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Well, that grand finals match at Blast Pro Moscow most likely caught almost everyone by surprise. Both competitors were from the CIS Playin. I guess the curse is true when someone goes up against Astralis in a Grand Finals in a Major, they do well on the next events they join in. Became true for ENCE, now it’s the same reality for Avangar.
However, we are not here to talk about BPS Moscow. We are here to actually talk about the next upcoming ESL event that will be happening in the Big Apple. Yes, folks! ESL is coming back home to New York! The venue for this CS:GO tourney is the Barclays Center and will have $200,000 in prizes. This is also the second match for the Grand Slam series by Intel and will be Season 3’s last event for this year.
In this article, you will get the details regarding the tournament participants, format, roster changes as well as ESL New York 2019 predictions.
Teams
8 competitors will be playing in this competition. 5 will be directly invited and the 3 qualified through various qualifiers around the world. The 5 invited teams are the most recent Major winner Astralis, ENCE, Faze Clan, Team Liquid and NRG Esports. Optic Gaming and G2 Esports qualified through tournaments held in the EU while E United won the North American qualifier to secure a spot for ESL.
Roster Changes
There are a few roster changes that have happened just after the Majors. The few notable ones are with Faze Clan and G2. Faze Clan will part ways with their Polish player Neo. No one is set to take his spot yet and will most likely announce the player to stand in a couple of days before the tournament.
G2 will also be dealing with a few roster changes themselves. Shox will not be playing for the tournament. Kioshima will be taking his spot for the upcoming event. We still do not know if this will be a more permanent solution or rather a minor one.
Format
The format will follow the other ESL One formats in the past. These 8 competitors will be split right down the middle and form 2 groups. They will be playing double elimination matches on the group stages to see who advances to the Playoffs. Only the top 2 competitors from each group advance. All matches in the tournament except for the Grand Finals will be played in a Bo3 format.
CS:GO ESL New York 2019 Predictions
Since the groupings have been released for the tournament, I will be predicting which of those teams would likely be advancing to the Playoffs and then to the Grand Finals. This tournament will also be reigniting the rivalry that happened during one of the quarter-final matches of the last Major in Berlin.
I’m sure most of you would like to see an Astralis vs Liquid Grand Final, and I think this tournament will be the stage for that. But enough of that speculation, let’s see at all the groups first and make the assessment.
Group A
Right off the bat, I already see the team that will take the first place in this bracket.
I bet all of you called it just like me that Liquid will take it all the way and probably win Group A. They are just a level above than most of their competitors in here and for them, they will most likely want to continue their win streak in the Grand Slam series.
Also, they still have a reputation to protect. As of right now, they are touted to be the currently the number 1 squad in the world, and what better way to prove their supremacy if they manage to beat Astralis here and now.
My second pick that will secure a spot to the playoffs will be G2 Esports. Even without Shox in the roster, I think that KennyS will be able to carry the team to a spot in the semis. The standing of choice for Shox is also kioShima, another French player, so they would have no problems whatsoever with communication.
Aside from that, the other competitors in Group A have suffered some pretty miserable tourney records in the past. ENCE just got wrecked in Moscow just a week ago and we all know that E United is still a greenhorn in the competitive scene.
Group B
Just like with Group A, Group B already has sure winners that will most likely advance to fill spots in the semi-finals.
However, unlike the other bracket, this one does not really have a clear cut winner or a dominating team since both of the top squads in here has what it takes to win this group. If people were to ask me, I would pick Astralis as the winner.
Why? This is not just because they won the Majors in Berlin, this is because even though they stumbled throughout the year, I bet you that they still have the quality the be able to take it all the way. That reason and of course, we will only be able to see the Liquid x Astralis Grand Final Showdown if both of them go first in the initial stages so as to dodge each other in the playoffs.
My second pick would most likely be NRG Esports. The North American squad has been making waves quite recently and has been posting up good performances on the tourneys that they have competed in this year.
I think NRG started to actually click and perform well when they recently signed Tarik earlier this year and Stanislaw just a couple months ago. As for where it stands, I think NRG along with Liquid will be the reason why North American CS:GO will be put in the map again.
We are going to see another great competition in New York, and if you have your own predictions for this ESL event, please share them in comments below!
Good luck!
