The level of teams has been evening out recently, a number different names have been in the grand final at events in the recent months (EnVyUs, TSM, fnatic, Na`Vi, Virtus.pro, Cloud9), who will be the favourites to make it to top four in your mind?
I would say that fnatic, TSM, Cloud9 and NiP/EnVyUs are going to be the top 4 but it is really hard to predict at this kind of events. The level of tier 1 teams is very equalized now and any team can basically beat anyone even with a very one-sided score.
What do you make of the change in the group stage format? Is it better to have a chance to play against more than three set teams before the playoffs? Is it going to be harder to prepare for such groups?
Maybe it is a bit better because teams will be pushed to focus more on their own game and tactics instead of spending hours on watching demos and playing mind games when it actually comes to the tournament. It's really hard to say how it's gonna work out though.
Train has been in the pool for quite some time, but ESL One Cologne will be the first major to feature it, how has it developed over the recent months? Was it figured out in terms of playstyle, strategy, etc.? Is the current map pool diverse enough?