A lineup with a Serbian core had never made it to a CSGO Major, up until the Starladder Major 2019 at least. CR4ZY shocked Fnatic en route to claiming the second of the two spots in a stacked Europe Minor to become the first Serbian core to qualify for the Major.
It is easy to highlight technicality and say that Nemanja ‘huNter’ Kovacs is Bosnian. But, the 23-year-old represents the Serbian flag proudly. huNter along with his long-time companions LETN1 and emi (the coach) as well as nexa have taken the first step towards putting Serbian CSGO on the map.
There has never been a concrete top 20/ top 30 team with a Serbian core since the world switched to CSGO from 1.6. The 23-year-old was ecstatic at having qualified and lamented that it had been a long-time target for him and the team.
a CR4ZY good season for the roster
CR4ZY have successfully managed to be consistently within the Top 30 and are currently ranked #16 as per the HLTV Rankings. The core has been together for little less than a year now after Valiance brought in the core of Imperial.
At the heart of the CR4ZY roster is the camaraderie the players share. EspiRanTo was billed and always highlighted as an outspoken player, who had trouble at Imperial due to his personality, as the reports suggested.
But, at CR4ZY, the Lithuanian has even acted as a support for other stars, perhaps, being comfortable in the fact that there are others who can do the job better than him in certain aspects and situations.
The shining victory of this lineup is that everybody seems to contribute on the server, with no player averaging a sub-1.00 rating since the inception of the CR4ZY banner.
HuNter himself credited nexa for bringing structure to the game and more confidence in their style after the Serbian became the IGL. The former Renegades star, though, is not letting shot-calling get in the way of his individual performances, boasting an average rating of 1.20, just .02 away from huNter.
The lineup isn’t very young but is one of the youngest to be participating in the Starladder Major, with the average age coming to 22.5. Despite the age, the wonderful thing about the lineup is that everyone is experienced in the CSGO circuit.
While nobody apart from nexa has been a part of the permanent Tier-1 circuit before, every other player has been a permanent fixture in the scene for at least a year. EspiranTo might be the youngest at 18. But, the Lithuanian has already proven himself on LAN and has a title under his belt, winning the Dreamhack Open Summer 2018 with Imperial, along with current teammate nexa.
KEY FIGURE
The lineup has 5 stars. But, arguably, the most important player of the roster is Nemanja ‘huNter’ Kovacs. The 23-year-old is the highest-rated player under the CR4ZY banner with an average rating of 1.22.
huNter also shoulders the burden of being the entry, accounting for 23.8% of total opening duels taken by the roster, with a success rate of 52.6%, which is the second highest in the team (ottoNd has 59.4%).
The 23-year-old also accounts for the highest damage dealt with grenades on the roster and by a comfortable margin. huNter records 5.4 grenade damage per round, almost 2 points more than everyone else.
Expectations at the Starladder Major 2019
huNter iterated in his interview with Talkesport that their main motive was to get to the next round. But, perhaps, they would want to avoid going through the gruesome qualifiers and Minors next time onwards.
To achieve that, not only do they have to qualify for the Main Stage of the Starladder Berlin Major, but also ensure they get at least one win under their belt in the Round Robin matchups.
Talkesport Predicts
Every Major has one cinderella story. Last Major, it was Renegades. Honestly, we wouldn’t be surprised if this roster provides the CR4ZY storyline this time around and take one step further, becoming the first Serbian core lineup to qualify for the knockouts.
Despite all of the talk about experience and skill, it is CR4ZY’s debut at a Major and for everyone in the roster, apart from nexa. There are a lot of other first-timers at the Main Qualifiers or the New Challenger Stage.
We expect CR4ZY to qualify for the Main Stage of the Berlin Major or come close at the very least. Expect the roster to rack up two wins in the Main Qualifier, minimum.
Note: All statistics have been taken from HLTV
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