAS actually played for the team that lost the qualifier final to JiJieHAO, while Kjaerbye has been out of the game for almost 2 years. What will come out of this team? Who the hell knows. It’s unlikely to go far, but we’re pretty sure they might surprise an unfortunate Last Chance team, although the Playoffs are truly a long shot for them.

Winner Predictions

To finish off the article, we asked our team who they think the winners will be, and we got some answers… No clear favorite emerged, so the World Cup will be interesting!

• Steve: FaZe
• Jual: Mouz
• Mr. Expert:  G2
• John: Spirit
• IW: FaZe
• Shifu: Vitality
• Alan: Mouz

That’s what we think… but what do you think? Let us know on our socials, and have fun watching the Esports World Cup!