33 matches later, the Swiss stage of Snow Sweet Snow 1 is complete. 8 teams have progressed to the play-offs, 8 teams have been eliminated. We’ve seen upsets, force buy wins, aces and some good old-fashioned dominance. With four strong new teams joining, it’s time to look back over what transpired — and what might happen next.
Who qualified?
ENCE’s new lineup were the first side to come through unbeaten. They came close to losing out to Lyngby Vikings and were down early on against Endpoint, but held their nerve, with Polish rifler dycha putting up a 1.39 average rating across the 7 maps they played. Showing no signs of slowing down, they will be a side all teams fear in the play-offs.
Winstrike followed suit on 3–0. Perhaps unfancied coming in, the CIS side pulled off wins against EXTREMUM (surviving match point to force overtime on the third map) and CIS rivals forZe, with AWPer El1an the highest-rated player in the tournament so far, posting a 1.46 average rating that saw him dominate the stats for the days Winstrike played.
GODSENT’s Brazilian roster got off to a slow start as they fell to Lyngby Vikings 2–0. But after that initial stumble the team clicked, beating Sinners, PACT and EXTREMUM without dropping a map. Their unique playstyle, which saw them juggle the AWP between players on CT side and go extremely aggressive on T side, looks very deadly on this evidence and they will be a force to be reckoned with in the play-offs.
Sangal likewise lost their opening matchup to Endpoint, despite picking up the UK organisation’s map pick. They fought back, however, taking down GamerLegion, a strong Lyngby Vikings side and favourites Dignitas to make play-offs, where the Turks will have a chance for revenge on the British/international mix.
Endpoint showed strength to take down Dignitas 2–0, before losing a game of fine margins against ENCE having gone to double overtime on their map pick. An easy victory over a forZe side playing with a stand-in was enough to get them a spot in the play-offs — where they will face Sangal again, and will be hoping for a similar result.
Izako Boars ran ENCE close in their opening game and pulled off a big upset against Sprout in their second match; but a loss to EXTREMUM put them on the verge of elimination. They scrapped their way to a win over Esports Club Kyiv and took the Polish derby against the better-established PACT to set up a match against GODSENT in the play-offs. Could they go one better than their countrymen and take down the Brazilians?
forZe have been trying out roster moves over the course of the group stage, with 7 players playing in a different configuration every single day. As you’d expect this has had mixed results; they beat Sinners and Esports Club Kyiv, but struggled to find that third win as they lost to Winstrike and Endpoint. A stand-out performance from FL1T against EXTREMUM (1.55 rating including a 2.24 on Mirage) was enough to put them into the play-offs and set up a tantalising second CIS derby against Winstrike.
Sprout were the final team to qualify, having suffered a pair of surprise losses: firstly to Esports Club Kyiv in their opener, before defeat to Izako Boars putting them on the verge of elimination. They scraped a win over GamerLegion across three maps, before their all-German roster proved too strong for Lyngby Vikings and set up a winner-takes-all match against Dignitas, where the Germans won out a nail-biting third map of Nuke in overtime to secure what at one point seemed an unlikely qualification.
Who missed out?
The first two sides to be eliminated were GamerLegion and HONORIS. GamerLegion to their credit had a tough draw —featuring Dignitas and Sprout — but were left to rue missed chances as they were eliminated. Polish superteam HONORIS likewise put up a spirited fight against EXTREMUM and Sinners but weak T-sides saw them go down at the first hurdle.
Esports Club Kyiv pulled off possibly the biggest upset of the tournament — taking down #1 seed Sprout — but were unable to capitalise, as they lost to forZe, Dignitas and Izako Boars to fall from the tournament. They were joined with a 1–3 record by Lyngby Vikings, who similarly could not capitalise on an opening win despite the best efforts of their Danish-Dutch mix; and Sinners, who survived elimination at 0–2 but lost to PACT in a 30-round thriller on Vertigo.
PACT were winners in their previous Polish derby against HONORIS, but Izako Boars proved too strong, and they were knocked out early on the final day. Dignitas came into this tournament as favourites after a strong run in cs_summit 7, and started out with a 16–1 stomping of GamerLegion, but inconsistency proved their downfall as they slipped to defeat by Sangal and could not quite close out proceedings against Sprout on Nuke in their decider. EXTREMUM were another highly fancied side but, despite the best efforts of jkaem and BNTET, losses to Winstrike and GODSENT set them up against forZe where a weak Dust2 T-side would be their undoing.
Swiss Stage Highlights
I’ve curated some highlights from what I managed to watch of the Swiss stage. We were certainly not lacking in clutches: oskar’s 1v4 clutch punished GODSENT for their inexperience, while Liazz looked to have won EXTREMUM the map with his 1v3 clutch against Winstrike. Friberg showed the benefits of experience with not just one but two clutches in Dignitas’ opening game against GamerLegion, while raalz and felps both won out clutches with only a sliver of HP left.
However, the highlight play has to go to NaToSaphiX’s 1v4 against SANGAL. Coming in a key round with the Vikings on the verge of elimination, at which I shouted something unrepeatable in print.
Outside clutches, I want to highlight Winstrike’s scrappy force buy win against EXTREMUM to survive match and series point, ENCE’s eco round win against Lyngby Vikings that proved a turning point in the match, and FASHR’s excellent AK ace against a full buy from Sangal.
(Shout out to cshighlights for clipping most of these)
Who’s Joining?
Four invited sides will join at the play-off stage, including three from HLTV’s top 20. Before then, though, we have four play-off matches between our qualified sides to determine who will take on the “big four”.
ENCE vs Sprout is easily the highlight match: not only with two of the highest seeds in the tournament, but also Dycha taking on his former employers and looking to prove he made the right call. forZe vs Winstrike is a CIS derby with the added incentive of revenge — forZe will be hoping to find some consistency amid their roster changes. Endpoint vs Sangal is another revenge match — can the Turks overcome the British-international mix, or will Endpoint survive to take on the mighty Virtus.Pro? GODSENT vs Izako Boars rounds out our first set of matches, as the Brazilians look to keep up their form while Izako Boars have proven already they are capable of an upset.
Play-Off Invited Team Previews:
sAw
Current HLTV ranking: #21
I am running out of superlatives to describe sAw’s rise in 2020. Having started outside the HLTV top 50, they begin the 2021 season on the verge of the top 20, having reached the final of Dreamhack Open December and been in contention for victory in MDL season 35. Their 2021 has been a slightly slower start, as they have lost out to Movistar Riders in domestic competition; they will be looking to prove here that that is only a blip.
Will play the winners of: ENCE vs Sprout
Virtus.Pro
Current HLTV ranking: #6
The highest-ranked side ever to join a Relog Media tournament, Virtus.Pro are on a three-tournament winning streak having picked up the top prizes in Flashpoint, Dreamhack Open December, and cs_summit 7 — the last of which they achieved without dropping a map. They will want to set themselves up for the IEM Katowice Play-In which starts the week after next and few would bet against them doing so on current form.
Will play the winners of: Endpoint vs Sangal
FunPlus Phoenix
Current HLTV ranking: #17
The Chinese organisation and Flashpoint partner finally have a roster to call their own, having acquired 80% of GODSENT’s roster from 2020 which spent most of the year in the top 20 and made a surprise run at Dreamhack Masters Winter. Having added mousesports legend chrisJ as in-game leader, they stunned Evil Geniuses and Gambit to reach the final of Dreamhack Open January — where a loss to a strong Spirit side should act as encouragement for the future. Could they win out this time?
Will play the winners of: Winstrike vs forZe
Gambit
Current HLTV ranking: #16
Gambit Not Youngsters will be a familiar sight to fans of these tournaments: they won both Nine to Five #6 and #7, alongside victory in Dreamhack Open November. Losses to Virtus.Pro at Dreamhack Open December and to FPX in the January edition will have stung the Russian side, who peaked at #13 in HLTV’s rankings and, on the basis of sh1ro’s form, could be favourites to enter the top 10 later this year. An opportunity for revenge presents itself here — and the Russians do so love to serve it cold…
Will play the winners of: GODSENT vs Izako Boars
I thoroughly enjoyed last week — and I can’t wait to see what the next stage of Snow Sweet Snow has in store for us.
Snow Sweet Snow #1 play-offs begin tomorrow at 9am CET with ENCE vs Sprout and forZe vs Winstrike. You can follow along at ninetofive.grid.gg or on HLTV.
What do you think? Anything you agree with? Anything I’ve got completely wrong? @ me on Twitter at @Tom_Tom94.
