#HSH Week 8: Group D Preview
The last group of #HomeSweetHomes final week is upon us and as always we preview the teams. AGF Esport, Complexity Gaming, Hard Legion ...
The third week of #HomeSweetHome is set to move on to the playoffs as eight teams have been eliminated and eight has moved on. The playoffs are being played with a traditional single elimination format where the group winners face off against second place finishers from another group. The groups have seen their fair share of upsets, but the two biggest ones might just belong to Virtus.Pro and forZe not taking a spot in the playoffs. Below we will have a look at all four quarterfinals that are being played on Saturday with start 10.50 CET. If you want to read more about #HomeSweetHome and the tournament as a whole head over to our event page! Salamander Gaming is the biggest surprise of the third week of #HomeSweetHome this far as they managed to win their group, where a playoff spot to begin with would have been a massive success. Ádám “torzsi” Torzsás and Patrik “bodito” Boda played two excellent games to achieve this, but now a tougher challenge awaits and to upset Complexity Gaming the team has to play its best CS of their life. Complexity Gaming might have started their first week in #HomeSweetHome rather week as they lost to SMASH Esports in their best of one opener, but they sure showed why they are a massive favourite together with BIG to win it all. The two following best of three series they absolutely demolished FATE Esports and Nordavind to secure their playoff spot. There is no doubt in our minds that Complexity Gaming has now woken up and in a best of three series they should have no issues to eliminate Salamander Gaming. The two time reigning champions BIG once again made a statement as they won their group without bigger issues after wins against Endpoint and Team Secret. The group might have just been the toughest one out of them all, but still BIG breezed through. Once again İsmailcan "XANTARES" Dörtkardeş played as an absolute god and this far in #HomeSweetHome the Turk has dominated time after time, something that is hard to see an end to. Apeks will have a mountain to climb in this series, but their groupstage was fairly impressive as they knocked Virtus.Pro out in the decider match. Erik “truth” Hansen Dyrnes and Dennis “dennis” Edman had impressive showings for the team and if Apeks is going to have any chance whatsoever in this quarterfinal they need to keep that up, but the team as a whole needs to step up to levels we have not seen them at before. With all that said we can’t do anything else than believe BIG will make short work of this series. SMASH Esports has been on the edge to achieve big things in #HomeSweetHome before, but always fell a bit short. This week they have started off in the best way possible as they won their group ahead of Complexity Gaming. We have praised Kristjan “fejtZ” Allsaar in the past and once again he has been on fire, but this week we also need to highlight Denis “grux” Gutaj for his heroic performances. SMASH Esports also has many other players who step up when it’s needed the most and they will without a doubt be our favourites in this quarterfinal. This team lead by Kamen “bubble” Kostadinov is taking steps forward quickly and already now they have a great chance to make a statement in #HomeSweetHome. AGO has had two terrible weeks in the tournament before now and it’s nice to see the Polish squad getting something going their way, but in all honesty they won against Mustang Crew in the opening game as expected and even if beating forZe looks good on paper they are a team who has looked very, very bleak lately. AGO is built around Damian “Furlan” Kislowski and Dominik “GruBy” Swiderski and as much as they usually perform decently, the rest of the squad struggles. We have to mention that Miłosz “mhL” Knasia had a good showing this far in the third week, but for AGO to move on to the semifinal more than that is needed, and we don’t see it happening, even if SMASH Esports is far from the toughest opponent in #HomeSweetHome. Sprout has impressed everybody this week as they won their group ahead of Apeks and Virtus.Pro. It was hard to predict that as the team got rid of their star player Tomáš "oskar" Šťastný and replaced him with Michał "snatchie" Rudzki, but they have seemingly got the package together really quickly. It’s hard to evaluate the true value of their two first showings together and we have a feeling they got to look good against underperforming opponents. Endpoint on the other hand has shown a good level of consistency recently, but with missing out on the high peaks. This week they ended second in their group, but in the opening game they pushed BIG to the limits. Endpoint is doing something right and their play is constantly improving and even if they come to this game as an underdog we will actually support them. Consistency and good fundamentals wins games and we think that will be the case today. Also just of note Kia “Surreal” Man, Joey “CRUC1AL” Steusel and Thomas “Thomas” Utting has all been on fire lately and if they keep it up against Sprout they should have this in the bag. If you wish to read about the latest news from us and from the esports world make sure to check out our Twitter! If you wish to read about betting tips, we deliver them through our esports betting Twitter! Janne Kouva
#HomeSweetHome: Week 3 Quarterfinals Preview
Salamander Gaming - Complexity Gaming
BIG - Apeks
SMASH Esports - AGO
Sprout - Endpoint
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