8 wins in a row are impressive in itself, but when you win 8 series in a row against some of the best teams in the entire world and your team is Movistar Riders it is something extraordinary. The Spaniards have been on a roll recently but were put to a stop when facing what is probably the best team in the world right now in Natus Vincere. 

[slugORMA:{"slug":"natus-vincere-avoids-upset-secures-semi-final-spot","isNewTab":true}]

We spoke with Movistar Riders player "alex" after they had to swallow the bitter pill of defeat against "s1mple" and his troops of NaVi. Whilst a loss is, of course, never easy to take on the chin, especially if you are on a roll, the Spanish Movistar Riders player expressed that it could act as a reminder that they need to continue their hard work going into the playoff stage of the event: 

To hear more about Movistar Riders' incredible form and how "alex" sees the rest of the event play out for the Spanish Riders, you can watch the exclusive interview down below: 

ALEX

Movistar Riders

I'll bet that you couldn't mention five Spanish top-tier CS:GO players, at least not until Movistar Riders entered the professional CS:GO scene for good. Peaking at #12 in the world earlier this year, Movistar Riders have become a name that no opponent should brush over without preparing for a tough and longstanding fight. 

The Spaniards proved themselves once again at the just-finished ESL Challenger 2022 event on home-turf in Valencia, Spain. The boys of Movistar Riders managed to make it all the way to the Grand Final without dropping a single map on the way there. Despite losing a single map in the Grand Finals to Outsiders, it was the Spaniards who were able to lift the trophy in the end. 

[slugORMA:{"slug":"movistar-riders-lift-trophy-esl-challenger-valencia-2022","isNewTab":true}]

But how come Movistar Riders seemed almost untouchable at the ESL Challenger event? Well if you look at the numbers there is an obvious explanation. Not one, not two, but three of Movistar Riders' players managed to make it into the top five highest-rated players at the event. 

The star of the Spanish show, "SunPayus" managed an impressive 71.0% percent success in opening duels alongside being the most dangerous AWP'er at the entire event with 0.43 AWP kills per round. 

The talented AWP'er, however, didn't stand alone. With "alex" giving a masterclass in how to remain consistent throughout all matches at a scarily high level, as well as "mopoz" securing the highest impact rating at the event of 1.41, it is no surprise that Movistar Riders ended up taking home the trophy in Valencia, Spain. 

If you missed the Grand Final between Movistar Riders and Outsiders you can watch the highlights from all three maps down below: 

SunPayus

mopoz

The second Bo3-series of the third day in Group C in ESL Pro League Season 15 was between Movistar Riders and Team Liquid. Both teams have had a great start to the event and were undefeated with two victories to their name, before locking horns today. As expected, it was a close battle between the two rosters, that traded maps in order to reach the third and deciding map in Ancient. Both teams proved why they are undefeated within Group C so far, however, ultimately it was Movistar Riders to come out on top. After a very intense three-map-thriller, it was the Spanish boys of Movistar Riders to walk away with three points after yet another victory, this time against Team Liquid. 

The first map of the series was, as mentioned, to be played on Inferno, and when looking at the numbers it becomes clear as to why Movistar Riders opted for Inferno as their map pick. With a 67% win rate in the past three months (6 maps), it is Movistar Rider's most successful map as of recent times. From early doors, it was clear that Inferno was going to be close. Trading rounds back and forth it seemed as if it could swing both ways. After winning the last four rounds of the first half, however, it was Team Liquid to secure a 9-6 lead before switching sides. The second half brought more intense and close-call battles across the map. With both teams' AWP'ers performing at a high level it was difficult to foresee the outcome of Inferno. In the end, at the close scoreline of 16-14, it was Team Liquid to take home Inferno and secure an advantage going into the next map of the Bo3-series. 

The second map of the series was picked by Team Liquid and saw the Bo3-series head toward Mirage. Just like Inferno was for Movistar Riders, Mirage has been Team Liquid's best map in the past three months. The North American team have won 67% of their matches on Mirage in the past three months (6 maps). Once the two teams had entered the server, however, Team Liquid completely fell apart. Failing to break down the defense of the Spanish Movistar Riders, spearheaded by a "SunPayus" on fire, they had to see themselves behind at 13-2 at halftime. The second half started with Liquid winning the first three rounds, but it wasn't long until Movistar Riders secured map-point at 15-6. Whilst Team Liquid almost managed an incredible comeback it never became reality. At 16-12, the Spanish Riders closed out Mirage and forced a third and final map. 

The final and deciding map of the Bo3-series was set to take place on the soil of Ancient. After having traded maps it was all down to Ancient. Movistar Riders started on the, arguably more difficult side of Ancient as T's, but still managed to post a solid performance against the Liquid defense. At 9-6, favoring Liquid, Ancient could go both ways. As one could have anticipated, seeing that Ancient is the most CT-sided map in the official map-pool by quite a bit, things got close and intense in the second half of Ancient. Movistar Riders managed to catch up with Liquid and ultimately overtime was needed for Ancient to find a conclusion. In a close overtime, it was ultimately Movistar Riders to come out on top and take home Ancient at 19-16

Movistar Riders – Liquid 2-1 | ESL Pro League Season 15 (Group C)

14-16 (Inferno) | {cflag:CA} NAF – 1.30 Rating / 22-17 K-D / 87.1 ADR

16-12 (Mirage) | {cflag:ES} SunPayus – 1.52 Rating / 26-12 K-D / 90.4 ADR

19-16 (Ancient) | {cflag:ES} alex – 1.46 Rating / 29-18 K-D / 103.5 ADR

MVP: {cflag:ES} Alvaro "SunPayus" Garcia | 1.31 Rating / 71-47 K-D / 77.7 ADR

Team Liquid

We've all heard about and come to love the beauty of a clean one-tap headshot, however, something that is equally as impressive and perhaps even more mechanically challenging is the art of 'spray transferring'. When spraying down your opponent, the recoil from the gun will make the bullets spread in a certain pattern and it is up to the player himself to control this pattern. Controlling a spray can be challenging itself, add transferring from one player to another and you have a whole different kind of challenge at hand. 

Despite how difficult spray transferring is in practice, and especially when facing some of the toughest opponents in the entire world, the Spanish rifler from Movistar Riders "alex" made it look easy when facing Liquid. Given the task of retaking the B-bombsite, he is peeked by three opponents almost simultaneously. Whilst this usually means death, he manages to transfer from one player to the next and collect all three kills for a clean and very difficult 3K - take a look: 

As mentioned it is by no means easy to get away with a spray transfer in the game of CS:GO, however, some are just better at it than others. Take a look at some of the best spray transfers over the years of professional CS:GO: 

The first match of the day at ESL Pro League in Group C saw Movistar Riders take an upset victory against Players (Gambit) after a closely fought match.

Both teams came with a fresh win from Day 1. The winner of today’s match would therefore be in a good position to advance to the playoffs.

Movistar Riders took the match to Inferno, where the Spaniards managed to turn a 7-8 deficit at the break to a 16-14 win after a good CT-side in the second half.

Mirage was the setting for Players to try and start the comeback. The Russian roster quickly established a big lead with Sergey 'Ax1Le' Rykhtorov spearheading the roster. The talented rifler ended the map with a 21-13 K-D scoreline after a dominant performance from Players.

Ancient came into play as the decider map. On paper a big advantage for Players, who has a much better record on the map. But that didn’t seem to scare away the Iberian team, who utilized Alejandro 'alex' Masanet to perfection to allow the team to swing a lot of rounds in their direction during the first half. Movistar Riders found themselves 9-6 up after a good first half.

The Spanish roster continued in the second half, where they won several important clutches against Players, who looked strangely out of character just like their neutral name. Movistar Riders won the match with a comfortable 16-9 win on Ancient.

Players – Movistar Riders 1-2 | ESL Pro League Season 15 (Group C)

14-16 (Inferno) | {cflag:ES} mopoz – 1.34 Rating / 24-19 K-D / 81.6 ADR

16-7 (Mirage) | {cflag:RU} Ax1Le – 1.45 Rating / 21-13 K-D / 95.7 ADR

9-16 (Ancient) | {cflag:ES} alex - 1.57 rating / 26-12 K-D / 101.7 ADR

MVP: {cflag:KZ} Abay 'HObbit' Khasenov - 1.31 rating / 66-53 K-D / 91.2 ADR

Ax1Le

Players

The Swedish-British mix from Fnatic survives another day at IEM Winter 2021 after their confident victory against ENCE in the lower bracket of Group B. The elimination match between the two sides marked the comeback of ENCE’s in-game leader and captain Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer, who returned to the server after missing the first match due to a positive Covid-19 test.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"snappi-returns-ence-starting-lineup-iem-winter","isNewTab":true}]

The Danish veteran couldn’t do anything against Alex “ALEX” McMeekin and the rest of Fnatic, where especially Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin and Owen “smooya” Butterfield stepped up massively following their loss yesterday against Gambit.

After winning their map pick on Overpass through a stellar CT-side in the second half, Fnatic finished off the work on Nuke with a 16-13 victory. The second map ended up being more competitive and closer than the first map, due to

While this marks the end of ENCE’s campaign, Fnatic moves on to the next round where they will meet the loser of BIG vs GODSENT. That match is set to be played tomorrow at 13:30 (CET).

Fnatic – ENCE (2-0) | IEM Winter Lower Bracket

16-11 (Overpass) | {cflag:SE} Brollan – 1.41 Rating / 26-14 K-D / 81.7 ADR

16-13 (Nuke) | {cflag:GB} smooya – 1.35 Rating / 23-16 K-D / 86.7 ADR

MVP: {cflag:GB} Owen “smooya” Butterfield – 1.27 Rating / 45-31 K-D / 79.3 ADR

Brollan

mezii

Fnatic

ENCE

This week will feature the start of Intel Extreme Masters Winter 2021 (IEM Winter). Among the 16 attending teams, there will be some of Counter-Strike's best and most iconic teams starred by the likes of Astralis, Gambit, NIP and Vitality. 

Down below you'll find every detail of the event and four interesting storylines to follow throughout the ten days.

Location: Stockholm, Sweden – LAN without an audience.

Will blameF and k0nfig continue to shine for the new Astralis?

Astralis | {cflag:DK} gla1ve {cflag:DK} Xyp9x {cflag:DK} Lucky {cflag:DK} k0nfig {cflag:DK} blameF 

Last month, the Counter-Strike heavy hitters from Astralis made a trio of significant roster changes, where they replaced dupreeh, Magisk and Zonic with k0nfig, blameF and ave, starting a completely new chapter in the history of Astralis.

Astralis’ new poster boys in the former Complexity duo Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke and Benjamin “blameF” Bremer proved their worth from the very get going, as they ended the newly-concluded BLAST Premier Fall Final as the Danes’ top performing players (k0nfig 1.25 Rating / blameF 1.17 Rating). Replacing superstars like dupreeh, Magisk and Zonic will never be an easy task, however, it looks like Astralis has managed to make the transition as swift as possible.

IEM Winter will for sure be a much clearer indicator for what we can expect for the new-look Astralis, or Astralis 2.0 if you want, due to the team having a bit more time to prepare and play together on the server. Given their status in CS:GO and past achievements, Astralis will always be in some kind of contention to win any event, especially when you have a mind like gla1ve and a pair of fierce riflers in k0nfig and blameF. Something to look out for as well will be the AWP role on the team, as we most surprisingly saw gla1ve pick it up instead of Lucky at BLAST Fall Final. 

The legend returns – kennyS to stand in for G2

G2 | {cflag:BA} NiKo {cflag:BA} huNter  {cflag:FR} JaCkz  {cflag:FR} AmaNEk  {cflag:FR} kennyS (stand-in)

One of the most anticipated aspects of IEM Winter must be the return of the French legend Kenny “kennyS” Schrub. The 26-year-old AWPer has been sidelined for 10-months now after his benching on G2, however, some VISA issues for Nemanja “nexa” Isakovic has meant that kennyS’ labour again is needed.

kennyS will most likely take up the AWP role on the team, which means François “AmaNEk” Delaunay is set to return to the rifle. Regarding kennyS’ impact on the server, it would unrealistic to think and expect him to top frag and be as dominant as we have seen in the past, owing to his lack of officials this year and his notable decline in recent years.

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kennyS last played an official in February this year.

Has Fnatic finally found the right recipe?

Fnatic | {cflag:GB} ALEX {cflag:GB} mezii {cflag:GB} smooya {cflag:SE} Brollan {cflag:SE} KRIMZ

The iconic Swedes from Fnatic haven’t up to their usual top levels in recent years which we saw in the early stages of CS:GO, however, there might be light at the end of the tunnel. Because, after creating their current British-Swedish mix, the team has begun to show promising forces. Led by IGL Alex “ALEX” McMeekin and the controversial but powerful AWPer Owen “smooya” Butterfield, Fnatic has climbed the world ranking from #65 spot in August to their current #19 position. They came into IEM Winter with two consecutive titles in the bag after their impressive triumphs at DreamHack Open November and REPUBLEAGUE TIPOS Season 2.

It will be interesting to see if smoyaa and company can continue their strong form among the elite of CS:GO, and not only within tier-2 competition.

Can the Brazilians from GODSENT make it to the top?

GODSENT | {cflag:BR} TACO {cflag:BR} felps {cflag:BR} b4rtin {cflag:BR} dumau {cflag:BR} latto

Here at the end, we’ve decided to put our focus and spotlight on GODSENT. A Swedish organization, but with a fully-Brazilian lineup, led by the two-time Major winner Epitacio “TACO” de Melo. The Brazilian squad was picked up by GODSENT in January 2021, but their first real success and breakthrough first came later this year after the most recent player break in August.

Since the player break, TACO and his troops have won DreamHack Open September NA, ended second at IEM Fall NA losing to FURIA in the Grand Final, topping it off by qualifying for the massive $2 Million Major in Stockholm.

GODSENT is once again competing against some of the best teams in CS:GO here at IEM Winter, where it will be interesting to see whether they will step up and show their worth as the new Brazilian CS:GO hope or if end breaking their neck against the top-tier opposition. The opening round at the event could be crucial for the South Americans if they wish to make it to the playoff. GODSENT is set to kick off the $250.000 event against Heroic in the BO1 opener.

Vitality (#2) - G2 (#3) – NIP (#6) - Astralis (#9) - OG (#15) – Liquid (#12) – MOUZ (#17) – TYLOO (#39)

Gambit (#4) – Heroic (#5) – Virtus.pro (#7) – FaZe (#8) - ENCE (#13) – BIG (#16) - Fnatic (#19) – GODSENT (#24)

Group stage: Double elimination -Two teams from each group qualify for playoffs.

Playoffs: Single elimination - Bo5 Grand Final

Top 10 highest-rated players (Last 3 months / vs. Top 30 teams):

8. {cflag:LV} YEKINDAR (Virtus.pro) | 1.17

The rest of the schedule can be found in the link below:

[link:{"url":"https://www.hltv.org/events/5730/matches","isNewTab":true,"text":"IEM Winter full schedule"}]

blameF

k0nfig

smooya

kennyS

NiKo

ZywOo

sh1ro

ropz

huNter

nexa

Hobbit

Astralis

G2 Esports

GODSENT

OG defeated Movistar Riders in the first Upper Semi-Final at the closed qualifier for IEM Summer 2021.

With their young {cflag:IL} player flameZ, the OG roster 2.0 showed some excellent Counter-Strike throughout the qualification tournament, where they won against Trident, FaZe, and Movistar Riders.

The Spanish team was no match on their own map pick, Overpass. OG put a stronghold on both bombsites leaving Movistar Riders with no chance. A 16-5 victory put a lot of pressure on the Iberian team, who had to conquer Inferno to stay alive in the Semi-Final.

Down 5-10 at the break, there was little hope for the reverse sweep to be happening. But then the Spanish duo of mopoz and alex came alive. Owen 'smooya' Butterfield had been the only Movistar Riders player who had made significant damage so far, but now there were three "Riders" who made a difference. 5-10 quickly became 9-10 before OG answered back.

At 14-14 Movistar Riders had the bomb planted, but could not carry through and lost the momentum, that they had built up in the second half. OG managed to take the last round and win the match 16-14 after a tight end, that could have gone both ways.

Movistar Riders - OG 0-2|IEM Summer 2021 Closed Qualifier

5-16 (Overpass) | {cflag:DK} valde - 1.63 Rating / 110.8 ADR / 21-10 K-D

14-16 (Inferno) | {cflag:IL} flameZ - 1.54 Rating / 91.7 ADR / 24-19 K-D

MVP: {cflag:IL} Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan - 1.46 Rating / 87.9 ADR / 40-31 K-D

Movistar Riders will get another chance to qualify tomorrow in the lower bracket.

valde

flameZ

The "Colossus" as they have dubbed themselves made their debut in Flashpoint 2, after having restructured their roster. But with two straight defeats, Cloud 9 is done and dusted in Flashpoint 2.

They still produced some fine moments in the event, and it will be interesting to see, how the team will perform moving forward.

One of the highlights, in-game leader Alex "ALEX" McMeekin delivered with a sneaky play.

[twitchVideo:flashpoint/clip/BloodyAbnegateManateeNinjaGrumpy]

Next event for Cloud9 will be BLAST Premier Showdown starting from the 24th of November.

Cloud9

Nikola “NiKo” Kovac has for years been the equivalent for FaZe and their success, being a player who has brought big victories and MVP awards back home to FaZe. His last period with the big organization did not conclude in a fairy tale ending although his superstar status, quite the contrary in fact.

In an interview with Dexerto, NiKo gives his honest views on his parting with FaZe, explaining why he couldn’t stay at the organization. He describes how the organization couldn’t bring in the necessary players, resulting in a misguided distribution of roles regarding the roster.  

“We did not get the players that we wanted towards the end. Before the player break, we wanted to get ALEX but that deal did not go through, unfortunately, and I believe that we would have done much better if we got the IGL. … When you combine all these – when you don’t have the IGL and then with all the bad results that when I started to think that I cannot just stay in FaZe anymore”

NiKo further explains that the hate and trash talk he received during his last time on FaZe also made him sure that he has to move on and find a new team.

“Every loss that we had during this period was just an insane amount of bad comments. Every time I joined HLTV or I opened my socials, I was getting so much trash talk and stuff like that. I just couldn’t take it anymore”

FaZe

In an interview with Andreas “Jern” Thomsen from eoddset.dk, Patrick “es3tag” Hansen gives some answers on his transfer to Cloud9 and his future role on the newly established roster.

es3tag clarifies that his role on Cloud9 will differ from his role on Astralis. On the Danish team he took over from Xyp9x, but es3tag explains how he Cloud9 will be more of a star player, who through his experience also can teach and lead his teammates.

“Of course, being a role model is something I will try to achieve and I will try to lead them to victory together with Alex because we are a bit more experienced. It could might look like I’m the star player due to the roles I’ll get, but I will just take what’s smartest for the team and what makes us win the fastest. I have acquired some of my previous roles where I am more of a star player, and that’s something I hope I will live up to.

es3tag gives a further explanation of his role in this mixed frag movie and interview video from Cloud9.

[youtube:ChKdNn7UYas&amp;feature=youtu.be]

The Dane further explains that the language barrier between them is something that at the beginning will be a difficulty but something they just have to overcome.

” We will just take it one day at a time and try to do our best going into Flashpoint”

Flashpoint 2 starts 10th November and will be the first event for the new “COLOSSUS” roster.

[link:{"url":"https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=648624859155489"}]

	30 days	90 days
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ALEX

Player stats

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Highlight: alex hits crazy spray transfer for clean 3K

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Fnatic eliminate ENCE at IEM Winter

IEM Winter 2021 prelude

OG ready for IEM Summer 2021

Video: Cloud9 player with the ultimate nerves of steel

NiKo reveals why he left FaZe

es3tag: I will be more of a star player

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