Potentially-biased WESG groups baffle Counter-Strike pros

World Electronic Sports Games revealed the groups for the upcoming WESG Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Grand Finals today, and some players are confused.

The Chinese tournament is set to take place from March 11 to 17 in the Chongqing Olympic Sports Center, and it boasts a $890,000 prize pool. Thirty-two teams have been invited, including Ninjas in Pyjamas, G2 Esports, Fnatic, ENCE Esports, and MIBR.

The event would normally be a spectacle to behold, but the other 27 participants are middle to low-tier teams at best. You would expect the giants of the tournament, like NIP and ENCE, to be spread across the WESG group draw—but that’s far from the case.

These teams, who will take part in the top eight portion of the IEM Katowice Major starting on Thursday, are bundled together on the same side of the bracket. MIBR, the Brazilian lineup that’s ranked 11th in the HLTV CS:GO world rankings, are the only top-tier team to catch a break. They’ve been matched together with Polish team AGO Esports, Kazakhstani team K23, and Argentina team Isurus Gaming—none of which are featured in the top 30 of the rankings.

In stark comparison, Fnatic, who have won three major tournaments in Counter-Strike history, are in the same group as Finnish team ENCE, who are ranked ninth in the world. Additionally, NiP, ranked sixth, have been grouped together with G2 Esports, who are in the top 20.

This means that the top-tier teams will have to face off against each other in the early stages of tournament, rather than in the top eight, where they likely would’ve normally met each other. Meanwhile, relatively-unknown underdog Asian teams like China’s CyberZen, Japan’s Absolute, and Thailand’s Alpha Red have all been grouped far away from the favorites of the tournament.

Since the tournament is hosted by an Asian organization and held in Asia, the group draw suggests some level of Asian bias. There are a few Asian teams with the skill level to go toe-to-toe with the top European teams, but none of them will be featured at the WESG Counter-Strike finals.

The group draw bias wouldn’t be an issue for a usual minor tournament, but WESG has one of the largest prize pools in the competitive Counter-Strike circuit, just narrowly losing out to the $1 million Majors.

WESG will kick off on March 11—but before that, IEM Katowice will commence next Thursday at 9am CT, when NiP, ENCE, and MIBR will compete for the Major title.