The fourth and final Minor of this Major cycle is ahead of us, so we prepared a preview to get you up-to-pace on what to expect from the tournament.


Eight teams, ranked from 12th down to 39th, will attend the Europe Minor this week. The tournament will have the same format as the other Minors leading up to the FACEIT Major, with GSL groups that start off as BO1 but switch to BO3 for the lower bracket kicking off the action, and a BO3 double elimination bracket following suit. In the end, the two best teams of the tournament will advance to the FACEIT Major's New Challenger Stage.



GeT_RiGhT and f0rest are looking to make their first Major in over two years
Calling a clear favorite for the Europe Minor will not be easy, NiP and OpTic are two big names struggling to live up to expectations, while teams such as ENCE and Kinguin are less experienced but approach the Minor in good form. LeftOut and Red Reserve, formerly EnVyUs and GODSENT, are also sides who can't be taken easily, leaving us with only two real outsiders - the 37th and 39th ranked teams, 3DMAX and Sprout.

Group A Group B
Denmark OpTic Poland Kinguin
Finland ENCE Sweden NiP
France LeftOut Sweden Red Reserve
France 3DMAX Denmark Sprout
The groups seem fairly balanced, and the format doesn't allow for upsets to sway the way the tournament will play out too much, so let us dive into the teams and see how they look leading up to the event.

Ratings used are from the past three months on LAN
* Indicates online rating
Group A
OpTic (#20) Age Rating
Denmark Jakob "JUGi" Hansen 21 1.18
Denmark René "cajunb" Borg 28 1.17
Denmark Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke 21 1.16
Denmark Nicklas "gade" Gade 23 0.99
Denmark Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer 28 0.89

Offline placings in the last three months
2nd Sweden DreamHack Open Summer 2018
5th-6th United States DreamHack Open Austin 2018
7th-8th United States ESL Pro League S7 Finals
Ever since this roster was announced, the idea of having two Danish young stars in JUGi and k0nfig on the same squad has excited many. The duo has been delivering as JUGi, who is probably the strongest sniper at the event, leads the fragging department for his team and k0nfig follows closely behind, while the rejuvenation of cajunb, who has been putting up big numbers on LAN, has been the added cherry on top for OpTic.



Without the burden of the AWP, cajunb has been putting up big numbers
With youngster gade and IGL Snappi making up the rest of the roster, OpTic have found a stable mix of roles and personalities, but are still looking for big results. They started well offline as they beat NiP and Space Soldiers at the ESL Pro League S7 Finals in May, but bombed out of DreamHack Open Austin shortly afterwards and couldn't claim the title at DreamHack Open Winter, falling to Imperial.

OpTic haven't blown off the roof with their showings, but they are attending the Minor with just enough time to have everything set—the squad has been together for three months and hasn't played too many online or offline games, which should see them amongst the better prepared teams in London. That, combined with impressive star power and a serious amount of experience across the board, makes OpTic a solid pick to make a good run at the Minor.

ENCE (#17) Age Rating
Finland Jere "sergej" Salo 16 1.21
Finland Aleksi "allu" Jalli 26 1.20
Finland Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen 21 1.15
Finland Jani "Aerial" Jussila 25 1.08
Finland Sami "xseveN" Laasanen 23 1.01

Offline placings in the last three months
7th-8th Germany ESL One Cologne 2018
1st Finland Vectorama LAN 2018
1st Russia GG.BET Majestic - ESL One Cologne Qualifier
The Finnish superteam captained by veteran AWPer allu is seemingly peaking at the right time to make the Major, as recent showings have been far better than what we had seen from ENCE initially, when they struggled to beat unknown teams and make it through open qualifiers. The switch was flipped around the GG.BET Majestic ESL One Cologne Qualifier, in which ENCE first made it through the online stage and then beat AVANGAR, ALTERNATE aTTaX and Spirit to make it to the prestigeous event. Winning a local LAN, Vectorama, was a small stop before attending ESL One Cologne, where ENCE had a very good, yet somewhat overlooked run.

allu and co. eliminated both NiP and mousesports 2-0, but a narrow loss to Natus Vincere and a heavy one to Astralis saw them finish only 7th-8th. The final placing and the impressive run by BIG at the same tournament overshadowed the fact that ENCE didn't advance to the playoffs only because they lost to the two best teams in the world.


Three generations of Finnish Counter-Strike combined for a great showing in Cologne
Besides having a solid overall team-game, ENCE also stand out as a team making an uncharacteristically low number of mistakes and misplays for a side so young and inexperienced. Some credit for that has to go to the team's in-game leader, Aleksib, but the key man for the side is 16-year-old sergej who put in some marvellous displays in Cologne. If ENCE are able to repeat what they did in Germany, if they cope with the pressure of not being the underdog anymore, ENCE could easily take one of the two spots that lead to the Minor.

LeftOut (#24) Age Rating
France Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey 23 1.19
Belgium Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom 24 1.10
France Ali "hAdji" Haïnouss 22 0.97
France Christophe "SIXER" Xia 27 0.90
France Alexandre "xms" Forté 23 0.86

Offline placings in the last three months
3rd-4th China CS:GO Asia Championship
5th-6th France DreamHack Open Tours (3/5 players)
3rd United States ESL Pro League S7 Relegation (3/5 players)
9th-12th France DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018 (3/5 players)
Removing a two-time Major winner and a Counter-Strike: Source legend from the picture turned out to be the formula for success for the former EnVyUs team, who played their best tournament in ages with SIXER and xms coming in as stand-ins at CS:GO Asia Championship. Even though the two new-old players didn't have insane games themselves, kioShiMa and ScreaM were able to find some of their old mojo and carry the squad to a semi-final appearance.



hAdji could be the x-factor for LeftOut at the minor
The French team, now playing as LeftOut, is hard to quantify due to the limited number of games played. There is a decent amount of experience among four of the members, but their chances might just come down to the performances of the least seasoned one, hAdji. It feels like the young gun will have to rediscover some of his EnVyUs Academy level if LeftOut want to have a serious run at the Minor.

3DMAX (#39) Age Rating
France Audric "JaCkz" Jug 26 1.22*
France Lucas "Lucky" Chastang 20 1.14*
Belgium David "Davidp" Prins 23 1.10*
France Gaëtan "JiNKZ" Jamin 23 1.04*
France Bryan "Maka" Canda 21 1.03*

Offline placings in the last three months
- N/A
Formerly known as NOBO, 3DMAX are a team that unexpectedly sneaked through the closed qualifier and made it to the Europe Minor, but they are not a fully unknown, young team. JaCkz is a 26-year-old who has been around the French scene for a while, most recently representing EnVyUs Academy, Davidp was a part of PENTA alongside Kevin "kRYSTAL" Amend, Maka got some spotlight when he made the playoffs of the WESG EU & CIS Finals with Limitless, and they will also have the coaching support of ex-EnVyUs Damien "maLeK" Marcel.

The Frenchmen have been decent in ESEA MDL, sitting on an 11W-5L record and beat some quality teams to make it to the Minor—NiP, Japaleno and Windigo—, but they are still the clear outsiders of the group, with not even a single LAN played in their last three months for us to have an idea of how they will fare in an offline environment.

Group B
Kinguin (#26) Age Rating
Poland Paweł "reatz" Jańczak 23 1.14
Poland Jacek "MINISE" Jeziak 24 1.14
Poland Karol "rallen" Rodowicz 24 1.13
Poland Mikołaj "mouz" Karolewski 22 1.07
Poland Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas 32 1.06

Offline placings in the last three months
1st Italy ZOTAC Cup Masters 2018 Europe
5th-8th Poland Good Game League 2018
2nd Poland ESL Polish Championship Spring
Similarly to ENCE, Kinguin are a team that didn't explode onto the scene when it came together, but has started to show promising signs as of late. Some good online results were followed by a disappointing 5th-8th at the Poland Good Game League 2018, but they were placed in the only competitive three-team group of the tournament, along with x-kom and Fragsters.

TaZ, who took over the calling and allowed MINISE to focus solely on AWPing, led his squad to a victory at the ZOTAC Cup Masters 2018 Europe and to a 3-0 run in the Minor Closed Quaifier, but it must be pointed out that the teams that they defeated weren't the toughest out there: Fragsters, Nordavind and Sprout. The team's fragging is balanced out fairly, with reatz and MINISE having been the key players so far alongside rallen, who is known for his high impact plays.



TaZ is looking play a Major with a different crop of Polish players
Veteran smarts and young talent are a decent mixture for Kinguin, who will be hoping to go through the group with back-to-back BO1 wins if possible, especially if NiP fumble, as avoiding playing the Swedes in a BO3 is imperative.

NiP (#12) Age Rating
Sweden Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg 30 1.12
Sweden Jonas "Lekr0" Olofsson 25 1.06
Sweden Fredrik "REZ" Sterner 20 1.04
Sweden Dennis "dennis" Edman 27 0.95
Sweden Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund 28 0.92

Offline placings in the last three months
13th-16th Germany ESL One Cologne
5th-6th China CS:GO Asia Championship
5th-8th Ukraine StarSeries i-League S5 (4/5 players)
13th-16th United States ESL Pro League S7 Finals (4/5 players)
5th-8th France DreamHack Masters Marseille (4/5 players)
ESL One Cologne was a tournament that NiP will be hoping to forget as soon as possible as dennis' men had one of the worst showings ever for an invited team, finishing with just 11 rounds from three maps. Despite the most recent disappointment, NiP haven't been that bad overall, with decent placings across the last three months, including top eight at DreamHack Masters Marseille and StarSeries i-League S5. Still, they have not been anywhere near winning titles, which is what saw them make their latest roster move, replacing William "draken" Sundin with Lekr0.



Making it to the Major would be a great relief for GeT_RiGhT and co.
We haven't seen the new roster reach any new heights yet, and the issue of not having a dedicated AWPer is apparent, but even with all of that taken in account, NiP have a roster capable of beating anyone at the tournament—and they are the highest ranked team coming in. One of the struggles is their overall inconsistency, which seems linked to an up-and-down player like f0rest being their best player in the last three months.

Working against them is also the pressure they have going in: not only does a team like NiP always expect to be at the Major, but they have not been present at one for so long, the last one being ESL One Cologne 2016. With a lot of pressure on their backs and the field at the Europe Minor being very stacked, the Swedes won't be able to start out slowly or lose their footing half-way through without being severely punished.

Red Reserve (#25) Age Rating
Sweden Hampus "hampus" Poser 19 1.13
Sweden Ludvig "Brollan" Brolin 16 1.10
Sweden Joakim "disco doplan" Gidetun 22 1.07
Sweden Simon "twist" Eliasson 23 1.05
Sweden Fredrik "freddieb" Buö 24 0.96

Offline placings in the last three months
7th-8th Sweden DreamHack Open Summer
9th-11th Ukraine StarSeries i-League S5
3rd-4th France DreamHack Open Tours 2018
1st Serbia Qi Invitational
The third-best Swedish team is still floating around the 20th-30th place in the world ranking, with their sporadic LAN outings not being too impressive. The squad did win the Qi Invitational, but they ed to impress at their last three events, finishing 3rd-4th at DreamHack Open Tours, 9th-11th at StarSeries i-League S5 and 7th-8th at DreamHack Open Summer.



hampus has been making the calls and hitting the shots for Red Reserve
Red Reserve's online form has been somewhat better, they are in the ESEA MDL playoff zone and made it through the closed qualifier for the Minor in convincing fashion, only losing to Sprout, who they could have a rematch against in the group stage here. Their first opponent is NiP, though, which will set up a domestic matchup, in which upsets are always more likely. If the opening game goes their way, it isn't hard seeing Red Reserve in the playoffs, but that's when they will need twist to step up his game a bit if they really want to make the Major.

Sprout (#37) Age Rating
Germany Denis "denis" Howell 23 1.13
Denmark Martin "PERCY" Wessel 24 1.06
Germany Timo "Spiidi" Richter 22 1.06
Denmark Niels-Christian "NaToSaphiX" Sillassen 21 1.03
Denmark Dennis "sycrone" Nielsen 22 0.91

Offline placings in the last three months
2nd France PMU Challenge 2018 Finals
A rocky ride through the closed qualifier, which began with wins against Windigo and Red Reserve but then almost turned sour following losses to Kinguin and ENCE, was concluded successfully by Sprout after all. The Danish-German squad managed to defeat AGO in the final game as their AWPer NaToSaphiX shined with 50K-21D in the two-map series.

sycrone's addition as in-game leader was a key roster move the team made recently, while former mousesports support player denis stepped up and became the main fragger for this squad. Aside from him and Spiidi, the rest of the team isn't that experienced in terms of facing big teams on LAN, which could make this event a tough one for Sprout. Their only recent LAN was at the four-team PMU Challenge 2018, where they finished second, but that can hardly give us a lot of confidence about their performance at the Minor, where they will face in-form youngsters as well as legends of the game such as f0rest and TaZ.