The final of Counter Pit Season 2 took place in Split, Croatia this weekend - the last offline tournament with multiple elite teams competing before MLG Columbus kicks off next week.

But what did we learn? Here are the key takeaways from the event…

Astralis cannot get over the hump

Incredibly, Astralis keep seeming to fall short in the same fashion year on year.

On paper they have a very well-rounded team, a capable tactician, a veteran coach, and some of the world’s best players in their roles.

device has been showing incredible peaks when at the top of his game, but even that is not sustainable enough to get the Danish side to win when it most matters.

The team was close to replacing Xyp9x with aizy in the summer, and, while the former has proven his worth as a strong clutch player, at some point they may contemplate a change in the roster.

The problem is there is no clear problem player who you would want to part with.

This is kind of squad that should be causing fnatic major issues but they are constantly falling short at offline events - not only to them, but also Na`Vi, Luminosity and EnVyUs.

There are a number of big tournaments in the coming months, and something has to change in how the team operates.

Given their new organisation, I do not expect that to happen – but Astralis are worth keeping an eye on nevertheless.

gob b still has it when it comes to leadership

NRG’s gob b has been widely considered as one of the best in-game leaders in the world since the Counter-Strike 1.6 days, when he won a number of titles and a 2008 major during five years with mousesports.

A very capable individual player in the previous iteration of the game, he has always improved his teams.

While that level is still missing in CS:GO, the best-of-three win over a hurting EnVyUs proves that you can still do big things with gob b steering the ship.

Even though mousesports improved after his departure – as did fnatic after pronax moved on – there is an eerie similarity between the two players in the way both have been criticised for individual play yet praised for their leadership.

As many new teams on the scene are discovering, strong leadership is a hard quality to come by.

Practice does not really ever make perfect, but it does make permanent – and smart leaders will always make their players better individually over the long haul.

That is what gob b is doing, and his influence has proven that NRG could be competing for top spot in North America in the future.

EnVyUs might actually be done as a team

It is entirely possible that EnVyUs will rebound to find success at MLG Columbus and DreamHack Malmo and all will be well again, at least for another brief stint.

A more likely outcome, however, is that the team play out train contracts for the players they would like to team up with or come up with another heist similar to the trade of apEX and kennyS for shox and SmithZz.

Had we had a commissioner like David Stern, that one would have been vetoed for sure.

If you were not convinced by their previous bad results – of which there were many – then this one should do it.

EnVyUs were playing against a top five-or-so North American team, who did not have their AWPer, instead being forced to play with PENTA’s tabseN as a last minute stand-in.

They would end up losing 1-2 - despite kennyS putting up a 1.27 rating and his team having three series points in regulation, only to lose in overtime.

This team appears entirely checked out, but the $1m prize purse is at least enough to make them still try.

We will soon find out if their best efforts are good for anything anymore.

Snax is back, but his team is not

After a disastrous start to 2016, Virtus.pro’s star player Snax has returned to his usual level, finishing Counter Pit Season 2 Finals with a 1.19 rating, a whole +0.23 difference to his next teammate.

Particularly disappointing was the performance of pasha, whose statistics page in 2016 looks downright depressing.

For those who do not want to see the horror for themselves, he has only mustered an above -1.00 rating in five of 31 maps so far this year.

That is especially scary when you look at his career form, which already shows a massive decline in his performance in 2015.

Virtus.pro are not skilled enough to have the luxury of being able to win titles with one key player underperforming that drastically.

For NEO and company to compete for meaningful championships in 2016, they will need pasha to get back to the level he played at in 2013/14.

It is by no means all on him, but he can make the biggest difference.

Let’s not forget that at the start of 2014 he had legitimate claims to being a top-three player in the world after winning the MVP at EMS One Katowice - Virtus.pro’s only major victory to date.

That pasha’s overly-aggressive playing style relies heavily on skill only compounds the issue, but changing approach may be the worst thing he could do.

Perhaps it is time for the team to venture back to their old roles prior to NEO sniping and hope for the best.

GuardiaN could rival olofmeister for the world’s best player

The Slovak put in another MVP-worthy performance at the Counter Pit Finals - recording 1.39 rating, a +76 K-D difference, 92.5 ADR, and a 0.92 KPR.

In addition, he topped the event in rating, K-D difference, ADR, damage differential, KPR, total kills and +1 kill rounds, while having the least deaths per round – all of which is summed up neatly here.

In other words, despite the issues he has recently been having with his wrist, he put together another masterful performance with only one of his Na`Vi teammates finishing with a plus -1.00 rating.

As far as consistency goes, GuardiaN’s has had a week to rival anyone in history - with 12 maps at plus -1.15 rating.

GuardiaN lacks the kind of versatility olofmeister’s game possesses but he can be an effective rifler, and his Desert Eagle is as scary as anyone’s.

With flamie also perking up in recent months, Na`Vi now have two players capable of taking over games, which could be enough to finally take down the Black and Orange squad in a play-off series.

One can only wonder until the two battle it out again.

For now, Na`Vi have earned a comfortable top-three spot in the world rankings and might even rival Luminosity for No. 2 although for the time being that is still up for debate.

What is certain is that, led by GuardiaN’s performances, Na`Vi will be accomplishing big things in 2016.

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