ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals Preview and Predictions
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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