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Gfinity Elite Series Week 4 preview; breaking up bottlenecks

Members of the Perth Ground Zero esports team celebrate a Rocket League victory. (Photo: Gfinity Australia)
21st June, 2018
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Week four of the Gfinity Elite Series kicks off this Saturday at the Hoyts Gfinity Esports Arena and, believe it or not, that means we’ve just got two weeks before the top fours are decided and the playoffs begin.

As always, it’ll be CS:GO to begin the esports action at 3pm, before Sunday brings us Rocket League at 10am and Street Fighter V at 4pm. You can catch every match of the Elite Series live on Twitch, while the Rocket League matches will also be broadcast on One – Network Ten’s sports channel.

Watch the Gfinity Elite Series LIVE on The Roar.

Let’s look ahead to the weekend’s action and pick some winners.

CS:GO

The resurgence of the Sydney Chiefs since their horror 16-2 Week 1 loss has been well documented, with a super impressive 16-12 win over the previously-undefeated Perth catapulting them right into championship conversations.

They come up this week against a Melbourne Avant team who, while not being spectacular, have done almost all that’s been asked of them thus far to sit in third on the CS:GO ladder.

Avant would baulk at the notion of entering this match underdogs, and they have every right to believe they should be 3-0 after a tough first-up loss to Perth. That said, given they really struggled to put lowly Brisbane away last week, we’re giving the edge here to Sydney.

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The next match sees Perth Ground Zero try to rebound from their first loss of the season against a Melbourne Order side who look to have gotten better as the season’s gone on.

Like Avant, both of these teams had good opportunities to win the only game they’ve lost so far. They’re quite evenly matched when it comes to skill and overall strategy, although Ground Zero’s individuals have shown slightly better decision making when the play’s been broken and, as such, get the nod for this one.

The Sydney Roar – desperately trying to get back on the winner’s list – close the round out with a much-needed visit from the winless Brisbane Deceptors. The Roar haven’t looked anything like the side that embarrassed the Chiefs in a day one boilover and, although they’ve still been competitive, look now to be a class below the current top four.

But they’ve still got a chance to sneak back in. Given two of the top four teams have to lose this weekend, a win coupled with their still-favourable map differential could see them soar all the way to the top with a strong win.

Will that happen though? Probably. Brisbane have gotten more competitive with each game, and I’d back them to win at least ten rounds, but they don’t quite look to have the class to stop their opponents from winning more.

topguN and Havoc of the Sydney Roar esports team playing CS:GO on the Gfinity Elite Series stage.

The Roar have to get back on the winner’s list this week. (Photo: Gfinity Australia)

Rocket League

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As we found out last Sunday in the Elite Series, the Sydney Chiefs will be nigh unstoppable in Rocket League from this point, having regained their top players from the World Championships in London.

They made light work of the previously-undefeated Ground Zero a week ago and Avant’s Rocket League team is clearly the Melbourne club’s weakest side. The Chiefs might not drop a game for the rest of the season – and they certainly won’t here.

The aforementioned Ground Zero will be desperate to get their season back on track after being brought back to earth last week, but the task doesn’t get a great deal easier against Melbourne Order.

Order are yet to drop a match in the Elite Series thus far and when these playing groups met at the Oceanic championship finals in April, Order’s roster (playing for DarkSided) knocked off Ground Zero’s (playing for Legacy) convincingly.

Melbourne get the nod on this occasion.

The good news for the winless Sydney Roar and Brisbane Deceptors is that one of the two will break their duck this weekend. Neither side has given us much to be excited about in this brief season but, given the Roar actually took two games off the Chiefs’ second-string side, we’ll back them to beat a Brisbane team who were swept in the same fixture.

Street Fighter V

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The first game here is probably the hardest game of the week to tip. Melbourne Avant seem to have a startling ability to push the highest-quality opponents to the full seven rounds, while also having a worrying knack of being pushed to the full seven rounds by lesser sides.

While they’ve been fortunate enough to win the decisive seventh round every time this year, they’ll need to find another gear if they’re to get past a star-studded Chiefs team who had their colours lowered last week.

Sydney looked unstoppable up until their shock loss to Perth last week, but I’m prepared to write off Avant’s unconvincing win against the Deceptors a week ago as an anomaly and back them to make it four out of four.

Similar to Avant, Melbourne Order have looked to be goods for most of the season, but really shouldn’t have needed a full seven rounds to dispatch of the Sydney Roar. They come up against a Perth side brimming with confidence following their massive upset of the Chiefs.

Ground Zero look to be building from week to week in Street Fighter and should be able to continue their surge with a hard-fought win here.

Like Rocket League, the day will finish off with two winless sides trying to get on the board for the first time in the Roar and the Deceptors.

Both teams had been toyed with until last week, where they both pushed highly-fancied opposition to the edge. On this occasion, however, I’m backing the Brisbane boys to turn it around.

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They’ve shown much more in the way of competitiveness across the short season and you’d have to say they almost snatched defeat from the jaws of victory last week against Avant.

If they bring their best, they should be able to get job done and finally bring Queensland Elite Series fans their first win of the competition.

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