With the appearance of team 9INE on the CS:GO stage, Polish representation in major tournaments has sharply increased and is approaching Denmark and Brazil, which usually lead in this indicator. This is a very good sign for the Polish scene, as after the disbandment of the very same Virtus.pro roster, the Poles mostly scattered among international teams.
As a result, this year at least 10 maps at the highest level were played by 11 players from Poland, while in all of 2022 there were only six. This growth is observed not only among players but also among coaches and analysts. Gamers8 2023 will continue this trend and will gather a total of 13 Poles from different teams.
9INE
First and foremost, we must mention 9INE, which make up the lion's share of players:
In the first round of the tournament, 9INE will play against G2, who recently won IEM Cologne 2023. Clearly, G2 are the favorites in this match, but the Polish team also has something to hope for. Firstly, their Vertigo, which is considered one of the best in the current scene. Moreover, 9INE defeated G2 not so long ago in a BO1 match at BLAST.tv Major Paris: European RMR B 2023 on the Nuke map.
ENCE
At IEM Dallas 2022, ENCE reached the final, where they lost to Cloud9. Interestingly, the team achieved this result with a Polish majority in the lineup because, due to visa issues, Lotan "Spinx" Giladi could not attend the tournament, and he was replaced by Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski, who joined hades and Pawel "dycha" Dycha.
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Since then, the ENCE lineup has changed, and only dycha and analyst Max "trochu" Trocha remain from the Poles. However, the team managed to move forward and is now considered one of the favorites for Gamers8 2023. ENCE's first opponent will be Liquid, who are undergoing reconstruction and are unlikely to pose significant competition.
Falcons
Falcons have assembled a costly and, on paper, promising mix of experience and youthful firepower. However, so far, this lineup hasn't been impressive; it's clear they lack synergy. To make matters worse, in Riyadh, they have to play against Heroic, which almost rules out their chances of advancing to the quarterfinals.
FaZe
Filip "NEO" Kubski was once one of the best players in CS 1.6 and CS:GO. In recent years, he disappeared from the radars of major events and gradually moved away from the competitive scene. It was unexpected and quite a delight to see that the Pole will replace Robert RobbaN Dahlström as the head coach of FaZe.
His debut at IEM Cologne 2023 was not perfect; NEO made many mistakes, took ill-timed pauses, and overall, looked somewhat out of his element. Some time has passed since Cologne, giving Filip an opportunity to get better acquainted with the team and somewhat adapt.
At the ⅛ finals of Gamers8 2023, FaZe will face Virtus.pro, a team that is notoriously tricky to play against. They are known for effectively using pauses, so NEO must have put in a tremendous amount of work to prepare for a coaching duel against Dastan “dastan” Akbayev.
Apeks and GamerLegion
The only match where Poles will face off is between Apeks and GamerLegion. The former is coached by Jakub “kuben” Gurczynski, while the latter has Jędrzej "bogdan" Rokita working as an analyst.
In this pairing, despite GamerLegion's decent performance at IEM Cologne 2023, Apeks should advance. GamerLegion replaced their captain and main rifler, so the team had to undergo significant changes. Meanwhile, Apeks brought in the experienced Alexander "CacaNito" Kylkoski, who comfortably assumed roles without disrupting the team's structure.
No matter how Gamers8 2023 ends for the Polish representatives, it's delightful to watch their progress. The current generation of Polish talents offers hope for a successful future for their Counter-Strike scene.
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