Last year Fnatic showed the world why they were and still are one of the titans of CS:GO when they managed to take the event while only dropping a single map, de_cache, to the Ninjas in Pyjamas in the grand finals match of the event. However, the Swede's near perfect record by itself doesn't tell us much about how the meta of the game was back then, or the strengths and weaknesses of individual teams, so we've taken the liberty of compiling information on the maps played at Intel Extreme Masters: Katowice 2015:

 de_dust2de_nukede_miragede_infernode_cobblede_overpassde_cacheTotalGamesFnatic1-0 1-03-02-0 1-18-19Na'Vi1-0 1-01-00-2 0-13-36Vox Eminor   0-2  1-01-23FlipSid3  0-1   0-10-22EnVyUs0-2   2-0 2-14-37Penta 1-1  0-1  1-12-35LGB1-1     0-11-23Titan    0-1 0-10-22NiP1-21-01-01-2  2-06-410Keyd Stars1-00-10-11-1 1-0 3-36CLG0-11-00-1    1-23Hellraisers 0-1 0-1   0-22Virtus.Pro 1-01-11-00-11-1 4-37TSM0-11-2 1-0 1-0 3-36Cloud9 1-0 0-1 0-1 1-233DMAX 0-1   0-1 0-22Total Maps7548437-38

At Katowice 2015, de_inferno was the most played map, which was not unexpected; in the months leading up to the event, many teams considered the map to be one of their strongest in the pool at the time, not only the champions of the event but for NiP, EnVyUs, and others as well. However, Fnatic were the only one that came out of the event with a positive record, while other teams that aimed for that map in their picks and bans end up regretting it, like NiP, who now rarely even attempt to play the map or even go as far to ban it outright.

Map choices were most varied in the group stage of the event, where most teams didn't get a chance to play the same map twice; in contrast, the best of three format of the playoffs allowed teams to more easily hone in on maps that suited them the best, and consistently be able to get those maps out of the veto process, a trend we will most likely see repeated. For example, Virtus.Pro managed to get their favoured map at the time, de_mirage, into every series they played, while NiP managed to do the same with de_dust2 in all three of their playoff matches.

The map pool itself has changed since last year however, and focus has shifted away significantly from the classic CS:GO maps to the newer ones such as de_train and de_overpass. Going into this year's event, teams have now even begun to favour these maps in vetoes, and it will be interesting to see how this affects teams as they fight for the 2016 title.

Image: ESL/Patrick Strack