As Intel Extreme Masters XIII Katowice Major is taking place in less than 3 weeks, it’s important to make a summary of the most critical roster changes and transfers that recently happened in the CS:GO world. In order for you to gain a clearer insight into what’s going on, I have analyzed the changes that can and most probably will leave a mark on the teams’ overall performance.

How team performance is affected by roster changes

They say that practice is the best of all instructors and this could not be truer for the CS:GO scene. When playing at a top level, each team needs several weeks and sometimes even months to be able to operate as a whole. The large number of maps every team plays requires great tactics and clear structure, taking full advantage of each member’s strong points. In other words, it takes time and dedication to coach each player individually, while making sure the team is performing as a unity. Therefore, any roster change leads to a potential vulnerability and uncertainty regarding the team’s strength.

Let’s take football for example! Imagine that you are trying to anticipate the score of a match such as Real Madrid vs. FC Barcelona. Naturally, you will take into account the most popular players each team has. If you would clearly bet on Real Madrid under normal circumstances, you might change your mind when finding out they no longer have Cristiano Ronaldo or that 5 of their best players are suffering from an injury. The situation is similar in the esports world. FaZe Clan is not the same team if one or more of its players are stand-ins. All in all, you can now see why roster changes are something to take into consideration when making predictions about an upcoming event.

Big CS:GO roster changes

Below you will find the roster changes made by some of the best teams worldwide, over the past few months. These adjustments might, sooner or later, have a great influence on how the global rankings look like in CS:GO.

Cloud9 and Golden

Given the fact that Golden is both a strong player and an amazing IGL, it’s still unclear why the teams are quite determined to sell him. Being a key player to the roster, only a problem with his personality or a lack of consistency in his performance could have led to this situation.

At Cloud9, Golden is inactive at the moment and this also happened a while back, when he was playing for Fnatic, a team that gathered some impressive results when he was in.
Some of these great results are: finishing 5th – 8th at ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018, 3rd – 4th at ESL Pro League Season 6 Finals, 3rd – 4th at Esports Championship Series Season 4, 1st at IEM XII World Championship, 3rd – 4th at DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018 and 1st at WESG 2017-2018.

Even though playing for Cloud9 hasn’t brought the same success for Golden, the team itself is to be blamed. Being part of a roster that has had poor results, however, made the general public also see Golden not as great as before.

The CS:GO scene became more than intense over the last 8-9 months, as Astralis, together with Team Liquid, mousesports, Natus Vincere, MIBR and FaZe Clan have basically been merciless on their way to the title at every single event. The same as many other teams, Cloud9 were demolished by these titans at each and every tournament they took part in.

Seeing the situation from the team owners’ perspective, things are quite simple. What matters most for them is that they are the ones paying the salaries, which need to be backed up by results. How great a player is individually is not important at all, when the team’s expenses are not justified by the team’s overall performance. Therefore, roster changes will inevitably follow.

As mentioned before, Golden is currently inactive at Cloud9, which means he will most probably be transferred in the shortest time. With Zellsis, the team’s new player, still on trial, Cloud9 has to evaluate how he performs before selling Golden to the highest bidder. This will be a total delight for other teams that are currently facing some challenges and would be lucky to have him.
As for now, Cloud9 is not the same solid contender we have gotten used to in the past. I advise you to keep this in mind when looking for some great CS:GO betting opportunities.

Bet on Cloud9

Team Liquid, TACO and Stewie2K

Team Liquid finished 2nd last season in the global rankings and their overall performance has been remarkable, given the fact that they have qualified for no less than 9 Grand Finals and won 2 of them. Only a team with amazing skill and consistency could accomplish that. Soon after the season ended, 2 of their key players have been replaced, namely zews (team coach for the past 2 years) and TACO (team member for about 8 months).

TACO became a member of Team Liquid back in April, 2018, hoping to have greater results and enjoy a more positive atmosphere than what he previously experienced at MIBR. He did have an amazing season at Liquid, but soon after that he most probably felt homesick. His striking success with his new team proved he wasn’t the reason why MIBR had so many poor results, so Fallen and the rest of the crew wanted him back home.

CS:GO is a sport where a player is not forced to play for a team against his will, so I don’t believe Team Liquid had too much to comment on this subject. What is more, MIBR offered Stewie2K instead, who is a very strong player and a former Major champion with Cloud9.

Since these important roster changes took place, we couldn’t see MIBR in action but Team Liquid seems to be greater than ever. Contrary to the presumption that they will perform badly without TACO and zews, Liquid won iBUYPOWER Masters IV, after defeating Astralis in the Grand Final. What an exceptional result to start the new season with and what an amazing way to unify the new roster!

Bet on Team Liquid

MIBR, YNk and zews

Besides bringing back TACO and sending Stewie2K to replace him at Team Liquid, MIBR also let go of their coach, YNk, and reconnected with zews, one of their former coaches. Both zews and TACO are Brazilians, so most probably the organization tends to have members of this nationality only, which is quite a concern for tarik, the only non-Brazilian member. With this in mind, he will most probably be replaced in no more than a couple of months.

The same as TACO, zews decided to reunite with his Brazilian teammates and friends, most probably because he had been away from home for quite a while. Right now, we hope this emotional decision will give him a confidence boost so that he’ll be ready to take MIBR to the highest level.

YNk, on the other hand, is playing for FaZe Clan at the moment, a team that is still struggling. In my opinion, they are not a reason for us to worry, as they managed to qualify in no less than 5 Grand Finals and won 3 titles in 2018, together with several 3rd-4th overall placements. What is certain is that the team’s management had a different opinion and decided to replace both the coach and IGL.

Bet on MIBR

FaZe Clan and karrigan

If we were to ask other teams, FaZe Clan’s results over the past year could have been classified as excellent. However, for a team such as FaZe, being number two is not an option. Therefore, they decided to make some serious roster changes and improve their already amazing results by sending karrigan on a loan to Team Envy and replace him with AdreN from Gambit Esports. Moreover, their new IGL seems to be NiKo, so we still have to determine how that goes.

As already mentioned, RobbaN – the team’s coach for 3 years – also left the team. Even though things are far from being clear yet, my intuition tells me the future doesn’t look so bright for FaZeClan. It seems that the team’s management started to get greedy after witnessing such a strong performance and wanted to have even more. However, with teams such as Astralis, Natus Vincere and Team Liquid still dominating the CS:GO scene, their significant roster changes are obviously an error. FaZe has had issues competing against these titans in the past and the current situation doesn’t make things easier, as AdreN can barely be compared with karrigan in terms of skill and YNk has far less experience than FaZe Clan’s former coach.

Bet on FaZe Clan

BIG and XANTARES

As you can see, the last few months have been quite challenging for some of the CS:GO teams. BIG makes no exception here. Which is why they’ve brought XANTARES in, a former member of Space Soldiers. In 2018, BIG had some fairly good results and promises to get even better. This won’t be hard with XANTARES as a player, as this guy was exceptional in his former team, so I definitely expect him to be an absolute beast under the new banner as well. If BIG lacked firepower in the previous competitive season, they surely found it with XANTARES.

All in all, you can expect BIG to step up from their current position – 12th-14th in the global rankings – to a top 10 placement in the near future. The team does have a lot of potential and with smooya and gob b using their full capacity in every single match, there’s nothing stopping BIG from becoming a mid-tier contender at every tier 1 event.

Bet on BIG

World Electronic Sports Games 2018-2019 is a leading event in the esports world, gathering many teams from all over the world under one roof while offering multiple tournaments in different categories. As for this article, it solely focuses on the CS:GO event preview.

World Electronic Sports Games 2018-2019 is scheduled to take place between March 10th – 16th, in Chongqing, China and, as each one of the event’s tournaments, this CS:GO competition comes up with a prize pool of $890.000. A full week of exciting CS:GO matches invites both fans and bettors to take advantage of the spectacular event opportunities.

Participants

Just to have a clearer understanding of how huge World Electronic Sports Games 2018-2019 actually is, you can keep in mind that no less than 32 teams will be competing, all of which are national teams and not standard ones.

What this translates into is that each and every roster has players of only one nationality, which leads to a disputable situation. Some might argue that part of the world’s top teams such as Astralis or North already meet the nationality criterion and would basically crush every single opponent at such a tournament.

This stands more as a prediction at the moment however, as neither of the 2 teams has been announced yet. If I was to take a guess, I am more than confident that Astralis and North, together with Ninjas in Pyjamas and Fnatic will soon be revealed as participants, especially because the teams should have received a direct invitation.

As for the present moment, the following teams are already qualified for World Electronic Sports Games 2018-2019:

• Team Russia
• Team1
• AGO Esports
• Valiance
• G2 Esports
• OpTic Gaming
• ENCE eSports
• Movistar Riders
• Windigo Gaming
• Ghost Gaming
• Team Singularity
• Altima
• Imperial e-Sports
• Furious Gaming
• Isurus Gaming
• CyberZen
• ALPHA Red
• TNC Pro Team
• Revolution
• FrostFire
• MVP PK
• BigTime Regal.Hong Kong
• Chiefs eSports Club
• NASR eSports
• Viva Algeria
• Bravado Gaming

In a shortened list, these are the most solid contestants:

• Team Russia
• AGO Esports
• G2 Esports
• OpTic Gaming
• ENCE eSports
• Ghost Gaming
• MVP PK
• Chiefs eSports Club

If the 4 teams that have not yet been announced are the ones mentioned above, then they are definitely the strongest in the whole competition. When compared to these 4 in terms of strength, all the participants from the list above can be considered tier 2.

Prizes

World Electronic Sports Games 2018-2019 has quite an impressive prize pool of almost $900.000. This will be split among the top 8 teams as shown below:

• 1st place: $500.000
• 2nd place: $200.000
• 3rd place: $100.000
• 4th place: $50.000
• 5th – 8th place: $10.000

As for the rest, they will go home only with more experience, as 75% of the competitors are not rewarded in this event. Whether that is a good idea is debatable but what we can be sure of is that, with such massive prizes in the game, the thrill will be high during the Playoffs.

Event format

Most probably, World Electronic Sports Games 2018-2019 will be using the same event format as in its former editions, which means that all 32 teams will initially be split into 8 groups of 4. What follows afterward is that the highest ranked 2 teams from each of these initial groups move on to the next phase, organized in 4 groups of 4 and then one more time, the top 2 teams from each of these final groups advance to the Playoffs.

During the Playoff Stage, the teams will be playing only Bo3 matches and these are: 4 Quarterfinals, 2 Semifinals, 1 3rd Place Match and 1 Grand Final.

Most important candidates

The previous edition of the same event brought the 3rd position to Team Russia, which is no surprise considering their CIS region is one of the best at CS:GO worldwide. At the upcoming edition of World Electronic Sports Games, the team will most probably put on another great show, which is to be expected especially from a team with such a strong and experienced roster.

Team Russia

• Dosia – currently playing for Gambit Esports
• flamie – currently playing for Natus Vincere
• hooch – currently playing for Gambit Esports
• WorldEdit – currently playing for Winstrike Team
• seized – currently playing for UnderPressure, former Na’Vi and Gambit player

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AGO Esports

Ever since the team started playing, they have been constantly improving their performance, while trying to advance to the tier 1 division. For the time being however, AGO Esports is still a tier 2 contender at a global level but that didn’t stop them from having remarkable results in 2018 and being considered one of the best Polish teams.

Their recent achievements include the following: getting the 2nd place at both China Top 2017 Shenzhen and ESL Pro European Championship 2018, 1st place at ESEA Season 26: Global Challenge, Play2Live Cryptomasters and OGA Counter PIT, 3rd place at StarLadder & ImbaTV Invitational Chongqing 2018, 3rd – 4th place at both DreamHack Open Montreal 2018 and TOYOTA Master CS:GO Bangkok 2018 and another 1st place at Polska Liga Esportowa S4 Grupa Mistrzowska.

When it comes to the World Electronic Sports Games, AGO Esports finished 5th – 8th at the previous edition, a result which we can expect to see at the event in March as well.
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G2 Esports

Not many great things can be said about G2 Esports in the last competitive season, as they have descended from being an average tier 1 team to having struggles in defeating even tier 2 contenders. Their experience reminds us of Virtus.pro, as they had to replace SmithZz, Ex6TenZ and NiaK with Lucky, JaCkz and maLeK (the new team coach).

Only time will tell if this new roster is beneficial for G2 Esports. Focusing on their strong points on the other hand, the qualifiers for World Electronic Sports Games 2018-2019 have been a success for them, together with their recent results in tier 1 events. In 2 of these competitions, they managed to secure the 7th – 8th place at ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals and the 2nd place at PLG Grand Slam 2018.

We expect G2 Esports to finish 5th – 8th overall at the World Electronic Sports Games 2018-2019. It is possible for kennyS to take his roster even higher than that, but considering their previous disadvantages, they should be more than satisfied if they qualify in the Quarterfinals.
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OpTic Gaming

OpTic Gaming is a team who lacked many results in 2018 but who still has quite some potential. Overall, they seem to be in great shape, considering the achievements they have managed to gather over the past few months. Going into World Electronic Sports Games 2018-2019, the team can secure a top 8 finish, if they will use their skills wisely and train some more before the competition.
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ENCE eSports

ENCE eSports is one of the most solid teams, with quite some outstanding results in 2018, which even include winning a title at a tier 1 event. Some other achievements are: finishing 7th – 8th at ESL One: Cologne 2018, 2nd at DreamHack Open Montreal 2018, and getting the 1st place at ASUS ROG Finnish Championship 2018, StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 6, Assembly GameXpo 2018 and at DreamHack Open Winter 2018.

Taking part at the World Electronic Sports Games 2018-2019, we are confident that ENCE will be playing in the Quarterfinals and get at least a 6th -8th place finish.
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Between December 12th – 15th, PLG Grand Slam 2018 is scheduled to take place in Abu Dhabi. This is one of the final two CS:GO tournaments of the season and promises to provide a thrilling show for both spectators and bettors alike.

Participants and format

PLG Grand Slam 2018 is an international event in which 16 teams will be competing for the title. In the Group Stage, all teams will be split into 4 groups and they will play in a GSL (double-elimination) format. The top two teams from each group qualify directly to the Playoffs.

All matches in the Playoffs Stage are Bo3 and these are 4 Quarterfinals, 2 Semifinals and 1 Grand Final.

PLG Grand Slam 2018 features 16 teams from all over the world and these are:

• Fnatic
• G2 Esports
• HellRaisers
• TyLoo
• Avangar
• Grayhound Gaming
• INTZ eSports
• Sharks Esports
• ForZe
• 5Power Gaming
• NASR eSports
• Energy Esports
• Chosen5
• B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape
• ShotCallers
• GUCCIGANGxD

Overall, the matches are not very hard to anticipate, as half of the teams are unlikely to win anything in this competition. The first 4 teams listed above, followed by the next 4, have the greatest chances at victory, so it is clear to see why this tournament comes with great betting opportunities.

Prizes

The total prize pool of $100.000 is shared in an uncommon way, totally different than what we’ve gotten used to. It is only the first 3 teams that get part of the prize, while the rest of the competitors only gain experience and exposure.

The PLG Grand Slam 2018 prize pool is split between the top 3 teams as it follows:

• 1st place: $50.000
• 2nd place: $30.000
• 3rd place: $20.000

One element that hasn’t been thought thoroughly in this event is the way in which the 3rd place winner is determined. This is a valid concern, as there is no scheduled match in the Playoffs Stage to help decide that. Of course, there is still time to announce such a match and the organizers will most probably schedule it before the Grand Final.

Team analysis

Even though a total of 16 teams will be competing at PLG Grand Slam 2018, I will only analyze the top 8, as they stand a stronger chance at winning the Grand Final:

Fnatic

Although it may sound surprising, Fnatic is possibly the strongest team taking part at PLG Grand Slam 2018. Overall, the team has had a constant presence at important CS:GO events and even though they did not score great achievements since March this year, the team is still a top 12 in the global rankings. When comparing their recent results, KRIMZ and the rest of his team are more solid than other contenders at this event.

Over the past 5 months, Fnatic has managed to get some honorable achievements at different tournaments, which include: finishing 5th – 6th at Esports Championship Series Season 5 Finals, 5th – 6th at ESL One: Cologne 2018, 5th – 6th at ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2018, 9th – 11th at FACEIT Major: London 2018, and 3rd – 4th at Intel Extreme Masters XIII Chicago.

The constant fairly good performance Fnatic had lately proves that they are probably going to win PLG Grand Slam 2018, especially when all the other teams are at least 1 tier below them.
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HellRaisers

HellRaisers is a team with a lot of potential and skill, despite the fact that their recent results tell a different story. At SuperNova Malta 2018, the CIS team got a 4th placement overall, after finishing 1st in the Group Stage.

The past few months came with some notable results here and there and these are: getting the 5th – 8th place finish at FACEIT Major: London 2018, 9th – 11th at StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 6, 5th – 6th at EPICENTER 2018 and 4th at SuperNova Malta 2018.

The strong roster, together with its experience and skill should be able to bring HellRaisers a top 4 placement at PLG Grand Slam 2018.
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TyLoo

Over the past 30 days, TyLoo has achieved some notable results which include the following: 1st place at Asian Development League Season 1, 2nd place at TOYOTA Master CS:GO Bangkok 2018 and 5th – 6th place at SuperNova Malta 2018. Going into PLG Grand Slam 2018, I expect TyLoo to finish 5th – 8th at least, as this result depends a lot on who their opponent will be in the Quarterfinals. However, when taking their recent progress into account, they can finish even higher than that.
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Avangar

Another team with quite some potential is Avangar, as it has managed to perform great in tier 2 and tier 3 tournaments lately. The past several months were remarkable in terms of results, as Avangar won both MSI Gaming Arena 2018 and Hellcase Cup #7 and got a 2nd place at ALTEL Cyber Games, 3rd – 4th place at EPICENTER 2018 and had a participation (13th – 16th place) at Intel Extreme Masters XIII Chicago.

At PLG Grand Slam 2018, Avangar has a few opponents that are still too hard to defeat but the rest of the teams should be no real challenge for them. Therefore, I expect this rising team to get a 5th-8th place finish.
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Grayhound Gaming

In Oceania, Grayhound Gaming has made a name for itself, being strong enough to even win a qualifier match against Renegades at the Asia Minor Championship Katowice 2019. This is just one of the reasons why Grayhound is a solid contender at PLG Grand Slam 2018 and I see them having a high chance of advancing to the Playoffs.
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INTZ eSports

INTZ eSports features some strong players, such as felps, formerly at SK Gaming. The Brazilian roster has not gathered significant results lately, even though their presence at ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals confirmed their potential and ability to compete at tier 1 events. Going into PLG Grand Slam 2018, I expect INTZ eSports to qualify to the Playoffs Stage.
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Sharks Esports

One of the greatest advantages Sharks Esports stands when compared with other teams is its players’ wonderful cohesion. They prove great potential when playing together as a unit, as three of the players have been part of the team for about a year and a half now. For a tier 2 team as this Brazilian roster, finishing 9th-12th at the most recent ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals is no small thing.
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G2 Esports

Over the past 3 months, G2 Esports seems to be off track and has been far from having a great performance at various events. Some of the notable results this team managed to get are: the 9th – 11th place at FACEIT Major: London 2018, 5th – 6th place at ESL One: New York 2018, 7th – 8th place at cs_summit 3 and 5th – 6th place at DreamHack Open Winter 2018.

What is still a bit concerning regarding G2 Esports lately is that the team faced challenges in defeating even the weakest opponents at tier 2 events, such as DreamHack Open Winter 2018. Although they are doing their best to win, something seems to be going wrong most of the times. Going into PLG Grand Slam 2018, I expect the team to finish no higher than 5th – 8th.

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ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals is one of the biggest CS:GO events of the year and the last of this grandeur for 2018. This tournament marks the grand finale of the online leagues that bear the same name. A total of 16 teams will be competing in it for a total amount of $750.000. Not bad you could say. But as a CS:GO bettor, what interests me the most are the competitors: who they are, what they’ve done in recent months and what are they likely to do at this tournament.

ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals is scheduled to take place between December 4th – 9th and the location couldn’t have been better: Odense, Denmark, right in Astralis’ layer. With the home crowd supporting it, the strongest team in the world is likely to prove itself one more time and end this season on a high note.

Attending teams

ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals brings together 16 of the world’s strongest CS:GO teams. They come from places like Europe, Oceania, South America, North America and Asia. And all of them had to go through regional qualifiers to be here. This guarantees that all of them are the best teams in the world right now.

Initially, the 16 participants will be split into 2 groups of 8, in the following way:

Group A

• HellRaisers
• Team Liquid
• Astralis
• INTZ eSports
• BIG
• ViCi Gaming
• Renegades
• G2 Esports

Group B

• NRG Esports
• North
• Ghost Gaming
• mousesports
• MIBR
• Sharks Esports
• Natus Vincere
• ORDER

In Group A, we have 3 main favorites: Astralis, Team Liquid and BIG. If everything goes according to plan, all 3 of them should advance to the Playoffs. The other 5 teams are significantly weaker at this point and shouldn’t pose too many challenges. At every level of analysis, from individual skill to current form, Astralis, Liquid and BIG have massive advantages over the other competitors.

In Group B things are a lot more difficult to predict, as 5 different teams are realistically in the race, and some of the stronger ones haven’t been in great shape in recent weeks. Still, in spite of this, I would say that MIBR, Natus Vincere and mousesports are the most likely favorites. In their close vicinity are NRG Esports and North. They too have a decent chance of advancing to the Playoffs.

Event format

ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals will consist of 2 stages: the Group Stage and the Playoffs Stage. Each of them will last for 3 days, between December 4th – 6th and December 7th – 9th respectively.
In the Group Stage, the teams will be divided into 2 separate groups. Each of these groups will consist of a double elimination bracket format, known as GSL. Except for the initial round of matches (Bo1) and the Grand Final (Bo5), all other matches will be Bo3 series.

In each group, the winner advances to the Semifinals. The 2nd and 3rd placed teams advance to the Quarterfinals. In the Quarterfinals, the pairing is done like this: 2nd (Group A) vs. 3rd (Group B) and vice versa.

The Playoffs Stage consists of a standard format with a single elimination bracket. In rest, it’s pretty straightforward: 2 Quarterfinals, 2 Semifinals and 1 Grand Final.

Team analysis

ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals has a total of 16 participants. Most of them are outsiders with 0 chances against the top contenders. Because of that, I will focus on the most important teams.

Astralis

In the field of CS:GO titles, Astralis is everyone’s scarecrow right now. Rarely have we seen such a dominant team in the history of the game. And to top it off, the Danes will be playing in front of their home crowd this time.

In 2018, Astralis has already won 8 tier 1 tournaments and has had 5 other placements in the top 4, at big events. This is the last important competition of the season and as a result, I fully expect Astralis to give their absolute best and win.

Going into ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals, expect device and the rest of his hitmen to put on a great show and dominate opponents left and right.
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Team Liquid

Apart from winning a tier 2 event in Malta, Team Liquid has been in decline during the last few weeks, most likely due to fatigue after a long and very successful season. The only reason why this hasn’t been Liquid’s year to dominate the scene is Astralis. Liquid lost no less than 4 Grand Finals against this nemesis, and 2 others to various opponents.

Going into ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals, I think Team Liquid will perform at their highest capacity and get a top 4 result. Its main rival in Group A is Astralis and overall, I would add MIBR and Natus Vincere to the list.
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BIG

Smooya and gob b have done well in recent months, finishing 3rd at SuperNova Malta 2018 and cs_summit 3. Overall, the team looks very smooth and should in principle make it out of the groups at ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals.

Apart from this, I expect BIG to finish 5th – 6th, as I do not see it beating any of the top contenders.
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MIBR

YNk and his squad of Brazilian and North American players seem to have reached a performance peak after quite a few months of training and competing at the highest level. The team played in a Grand Final a short while ago, in the Esports Championship Series Season 6 Finals. The adversary was none other than Astralis, so I don’t have to tell you how the match ended.

Still, MIBR had displayed great skill throughout the tournament, beating North, mousesports and even Astralis in the first competitive stage. So going into ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals, I regard MIBR as one of the 4 main favorites, along with Astralis, Team Liquid and Natus Vincere.

Keep in mind that FaZe Clan is not present at this event and in Group B, Na’Vi showed signs of weakness in recent weeks while mousesports isn’t exactly one of the world’s best right now. It’s still a top 8 team, but I have my doubts about their constant roster changes. This leaves a lot of room for MIBR to qualify directly for the Semifinals.
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mousesports

Mousesports is the kind of team that you expect to make it out of the groups but fail immediately after at this level of competition. And I do believe that things will happen like that, although, given the tight competition in Group B, the Germans will have to play their best possible game to secure a spot in the second stage of the event.
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Natus Vincere

Natus Vincere is fully reliant on s1mple and electronic’s ability to win maps. If these two players show up and play their A game, Na’Vi is a top 4 team in the world right now, on par with Team Liquid and MIBR and slightly weaker than Astralis.

ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals is the last event of the year for s1mple so I do expect him to give it his very best to win. He’s done well this season with Na’Vi, winning titles at StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 5, CS:GO Asia Championships 2018, ESL One: Cologne 2018 and BLAST Pro Series: Copenhagen 2018. The team also played 4 other Grand Finals at big events. So overall, an amazing year for this CIS giant.
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NRG Esports

NRG Esports has had a pretty good season so far. Compared to their 2017 season, I would say that this one was actually quite amazing. Among the highlights, the following results could be mentioned: 1st place at iBUYPOWER Invitational Spring 2018, 2nd place at StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 5, 1st place at Intel Extreme Masters XIII Shanghai, 3rd – 4th place at ESL One: New York 2018, 3rd – 4th place at StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 6, 1st place at cs_summit 3, 5th – 6th place at Esports Championship Series Season 6 Finals and 2nd place at SuperNova Malta 2018.

All in all, impressive for a former tier 2 team with little to no achievements in seasons past. However, going into ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals, NRG Esports will have to overcome a big challenge, as Group B is stacked with very strong teams. Its chances don’t look that great, but the first match can decide a lot of things. And the opponent will be North.
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North

Remember when North won a Grand Final against Astralis at DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018? That was just 3 months ago but since then, North has gone south quite a bit. The team’s most important result during these months has been a 3rd – 4th place at Esports Championship Series Season 6 Finals.

Still, in spite of its apparent lack of form, a closer examination of North’s competitive season shows us a team with a lot of potential. And although it is yet unclear how much of that potential can be unleashed in its current form, North does have the capability of beating any of its opponents in Group B and qualify for the Playoffs.
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SuperNova Malta 2018 is one of the last CS:GO tournaments of the year. The event is scheduled to take place in Malta, between November 29th – December 2nd, and will bring together eight very strong teams.

SuperNova Malta 2018 has a decent prize pool of $150.000 and is going to be a lot of fun to watch and even bet on if you know what you’re doing.

Participants

SuperNova Malta 2018 features 8 teams gathered from all over the world where CS:GO is a major phenomenon. From Europe to North America.

• NRG Esports
• Virtus.pro
• Team Kinguin
• Team Liquid
• TyLoo
• BIG
• Gambit Esports
• HellRaisers

Given the level of competition, I could say that Team Liquid is 100% in a class of its own and should be regarded as the default winner of the event, unless something spectacular happens and someone else steals its trophy. But with the exception of this CS:GO powerhouse, everyone else has a fair chance of going wild and making it all the way to the Grand Final.

In the second skill group we have Gambit Esports, NRG Esports and BIG. Any of these 3 teams could win the event, if it manages to beat Team Liquid along the way, most probably in the Grand Final. Everyone else falls into the 3rd skill group.

Tournament format

SuperNova Malta 2018 takes place in two stages: the Group Stage and the Playoffs Stage. For the Group Stage, the participants will be divided into 2 groups of 4:

Group A

• Team Liquid
• Virtus.prov
• NRG Esports
• Team Kinguin

Group B

• HellRaisers
• TyLoo
• BIG
• Gambit Esports

Each group will be played in a GSL format, also known as double elimination bracket. The initial matches will be Bo1s. All subsequent matches of the event will be Bo3. The best two teams from each group will advance to the Playoffs. This stage consists of 2 Semifinals, a 3rd place match and of course, one Grand Final.

Team analysis

Here’s a short analysis of the teams who are taking part in SuperNova Malta 2018.

BIG

At one of the most recent events – Intel Extreme Masters XIII Chicago – BIG managed to finish only 9th – 12th. If we look beyond this unfortunate result however, smooya, gob b and the rest of the crew have had a pretty strong performance lately. Some of their most recent achievements include getting a 2nd place at ESL One: Cologne 2018, finishing 3rd at cs_summit 3 and managing to get two 5th – 8th place results at FACEIT Major: London 2018 and StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 6.

All in all, BIG can be considered one of the strongest teams taking part at SuperNova Malta 2018. Playing in the weaker group and meeting opponents such as HellRaisers, Gambit Esports and TyLoo in Group B are only raising their chances to qualify in the Grand Final. This is because the other contenders are not yet at the same level as BIG, in my opinion.
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Gambit Esports

As an overview over Gambit’s most recent results, they have been definitely trying to make the best out of each competition but have not succeeded in any way. One of the best results the team scored over the last 4 months is getting a 3rd – 4th place at both Intel Extreme Masters XIII Shanghai and ESL One: New York 2018.

Going into other competitions, Gambit Esports has had a mediocre performance overall. Some examples are getting the 13th – 16th place at ESL One: Cologne 2018 and DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018, 20th -22nd place at FACEIT Major: London 2018 and 12th – 14th place at StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 6. Anyhow, for a team at their level, just competing at such big events is definitely a plus, as they are offered perspective and training.

Overall, I believe Gambit will have a hard time trying to defeat the others in Group B. Even though this might happen, the odds are so slim they almost don’t deserve to be considered.
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HellRaisers

In the past few months, HellRaisers have been totally out of shape and scored failure after failure at several events. In this context, their most remarkable result was getting the 5th – 8 th place at FACEIT Major: London 2018.

Two other rankings that are worth mentioning are the 9th – 11th place at StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 6 and finishing 5th – 6th at EPICENTER 2018. Such as in Gambit’s case, I don’t expect for HellRaisers to advance to the Playoffs Stage at SuperNova Malta 2018.
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Team Kinguin

The most recent roast change Team Kinguin went through brought them a lot of advantages. TaZ already proved to be a great asset for the team, as they have managed to improve significantly over the past few months since he came along.

Contrary to the 2018 competitive season, when Kinguin had almost no results, they proudly won the 1st place at both DreamHack Open Montreal 2018 and ESL Polish Championship Summer 2018, the 2nd place at Hellcase Cup #7 and at ZOTAC Cup Masters 2018 and finished 7th – 8th at cs_summit 3.

Going into SuperNova Malta 2018, Team Kinguin will be meeting some of the best teams worldwide in Group A. While Virtus.pro should not be a threat for Kinguin, NRG Esports might take a bit more effort to be defeated but it is not impossible. To qualify to the Playoffs, Team Kinguin would have to beat these 2 adversaries, as Team Liquid might be too much of a challenge for them at the moment.
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TyLoo

Probably the best CS:GO team in the Asian Region at the time, TyLoo imposes a serious threat to each team taking part at the event, especially now when they won the Asian Development League Season 1.

It is certain that TyLoo has been in great shape lately, as reflected in the following results: being ranked 2nd at Asia Minor Championship London 2018 and at Intel Extreme Masters XIII Shanghai, finishing 3rd – 4th at CS:GO Asia Championships 2018, 9th – 12th at DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018 and getting the 12th – 14th place at FACEIT Major: London 2018, as well as at StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 6.

As I think there are no chances for TyLoo to defeat BIG in its opening match at SuperNova Malta 2018, they will have to win against both Gambit Esports and HellRaisers. This way only, they will have a chance of advancing to the Playoffs Stage.
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Team Liquid

At the moment, Team Liquid is a top 3 team in the world and they are the strongest at this tournament, without any doubt. The past 6 months brought great results to Liquid and, if Astralis did not have the chance to dethrone it, they would have been the best team in the CS:GO 2018 season. Their recent achievements consist of playing no less than 6 Grand Finals and scoring 5 top 4 placements this year.

As none of the other competitors are at Team Liquid’s level, I predict that they will win the tournament. The only things that could stay in their way are issues regarding the schedule or a jet lag. Even less probable is that some of the other teams will play better than before and will stand a change against Team Liquid. Considering the odds however, they have 67% chances of winning the event before it even begins.
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NRG Esports

Recently, NRG Esports managed to score quite impressive results, such as finishing 1st at Intel Extreme Masters XIII Shanghai and cs_summit 3, together with getting the 3rd – 4th place at ESL One: New York 2018 and StarSeries i-League CS:GO Season 6. This season, NRG have also challenged Team Liquid pretty often and they promise to be in great shape at SuperNova Malta 2018. This can only make me curious to see their performance.
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Virtus.pro

In my opinion, Virtus.pro doesn’t stand a chance at this competition and, considering their current shape, won’t qualify to the Playoffs Stage.
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Between November 21st – 25th, a 2nd tier event in the CS:GO world is scheduled to be held in Thailand. With a prize pool of $100.000, Toyota Master CS:GO Bangkok 2018 gathers 10 teams from all over the world and promises to amaze both spectators and bettors with a thrilling and engaging show.

Participants

The 10 teams taking part in the TOYOTA Master CS:GO Bangkok 2018 are listed below:

• Renegades
• TyLoo
• Heroic
• Team Kinguin
• Team One
• AGO Esports
• pro100
• Vici Gaming
• MVP PK
• Alpha Red

Even though the majority of the participating teams are tier 2 and tier 3, when referring to their results and skills, some are already tier 1 or very close to be considered so. In this last category, I feel the need to mention TyLoo, Renegades, Team Kinguin and Heroic.

Event format

The TOYOTA Master CS:GO Bangkok 2018 matches will be held in two stages: the Group Stage and the Playoffs Stage.

During the first two days of the event, the teams will be split into 2 Groups of 5 in the Group Stage. Every two teams in each group will be playing one Bo2 match. While the best 3 teams from each group will be competing on the Playoffs Stage, both winners of the main groups qualify directly to the Semifinals.

For the following days, between November 23rd – 25th, the Playoffs Stage is scheduled to take place. Here, the 5 matches are 2 Quarterfinals (Bo3), 2 Semifinals (Bo3) and one Grand Final (Bo5).

Prize pool distribution

The $100.000 prize pool offered at TOYOTA Master CS:GO Bangkok 2018 will be split among the participating teams as follows:

• 1st place: $40.000
• 2nd place: $20.000
• 3rd– 4th place: $10.000
• 5th– 6th place: $6.000
• 7th – 8th place: $2.000

Team analysis

Below you will find a quick analysis of the 10 competing teams at TOYOTA Master CS:GO Bangkok 2018.

Renegades

Over the past months, Renegades has had a significant series of defeats at tier 1 events, managing to rank only the last places recently. Looking at it from a different angle however, the simple fact of being involved in top tier tournaments offered valuable experience to the Renegades. This is one of the reasons why the team should constitute a threat to the rest of the contenders at TOYOTA Master CS:GO Bangkok 2018.

Beside the already mentioned struggles Renegades had to face against tier 1 contestants, it is important to also remember the victories scored in the past 3-4 months. The most recent examples are winning the 1st place at Asia Minor Championship London 2018 and place 2nd in the Esports Championship Series Season 6 league (North America).

Competing in TOYOTA Master CS:GO Bangkok 2018, I expect Renegades to be mainly challenged by TyLoo, Team Kinguin and Heroic. As a result, they should finish on the 4th place or even win the title, depending on their performance.
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TyLoo

In general, TyLoo is a strong opponent and I am not just referring to this level of competition. Over the recent 5 months, the Asian team has had quite some remarkable results, such as the following: scoring 3rd – 4th place at CS:GO Asia Championships 2018, 2nd place at Asia Minor Championship London 2018, and Intel Extreme Masters XIII Shanghai, 9th – 12th place at DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018, 12th – 14th place at FACEIT Major: London 2018, and 12th – 14th place at StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 6.
Taking into account the small number of teams that will challenge Tyloo, the team should be able to finish at least on the 4th place at TOYOTA Master CS:GO Bangkok 2018.

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Team Kinguin

Ever since TaZ became part of the organization in March this year, Team Kinguin started to perform at the highest level. If the first two months of 2018 were not quite as successful, the team started to recover by scoring top placements in several tier 2 and even tier 1 tournaments, a few months after TaZ joined the team.

These successes include finishing 2nd at ZOTAC Cup Masters 2018, as well as at the Games Clash Masters 2018 and Hellcase Cup #7, 7th-8th at cs_summit 3 and scoring the 1st position at DreamHack Open Montreal 2018 and ESL Polish Championship Summer 2018.

All things considered, TOYOTA Master CS:GO Bangkok 2018 should be just another event where Team Kinguin will have an outstanding result.
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Heroic

Heroic has registered a pretty good and steady performance from April onwards, the moment when friberg joined the team. Some of their impressing results are finishing 3rd-4th at DreamHack Open Austin 2018 and DreamHack Open Valencia 2018, together with winning the title at Games Clash Masters 2018 and being placed 5th-6th at CS:GO Asia Championships 2018 and cs_summit 3 and 5th-8th at DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018.

Just like Renegades, Tyloo and Team Kinguin, I expect for Heroic to either score a 4th place or even win TOYOTA Master CS:GO Bangkok 2018. The final battles between these 4 strong opponents will definitely be exciting to watch and it is yet to be determined which ones will dominate the competition.
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MVP PK

MVP is a team worth taking into consideration at TOYOTA Master CS:GO Bangkok 2018. Even though the Asian team doesn’t have many amazing results lately, we should mention the following: taking part at TOYOTA Master CS:GO Bangkok 2018 and scoring the 13th-16th place, finishing 3th-4th at ZOTAC Cup Masters 2018 and 1st at eXTREMESLAND ZOWIE Asia CS:GO 2018.

At TOYOTA Master CS:GO Bangkok 2018, MVP PK should not have much difficulty in qualifying to the Playoffs Stage and getting a 6th place overall.

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Team One

Over the past 6 months, Team One has only managed to win the 1st place at a tier 3 tournament. This lack of recent achievements leads me to believe they don’t stand a chance for qualifying to the Playoffs Stage. It is possible for the Brazilian team to not finish last, but it most certainly not be a top 6 either.

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AGO Esports

In my opinion, this Polish team has a certain level of experience and strength; however, that is not quite enough to defeat its strong opponents. Some of their most recent results include finishing 2nd at ESL Pro European Championship 2018 and being scored last (14/14) in the ESL Pro League Season 8 (Europe).

Going into TOYOTA Master CS:GO Bangkok 2018, I don’t consider this team as being able to deliver a great performance overall.
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pro100

Undergoing a recent roster change did not help pro100 much, if at all. The lack of achievements can make us expect a less than average performance at TOYOTA Master CS:GO Bangkok 2018.
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Vici Gaming

Fairly good in the Asian region, Vici Gaming does not have yet what it takes to achieve great results at TOYOTA Master CS:GO Bangkok 2018. At this competition, I expect them to finish 7th-8th overall.
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Alpha Red

As the event takes place in Thailand, it is no wonder at all why Alpha Red will be competing. Being the only reason why the team is present at TOYOTA Master CS:GO Bangkok 2018, do not put your hopes in this team. Any of the top 4 teams previously mentioned should easily defeat Alpha Red, during all matches.

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Entering its 6th and final week, Esports Championship Series Season 6 is about to come to an end after being delayed because of IEM XIII Chicago.

In the North American League, the first 4 places were won by NRG Esports, followed by Renegades, MIBR and Team Liquid. Most probably, many of you were expecting for Cloud9 to qualify rather than Renegades among these top 4. However, we have to admit that the Australian team has truly pushed its limits in this CS:GO league.

For the European League, the situation is still undetermined but we will find out soon enough who the 4 finalists are. This article provides an analysis of the teams who will compete in the final week of the Esports Championship Series Season 6 for a chance to advance to the league’s LAN Final.

Team analysis

Here are the 8 teams who will be playing at least 1 match in the Esports Championship Series Season 6:

mousesports

Decisions such as benching Snax and bringing back STYKO from Cloud9 are leaving me with uncertain thoughts about mouseports’ stability and performance. If we consider its recent fluctuations between victories and defeats, qualifying for the Playoffs of IEM XIII Chicago represents a great accomplishment for mousesports, given the fact that only the world’s greatest teams were part of the tournament.

In the Esports Championship Series Season 6 (Europe), mousesports occupies the 4th position in the standings table at the moment. With 9 wins and 7 losses, the team will be playing against FaZe Clan in the final Bo2 series. It is yet to be determined whether the result for this match will be a draw or a victory for FaZe, as I don’t believe that mousesports can win both maps.

FaZe Clan

After scoring average results and a less than exceptional performance for 3 months in a row, FaZe Clan did not let these experiences define them. In this respect, we could witness Karrigan and his teammates finishing 5th-8th in 4 consecutive tournaments. The memorable victories against Team Liquid in the Semifinals and Natus Vincere in the Grand Final brought them the title at EPICENTER 2018, marking a new beginning for FaZe Clan.

Even though finishing 4th at Blast Pro Series: Copenhagen 2018 was not amazing, the fact that every match was a Bo1 series and the 4 greatest teams in the world participated at the event should also be considered. Therefore, the result does not carry great significance.

At the present moment, FaZe Clan is displaying an over the top performance at IEM XIII Chicago, where Guardian and his squad already defeated LDLC, MIBR and Astralis in Group A.
In the Esports Championship Series Season 6, FaZe Clan is a strong team so far, managing to win 9 out of 16 maps. They should be able to collect at least 3 points in the final 2 maps against mousesports.

Ninjas in Pyjamas

For its recent achievements, we can definitely compare Ninjas in Pyjamas to FaZe Clan and mousesports. After defeating strong opponents such as Astralis, The Ninjas managed to finish on the 2nd place at Blast Pro Series: Copenhagen 2018, losing only to Natus Vincere in the Grand Final.

At the Esports Championship Series Season 6 (Europe), NiP is placed 5th in the standings table, with a 7 W – 7 L result so far. If the team manages to win 3 out of the 4 maps it still has to play, it will be qualified for the LAN Final of the tournament. While Ninjas in Pyjamas stands a chance with 2 of the maps, either mousesports or FaZeClan would have to win its series 2 – 0 in such a case in order for NiP to qualify.

LDLC and Fnatic are the teams who will challenge NiP, and they have been growing stronger lately.

LDLC

The French team has only just begun to rise on the CS:GO stage so there is not much information available about LDLC. However, they have won several tier 2-3 tournaments such as the PMU Challenge 2018, Fusion.bet Masters and ESL Pro European Championship in 2018.

It seems that these recent achievements, coupled with being involved in many competitions have sharpened their skills, as LDLC managed to qualify for the Playoffs of IEM XIII Chicago. If they are just about to participate in the Playoffs Stage of this important event, it is because the team defeated Renegades, North and NRG Esports and only lost a Bo1 match against FaZe Clan, with a close score of 14 – 16.

Currently, LDLC gathered only 12 points in the Esports Championship Series Season 6 (Europe). There are still 4 Bo2 matches to be played however, as they have been adjourned because of scheduling disagreements and other reasons.

OpTic Gaming

By finishing 2nd in 4 tournaments held in 2018, OpTic Gaming gave people the impression that it could actually beat its usual standing in the global rankings table. The team’s strength has been reflected in its remarkable results, although these results took place mostly in tier 2 and 3 events.

The most recent achievement came for OpTic Gaming at the cs_summit 3, event in which the team was defeated in the Grand Final by NRG Esports. Taking this into account, the team might have lost a bit of its drive but it should still be perceived as a challenge for the other top contenders.

With 5 wins and 11 losses, OpTic Gaming is on the 7th place in the standings table of Esports Championship Series Season 6 (Europe). Even though qualifying for the tournament’s LAN Final might be currently out of reach for OpTic, it still has to do its best for earning a spot in the league’s 7th season. This is why I am sure that it will strive to make a good impression in the final Bo2 series against LDLC.

Fnatic

The most recent victories that Fnatic managed to score against some of the world’s greatest teams are clear proof of their strong recovery. Replacing draken and ScreaM with Brollan and twist were smart strategic moves, leading to the defeat of all opponents in the Group Stage of IEM XIII Chicago. To emphasize how great this result actually is, we must remember that Fnatic had to play against Na’Vi, eUnited, and Team Liquid, excellent teams who couldn’t keep up with the new roster of Fnatic.

To be able to draw a certain conclusion regarding this team, we still have to analyze Fnatic’s performance for at least 1 more month, but the odds seem to be in its favor.

Virtus.pro

In the Esports Championship Series Season 6, Virtus.pro seems to be having quite some difficulties, as their current record is 5 W – 11 L in the standings table. To be able to tip the balance in their favor and perform better at future events, they will have to make some well-thought-out changes. Virtus.pro will play 2 final maps against LDLC, where they will most likely be defeated.

G2 Esports

This French team seems to have also lost its touch when it comes to world-class CS:GO, as they still have to work a lot on their strategies and overall performance. For quite a while now, G2 Esports has gotten used to the defeats and we are still expecting for them to come up with a solution.

The team is currently sitting on the 4th place at Esports Championship Series Season 6, with a record of 4 wins and 12 losses.

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Gathering many of the top international 16 teams under one roof, Intel Extreme Masters XIII Chicago takes place between November 6th – 11th. The event has a prize pool reward of $250.000 and actively engages esports bettors and spectators in the thrilling world of CS:GO.

IEM XIII Chicago participants

Intel Extreme Masters XIII Chicago is attended by 16 teams from all over the world:

• Astralis
• BIG
• FaZe Clan
• Fnatic
• Team Liquid
• MIBR
• mousesports
• Natus Vincere
• NRG Esports
• Renegades
• Team LDLC.com
• AVANGAR
• North
• eUnited
• MVP PK
• Luminosity Gaming

IEM XIII Chicago event format

Intel Extreme Masters XIII Chicago is divided into 2 stages – the Group Stage and the Playoffs Stage. In the first case, the Group Stage’s participants will be separated into 2 groups of 8, for both groups to compete in a double elimination bracket format.

With all of the teams starting in the Upper Bracket, the top 3 teams from the initial groups will meet in the Playoffs Stage. While the 2nd and 3rd place teams advance to the Quarterfinals, the team on the 1st place will go directly to the Semifinals.

In the second case, the Playoffs Stage hosts 3 types of matches: 2 Quarterfinals, 2 Semifinals and the Grand Final. Except for the Grand Final (Bo5) and the first round of Group Stage encounters (Bo1), the other matches are Bo3 series.

The groups

Group A

• Astralis
• MVP PK
• North
• NRG Esports
• MIBR
• Renegades
• Team LDLC.com
• FaZe Clan

The teams with the highest qualification chances in this group are Astralis, FaZe Clan and MIBR.

Group B

• Natus Vincere
• eUnited
• Fnatic
• BIG
• mousesports
• AVANGAR
• Luminosity Gaming
• Team Liquid

The teams with the highest qualification chances in this group are Natus Vincere, Team Liquid and mousesports.

Prize pool distribution

Intel Extreme Masters XIII Chicago offers a $250.000 prize pool, which will be divided among the 16 participants in the following way:

• 1st place: $100K
• 2nd place: $42K
• 3rd – 4th place: $20K
• 5th – 6th place: $10K
• 7th – 8th place: $6K
• 9th – 12th place: $5K
• 13th – 16th place: $4K

Team Analysis

Below you will find a short analysis of the major participants at Intel Extreme Masters XIII Chicago.

Astralis

For the time being, Astralis can still be considered the strongest team in the world, keeping in mind the last set of defeats in the Blast Pro Series: Copenhagen 2018, where they were bested by Natus Vincere and Ninjas in Pyjamas in the Round-Robin.

Considering their overall evolution, Astralis should have no struggle winning Group A at Intel Extreme Masters XIII Chicago, ranking a top 4 at the minimum. It is still to be determined if Astralis’ strength at FACEIT Major: London 2018 will be reflected in this tournament as well. However, the Danish team still imposes a threat for the rest of the competitors.

Natus Vincere

Taking its last victory at Blast Pro Series: Copenhagen 2018 into account, the Na’Vi team is still ranked as number 2 in CS:GO. Recently, the Ukrainians have experienced significant improvements, and having s1mple as a top performer only boosted their recent results.

All in all, Na’Vi is one of the top competitors worldwide and taking part in Intel Extreme Masters XIII Chicago is expected to bring them the 1st – 2nd place in Group B and 1st – 4th overall.

Team Liquid

Having a constant top performance at each and every CS:GO event organized lately, Team Liquid is an opponent to keep an eye on. Some examples of their recent achievements include scoring 2nd place at ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2018 and at ESL One: New York 2018, while at FACEIT Major: London 2018 and EPICENTER 2018 they were finished on the 3rd – 4th position.

At Intel Extreme Masters XIII Chicago, TACO and his teammates will mainly confront with Natus Vincere and mousesports in Group B and there are no doubts that one of these 3 teams will win the group. In the end, Team Liquid could get a place in the top 4 or top 6, depending on other performances.

FaZe Clan

Contrary to the previous months, when its performance was a bit far from the top, FaZe Clan seems to have finally begun its recovery. From registering average results such as the 5th – 8th place and even 7th – 8th place in 4 consecutive tournaments, they won against Team Liquid in the Semifinals and Natus Vincere in the Grand Final of EPICENTER 2018.

At the most recent CS:GO event – Blast Pro Series: Copenhagen 2018 – FaZe Clan only managed to score the 4th position out of 6, having some difficulties in competing with the world’s best teams. Taking into consideration that the team met only highly-ranked rivals and the matches were Bo1s, the 4th place doesn’t necessarily say much about the team’s potential.

Though still confronting with some consistency issues, FaZe Clan managed to get back in shape and should be perceived as one of the top competing teams at Intel Extreme Masters XIII Chicago.

mousesports

On the one hand, when looking back at its recent achievements such as winning ESL One: New York 2018, by outperforming Team Liquid in the Grand Final, mousesports can be considered a worthy opponent at Intel Extreme Masters XIII Chicago.

On the other hand, a series of struggles can also be predicted, when facing other top performing teams. The reason behind this consists in the recent roster change mousesports underwent, by benching Snax and bringing STYKO back. Moreover, at StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 6, the German team finished on the 9th – 11th place.

The only thing to be certain of is that nothing is certain about mousesports’ performance at Intel Extreme Masters XIII Chicago. As a personal opinion, I expect the team to score a top 3 result in Group B, followed by a 5th – 6th place overall.

MIBR

If we look beyond the tragic result at Blast Pro Series: Copenhagen 2018, tournament in which MIBR registered a 0 W – 5 L score by losing against every single rival in the Round-Robin, the team has not lost it all. When analyzing factors such as specific map scores and the Bo1 characteristics, this unfortunate result can be treated as an isolated incident.

As a prediction for Intel Extreme Masters XIII Chicago, MIBR can be expected to achieve a 2nd or 3rd place in Group A and a 5th – 6th overall.

Other teams to keep an eye on

As each tournament brings its surprises, there are other teams like NRG Esports in Group A and BIG in Group B, who can alter the initial expectations. If their key performers will bring their full potential in, it is possible for teams such as MIBR and mouseports to be dethroned.

To conclude, even though the 6 teams I focused on can be considered the favorites, each competition is unique and, up to a certain point, unpredictable. Therefore, it is up to you to objectively evaluate the teams on the fly, by looking beyond their previous performance and discovering their current level of skill.

Betting predictions

Here are the betting predictions for the first round of matches in the Group Stage of Intel Extreme Masters XIII Chicago.

Astralis vs. MVP PK

Betting prediction: Astralis to win.
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North vs. NRG Esports

Betting prediction: NRG Esports to win.
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MIBR vs. Renegades

Betting prediction: MIBR to win.
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Team LDLC.com vs. FaZe Clan

Betting prediction: FaZe Clan to win.
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Natus Vincere vs. eUnited

Betting prediction: Natus Vincere to win.
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Fnatic vs. BIG

Betting prediction: BIG to win.
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mousesports vs. AVANGAR

Betting prediction: mousesports to win.
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Luminosity Gaming vs. Team Liquid

Betting prediction: Team Liquid to win.
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The 6th season of the Esports Championship Series is entering its 5th week. Great matches and CS:GO betting opportunities are available and in this article I will provide an analysis of the bets that are worth taking in relation to this event.

Current standings for Europe

• 1st place: Astralis ( 14 W – 0 L )
• 2nd place: North ( 8 W – 2 L )
• 3rd place: mousesports ( 8 W – 6 L )
• 4th place: FaZe Clan ( 5 W – 5 L )
• 5th place: OpTic Gaming ( 5 W – 11 L)
• 6th place: Fnatic ( 4 W – 6 L )
• 7th place: Ninjas in Pyjamas ( 3 W – 5 L )
• 8th place: G2 Esports ( 3 W – 11 L )
• 9th place: Team LDLC.com (2 W – 4 L )
• 10th place: Virtus.pro ( 2 W – 4 L )

Current standings for Europe

• 1st place: NRG Esports ( 11 W – 5 L )
• 2nd place: Team Liquid ( 11 W – 5 L )
• 3rd place: Cloud9 ( 10 W – 8 L )
• 4th place: MIBR ( 9 W – 5 L )
• 5th place: compLexity Gaming ( 6 W – 2 L)
• 6th place: Rogue ( 5 W – 5 L )
• 7th place: eUnited ( 5 W – 9 L )
• 8th place: Renegades ( 3 W – 3 L )
• 9th place: Luminosity Gaming (3 W – 13 L )
• 10th place: Spacestation Gaming ( 1 W – 9 L )

Betting predictions

Astralis vs. Virtus.pro

Astralis is by far the world’s strongest and most consistent team and has been for more than 6 months. Both its tournament results as well as its flawless 14 W – 0 L record in the Esports Championship Series make it a clear favorite in this match against a very weak Virtus.pro, which has been underperforming throughout the whole duration of 2018.

For each of the 2 maps, Betway puts the odds for this match at 1.12 – 5.25 in favor of Astralis. All things considered, this is completely free money to be made.
Esports Championship Series betting prediction: Astralis to win.

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Virtus.pro vs. FaZe Clan

VP will need to play this match after a very likely disastrous loss against Astralis. And to make matters worse, FaZe Clan has just had a big comeback moment at EPICENTER 2018. The team won its first tournament in the last 4 months, defeating Natus Vincere in the Grand Final. That is quite an achievement considering how strong Na’Vi is and how weak FaZe Clan was just a short while ago.

For each of the 2 maps, Betway puts the odds for this match at 4.00 – 1.20, which is another free gift as far as I can tell. There’s just no way that Virtus.pro can defeat this version of FaZe Clan, which seems to have figured out what it went wrong in the past 4 months.

Esports Championship Series betting prediction: FaZe Clan to win.

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compLexity Gaming vs. MIBR

MIBR is in great shape right now. With YNk as its coach, MIBR has gone from bad to good in just a few months. The problem is that compLexity isn’t playing bad either and in light of its recent results, including a 5th – 8th place at the FACEIT Major: London 2018 where it lost to MIBR in the Quarterfinals, we might see a very disputed match here. The match should end either 1 – 1 or 0 – 2 in favor of MIBR. A victory for the Brazilians is slightly more likely, but not by much.

For each of the 2 maps, Betway puts the odds for this match at 2.95 – 1.35 in favor of MIBR. The best and safest choice is to bet on only one of the two maps and pick MIBR as the winner. Also, make sure you bet on it for its chosen map, not its opponent’s.

Esports Championship Series betting prediction: MIBR to win.

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MIBR vs. Rogue

This match seems destined to end in a draw and that’s because neither of these teams has what it takes to beat the other twice and win with a clean 2 – 0 result. You should count on each of these opponents to win their chosen map.

For each of the 2 maps, Betway puts the odds for this match at 1.20 – 4.00 in favor of MIBR, but the skill difference is not as big as the odds suggest.

Esports Championship Series betting prediction: draw.

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ESL One: New York 2018 is entering its Playoffs stage today and only 4 of the initial 8 teams are left in the tournament. They will be competing for a prize pool of $225K and the chance to add a pretty important trophy to their past achievements.

The Playoffs stage of ESL One: New York 2018 is scheduled to take place this weekend, between September 29th – 30th and will provide 3 solid matches and great CS:GO betting opportunities.

Semifinals predictions

Arguably, the teams that have qualified for the Semifinals are not the ones that were expected to get here. With the exception of Team Liquid, which was expected to perform as well as it did and maybe even better, everyone else has had a pretty incredible tournament so far. Gambit Esports, mousesports and NRG Esports had to outsmart and outplay teams like Natus Vincere, FaZe Clan, G2 Esports and Fnatic to get to this stage and they’ve done it with remarkable consistency.

Going into the Playoffs stage of ESL One: New York 2018, here are my predictions for how things will unravel.

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mousesports vs. NRG Esports

Prior to ESL One: New York 2018, mousesports had had 3 months of mixed results, ranging from decent to poor. The team finished 9th – 12th at ESL One: Cologne 2018, 3rd – 4th at ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2018, 3rd – 4th at DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018 and 15th – 16th at FACEIT Major: London 2018.

Overall, not great but not that bad either. However, being a team that used to actually win tournaments not that long ago, mousesports’ roster probably felt disappointed with these results and that motivated them to climb even higher. Their drive to succeed has only become apparent at this event however, where they smashed both Fnatic (2 – 1) and Gambit Esports (2 – 1) to win Group A and advance to the Semifinals.

On the other side, because NRG did not qualify for the FACEIT Major, people had simply lost track of just how good the team was. Looking back, you can see that NRG Esports is not exactly an average competitor. Last Summer, it won at Intel Extreme Masters XIII Shanghai and played another Grand Final against Na’Vi at StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 5.

These achievements might have been enough for some other teams, but not for NRG. FugLy, daps and the rest of the squad are hungry for more and they’re eager to get it here, at ESL One: New York 2018. In the Group Stage of this event, NRG Esports lost against Team Liquid (1 – 2) but then went on to beat both FaZe Clan (2 – 0) and G2 Esports (2 – 0).

In the previous 2 direct encounters between these two teams, mousesports won both times. However, NRG Esports had tougher opponents at this event and came close to beating even Team Liquid. This suggests that an upset is very likely in this match.

Betway puts the odds at 1.70 – 2.05 in favor of mousesports, counting on the superior experience and individual skill of its players. But considering its tournament form, we may well see NRG overcome these disadvantages in a Bo3.

ESL One: New York 2018 betting prediction: NRG Esports to win (50% chance of an upset).

Team Liquid vs. Gambit Esports

After owning everyone except Astralis at the recent FACEIT Major, Team Liquid went into ESL One: New York 2018 as the number one favorite to claim the title, along with Natus Vincere. But with Na’Vi out of the tournament, Liquid should in principle have an easy path to victory. Neither Gambit Esports nor the winner of the other Semifinal can do much against this CS:GO machine.

Over the past 5 months, Team Liquid played in 3 Grand Finals and got 2 other top 4 results. Right now, this is likely the 2nd best team in the world after Astralis and I don’t expect it to lose against Gambit Esports in this match.

On the other side, Gambit hadn’t done anything important prior to ESL One: New York 2018. Its only notable results came in tier 2 tournaments such as Intel Extreme Masters XIII Shanghai (3rd – 4th place), DreamHack Open Summer 2018 (3rd – 4th place), Adrenaline Cyber League 2018 (3rd – 4th place) and DreamHack Open Tours 2018 (3rd – 4th place).

It seems that Gambit’s maximum level in tournaments is the Semifinals, even in tier 2 events. So it would be a massive surprise for it to get to the Grand Final of a tournament like ESL One: New York 2018 and against a much stronger opponent than the ones it’s used to playing against.

During the Group Stage of this event, Gambit finished 2nd in Group A by beating Na’Vi twice and losing to mousesports. The victories against Na’Vi would be important under normal conditions, but s1mple and his squad looked exhausted in both matches against this opponent. The 2nd place finish at the recent FACEIT Major and the bad beating they took against Astralis has clearly left a mark on them. The disappointment of getting to the Grand Final of such a big tournament and losing the way they did is not that easy to brush off. So Gambit’s two victories against this Na’Vi squad are not relevant at all.

Betway puts the odds for this match at 1.22 – 3.80 in favor of Team Liquid, regarding this Bo3 as an almost guaranteed win for the North American squad.

ESL One: New York 2018 betting prediction: Team Liquid to win.

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