The Good, the Bad and the Ugly – StarSeries i-League S7 edition

Another big LAN event is now in the bag and we’ve collected the most interesting stories from it all for you – much like the Spaghetti western whose title we’ve borrowed, it was extremely long, high on drama and epic moment.

The good: s1mple

Where would Na’Vi be without this man? How much more he could potentially achieve on a different team? Every time you think you’ve seen it all, the man for all CS:GO seasons posts yet another highlight clip that goes above and beyond what you would have thought possible. That ace clutch against ENCE was the turning point of the series and one that will live long in the memory.

Runner-up: Swedish Counter-Strike

How long has it been since both Fnatic and NiP were involved at the business end of a high-profile CS:GO event? While you could put multiple asterisks above their showings, the fact that the Ninjas made top eight in two consecutive top-tier LAN tournaments and Fnatic were undefeated up until the admittedly one-sided final are promising data points and should encourage the fans going forward.

The Bad: FaZe Clan and MiBR

We couldn’t separate these two because it’s difficult to decide which fanbase would be more disappointed by their showings in Shanghai. Every passing event seems to indicate that these are toothless giants, with the MiBR never quite getting out of second gear and FaZe Clan limiting their own potential by slowly becoming Nikosports 2.0.

Runner-up: the observer work

How many crucial kills have we missed? At least we got those sick shots of the props and the ragdolls between the rounds. That definitely made up for it, right? No? Yeah, we didn’t think so either.

The ugly: the crowd antics

From chanting racist things to Renegades players and constantly giving away positions, the LAN crowd was the biggest letdown of an otherwise fairly well-oiled offline event. There’s no easy solution to this behavior – Lord knows larger sports also struggle with it – but that doesn’t make it any less disgusting.

Runner-up: The disappointing final

Some of the most exciting series in the history of CS:GO were best-of-five barnburners, including one featuring these very same teams at ESL ESEA Pro League Season 2 was back when. Through no fault of Na’Vi’s, the Swedes were simply not up to the task here, but it has to be said that not many teams could have stopped the CIS side when they’re performing like this.