This is the one series in Counter-Strike everyone is always waiting for, and starting at 14:00 we will once more have a NiP versus Titan game in our hands.
Even though the departure of Richard "shox" Papillon, followed by the re-addition of Kenny "kennyS" Schrub technically wiped out all of these teams' history for a year, there is still a lot here.
Not only did these exact lineups battle for a period of roughly four months in early 2013, with very one-sided results one might add, but nine of these players have been battling since August 2012.
Everyone except Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom, who joined VeryGames in January 2013, is an original member of these two giants, whose history began at DreamHack Valencia, the first meaningful CS:GO event.
Titan have had NiP's number in five of the past six series on LAN, but how will Papillon's departure affect it? Will the lineup with Schrub be more effective in 2014 than it was last year? We're about to find out.
So far Titan's star in Kiev has been Benrlitom, who seems to have stepped out of Papillon's shadow. He has an incredible 1.34 rating in the two matches; a number that would rank first in the world in our database.
Both Nathan "NBK" Schmitt and Schrub have had decent showings, but the one player whose performance has nosedived is Edouard "SmithZz" Dubourdeaux, who has had to give up the AWPing role to Schrub on multiple maps.
Obviously in-game leader Kévin "Ex6TenZ" Droolans has also had a very rough event so far, clearly the worst rating out of all ten players. He will have to step up for Titan to have a shot.
For NiP no one has stood out nearly as much as Benrlitom for Titan, though that is partly due to the big loss they suffered against Na`Vi that hurt all of their rating; it's hard to keep it up in a 3-16 loss.
Their star player so far has maybe unexpedtedly been Richard "Xizt" Landström, with Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund not far behind. Number two in our database, Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg, has basically been missing.
Although Lindberg had some big kills, including a quad kill round that ultimately put NiP over Virtus.pro on de_inferno, he has had a very weak showing in Kiev. Lindberg has never hit his average rating at an SLTV StarSeries Finals event.
 f0rest career CS:GO rating: 1.27 | ||
| Rating | Event | Placing |
| 1.22 |  SLTV StarSeries V Finals | 2nd |
| 1.13 | SLTV StarSeries VI Finals | 1st |
| 1.08 | SLTV StarSeries VII Finals | 3rd |
| 0.95* | SLTV StarSeries IX Finals | * |
| * event in progress, TBD | ||
The key member for NiP is clearly the world's number one star, Alesund. For NiP to contend for titles, they need him to play like he's the world's best, and he should come out swinging versus Titan.
Adam "friberg" Friberg has been playing below his standards, though still better than Lindberg, and Robin "Fifflaren" Johansson is at a weak 0.76 rating, just a nod better than Droolans from Titan.
Even though this Titan roster never took NiP down, as it only existed in the undefeated 87-0 NiP-era, they had tons of close games. Maybe the fact they learned how to win them will translate over now.
At ESEA Invite Season 13 Finals, the last event Schrub played for VeryGames, VeryGames lost two maps with a 14-16 score. At RC EMS One Spring Finals a week earlier, Schrub was VG's star in another 14-16 loss.
kennyS' VG weren't far from topping NiP in early 2013
It's not that VeryGames never stood a chance versus NiP back then; it's that no one did. Since then the gap has decreased, NiP has lost its immortality, and the rest of Titan learned how to beat the Swedes.
That's not to say Titan's winning streak over NiP will continue. NiP have been the stronger team overall since DreamHack Winter, although they lost two head-to-head battles at DreamHack Stockholm.
The French-Belgian come into Kiev having barely practiced with Schrub at all, and despite their history together, that can't be good. They are a team that relies on practice.
| NiP's results |  Titan's results | |||||
| 3-16 | vs. Na`Vi | de_dust2 | 16-10 | vs.  Virtus.pro | de_dust2 | |
| 15-19 | vs. Na`Vi | de_train | 19-17 | vs. Virtus.pro | de_mirage | |
| 16-14 | vs. Virtus.pro | de_inferno | 9-16 | vs. Na`Vi | de_dust2 | |
| 10-16 | vs. Virtus.pro | de_train | 11-16 | vs. Na`Vi | de_mirage | |
| 16-12 | vs. Virtus.pro | de_dust2 | ||||
Both teams have lost against Na`Vi at SLTV StarSeries IX Finals, and neither was particularly close to winning. NiP won slightly less rounds, but they also had a worse pistol round record.
Titan also had a stronger performance versus Virtus.pro of the two, but it'd be stupid to draw too many conclusions of their matches against other teams on another days.
In terms of maps we're going to be seeing a series featuring de_dust2, de_inferno and de_nuke, in no particular order. Titan has removed de_train twice in Kiev, and NiP has avoided de_mirage in both games.
We don't have the details on map picks for Titan but it would seem like they picked de_dust2 against both of their opponents, while NiP chose to play de_train versus Na`Vi, and de_inferno against Virtus.
f0rest has practically gone missing in Kiev, again
Based on their history, it would make sense if Titan went with de_nuke, NiP chose de_inferno and de_dust2 wound up as the decider. You can find their recent head-to-head games here.
Schrub was actually the world's best de_nuke player in 2013, while it was also the strongest map individually for Schmitt, Benrlitom and Dubourdeaux. These guys clearly like the map.
For NiP it's not as black and white, as they've never been a team to fully ignore a map, but considering their de_dust2 struggles against Natus Vincere, and the catastrophic second half versus Virtus, I assume they prefer de_inferno.
I don't see the point in predicting any outcome for any map, for these teams are so even. I will say I think NiP are once again favored in this series, but these teams should be neck and neck.
Can Ex6TenZ lead his team to a victory over NiP?
For the Ninjas the key players will be Lindberg and Alesund, who haven't played to their potential so far. They must get strong performances out of the two to overcome Titan.
On the other hand, with Benrlitom firing on all cylinders, it would seem that maybe the key for Titan might be Schmitt. He has popped out before with big performances, and tomorrow would be a good time for it.
Whatever you do tomorrow, don't miss this series, scheduled to go live at 14:00 in Kiev. Winner will go on to face Na`Vi in the grand final at 18:00 for the SLTV StarSeries IX championship.
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