ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals brings together 16 of the world’s best teams. These teams will be split initially into two groups of 8.
? Cloud9
? NRG Esports
? Heroic
? Natus Vincere
? MVP PK
? mousesports
? Sharks Esports
? FaZe Clan
? OpTic Gaming
? Astralis
? Ninjas in Pyjamas
? SK Gaming
? Team Liquid
? Grayhound
? Space Soldiers
? Renegades
Both groups will be played in a GSL format (double-elimination bracket). The initial matches will be Bo1. All the other matches will be Bo3. The winner of each group qualifies for the Semifinals. The 2nd and 3rd best teams from each group qualify for the Quarterfinals.
The Playoffs will be played in a single-elimination bracket format. All of its matches will be Bo3, with the exception of the Grand Final (Bo5).
The $750,000 prize pool will be shared among the 16 teams in the following way:
? 1st place: $250,000
? 2nd place: $110,000
? 3rd – 4th place: $55,000
? 5th – 6th place: $32,000
? 7th – 8th place: $24,000
? 9th – 12th place: $22,000
? 13th – 16th place: $20,000
Natus Vincere has had three top 4 finishes this year, having placed 3rd – 4th at the ELEAGUE Major and also having played in two Grand Finals: at StarLadder & i-League StarSeries Season 4 and at DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018. Na’Vi lost both of these Grand Finals (one against mousesports and one against Astralis) but still remains one of the best teams in the world (top 5 for sure).
Na’Vi’s main weakness is also it’s most important strength: s1mple. This player is without a doubt the most skilled in the world right now and in the best shape of his career. As long as s1mple keeps on playing the way he’s played this year, Na’Vi will continue to get top placements in spite of having many weaknesses and several average players as a team.
Going into this tournament, I expect Na’Vi to qualify for the Playoffs. It’s not clear yet whether or not the CIS team can make it to the Semifinals or even the Grand Final, but s1mple’s form will be decisive in whatever they achieve.
In spite of losing to FaZe Clan in the Grand Final of Intel Extreme Masters Sydney, Astralis is still the strongest team in the world right now and its performance over the last few months clearly proves it: a 2nd place finish at IEM Sydney, a 1st place finish at DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018 and a 3rd – 4th place finish at IEM XII World Championship.
Going into this event, Astralis is the team with the highest chance of claiming the trophy.
After around 2 months of weaker results, FaZe Clan struck back at the recent IEM Sydney tournament, defeating Astralis in the Grand Final and claiming the title. It was a shocking result for everyone, not least because FaZe Clan did it without dropping a single map, but it showed that you should never discard this team in the fierce battle for trophies, no matter how overpowered its opponent may seem.
With this latest tournament title, FaZe Clan proved that Xizt has been successfully integrated in its lineup and that the team is now playing at maximum capacity again. It wasn’t easy for FaZe to get over olofmeister’s loss, but it looks like things have finally worked out for them.
For me, FaZe Clan is the second strongest team at ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals. I wouldn’t count of it to win the entire event, but it certainly has all the right ingredients to make it at least to the Semifinals.
After the acquisition of NAF and TACO, Team Liquid finally got a world class roster that can compete with any opponent. However, the results haven’t been great in the last 2 months, simply because the team needs more time to fully integrate its newest members and achieve perfect fluency in all of its strategies. The potential to get top placements is definitely there, but we’ll have to see if Team Liquid has managed to train enough to remove all of its internal gameplay problems.
So far this season, Team Liquid got 3 top 4 finishes. The team won cs_summit 2, placed 3rd at StarLadder & i-League StarSeries Season 4 and then 3rd – 4th at IEM XII World Championship.
Going into ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals, Team Liquid should qualify for the Playoffs. Especially because it has an easy road through the brackets in Group B, as long as it can win against much weaker opponents.
Mousesports is a top 4 team in CS:GO right now and has had an exceptional season so far. The team won StarLadder & i-League StarSeries Season 4, V4 Future Sports Festival Budapest 2018, as well as the regional stage of ESL Pro League Season 7, qualifying for this LAN event by placing first in the European region (18 W – 8 L). At the latest tournament it participated in (IEM XIII Sydney), mousesports placed 4th, after losing to a formidable Astralis in the Semifinals (score 1 – 2).
Overall, mousesports is playing great CS right now and has a big advantage over most of the teams present at this event: they haven’t had a roster change in over 9 months. This gives them excellent cohesion and a wide array of tactics and strategies.
After replacing Xizt with dennis and THREAT with pita (new coach), NiP regained much of its former strength and started to play like a tier 1 team again. Of course, there’s still a long way to go until we can expect NiP to win a big trophy, but the team has what it takes to get deep runs in tournaments like this one.
In 2018, Ninjas in Pyjamas got 4 top 8 finishes: at cs_summit 2, Intel Extreme Masters XII World Championship, DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018 and Esports Championship Series Season 5 Europe.
Going into ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals, NiP has a very good chance of qualifying for the Playoffs, as long as it can beat of its main group rivals, SK Gaming.
This is by far the most unpredictable match of the 8 that were mentioned and that’s because it’s not yet clear how strong SK Gaming is. The team hasn’t looked great after its recent roster change, but since coldzera became the new in-game leader things have started to shift a little bit in its favor. SK’s last two matches against Team Liquid (both Bo1) ended with 2 victories in its favor.
On the other hand, NiP is a very strong team right now so I don’t really think that SK has what it takes to win this match. The Brazilians still need a lot of practice to integrate Stewie2K into their lineup.
Bovada puts the odds for this match at -115 / -110 or around 1.87 – 1.91 in favor of NiP, which is much more likely to win at this point.
Betting prediction:Ninjas in Pyjamas to win, paying -120.48 at BetOnline.
FaZe Clan is much stronger than Cloud9 at this point, so it should have no problem winning this match. Last time these two teams met (in the Group Stage of Intel Extreme Masters XIII Sydney), FaZe Clan won pretty decisively with a score of 2 – 0.
Bovada puts the odds for this match at -225 / +175 or around 1.44 – 2.75 in favor of FaZe Clan, giving Cloud9 quite a bit of respect but still anticipating a clear victory for the Europeans.
Betting prediction:FaZe Clan to win, paying -227.27 at BetOnline.
Heroic has been on a steep decline lately, while NRG Esports has been on the rise. This contrast has led everyone to believe that NRG is the slight favorite in this dispute, although not by much.
Bovada puts the odds for this match at -170 / +130 or around 1.59 – 2.30 in favor of NRG Esports and at these odds, a bet on a victory in their favor is definitely worthwhile.
Betting prediction:NRG Esports to win, paying -163.93 at BetOnline.
MVP PK has had some pretty good results recently, winning the CS:GO Asia Summit event and placing 9th – 12th at IEM XIII Sydney. Still, the team is at least 1 tier below Na’Vi, so I can’t imagine the CIS team losing this battle.
Bovada puts the odds for this match at -475 / +350 or around 1.21 – 4.50 in favor of Natus Vincere and its assessment is absolutely correct.
Betting prediction:Natus Vincere to win, paying -714.29 at BetOnline.
Given the massive skill and experience difference between these two teams, anything except a crushing victory in favor of mousesports would be a huge upset. Personally, I don’t think that Sharks Esports can take more than 10 rounds off mousesports in this match, so even if you bet on the Europeans using a -4.5 or even -5.5 rounds handicap option you should still be perfectly fine.
Bovada puts the odds for this match at -700 / +450 or around 1.14 – 5.50 in favor of mousesports, and this is practically free money to be made.
Betting prediction:mousesports to win, paying -1000 at BetOnline.
In spite of not performing at its full potential and having problems against the strongest teams in the world, Team Liquid is still way better than Grayhound and should easily win this dispute without dropping more than 8-10 maps.
Bovada puts the odds for this match at -325 / +260 or around 1.31 – 3.60, giving Grayhound way too much respect for that victory against SK Gaming from IEM XIII Sydney.
Betting prediction:Team Liquid to win, paying -357.14 at BetOnline.
This should be a close match all things considered but based on Space Soldiers’ poor recent form and Renegades’ exceptional recent form, Renegades should win in the end. If Nifty can play half as well as he did at IEM XIII Sydney, his team will completely crush Space Soldiers in this battle.
Bovada puts the odds for this match at +105 / -130 or around 2.05 – 1.77, anticipating a close fight. I myself don’t think that will be the case, as the Australians look much stronger at this point.
Betting prediction:Renegades to win, paying -120.48 at BetOnline.
There is absolutely no chance for OpTic Gaming to upset the strongest team in the world, so I really don’t agree with the odds here. They’re way too high on Astralis’ side.
Bovada puts the odds for this match at +270 / -335 or around 3.70 – 1.30, making it one of the best betting opportunities on this list.
Betting prediction:Astralis to win, paying -357.14.
]]>The third CS:GO Major Championship in North America kicks off the New Year with more teams and bigger prize-pools, with twenty-four of the best professional CS:GO teams in the world competing across January 12 – 15 to take home a slice of the enticing US$1,000,000 up-for-grabs.
In conjunction with Valve, ELEAGUE have re-formatted this year’s event to include the Offline Qualifier as part of the Major Championship. The New Challengers Stage is its new name, and it will feature sixteen teams duking it out in hopes of securing a spot in the Legends Stage, which will commence next week, and eventually to become CS:GO Major Champions.
Eight of The New Challengers were the bottom eight finishers from the previous PGL Major Championship Gambit Esports in Kraków, while the other eight teams fought tooth and nail in last year’s ELEAGUE CS:GO Minor Championships to qualify for a spot – hard-earned, and perhaps a little more battle-ready than their foes. With no announced map pool at all prior to the event’s commencement, some of these match-ups could surprise, while others are more one-sided.
Here is our betting preview, top picks and tips for Round 1 of the New Challengers Stage.
This week’s E-League Major: Boston 2018 accumulator tips come from, one of our top-rated esports betting sites for players worldwide. Our readers can unlock an exclusive bonus offer of 100% up to 100 AUD/CAD/EUR/GBP/USD (or other currency equivalent) with any payment using our exclusive bonus code, ‘esportbet’ upon making a deposit. Make sure to sign up at Arcanebet.com via our links to be able to claim the deposit bonus code offer.
E-League Major: Boston 2018 – New Challengers Stage, Round 1 accumulator picks at Arcanebet
Accumulator odds: 6.38 at Arcanebet.com
Game 1, Friday, January 12 from 9am EST at ELEAGUE Arena, Turner Studios, Atlanta
Vega Squadron are no stranger to the big stage but have yet to have a big break. Their performance in last year’s PGL in Kraków left a lot to be desired, with the team dropping all three maps spectacularly despite plenty of hope from the fans. Vega have had strong form in their Asia-Pacific tournament performance, but haven’t had many opportunities to take the limelight in the EU, with only their wins against AGO and Tricked keeping them in the top 25 going into ELEAGUE 2018.
The Renegades have something to show in their first match-up against the Vega Squadron. In our eyes, they are easily a top 10 team in the making. Noah ‘Nifty’ Francis of the Renagades has demonstrated some deadly fragging as the team’s In Game Leader (IGL) and great synergy with his North American team-mate Keith ‘NAF-FLY’ Markovic, a top favourite himself who was probably the best acquisition for a permanent fifth they could have made last year. Both players have few equals on the Vega side and are widely considered to be RNG carries – but we’re also fond of their three Aussie team-mates all the same. If the map ends up being Cache, Mirage or Train, we’re confident to say Renegades have it in the bag.
The Renegades’ 2-0 steam-rolling to take the top spot in theStarLadder i-League Invitational #2 and the 1st Major Asia Minor Championship Boston 2018 to take the top spot was some great viewing last year, and they have tier 2 tournament experience under their belt going into this event. Experience, performance and the higher seeding has us rooting for the Renegades here, no questions asked.
Renegades to win – 1.65 at Arcanebet.com
Game 2, Friday, January 12 from 10am EST at ELEAGUE Arena, Turner Studios, Atlanta
Mousesports or MOUZ are the favourites here and for good reason. Fresh off their 1st place win in the LOOT.BET Cup #2 and second place standings in last year’s DreamHack Open Winter 2017 Major and Esports Championship Series Season 4 Finals Premier, they have more than proved they are one of the best teams in the New Challengers line-up when it comes to BO1 (best of 1) upsets.
On a good day, they are more than capable of taking a map from higher-ranked teams like FaZe – who they performed admirably against with a hard-earned runner-ups standing at ECS Season 4 – let alone the likes of AVANGAR, who lack a significant premier or qualifier placing on their belts. AVANGAR have, however, won the hearts of some fans with their success via their qualification to Boston, suffering zero losses in the open qualifier for the CIS region’s Minor, where they smashed Quantum Bellator Fire in the Minor winner bracket and final to secure this spot.
However, while there will always be some underdogs going through CS:GO Majors, AVANGAR are not it. We’re backing pure experience and form here, and it’s definitely MOUZ.
Mousesports to win – 1.20 at Arcanebet.com
Game 1, Friday, January 12 from 11am EST at ELEAGUE Arena, Turner Studios, Atlanta
The Swiss System is never kind to everyone and unfortunately two of the most popular North American teams in this qualifier are set to duke it out with each other in the very first round.
FaZe Clan is entering their match-up with strong form and a string of successes in the past three months, with three first place premiers under their belts, while Liquid has had some seriously bad runs in the recent ECS and EPL Season 6 Finals. Both teams croaked at the PGL Major Kraków 2017 last year without winning a single game, perhaps FaZe’s only significant loss since. We can’t say the same for Liquid, who will be going without Brazilian pick-up Lucas “steel” Lopes due to Valve’s roster lock rulings.
Liquid has a long history of difficulty with overcoming FaZe. The last five matches they’ve faced-off have been utter wipe-outs, though Liquid fought hard and showed some brief promise in their ESL Pro League 16-14 standoff with FaZe. Even with three weeks of additional training under Liquid’s belts, we can’t seem them offering any counter to the recently signed Olof ‘olofmeister’ Kajbjer (named best player in the world in 2015) or Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovács, the new FaZE lurker and AWPer, respectively. Apart from their close Bo1 at the EPL finals, FaZe has categorically beaten every North American team they have played since picking up GuardiaN and olofmeister.
We’re boring with our predictions here, but FaZe really is too strong right now to bet against – and they’re an easy Pistol Winner, Round 1.
FaZE Clan to get Pistol Winner, Round 1 – 1.62 at Arcanebet.com
Game 1, Friday, January 12 from 1pm EST at ELEAGUE Arena, Turner Studios, Atlanta
The end of last year wasn’t too kind for FlipSid3 Tactics. One of their best players, Electronic, defected to fellow Boston ELEAGUE competitor Natus Vincere, they lost against several tier 3-4 teams in every qualifier played post-October, and placed a mediocre 5th-8th in the World Cyber Arena 2017 Europe.
Fans have barely seen Flipside play any LAN in the lead-up to the New Challengers, so confidence in their performance for a tense Bo1 (Best of 1) is low. While many will argue the team’s highest result in the top 8 standings at ESL One Cologne 2016 was managed without Electronic, his loss is too significant to not feel a lot less excited about his replacement loan, Seized.
All of that is not to say the Misfits are the clearly better pick either, with some average performance in their last few majors and premiers outside of a top placing in the Americas Minor Championship 2018 in Boston. Their latest hard-fought battle against SK can’t be faulted against them, however, and their IGL Sean “seangares” Gares definitely proved he still has it to lead the team right down to the wire.
While the two teams have not crossed paths in recent tournaments, we’re a lot more confident in the Misfits line-up here as the dark horse.
Misfits to win – 1.80 at Arcanebet.com
Game 1, Friday, January 12 from 2pm EST at ELEAGUE Arena, Turner Studios, Atlanta
For these kind of major qualifiers, experience always trumps “oh, but they could upset!” if you want a smart bet.
In this case, Sprout (formerly Penta Esports) have yet to play a single official CS:GO match on the level of a Major or Premier, with only a small Qualifier and Minor under their belts. Their roster, which was acquired from Seed, also lacked experience and were thoroughly annihilated by Space Soldiers under this banner at Dreamhack and ESEA on two separate occasions last year, 2-0 and 16-6. They lack team synergy and consistency due to the roster shake-ups, as most haven’t played together for very long.
The Space Soldiers form hasn’t exactly been on point or consistent for their past dozen matches, but the core group have played together for much longer and know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. While they have a decent baseline with some extremely talented players in the form of Can ‘Xantares’ D?rtkarde? and Bu?ra ‘Calyx’ Ark?n, they’re lacking a consistent AWPer, and their T-side needs work.
Overall, while Space Soldiers aren’t a top tier team themselves, when they hit their stride, they can be very dangerous with their unpredictable aggro and their longer time practising and playing together is an advantage we can’t ignore. For us, it’s SS.
Space Soldiers to win – 1.51 at Arcanebet.com.
Game 1, Friday, January 12 from 3pm EST at ELEAGUE Arena, Turner Studios, Atlanta
Natus Vincere is one of the longest-running professional CS:GO teams with a rich history, holding the prestigious title of being the first team to win three major CS:GO tournaments in one year – the Intel Extreme Masters, Electronic Sports World Cup and World Cyber Games 2010.
Unfortunately, past success has not translated in recent years, with the team starting quite literally from the bottom 24 teams after a terrible last year with one exception – Dreamhack Winter, where they beat down Mousesports spectacularly for first place. Navi will have all eyes on them here to replicate their performance, move past being carried by star player Aleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev and become the come back kid many fans want them to be.
Quantum Bellator Fire have a weird name and an even stranger path to Boston, having secured their spot by beating out Team Spirit in the CIS Minor lower bracket. They face scrutiny for having the lowest rankings and most unknown roster of the New Challengers, and we can’t say we disagree. They’ve had extremely poor form in their last few matches, including a head-shaking 19th-22nd placing in the Loot Bet Cup, so we aren’t exactly about to bet on an out-of-nowhere upset versus an established team facing a bit of a bad run.
Natus Vincere to win – 1.70 at Arcanebet.com.
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