With 19 teams signed up, the LAN weekend starting next week and more teams not yet signed up here’s our CSGO tournament preview and final placing predictions for Insomnia 53. As always with Winter events the turn out will not be as good as the Summer LAN so subsequently the prize pool is a little less at £4,000, with a nice £2,000 going to the winner.

Prize Pool: £4,000

• 1st: £2,000
• 2nd: £1,000
• 3rd: £600
• 4th: £400

Map Pool:

• Dust2
• Inferno
• Nuke
• Mirage
• Cache
• Season
• Overpass

Casters:

Kyan1te and Chewwy

Vote for who you think will win i53 here

Let’s have a look at the teams:

FM Toxic

Expected Lineup:

nEiLZiNHo
Whindanski
RattlesnK
weber
mikeS

FM Toxic is the most experienced team at i53, combined the players in the team have won six of the ten UK CSGO offline tournaments that have been played, each player on this lineup has won an iseries before in CSGO. Even though nEiLZiNHo is known for his consistency in the UK scene and staying with FM Toxic for a long period of time, the lineup that won i52 has been changed, swapping out ZED and socN for RattlesnK and weber, two veterans in the scene that can provide a lot of experience.

Predicted Finish: 1st

Infused

Expected Lineup:

redSNK
SHEEKEY
Puls3
zecer
neon

The Infused lineup seems to change every couple of months now, with the lineup being different every single LAN the organisation has attended. At least they’re consistent at being inconsistent. This lineup again, will be different to last LAN. Both zecer and neon have not attended a CSGO UK LAN before which could cause issues for Infused, nothing major but they may not be comfortable in a foreign setting and can’t really know what to expect from a UK LAN.Although, zecer is a LAN veteran. He is 29 years old and has been attending tournaments since 2005, but his only notable CSGO finish was 3rd at a LAN right at the start of when CSGO came out.

Now, Infused are the biggest threat to FM Toxic in terms of winning the LAN, the team all time average finish is 2.6th (second or third), and a 12 month average finish of 2nd. This is our biggest indication of how the team will perform as this lineup seems like a mix, I don’t know how much they have practiced but it can’t be long seen as this wasn’t the Infused lineup at i52 or epicTHIRTEEN. If zecer and neon turn up and play well at LAN we should see a good final between Infused and FM Toxic, if they don’t TLR could sneak ahead of Infused and leave Infused with third.

Predicted Finish: 2nd

Side Note: Third to Sixth is very close this LAN, it consists of teams that have practiced hard but aren’t individually as LAN proven as others but the others haven’t practiced and could be beaten by a few strats. These predictions are down to the statistics as it is so volatile.

TLR

Expected Lineup:

vertiGo
ALIG
paynt
gintx
b3n

The TLR team has been a large mix team for about seven years now consisting of players who could easily be at the top of the UK scene if they put more hours in to the game instead of singing, however nice it may be. Again, the team average placing system seems to work well here due to the mix nature of the team. TLR have an all time average of 3.5th (third or fourth) with a 12 month average of 3.46th (third or fourth). The battle for third will be an interesting one, both the TLR lineup and the XENEX lineup are strong mix teams consisting of players that have been knocking on the top of the UK scenes door for a couple of years.

Predicted Finish: 3rd

XENEX

Expected Lineup:

batham
keita
mini
kryptix
Jstar

Picked up by a console org a couple of weeks before LAN, this team could do a lot better than fourth if the individuals put more practice in but I doubt they have, I’d like to be proven wrong though. The teams all time record in CSGO is an average 4.7th finish (fourth or fifth) with a slightly better 12 month average of 3.6th (third or fourth) thanks to Jstar. I think this team could finish fourth but if VexstaR have practiced well as are stratted up they could beat XENEX and take fourth.

Predicted Finish: 4th

VexstaR

Expected Lineup:

r0m
twirl
dephh
LUMJI
TaffSteR

Like I’ve said above VexstaR have been practicing hard recently and will be up for proving they can do well in the UK scene. This is the wildcard team that could surprise. If they beat XENEX they could very well go on to beat TLR too, or at least give them a good game in a best of three. A good result for this team will be 3rd and I think this lineup will be pushing for third constantly. This team have shown consistency and proved that you can create a team, stick with the lineup and get noticed. The team average finish is fifth, I think this is fair but I don’t know how much they’ve improved since last LAN, they could and can surprise. Keep an eye on VexstaR.

Predicted Finish: 5th/6th

Rasta.B2G

Expected Lineup:

Truff
Dudley
CINDER
Jonny
kARMApangya

Rasta.B2G is another team like VexstaR, they have a team average of fifth and have been together for a while playing well and bringing in new talent to the top of the UK scene. In a fair and ideal world where the amount of practice you put in equals the result you get VexstaR and B2G would swap places with TLR and XENEX. But, I don’t think that’s going to happen, if B2G and VexstaR have a good LAN and XENEX and TLR have a bad LAN that could happen but I think only one of either B2G or VexstaR will be able to creep ahead of XENEX or TLR. But I would definitely keep an eye on B2G and what they achieve in the near future.

Predicted Finish: 5th/6th

CAZ eSports

Expected Lineup:

nS
Syphon
orcl
ATLANTIS
BiGz

CAZ eSports have a relatively new lineup, arguably a mix. nS, Syphon and orcl have been to a UK CSGO LAN, whereas the other players have either been a caster or not attended, giving the team an average placing of 11th. This team could flop and come 9th-12th quite easily and to be honest I wouldn’t be surprised if that happened, the 8th-12th placing usually is very volatile.

Predicted Finish: 7th/8th

OHYEA

Expected Lineup:

onscreen
vamp
AaroN
NeiL_M
fearLess

Individually these players are good, however they’re out of practice or busy with other things that competitive, top of the scene, CSGO isn’t viable. But, having said that players such as fearLess, even without practice, will still do well at LAN. The team average is fifth but that really is just a reflection of fearLess’ past LANs with the one LAN NeiL_M attended and came third boosting it up a little. AaroN, vamp and onscreen have either not been to LAN or only been to one and not come in the top three. Along with this the OHYEA team isn’t that stratted up. With roster changes and lack of practice the OHYEA team aren’t expected to do any better than 7th/8th.

Predicted Finish: 7th/8th