The post Former IHC players to compete in BLAST Paris Major Asia RMR appeared first on Esport Bet.
]]>The Mongolian players include Garidmagnai “?bLitz?” Byambasuren, Baatarkhuu “?Bart4k?” Batbold, Sodbayar “?Techno?” Munkhbold, Chinguun “?hasteka?” Bayarmaa and Tuvshintugs “?Annihilation?” Nyamdorj. It is currently unclear if the players have officially parted ways with IHC, who have been silent on Twitter since March 24.
They are among of the top-ranked squads heading into the event, peaking at 18th in the world rankings. During their run in the IEM Katowice, the Mongolian lineup defeated top squads like Cloud9, paiN Gaming, and FURIA.
The former IHC CS:GO squad will join the rest of the teams in Ulaanbaatar under the famous tag, which has been a key part of Mongolia’s CS:GO scene since 2015. During this period, some of the best players in the country played under TheMongolz tag. They include legendary player Enkhtaivan “?Machinegun?” Lkhagva, Erdenedalai “?maaRaa?” Bayanbat and Temuulen “?Zilkenberg?” Battulga.
Machinegun and the rest of the team participated in past Big Events like IEM Katowice in 2016 and IEM Oakland in 2017. MaaRaa is currently in a less competitive role as TheMongolz coach.
Prior to the news, IHC brought on hasteka to replace their star player Tengis “sk0R” Batjargal, who was benched to the confusion of the CS:GO community in early March. The player’s consistently good performance, in addition to the proximity of the RMR, raised a lot of questions, particularly when sk0R revealed that leaving was not his decision. The organization also replaced Bat-Enkh “?kabal?” Batbayar with Bark4k recently.
IHC came under fire in February following the arrest of the three founders of the cryptocurrency Ih Bit Global. They, however, stated via IHC chairman Dave Lee that the operation and management of the esports organization had no connections to arrested individuals.
TheMongolz, currently ranked 22nd in the world, are set to face off against Twisted Minds on Thursday, April 6, in the opening round of the BLAST Paris Major Asia RMR. Gan-Erdene “?dobu?” Batbold’s Eruption will also be representing Mongolia at the tournament.
The RMR will see eight Asian lineups compete in a double-elimination bracket to snag one of the two available spots to attend the BLAST Paris Major set for May. The event will be the last Valve-sponsored CS:GO tournament as a result of Counter-Strike 2 being launched in the summer of this year.
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]]>The post ESL Challenger Melbourne 2023 teams announced appeared first on Esport Bet.
]]>ESL Challenger Melbourne 2023 will begin on April 28 and conclude on April 30, with the entire event taking place during DreamHack Melbourne at Rod Laver Arena.
The eight rosters will compete for a US$100,000 prize pool and a $50,000 winners’ cheque, as well as a spot in ESL Pro League Season 18 in August.
World no.13 Complexity and no.22 IHC were both invited due to their ESL rankings, while Grayhound (#27) and Bad News Eagles (#29) will also be among the drawcards.
Rare Atom (#26), ECSTATIC (#60), EG Black (#63), and Vertex (#76) qualified through the North American, European, Asian, and Oceania closed qualifiers.
These eight teams will be enjoying a Chicken Parma come April 28 – 30 for #ESLChallenger Melbourne
@grayhoundgaming
@EvilGeniuses
@Complexity
@_badnewseagles
@ihc_esports
@rare_atom
@EcstaticCS
https://t.co/833J3FgywG pic.twitter.com/qSJkH69z98
— ESL Counter-Strike 2 (@ESLCS) April 3, 2023
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]]>The post IHC welcomes hasteka ahead of CS: GO Paris Major RMR appeared first on Esport Bet.
]]>Hasteka will play under IHC’s banner in the Regional Major Ranking event in place of Tengis “?sk0R?” Batjargal. The player, who has been a part of IHC for around a year, was released from the lineup earlier this month to the surprise of many.
Fans expected IHC’s Mongolian lineup to represent the team in the Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia tournament following an impressive series of performances in previous international competitions. During the Intel Extreme Masters Katowice in February, where the team notably faced off and defeated Cloud9 and FURIA, sk0R was acknowledged as IHC’s highest-rated player throughout the Poland tournament.
This and IHC’s obvious improvement with their previous lineup contributed to the CS:GO community’s confusion concerning the organization’s decision to bench sk0R. After the early March announcement, the player took to Instagram to clarify that leaving the lineup was not his decision.
IHC’s current roster includes hasteka, Garidmagnai “?bLitz?” Byambasuren, Tuvshintugs “?Annihilation?” Nyamdorj, Sodbayar “?Techno?” Munkhbold, Baatarkhuu “?Bart4k?” Batbold with sk0R benched.
Hasteka was a part of Clutch for four months before signing with IHC. During his time there, the Mongolian player reached a 1.03 average rating at tournaments like the ESL Challenger League Season 43 Asia-Pacific and MESA League Season 3.
Hasteka earned his highest rating of the year in the Paris Major closed qualifier, where he reached a 1.10 rating in four maps. Despite his impressive performance, Clutch placed 7-8th in online competition, ultimately failing to qualify for the Paris Major.
Despite his previous team’s inability to qualify, hastaka will debut with his new lineup in the Paris Major RMR next month. IHC are also preparing to participate in two other international events in April, such as the ESL Challenger Melbourne and the IEM Brazil.
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]]>The post Sk0R leaves IHC ahead of BLAST.tv Paris Major appeared first on Esport Bet.
]]>The all-Mongolian squad made the announcement without revealing the reason for the decision, simply thanking the player for his input in a Twitter post. Sk0R also posted an Instagram story about the move, revealing that it was not his decision.
“It was full of good memories and experiences but never imagined to end up like this. Leaving is not my decision, btw. Good luck fellas,” he wrote.
Sk0R’s exit comes exactly a year after he joined IHC. As the team’s statistical leader, he helped IHC qualify for two Majors, amongst other achievements.
Sk0R, Baatarkhuu “Bart4k” Batbold, Garidmagnai “bLitz” Byambasure, Tuvshintugs “ANNIHILATION” Nyamdorj and Sodbayar “Techno4K” Munkhbold were all part of the team’s lineup for ESL Pro League Season 17. IHC were unable to reach the playoffs after recording defeats to Fnatic, Outsiders, and MIBR.
Besides the ESL Pro League, IHC have seen significant improvement this year. The team recorded an impressive showing at IEM Katowice in February, where they beat higher-ranked squads like FURIA in the event’s play-in stage and Cloud9 in the group stage. IHC finished the tournament in 9th-12th place.
Sk0R was a crucial part of IHC’s wins in Poland and was the team’s highest-rated player in the match against FURIA with a 1.11 rating. He also has the highest rating in the IEM Katowice group stage and ESL Pro League Season 17 Group A.
IHC did not comment on their next step after taking sk0R off the lineup. Having already benched a player earlier this year, the team might have some trouble finding another player, especially with the small pool of professional CS:GO players in Mongolia.
The team, however, has the option of trying to poach a player from NKT’s Mongolian lineup to fill sk0R’s spot in the Asian RMR if Bat-Enkh “kabal” Batbayar remains benched.
Kabal was previously moved to the bench on paternity leave and will remain there for the first six months of 2023. Baatarkhuu “?Bart4k?” Batbold was brought in to substitute for him in the meantime.
In the Asian RMR, scheduled for April 6-9, IHC will face off against Grayhound Gaming, Twisted Minds, Rare Atom, TYLOO, Invictus Gaming, VERTEX, and Eruption for a spot to compete in the BLAST.tv Paris Major. For now, IHC are competing in the ESL Challenger League Season 44 Asia-Pacific.
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]]>The post Cloud9 defeat Outsiders to top Group A at ESL Pro League 17 appeared first on Esport Bet.
]]>As for Outsiders, they will go through to the round of 12 as a high seed after they weren’t able to get the job done in a tight three-map series.
Along with another series win for Cloud9 we saw another huge performance from the current no.1 players at the ESL Pro League 17, with Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov recording the second-most kills (58), the least deaths (37) and the highest kill/death differential (+21) to finish with a 1.19 rating.
As we saw earlier in the ESL Pro League against G2 Esports, sh1ro is starting to prove unstoppable on Vertigo, as he once again recorded a kill/death difference of +21 and an unbelievable match rating of 1.94 in C9’s 16-9 demolition of Outsiders on their map pick.
With an average rating of 1.49 across the seven maps that Cloud9 have played, it will be very difficult for anyone to top the rating that sh1ro has compiled throughout the group stage, leaving him in a very strong position to claim the tournament MVP if Cloud9 can become the ESL Pro League 17 champions.
.@C9CSGO are going to the QUARTER FINALS of #ESLProLeague Season 17!
They take down Outsiders 2-1, and secure first place in Group A
16-9 Vertigo
14-16 Mirage
16-8 Ancient pic.twitter.com/gCDrRHYXcI— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) February 26, 2023
Along with Cloud9 and Outsiders, G2 Esports also punched their ticket for playoffs, defeating Fnatic in the lower-bracket final to advance to the round of 16 as a high seed.
G2 didn’t get everything their own way against Fnatic as they were taken to three maps, with their defeat on Nuke (4-16) showing some worrying signs for the reigning IEM Katowice champions.
With three teams going into the playoffs, there are also teams that have already been knocked out of ESL Pro League 17, with those being Evil Geniuses, MiBR and IHC.
The second week of the tournament will kick off on Wednesday, March 1, with the opening matches of Group B.
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]]>The post Cloud9 and BIG sent home from IEM Katowice 2023 appeared first on Esport Bet.
]]>Cloud9 were impressive in their two play-in games, defeating IHC (16-5) and ENCE (2-1) to qualify for the main event, but that was where the winning stopped the world number 12.
After drawing Natus Vincere as their first opponent of the group stage, they were quickly despatched by the world number six and sent to the lower bracket to face the tournament’s surprise qualifier.
The all-Mongolian squad of IHC had already lost to Cloud9 in the play-in tournament, but since that loss they had sent two of the three Brazilian teams, paiN Gaming and FURIA, packing on their way to the group stage.
With Cloud9 being 24 spots higher than IHC in the CS:GO world rankings, many would be forgiven for thinking that the best-of-three series was a forgone conclusion.
No-one told IHC that, however, as the tournament’s lowest-ranked team took both Inferno and Mirage 16-14 to send Cloud9 packing.
THEY HAVE ACTUALLY DONE IT!!!!!!@ihc_esports ELIMINATE @C9CSGO from #IEM Katowice with a CLEAN 2-0
Inferno | 16-14
Mirage | 16-14 pic.twitter.com/n7kgG6gDyJ— Intel? Extreme Masters (@IEM) February 5, 2023
As for BIG, their series with Team Spirit was much more competitive as they went to a third and final map.
It wouldn’t have been a massive surprise if either of these teams were knocked out, with Spirit being ranked number 13 and BIG number 16 in the world.
However, with Spirit being led by Igor “w0nderful” Zhdanov, they were able to reverse sweep the series and take it 2-1 after BIG claimed the first map of the series.
After a disappointing performance on map one from the Spirit roster, w0nderful led the charge in maps two and three, topping the scoreboard with a massive +29 kill-death differential and a series-high rating of 1.37.
Spirit and IHC will now move on to the lower-bracket semi-finals, with the Mongols drawing world number three FaZe Clan and Spirit facing world number four Liquid.
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