moses: "Liquid doesn't have any rivals in NA" - Expert Opinions on the Americas RMR

The Americas RMR is one day away and we at Dust2.us decided to reach out to some CS:GO experts from the Americas to hear their thoughts on the upcoming qualifier. The Americas RMR has the potential to be one of the most contested battles between North and South America, with both regions having a plethora of teams that could make deep runs.

For example, in South America you have Case, a newer squad led by veteran IGL Lucas "steel" Lopes. They won their open qualifier decisively and have a plethora of young talent. In North America, you have Bad News Bears who had an easier bracket through the open qualifier and recently fought their way out of ESL Challenger League Season 40 Relegation. They have the support from the community but are they in form?

There's so much to be explored for this tournament with so many possible outcomes, but what do the experts think? Who does Mike "DarfMike" Winnick have as his dark horse? Does Jason "moses" O'Toole think North America will outperform their South American rivals? Find out what our five-man panel thinks below.

Experts Include:

Colin "koi" Thor - FPL Mentor, Davenport Panthers Head Coach, Former MOUZ Analyst
Pedro "betinho" Umberto - GODSENT Academy Coach, Former Freelance Writer at Draft5
Jason "moses" O'Toole - Top-Tier Caster, Analyst, Former Liquid Coach
Mike "DarfMike" Winnick - Caster, Host, NA Evangelist
Cole "xner" McHenry - Caster, ESEA IM S36 Champion

Which teams are actually in the conversation for claiming the sole Legends spot?

xner – FURIA and Liquid. They were able to go to the EPL Playoffs with an amazing 4-1 record, only losing to FaZe in a three-map series. The squad went through with an amazing record coupled with the fact that saffee wasn't showing even his full form. I expect saffee to feel so much more comfortable with the matchups that he's going to get in this event, making FURIA even better than they were in EPL. This is due to the extra firepower saffee will provide alongside yuurih and KSCERATO. Liquid also made EPL playoffs and have oSee coming into form more recently. I think the battle of the two titans left in North and South America is gonna be the one to lock in Legends status. On a good day Liquid can take down FURIA but oSee needs to keep his level of form up. He went crazy during the group stage and I feel like EliGE is starting to recover his own form off the back of oSee's AWPing ability.

DarfMike – FURIA, Liquid, or Complexity I think there's an outside chance that MIBR, Imperial, or 9z come in mega hot and get some lucky breaks, but that would be a slim possibility. It'll be shocking if one of those three doesn't wind up with the Legends spot. If I was a betting man (I am obviously not) I'd take Liquid for it.

Which region (NA or SA) is going to have a better showing at the RMR overall?

moses – NA – EG/Complexity. These two will handle the SA competition far better than the EU competition in EPL. I think lots of people will ride the negative meme wave on NA and believe SA will do better but SA is missing the presence of GODSENT here.

DarfMike - That's a tough question. It also depends on whether you want to count paiN and oNe as SA or NA for this one. If you don't there are only five out of 16 teams here that are actual NA teams. I think NA will get at least three spots. If three out of five teams qualify is that a better result? Or is that still three spots going to SA teams with potential better placements? My instinct is that if three of the six spots are NA teams that's a better showing for NA in my books, though a lot may come down to who that Legends team is.

Who is your dark horse for this tournament?

DarfMike – 9z. They went on an incredible run as a very new team in the ESL Challenger February and showed some serious chops. I'm not sure whether they've sustained that or if it was the ultimate honeymoon period, but if that fire can translate this team can surprise people.

xner – Case. They might be one of the more unknown teams heading into this event, but the players that they are working with are quite proven in NA. They won the first SA qualifier for the RMR and have RCF and f4stzin with veteran leadership in steel that can offer a lot when it comes to the LAN performance of these younger players. Without an appearance from GODSENT in the qualifiers, we will see if steel can do his best TACO impression of taking some young guns to a Major. They have a great seed as well so I think Case should be a lock-in for a qualification spot and a couple of upsets versus the top dogs.

Both Imperial and Coldzera's 00Nation are at the RMR, a rival match of sorts, if these match up against each other, who comes out on top?

xner – Imperial. 00Nation have been surprisingly bad and have to be struggling from some serious confidence issues at the moment. I am not sure if there are communication issues or some role clashes between some of the players but the union of try and malbsMd in terms of consistent success has been incredibly slow. They are losing to European T3 teams with frequency. Imperial should have this match on lock.

moses – It's Imperial for me. I have very little hope for 00Nation in the bigger picture but they may be able to grab a Challenger spot.

Speaking of Imperial, what should we expect from them? Will they turn back the clocks?

DarfMike – No fnx no Major, so yes fnx yes Major. The old guns of fer and FalleN are looking revitalized and I think the hunger to prove themselves again could show itself in the chase for a major. Now do I expect them to do anything if they do qualify? Not so much.

moses – No, they won't turn back the clock... but they've still got enough left in them to snag a Challengers spot over some of the weaker competition. FURIA and Liquid are far outside their reach. Evil Geniuses and Complexity are beatable. The other SA teams are very beatable. They'll make it to the Challenger stage I think with relative ease.

koi – I think they'll have a pretty solid showing, but I don't think they're a team that's going to innovate and bring something new to the meta. As a result, I think they'll play a pretty predictable style and will get their expected wins, but nothing beyond that.

Complexity vs Liquid seems to be the top NA rivalry, what do you expect to see from these two teams?

xner – Liquid are looking quite a bit better than Complexity at the moment, but that can change on a dime. If this rivalry is ever to be competitive we need to see junior do some more work on the AWP in this current meta. That is for sure the only missing piece that Complexity needs.

DarfMike –A brilliant match. I think Complexity is the most exciting ascendant team we have right now, but I still definitely give Liquid the edge at this point. Coming off of a strong ESL Pro League campaign I think Liquid is gelling nicely heading into the Major cycle. I'm bullish on Liquid and think they have a chance to do some damage. Complexity feels like they're well-positioned to make the major and finally give me floppy stickers, but may need more time to get to that top-level to make much noise at the major. FaNg and floppy have been in great form and Grim has a propensity to take over games. That trio has me so excited for the future.

moses – Liquid doesn't have any rivals in NA. They are far ahead of the rest of the region. They are the only team from NA that can challenge EU teams. Complexity has a long way to go before they can claim to be any kind of competition to Liquid worth talking about.

koi – I think Complexity could pull off the "upset", but with oSee and EliGE looking really solid and shox finally comfortable enough to find a ton of impact on LAN, they're going to be a much different beast than they were the past few months in North America.

GODSENT didn't make it through the NA Open Qualifier, is this a good sign for NA or just a bad sign for GODSENT?

betinho – Both. NA is not in good form right now, but Party Astronauts, Carpe Diem, and Strife are making some good work. The GODSENT loss was a bad sign that time.

moses – Don't think it's either. Their loss is no cause for celebration in NA, SA teams have supplemented our weak competition here for years and a loss for them is a loss that we feel as well. Hopefully, for GODSENT it was just a rough run through the qualifier. They showed some promise towards the end of last year but that's little consolation when you are missing out on one of the biggest events of this year. Perhaps a few players from SA can impress if they feel like they need to make an upgrade.

koi – I think every time GODSENT lost it was fair. I don't think they quite played to their potential but at the same time people had to WORK to beat them, and it showed.

xner – GODSENT failing to qualify is really bad for them. Up until this point, everyone was hyping them up to be the next big team out of Brazil, and for good reason. This failure clearly shows some struggles especially if you consider the fact that they lost to oNe in the first qualifier, a roster that seems to be quite lost after malbsMd's departure. GODSENT have a lot of work to do if they want to bounce back and HEN1 can bring them back as a dedicated AWPer.