Hello once again CS GO fans! And welcome to our next article, where we’ll talk a bit about the next big upcoming event on the professional Counter Strike tour – and also offer you some insightful predictions if you’re looking to bet on this event!
ESL One is an event part of the Intel Grand Slam Season 1 (as the name heavily implies, it is organized by ESL and sponsored by Intel). The tournament will start on the 15th of September and the grand finals are going to be played on the 19th, everything in front of a great audience in the venue Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. You can also watch all the action from your home, through ESL’s twitch channel – they will cover all the games, so you won’t miss out on anything.
The prize pool
This tournament has a $250.000 USD prize pool to be distributed among the 8 teams attending. The exact breakdown and percentage each position gets is still yet to be announced by the organizers, but we should expect the winning crew to take home more than $100.000 USD.
The structure
8 teams will attend the tournament – 6 of them being directly invited and 2 earning their spot through qualifiers. The invitees are:
And the two qualified crews are:
These 8 squads will battle it out in two groups of 4 in swiss rounds – the top 2 will advance to the playoffs and the bottom 2 will get knocked out of the tournament. A swiss round means every team gets plenty of chances to show their skills and abilities in the group stages (and more games for the viewers as well).
The playoffs will be single elimination, with the semifinals being a best out of 3 match, and the grand finals a best out of 5 match.
The attendees
ESL One attracted many tier 1 crews from all over the world – the lineup for the event is insanely stacked. 8 squads will fight for the trophy – 6 of them got direct invites:
Astralis 
With a roster composed of players from Denmark (gla1ve, Kjarbye, Xyp9x, dupreeh and dev1ce), Astralis is one of the best teams in the world at the moment (ranked 5th in the world rankings), having won 2 premier tournaments in 2017, with one runner up placement and two 3rd-4th placements.
Last year they failed to make it to the playoff stage, by going 1 win / 3 losses in the swiss style group stage. This year they have improved and are ready to take it to next level, challenging for another trophy win in a premier setting.
SK Gaming 
The Brazilian powerhouse (FalleN, fer, coldzera, taco, Felps) are hungry for another title win. The legendary organization has an impressive record in 2017, with 3 premier titles / 1 runner up spot and 1 major title.
They’re one of the favorites coming into this event based on their recent performances – it seems like they have finally adapted to the new lineup (Felps joined and fnx left earlier in the year). Last year they took 3rd-4th place in New York – can they top that result this time?
FaZe Clan 
Our 3rd team is a more international one – FaZe has players from Norway (rain), Denmark (karrigan), Bosnia (NiKo), Slovak Republic (GuardiaN) and Sweden (olofmeister). They only have 1 premier title in 2017, and it was with a different roster.
GuardiaN and ololfmeister are fairly new to the squad (they both joined last month), and this is going to be their first premier event playing together. Can they go toe to toe with guys that have been training together for more than a year? Many fans have high hopes and expectations for the lineup that FaZe put together, now it’s up to them to show the fans if they can perform on the highest level of competitive CS GO.
Virtus.Pro 
VP is the oldest roster in the tour at the moment. Their 5 man squad has been playing together carrying the org’s banner for over 3 years, since the start of 2014. They’re all from Poland (TaZ, NEO, pasha, byall, Snax) and have won 1 premier tournament this year (DreamHack Masters in Las Vegas).
This squad is always a challenger for the title in any competition they’re in, and ESL New York is no different. They have the ability and skill to take down any crew in the world when their play is on point. With many exciting players, the fans will surely enjoy watching their matches.
Team Liquid 
It has a lot to prove in the event. Their players are not well established or legendary pros like the ones on SK, FaZe or VP – they’re still building their story. So far in 2017, they have yet to claim a title – will ESL be their first premier trophy? They sure have a tough task ahead of them if they plan on taking home that winner’s check.
Natus Vincere 
Na’vi is another one of the legendary orgs. Their roster changed slightly over the last month, with GuardiaN leaving for FaZe and Zeus joining. The Ukranian/Russian guys want to prove they can keep competing and winning at the top level even without their world class AWPer, and this premier tournament is the perfect opportunity. Can Zeus step it up and overcome GuardiaN’s skill and legacy? Only time will tell.
Cloud9 
The North American qualifier winner is one of the underdogs in this event. As some of the other teams, Cloud9 went through a roster change last month – they swapped 2 players. Qualifying for the premier on their first try already shows their potential and hints towards a bright future for the NA organization. If they can make it to the playoffs their run will be remembered as a great success.
Team EnVyUs 
The European qualifier winner is also a big underdog coming into this event. With 4 players from France and 1 from Belgium, EnVyUs has already displayed great coordination and if the other squads aren’t prepared they can get caught off guard easily by this roster. They have 1 premier win in 2017, but it was with a very different squad (3 different players).
ESL One 2017 Betting Predictions for the group stages
Having said all that about the teams, let’s make some bets on which crews are going to win their first match on the swiss round – the other matchups will depend on the results of the first round, so we can’t offer tips for those.
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vs SK Gaming Victory. The Brazilians should have a good edge in this match and will probably dominate nV.
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vs Na’vi victory. Despite the absence of GuardiaN, na’vi is still the better team in this matchup.
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vs VP victory. Betting on VP here because of their roster consistency. FaZe has only been together for less than a month and it might show on their first event.
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vs Astralis victory. The Denmark team has been showing a very high level of play and should be able to take down Liquid in this first round match.
We hope you enjoyed the article and stay tuned for the next upcoming ones!
Good luck!
