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All right, all right, let’s see what we got! All of you CS:GO fans should be happy as I have a brand new tournament that we can all watch, cheer our favorite teams and even bet our hard earned money in. You know what I’m talking about: FaceIT sponsored Esports Championship Series Season 7!
This tournament will be held at the SSE Arena in Wembley, London, which is a very notable events center in the Wembley area. The tournament start date is on the 6th of June and the end date will be on the 9th of June, making this a 4-day long event.
FaceIT will also be offering a smaller prize pool this episode, which is $500,000. It used to be a little bit higher at $660,000. Aside from that, nothing changed much. What is somewhat unique in this tournament is that they also offer a separate prize pool for the respective regional qualifiers that these guys compete in.
Today we shall check the list of participants and roster changes as well as give our betting predictions for the ECS Season 7 battle!
Teams
There are 8 teams that have been qualified to join this tourney. These are the squads that have managed to win the ECS qualifiers from both the EU and the NA/SA region. The winners of each qualifying week get a spot, while the last spot for the event will be awarded to the team that did not secure a berth through winning but by accumulating the most points in a qualification week.
So the invited teams are Astralis, North, Team Vitality, and Ninjas in Pyjamas for the EU region. Then it will be Complexity Gaming, NRG Esports, Furia Esports and MiBR for the NA/SA region.
Notable Roster Changes
There has not been a lot of roster changes regarding the participants here. The only notable one is that Complexity Gaming took the spot that was originally won by Rogue during the first week of qualifiers. Rogue disbanded their CS:GO team, thus they will not be able to field a representative for the event.
MSL and niko went to Optic Gaming, vice went to Cloud 9 and Sick will be playing with Complexity Gaming from here on. Only Hiko ended up without a team picking him up.
Format
This tourney will follow the same rules from the past ECS tourneys. These 8 squads will be moving form 2 different brackets, split down the middle. You have to be defeated twice during the group stages to be eliminated.
The opening match for the group is going to be Bo1, while the rest like the Elimination, Winner and Decider matches is going to be played in Bo3. Only two from each group will be taken to play in the playoffs. All matches in the playoffs will be played in Bo3, and that includes the Grand Finals.
ECS Season 7 Betting Predictions
Now comes my favorite part of all, making the predictions on which teams will most likely advance to the playoffs. Since the groups have been released already, I will be basing my predictions on the potential winners and runner ups based on the opening matches that they are given.
I will also be picking a dark horse from each group, which is a team that will most likely provide an upset for most of the fan favorites. So without further ado, let’s get on with it!
Group A
What do we have here? We have probably the best team in the world, which is Astralis, back in the big stages after having been gone from the scene for about a month or so. They have not attended lots of big events as of late, such as IEM Sydney. Their last big event was during the BPS Madrid event, where they lost to ENCE in the finals. WIth them being back at the helm again, I see them advancing in this tournament as the group stage winners, because they are Astralis.
They have to defend their title after all. They have won the last 2 ECS events in the past, and if they win this edition again, will solidify their position as the first team to win the ECS 3 times in a row. Aside from that, the reason they took a long break might be to give the team a rest after being in a lot of events from the start of the year. Their hectic schedule usually takes a toll on them too so they need a little rest and relaxation to be in tip-top shape.
The eventual runner up in this group for me would most likely be Ninjas in Pyjamas. They have proven time and time again that they are a strong contender team by being up there in rankings with the big squads. Aside from that, they have actually been phenomenal as of late. Not only they went toe to toe with Astralis during ECS EU Week 1, but in other tournaments, they have entered, they have placed well in those too.
Ever since dennis got that little rest during his hiatus, he has improved dramatically. Combine that with the efforts of Forest, and you get a dynamic duo who can efficiently run the double AWP strat in a lot of maps. As of the opening match, they will be playing against NRG. For sure NiP will be able to walk over them or probably blitz them if ever the map ends up in Train or in Inferno.
And lastly, my dark horse pick for Group A. It would be none other than Furia Esports. This is most likely a Cinderella story. A story of a little Timmy that could. To be fair, Furia was always over shadowed by their Brazilian counterparts. It was Immortals and SK in the past, and now MiBR presently. They have been toiling in the background for far too long. Recently, they have had their big actual break! They are currently in the playoffs in Dreamhack Dallas but their view towards the Grand Finals will be long and arduos since they will be facing the French giants, Vitality on the quarterfinals and even if they manage to get past them, it would be Liquid they are facing next.
But experience is experience and that counts for a lot of things. They actually dominated a lot of squads in their own group in Dallas as well, destroying both NRG and Fnatic on their way to being the runners up. If they manage to pull an upset, they might be able to oust NiP and take their spot, although they are still too young and raw to be able to face Astralis comfortably in a Bo3.
Group B
This bracket will most likely be a battle of supremacy between the Brazilians and the French. However, the eventual winner will most likely be the Frenchmen, Vitality. NBK and RPK are playing out of their minds lately, and if their performance on DreamHack Dallas is of any indication, they have proven to us that they can rebound from a loss and deliver when it really matters in the end.
First, they lost to North on the opening matches of that event, then managed to claw their way back up to the lower bracket and delivered their sweet revenge against North on the lower bracket finals, thus eliminating them. Besides that, they also won the CS Summit event in Los Angeles days before they headed over to Dallas for the Dreamhack event. They are currently on a roll and seems unstoppable, and if this momentum keeps up, I see these Frenchmen coast their way towards the Grand Finals.
The runner up spot will most likely be taken by the Brazilians. Sure, I say this a lot and sure a lot of you will comment that “Well MiBR has been disappointing this year!” and I agree with that. However, we are heading towards the middle of the year, and if you have seen during the past, MiBR always had a problem adjusting towards a new year.
They actually had to release their 2 American players and switched to an all Brazilian lineup, and although they have been teammates in the past, they still need time to gel with each other. Now that we are past that stage, and we have seen recently that MiBR has been putting up stellar performances as of late.
And last but not least, my Dark horse pick for Group B. It will be none other than Complexity. Their recent acquisitions lately have been good, even with Nothing stepping down since his stand in a contract has ended. Complexity actually managed to sign Sick, which is an awesome rifler/entry fragger for them.
He has proven that he can actually work behind the entry duo of Deph and Rickeh, providing utility support for them such as flashing spots and sweeping the corners behind them or even taking the entry spot himself at times with Deph. They might still be a long shot, but hey, they are far better than what North has been showing up with lately, and thus my partial pick goes to them.
If you have your own thoughts and predictions for the CS:GO ECS Season 7 tournaments, then go ahead and share them in the comment section!
Good luck!
