One of the two CIS sides that will be in attendance at DreamHack Delhi Invitational 2019; HellRaisers will be looking to notch up their first trophy with their new revamped lineup.
The Squad
Much was made of the moves that HellRaisers made after the end of Starladder Berlin Major. The CIS giants benched their entire lineup in September and it seems they were intent on building a more communication-oriented stack around their enigmatic IGL Kirill ‘ANGE1’ Karasiow.
HellRaisers even changed their coach, with Sergey ‘lmbt’ Bezhanov making way for Alexander ‘Lk-‘ Lemeshev. Only two players were brought back from the bench into the active lineup, with ANGE1 leading the roster and Zygimantas ‘nukkye’ Chmieliauskas given the Primary AWPing duties.
Igor ‘crush’ Shevchenko and Alexander ‘scoobyxie’ Marynych were brought in from Vega Squadron while HellRaisers also chose to add Vadim ‘Flarich’ Karetin from pro100.
The Search for Identity and Consistency
Fans at DreamHack Delhi should keep an eye on nukkye, who looks like a player reborn in this lineup. The 22-year-old is the clear standout star for HellRaisers in this lineup, with a positive K/D difference of 136. Flarich has been impressive as well as a fresh addition.
But, the overall performance has been far from ideal, with HellRaisers winning only 19 of 54 maps played by the CIS teams, although they have played against top teams quite a lot with this lineup from the get-go.
HellRaisers look like a team without a proper game plan for now and one that have found it difficult to notch up a series of wins. Lack of consistency has plagued the new roster, with the lineup likely to take time to adapt to ANGE1’s tactical game plan and for the IGL to understand each of his new teammates to allow the team to use the players to the optimum of their respective skillsets.
Maybe all HellRaisers need is a W under their belt; a W that would remind them of the potential they possess together as a team.
Expectation
HellRaisers come into the event as outright favourites to win DreamHack Delhi Invitational 2019, despite the far from desirable results from their active linup over the two months of their existence.
Their biggest challenge might come in the form of fellow CIS outfit pro100. It will be interesting to see how ANGE1 and his team performs against relatively unknown profiles like Goliath, Orgless Five, Lucid Dream and YaLLa Esports.
This will be a challenge quite different from what they face on a regular basis and a successful campaign in Delhi could be the start of something for the new HellRaisers lineup. We expect the CIS giants to go all the way but it will be worth watching if any of the other attendees apart from pro100 can put up a challenge.
