So, suffice to say that this is the event that has been on the radar of every team that managed to reach this point in the qualification road. For Evil Geniuses, FURIA, Imperial, Team Liquid and others, it’s do or die, and dying really isn’t an option for their morale. Yet, with only six spots up for grabs in the Americas RMR, ten teams won’t be making through. And as we’ve learned in the past, anything can happen in the Swiss system.

For that reason, we’ve prepared this preview for you. Here, you will find our six favorites to qualify for the PGL Major Antwerp, and why we think they will be surviving the Americas RMR. And while North American Counter-Strike might not be as strong as it once was, you might be surprised! As both North and South American teams will be competing for the same six spots, this event might be way more disputed than some expect. In any case, here are our six favorites!

TOURNAMENT DETAILS

The PGL Major Antwerp – Americas RMR will be a single-stage tournament using the traditional five-round Swiss System Valve has been using for years now. All matches are BO1s but advancement or elimination matches, which are BO3s.

$50.000 is the prize pool offered, but what the sixteen teams coming to the event are truly looking forward is the spots for the PGL Major Antwerp. Six spots are available for the Americas region, including one Legends spot, which will be disputed in a best-of-three match between the two top teams at the end of the tournament. At the same time, the sixth spot will be fought by in a single-elimination gauntlet.

Now, before we head to the storylines, take a look at the tournament’s opening matches:

FURIA – TAKING BACK THAT LEGENDS SPOT

The Americas RMR offers six spots at the PGL Major Antwerp. Three of these are Contenders spots, the lowest “tier” of qualification. Two are for Challengers spots, and one is a Legends spot. The Legends spot, of course, is the highest level of qualification a team might get, as it allows the team who qualifies through it to skip the first stage of the Major. The spots were awarded based on how each region performed in the last Major, which means that Europe got most of these spots. However, the Americas managed to get one Legend spot too, thanks to FURIA.

Now, back at the PGL Major Stockholm, FURIA reaching the event’s quarterfinals was a surprise. The Brazilians were in a weird place then, as they were still struggling in their search for an AWPer. Yet, that FURIA roster fought. They might not have advanced further than the playoffs, but they kept the Americas alive in the playoffs, even if shortly. Now they are at a much better place, and they are in prime position to reap one of the few benefits from that run: that Legends spot.

Overall, there’s just one team that could stop FURIA, at least on paper. Team Liquid are coming to the Americas RMR as our second favorites as you’ll see in a minute, and considering how they played at ESL Pro League Season XV, they are a threat to the Brazilians. Still, no team in this tournament will be favorites when facing FURIA. Moreover, the Brazilians are looking like one of the best teams in the world right now, so it’s just fitting that they are the ones coming as Legends to the Antwerp Major.

TEAM LIQUID – KEEPING THE MOMENTUM GOING, THE GOOD WAY

Team Liquid finally gave fans the showing they were all waiting for since Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella returned to the organization earlier this year. At ESL Pro League Season XV, Team Liquid impressed, especially in their first game of the playoffs when they faced one of the best teams in the world, Heroic, and won against them without dropping a map. They were eliminated afterwards against NiP, but even so, Team Liquid still put a great fight, and got sent home with their heads up.

Now, EPL might be a massive, premier event in the circuit, but Liquid has their eyes on the Major. Coming to the Americas RMR, this team is one of the favorites, but the Swiss System format is a treacherous one, and a couple of mistakes will put any team against the walls with a 0 – 2 record.

The idea here is that Team Liquid doesn’t need to prove that they are one of the favorites to make through. Instead, for them is all about surviving teams like 9z, and even 00 Nation. These underdogs have studied Liquid, and certainly have developed ways to exploit their weaknesses. No matter how many world-class players you might have after all, if there’s one thing North America taught us is that the same way momentum can help them, a streak of misfortunes can also take them to the ground.

COMPLEXITY – IT AIN’T NO LIQUID, BUT IT SHOULD DO

Complexity is far, very far from a team like FURIA. Considering both teams’ last showings, they aren’t that close to Team Liquid, either. Yet, this isn’t quite the issue as it might sound. This Complexity teams clearly has room to develop, and they can pinpoint their main issues right now to two players. Michael “Grim” Wince and Paytyn “junior” Johnson.

However, even without these two playing at their best, Complexity still is one of the best teams in their region. We don’t expect to see them beating either any of the aforementioned teams, and just like Liquid has to be cautious to not fell victim to the Swiss System, so does Complexity. But compared to the underdogs we’re seeing here, such as São Caetano, Johnny “JT” Theodosiou shouldn’t have troubles leading his team to qualification.

IMPERIAL – YES FNX, YES MAJOR?

Imperial is coming to the Americas RMR, and based on their results, their chances of making through are definitely good. Now, Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo “Last Dance” project hasn’t played at any high tier event yet. Still, they have been grinding against European competition, and they are well. Most recently, Imperial won the OMEN WGR Challenge 2022, which saw them beating Jayson “Kyojin” Nguyen Van’s Falcons in the grand-finals.

Now, this isn’t proof that they will do well against high level competition. However, they won’t be facing such teams at the Americas RMR. Sure, FURIA and Liquid are here, but other than these two? Admittedly, Imperial will need some luck at the Swiss System drawings. Yet, as long as Imperial plays using their experience and teamwork, teams like Party Astronauts will definitely struggle against them.

Imperial’s first match will see them facing São Caetano, the lowest ranked team in HLTV World Rankings present at this tournament. This should be a win for FalleN and his teammates, and from there, as long as the Swiss System isn’t too hard on them, it’s difficult to see Imperial not reaching the Major.

MiBR – MAKING NORTH AMERICA THEIR HOME TURF

The Brazilians from Made in Brazil started the year in a high note by beating Natus Vincere in late January. Of course, they couldn’t make a streak out of it, but this current iteration of MiBR is one of the best the organization has hosted in a while, and as shown during the last season of ESL Challenger League, they know very well how to play against teams from the region.

However, just like winning the previous season of ECL wasn’t a walk in the park, we don’t expect this to be one either. Bad News Bears, Party Astronauts, paiN, 9z and others will all be bringing their best game to the tournament, and MiBR will have to fight with everything they have in order to make through. MiBR’s first opponent, 9z, should already put the Brazilians to the test.

Still, and again, this MiBR roster is very promising. Jhonatan “JOTA” Willian is one of the best Brazilian players around, and has been such a great pickup for this roster. Raphael “exit” Lacerda has also been essential for MiBR’s development since last year, and overall, these two should mainly be the ones pushing this roster across the finish line.

EVIL GENIUSES – AT THIS POINT, WHO KNOWS?

The current Evil Geniuses project isn’t working. Now, one might point that they played without their coach during their most recent showing, but that doesn’t excuse EG’s performance during the open qualifiers for the Americas RMR, for example, where the squad failed to make through the first qualifier and had to instead fight in the second and last one.

As for why this team is struggling so hard, it’s not difficult to understand. Jacky “Stewie2K” Yip doesn’t really work as an in-game leader. Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte has shown some small improvements this year, and Timothy “autimatic” Ta‘s individual form is better than some expected considering he just returned from VALORANT. Yet, there still isn’t enough firepower in this squad. And finally, Tsvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov shown some improvements during EPL, but not enough for him to be considered a high tier AWPer again.

Evil Geniuses should qualify to the PGL Major Antwerp thanks to the level of teams they will be facing here. However, if they end up having to face the sixth-place gauntlet, it won’t be a surprise. In fact, if they fail to qualify, it’ll be another disappointment, but not a surprising one either. And if they don’t make to the Major, roster changes will probably be under way, and who knows, this might be better for everyone involved at this point.

It hurts to see a team in such a negative light, especially a team that has played in less than six events, and have less than five months together. However, nothing shown by EG in these events or months are enough to rekindle any hope fans might have. But with that in mind, hey! Maybe with their coach back we’ll finally see this glimpse of hope this week. Who knows?

IN A COUPLE HOURS, THE FIRST RMR EVENT WILL KICK OFF

For sixteen teams, one of the most important events of the year is starting in a matter of hours. In order to succeed here, these teams will have to conquer the Swiss System, and win three out of five matches. All games will be best-of-one map series but advancement and elimination matches, which are BO3s. Favorites have been victims of this format more than once in Counter-Strike, and underdogs have thrived under these conditions, too. And this means that we could be in for a week of surprises.

So, make sure to tune in for the event at PGL’s primary and secondary channels once the action starts! If you want to check which time that is: the first two games of the event, FURIA vs Leviatan and Party Astronauts vs Isurus will kick off at 09 AM UTC this Sunday (11^th). You can check which time that this is in your time zone through here. Until then – and afterwards, too – make sure you keep up with us by following our news page!

The post PGL Major Antwerp – Americas RMR Preview appeared first on Esports Betting Tips.

So, in order to prepare yourself for what’s coming in esports this month, we’ve prepared this guide for you. As always, this article will be focusing on the events that will be starting in April. This means that you might not see certain circuits, such as DotA 2’s Pro Circuits getting a lot of attention this time around, for example.

APEX LEGENDS

EA and Respawn’s esports title, APEX LEGEND, is growing quickly in the esports scene, and April will be a busy month for the game. The weekly Box Fight Championship series continues this month, with the fifth edition of the Pro Series Season 1 starting on the 7^th. Shortly after, on April 9^th and 10^th, we’ll be seeing Legion Masters 3 kicking off in North and South Americas, respectively.

Next on, gdolphin’s Master Cup returns for a second edition and with a $10.000 prize pool. Following the second Master Cup, on the 21^st the Box Fight Championship Pro Series will kick off its playoffs stage. It’s going to feature 20 teams and a $20.000 prize pool.

Closing off the month, two other regions will receive their editions of the Legion Masters 3. This time, it’s EMEA and APAC, with their respective events starting on the 27^th and 28^th. However, the biggest event of the month will only start a day after that, on the 29^th. The APEX LEGENDS Global Series returns for the playoff stage of its second split. The $1.000.000 event will be played offline in Stockholm, and it’ll feature the 40 best APEX LEGENDS teams in the world.

COUNTER-STRIKE

By early April, Counter-Strike fans are still following ESL Pro League Season XV, which just entered in its playoffs stage. However, in the coming weeks, the final qualification stage for the upcoming PGL Antwerp Major will be kicking off: the RMR events.

The first RMR tournament to start will the one for teams from North and South America. It’ll will kick off on the 11^th, and six spots at the Major will be up for grabs there. Next, it’s going to be the Asia-Pacific RMR on the 15^th, followed by two events for the European region, which will take place on the 17^th and 21^st.

Besides the qualifiers for the upcoming Major, there’s plenty to follow still. For example, BLAST will be hosting its BLAST Premier Spring Showdown events for both Americas and Europe on the 27^th. ESEA will host various Cash Cups across the month, and ESL will return for its 41^st season in Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America on April 26^th.

HALO

Halo has already seen some action this month with the Open Championship regionals. Next in the schedule is the UGC Collegiate Spring League, which while smaller, still is an interesting circuit to keep an eye on if you’re a fan of Halo’s esports scene.

If you’re looking for the premier level of competition, it’ll take a while. The next major tournament in Halo’s schedule is the HCS 2022: Kansas City Major which will start on the 29^th, and will run until May 1^st. The team list is already filled, and the likes of Cloud9, OpTic, Acend and Natus Vincere will all be heading to the LAN event. $250.000 will be on the line.

LEAGUE OF LEGENDS

League of Legends just saw the end of an incredibly exciting Spring split, and the game will have a quieter month in April. This doesn’t mean that there won’t be any action happening. In fact, some of it has already started.

This week we saw the start of the Spring 2022 edition of the European Masters league. 28 teams from the region will be competing during the entire month until early May for €150,000. Beyond that, the Vietnam Championship Series will host its playoffs stage on the 16^th, and the LCK Academy Series on the 23^rd. Finally, for fans of the collegiate circuit in North America, the CLOL will be starting on the 23^rd, too.

PUBG

April will be a busy month for PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. We’ve already seen the fifth season of the G-Loot, which ended with Northern Lights as the winners. As for what’s next on the schedule, on April 15^th the sixth season of the PUBG Continental Series tournaments for the Americas and Asia-Pacific will be starting. Both events feature 16 teams and $250.000 in prize pool each. After that, it’ll be time for the South Korean AfreecaTV PUBG League 2022 Season 1, where 24 teams will be competing for ₩30,000,000.

Then, at the end of the month, the two next regions of the Continental Series will be kicking off. Asia and Europe will see their own PUBG CS editions starting on April 29^th. Just like the previous two editions, each tournament will see 16 teams competing for a quarter of a million.

On the mobile side of PUBG’s esports scene, April has already seen the NEW STATE Mobile Mashup, an online event for North American teams. It featured 16 teams, and ended on March 3^rd. Not many high tier events will be kicking in April, though, since the various regional leagues of the Mobile Pro League circuit are still going on.

RAINBOW SIX SIEGE

Rainbow Six Siege will have a quieter month, too. The game will see mostly regional leagues taking place in April as the May Major is on the horizon. Still, some of these leagues are actually very competitive, and certainly give fans plenty of content to follow until the highest level of competition returns to the stage.

For example, the Southeast Asian focused Operation League for Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines and Singapore will be starting on the 16^th with $15.000 up for grabs. Brazil’s Copa do Brasil 2022: Stage I will also be kicking off this month, on the 19^th. Sixteen teams from the country will be competing for R$100.000, and some of the best Rainbow Six teams in the world will be playing then.

The next stage of Brazil’s home circuit will take place on the 23^rd. Then, the Copa Brasil Six is set to start with eight teams. Four coming from the ongoing Brasileirão Stage 1, two from the Campeonato Mexicano Stage 1 and the final two from the Campeonato Sudamericano Stage 1. Finally, the Asia-Pacific League will kick off its playoff on the 20^th.

ROCKET LEAGUE

April will see a break in the top tier level of competition in Rocket League. Yet, the action returns before the month ends with four Regional Events kicking off in the 29^th. These being the APAC South, MENA, North America and Oceania regionals.

VALORANT

This month will be a major month for VALORANT. In the past few weeks, we saw the conclusion of VALORANT Champions Tour Challengers Stage. Now, next week we’ll finally see the top teams from each region facing off in Reykjavik. VALORANT Masters Reykjavik will be kicking off on the 10^th, and it’ll feature 12 teams from all over the world competing. You’ll be able to see our preview for it shortly!

Besides the VCT Masters, the VCT EMEA Challengers Promotion is still running until April 9^th. Today, we will also be seeing the start of a new series in the North American division of the VCT Game Changers league. The European edition will be kicking a bit later, on the 25^th.

KEEP UP WITH US!

Make sure to keep up with us here in order to not miss about anything esports!

The post The biggest esports events taking place in April appeared first on Esports Betting Tips.

However, we’re ahead of what could be one of the most interesting events of the year as the potential for surprises are off the roof in this season. With teams like ENCE and FURIA looking incredibly dangerous, there are no clear favorites here. Natus Vincere surely could fit the bill, but as we learnt in these past weeks, anything can happen in EPL.

With this much uncertainty and unpredictability around, it’s no surprise that many could use a small recap of what happened in the tournament so far. For that reason, here are the main takeaways for the twelve teams heading to the playoffs of ESL Pro League Season XV.

ONE LESS DOUBT TO WORRY ABOUT – ASTRALIS

When Astralis came to ESL Pro League Season XV, there was a lot of questions surrounding this roster. For one, this was Asger “farlig” Jensen first event with the roster, and his first official match since mid-October of last year. Then, Astralis was also dealing with Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth and Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke underperforming. While Xyp9x isn’t expected to be an incredible fragger, k0nfig is. Having Kristian not performing to his standards was hurting Astralis’ chances in a major way.

Now, these two performed far better back in IEM Katowice 2022 than they did previously, but one can’t count on a single performance to wave off the possibility of a slump. So, ESL Pro League Season XV was the proving grounds, especially for k0nfig, to show that his short slump was over. It was also the event for farlig to show that he is an improvement over Astralis’ previous AWPer, and an opportunity for this roster as a whole to show that they can work. Fortunately, they didn’t do bad at all.

Astralis’ run in EPL so far haven’t been great, but it has been overall solid. The Danes have beaten teams they should be able to such as Evil Geniuses, and even managed to put a fight against Natus Vincere. That match, specifically, saw Astralis blowing up a major lead in the decider map of their series, showing that this roster has plenty of issues to go through. Still, they had a strong CT-side against the best team of their group, and that alone is worth some points.

THE THINGS THAT WE’LL NEED

If Astralis wants a chance at the playoffs, they will need to bring their best game. Their AWPer, farlig, for example, will need to show an improvement in his decision and play making. Kristian will also need to show better consistency overall. He has been a solid rifler so far in EPL, but he had some rough maps, especially when it mattered the most. He needs to bring his world-class form to every game from now on. Then, Astralis can’t keep dropping the ball on the T-side and allowing their opponents to comeback.

As for their first game, Astralis will be facing off Entropiq. The Russians – as we will be seeing shortly – are a dangerous team, but not an impossible challenge. As long as Benjamin “blameF” Bremer or k0nfig perform well and the team doesn’t seriously underperform, this match shouldn’t be a major issue. It’s not an already won match by any means, but one that has Astralis as slight favorites.

AIM HIGH, WHY NOT? – ENCE

At the start of EPL XV, their chances to qualify for the playoffs on paper weren’t great. After all, they were playing on Group B, which featured FaZe Clan, Vitality and Outsiders. However, right from the start, ENCE proved to be stronger than most anticipated. Right off the bat, ENCE defeated FaZe after an incredible performance from Aleksander “hades” Miskiewicz and Lotan “Spinx” Giladi.

This trend continued in the following days. The team took down Vitality and Outsiders – Virtus.Pro – and was only defeated once. While impressive, when we look back at those games it isn’t difficult to understand why this roster is looking so dangerous. They always had the potential, especially the aforementioned two. However, in this event, Pavle “maden” Bošković also stepped-up in a massive way, giving this squad a way to finally touch on all potential they have been sitting on.

Now, ENCE’s future is incredibly bright. As long as Maden keeps playing as well as he did in the group stage, Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer will have plenty of firepower to work with, and he has proven to know how to put it to good use. Paweł “dycha” Dycha map-by-map inconsistency still is an issue, but with Maden starting to work so well, it’s one issue that Snappi should be able to circumvent as needed.

ENCE’s first game will see them facing FNATIC. Underestimating FNATIC at this point would be a major mistake. Yet, as long as ENCE keeps performing as they did during their group, they shouldn’t face any issues. Afterwards, they’d potentially face Movistar Riders, and that should be another interesting match-up but that still has ENCE as the favorites. From that point onwards, it’s still an open game, and an opportunity for ENCE to show that they can play in the big leagues.

DON’T OVERLOOK THEM – ENTROPIQ

After leaving IEM Katowice 2022 with a disappointing performance, Entropiq starred at the fifteenth season of ESL Pro League looking renewed. Most noticeable are Igor “Forester” Bezotecheskiy and Vladislav “Krad” Kravchenko’s performances. Both players did far better in their Group at EPL than they did in Katowice, and they are making the difference for Entropiq.

Now, this Entropiq roster is incredible, but they have shown that they can be more than the sum of all of its parts. They have plenty of firepower in Forester and Krad, as well as Aleksey “El1an” Gusev, but more important, their fundamentals and their approach to the game is definitely a stand-out. They know how to be patient, they are resilient, and this team’s chemistry is playing a big part in their success.

The truth is, before coming to this season of EPL, Entropiq has managed to break through the top ten in HLTV’s World Rankings for a couple of times. Yet, many still have to be convinced that they indeed deserve to be considered a premier team. Now, they have the perfect opportunity to show that they indeed are able to compete with the best. It won’t be easy, as they aren’t the only team looking to be amongst the best, but Entropiq has all they need to do it.

HERE, BUT NOT BY THEMSELVES – FAZE CLAN

All things considered; FaZe Clan didn’t have the best of runs during the group stage. In fact, if not by Vitality winning their final game against Outsiders against the odds, FaZe wouldn’t even be here. However, they clinched a spot in the playoffs, and now Finn “karrigan” Andersen and his teammates have a shot at proving that winning IEM Katowice 2022 wasn’t a fluke, and that they’re still looking to dethrone Natus Vincere.

For that to happen, though, FaZe will need keep showing improvements as they did through their group’s week. By their fifth match, the squad was looking considerably better, but they still looked shaky at times, especially mentally. As shown during various times then, we saw FaZe players getting frustrated, and some questionable decision-making came up.

Still, all eyes are on the playoffs now, and Karrigan won’t be having an easy time here. Right off the bat, they will be facing Gambit’s players. While Vladislav “nafany” Gorshkov’s team hasn’t looked as perfect as they have in the past, underestimating them can be a fatal mistake. Then, Natus Vincere will be next, and FaZe won’t be able to afford doing any mistakes as Na’Vi has shown to be quite sharp.

THE CHOSEN ONES

As difficult FaZe’s playoffs bracket might be, it’s only by facing such difficulties that they will prove that their run at Katowice wasn’t a fluke, and that they are actually a contender for the title of best team in the world. Back in IEM Katowice 2022, Na’Vi was clearly impacted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Now, they are looking far better, and they will likely challenge FaZe as they’re expected to.

Nonetheless, if there’s one team that can break through this bracket, it’s this FaZe roster. Helvijs “broky” Saukants have been stellar in 2022. Robin “ropz” Kool is the incredibly reliable fragger that FaZe missed for years. Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken has also shown to be getting back into his star form since ropz was brought in. This team has three world-class fraggers, a good captain leading the ship, and Håvard “rain” Nygaard, who has proven time to time to be one of the best support players you can have. The potential is here, now all that is left is to actually realizing it in the server.

SOMEHOW, THEY MADE IT – FNATIC

FNATIC’s Counter-Strike division has been all over the place since IEM Katowice 2022. After that event, they benched their AWPer in a highly questionable roster move, and didn’t have a proper replacement for it. Then, it was announced that their star, Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin, received an offer from their rivals, NiP, and the Swede didn’t attend EPL with his team. Instead, FNATIC came to this event with only two signed players and three stand-ins.

Initially, this team didn’t work out. In their first game, which saw them facing NiP, FNATIC got demolished. Thanks to an uninspiring performance from the team’s captain, Alexander “ALEX” McMeekin, and one of the stand-ins, Peppe “Peppzor” Borak, they didn’t have a chance. Yet, this team kept improving. While the two stand-ins from FNATIC’s academy project didn’t really standout, the ex-Complexity AWPer Valentin “poizon” Vasilev actually played incredibly well and was enough to take this team to the finish line.

Now, this FNATIC team isn’t perfect by any means, but they surprisingly enough, they found a great combination. William “mezii” Merriman and poizon formed a strong duo, and they will only get better from this point onward. ALEX has also been showing that he’s a good captain, and he’s doing a wonderful job with the cards’ he has been given.

Still, this team has been a surprise, but they are far from perfect. Matias “Banjo” Kivistö and Peppzor are still ways from being ready for playing against the best teams in the world, for one. Then, there’s the fact that ALEX still isn’t playing with a complete roster, and he can’t really start working on a long-plan for the team. The truth is, FNATIC has already went above and beyond, and it’s unrealistic to expect anything from them from this point onwards.

POTENTIAL REALIZED – FURIA

Before Group B started, FURIA was seen as a very competent team that could surprise and steal a spot from the favorites. Instead of being just a “competent” team, though FURIA shown that they can play with the big dogs. More importantly, they proved that while looking good. Rafael “saffee” Costa has shown to be the AWPer this roster needed, and André “drop” Abreu is quickly shaping up to be the ideal support player for this roster.

Now, while both drop and saffee are looking good individually, they have managed to bring back the potential FURIA lost back in 2021. Andrei “arT” Piovezan’s form is returning, and his lurks are once more haunting every opponent FURIA faces. Yuri “yuurih” Boian individual level is also coming back to his old standard, and this makes all difference for this FURIA roster. They are once more diving in firepower, and as always, they have always been able to deliver on the tactical side.

Going forward, it’s unwise to consider FURIA as an underdog as they most did before IEM Katowice. Since then, they proved that they are back at being that dangerous and powerful team that while not able to consistently win against the absolute best teams in the world, is able to challenge them, and are favorites against teams outside of the top five.

Overall, FURIA hosts one of the most interesting riflers in the world in Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato, and it’s great to see him back in a team that can fully use his ability. FURIA is back in contention, and no team is safe from the Brazil’s finest.

ONE OF THE BEST, BUT NOT THE BEST – HEROIC

Heroic’s place amongst the best teams in the world is undisputable. The Danish squad is a force to be reckoned, and besides Na’Vi, there isn’t a team that can consistently beat Heroic. However, it’s undeniable that this roster has stagnated, and their run at the group stage proved that. Right now, this shouldn’t be an issue. Heroic are still expected to make a deep run at this EPL season’s playoffs, but until when this won’t be an issue?

However, Heroic’s future is a matter for another time. Right now, Casper “cadiaN” Møller is leading one of the most structured teams in the world. Again, besides Natus Vincere, Heroic has a fighting chance against any of the top teams in the world. Furthermore, they are the favorites in their bracket of the playoffs to reach the grand-finals. ENCE and NiP could challenge them, but losing for any of these two would be a disappointment. In fact, it could be considered as an early sign that teams are starting to catch up.

Overall, Heroic’s objective here is to show that they are still ahead of the competition. If they manage to win this season of EPL though, especially if they do so while beating Natus Vincere, then the outlook for the Danes certainly would be far better. However, they had a chance to best Na’Vi in their group, and they got demolished.

NORTH AMERICA’S LAST HOPE – TEAM LIQUID

Team Liquid managed to qualify for EPL Season XV playoffs, and they are the only North American team to do so. However, they didn’t impress while doing so, as they got crushed by Gambit’s players and were also beaten by Movistar Riders. The Americans did the bare minimum here, and it’s hard to expect much from the going forward.

As far as positive factors go, Liquid has been looking better than they did in their debut back in January. Richard “shox” Papillon, one of the biggest question marks when this roster first started is slowly improving. His decision-making still is rough, and he clearly isn’t supposed to be a fragger in this team. Still, he is looking far more comfortable in this squad right now. Furthermore, Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski isn’t having the best event in his career, sure. But Keith “NAF” Markovic and Joshua “oSee” Ohm are doing great.

Unfortunately, though, there’s still plenty to work on for this roster. Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella and shox both need to work on their individual level. Team Liquid’s map pool also needs some real work. More noticeably, the team has been struggling to play Ancient, and they are relying on it for some reason. Of course, they have shown improvements on their entire map pool, but Ancient still shouldn’t be one of their picks.

Team Liquid’s first game at the playoffs will see them facing off Heroic. Unfortunately, it’s going to be a massive uphill battle for the North Americans. Unless a worse-than-expected Danish side shows up, it’s very difficult to see Liquid winning. Still, North American Counter-Strike has been living on hope of a better future for a while now. Losing to one of the best teams in the world won’t be that disappointing.

NOBODY EXPECTED THE RIDERS’ ASCENT – MOVISTAR RIDERS

The Movistar Riders’ group was expected to be one of the blandest groups in this season of EPL. Thanks to the Spaniards, though, the group turned out to be quite interesting. In fact, Group C actually featured the biggest surprise we’ve seen in EPL since a while. Things took a turn in the second day of competition, when Movistar upset Gambit’s players, the group favorites.

At the end of the week, Movistar Riders finished Group C in first players after beating every team in there. They had some close encounters, sure, but this doesn’t make their overall achievement any less impressive. As one might remember, just a few weeks back the Spaniards were eliminated from the qualification circuit for the PGL Antwerp Major. 2022 was rough for the Riders until now, but here’s the light at the end of the tunnel. As long as they can keep this level up, they should have a much better year from now on.

But what can we expect from the Spaniards going forward? It’ll be a while until we see them back in the server. Since they finished in first place in their group, they have already qualified for the quarterfinals. Then, they will be facing the winner of the ENCE vs FNATIC game. ENCE are the favorites to make through, and they would also be the favorites in a possible match with Movistar. Yet, the Spaniards have shown that they can be more on the server than they are on paper, and this makes them highly dangerous.

At the end of the day, the theme of Movistar’s run at this season of EPL has been “beating expectations”. Is unlikely that we’ll see them surviving the quarterfinals? Sure. But it was also unlikely to see them beating BIG and Gambit.

KEEPING THE DREAM ALIVE – NATUS VINCERE

Natus Vincere headed for the last group of ESL Pro League Season XV with a lot of questions. After all, the recent world events certainly have been weighting on the players’ minds. Furthermore, they started their group stage run without their captain. Then,iIn their first game, Na’Vi played one of the longest maps in the history of high tier CSGO. They played 71 rounds against AGO. And of course, this certainly didn’t help them clear any uncertainties.

However, under Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev’s leadership, Na’Vi managed to beat both Evil Geniuses and Complexity. This put Na’Vi in a good situation to advance as they had a 3 – 0 record by Friday. On the fourth day, before Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov returned to action, further improving Na’Vi chances. On his first match after returning, Na’Vi had a disputed match against Astralis. That game saw them coming back in an impressive against the Danes to win the series. On their last game, Na’Vi faced Heroic. The Danes were crushed by them, and Na’Vi qualified in first place.

WHAT’S NEXT

Overall, we still need to see more from Natus Vincere with a full roster before we can consider that the team that won the previous CSGO Major is back. Still, their match against Heroic saw a solid Natus Vincere entering the server, and one that is definitely enough to keep the fight for the title of best team in the world going on. Both s1mple and Valerii “b1t” Vakhovskyi are having a great tournament, and watching these two on their best is always entertaining.

Na’Vi is on the second bracket of the playoffs stage. Which means that they’ll be facing the winner of the FaZe Clan vs Players match. This won’t be easy, but much like FaZe, it’s only by facing the best teams around, one after another, that they will keep the dream of having an era alive. Also, facing the more difficult bracket makes lifting the trophy even more rewarding than normally.

ONE LAST SHOW BEFORE CHANGES COME – NiP

While NiP was expected to be one of the advancing teams from Group A, they performed better than most anticipated. The Swedes won their four first matches of the group and only got beaten by G2 in the final game of their group after already having qualified for the playoffs. Now, NiP still is playing with Love “phzy” Smidebrant, but at this point, Hampus “hampus” Poser know very well how to get the best out of this team.

Also, Nicolas “Plopski” Gonzalez Zamora also deserve a shoutout. While he’s the prime candidate to be replaced by Brolan after EPL, he improved considerably compared to last year. Of course, hampus and Fredrik “REZ” Sterner are stealing the spotlights, especially the former. Yet, everyone in this squad deserves praise right now. Especially for their playoffs run.

Back at how NiP did so far in EPL, it’s also hard to ignore how well they’re performing when on the attacking side. This roster has definitely become far better than anyone anticipated back at the start of 2022. Sure, NiP as an organization isn’t wrong in pursuing ways to improve this team, but this team definitely is a high tier team that simply can’t be underestimated.

We’ll be only watching NiP returning to the servers this Thursday, when they will be facing the winner of the Heroic vs Team Liquid encounter. Now, Heroic will be the favorites on paper, but this NiP roster never ceases to impress and as long as Plopski keeps getting better, the Swedes have a good shot at reaching the semi-finals. Will it be hard? Sure. But this NiP roster is playing admirably given the cards they’ve been given, and they aren’t show any signs of stagnancy either.

TIME TO REGROUP AND PLAN FORWARD – PLAYERS

Gambit – which roster is playing in this tournament as Players – are starting to struggle. They’re one of the best teams around right now, and they can put a challenge against any squad in the world. Yet, they have also been looking slightly shaky since the start of the year. For example, nafany is showing more frustration than usual. Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov also haven’t been at his best for a while now, too.

And this is definitely a bummer for a team that had an incredible opportunity at the start of the year. Back then, when Na’Vi kicked off the year by getting beaten by the likes of Astralis and MiBR, Gambit was in a prime position to overtake them. Things changed since then, and now nafany’s squad isn’t in such good position to climb up the rankings. Could they surprise us at the EPL playoffs? Sure, but it’s unlikely considering that they will face FaZe and Na’Vi right after if they win over Karrigan’s team.

Now, while this bit has definitely been mostly negative about Players’ form, don’t let that fool you. They still are a premier team. Sure, If Ax1le and nafany get back to their usual form, then Gambit will certainly be back in the discussion about the teams that could become the best in the world. Still, even now, considering what both them and FaZe showed up at the group stage, they can be seen as the slight favorites going in. This goes to show how strong this roster is: even in a slump. They can still compete against the very best.

ESL PRO LEAGUE RETURNS FOR ITS LAST STAGE THIS TUESDAY

This Tuesday, tune in ESL’s Twitch channel in order to not miss a beat of the EPL XV’s playoffs. The first match will be kicking off at 1:30 PM UTC. Until then – and afterwards, too – make sure to follow us here. This way, you can keep up with everything related to Counter-Strike and various other esports titles.

The post ESL Pro League Season XV Playoffs Preview appeared first on Esports Betting Tips.

Now, Group D promises to be quite the group for fans of North American Counter-Strike, for one. Then, we also have Astralis which is starring their new AWPer. The best team in the world is also returning to action, too. This is a group you won’t want to miss.

So, let’s take this small break at the start of the week and take a look at the storylines to follow in ESL Pro League Season XV’s Group D.

POLISH ASTRONAUTS – AGO

Last year, the lower tier scene of the European competition in Counter-Strike got surprised by AGO. The Polish team led by Denis “Grashog” Hristov managed to win ESEA Premier Season 38 – Europe, and booked a spot for themselves at Pro League 15. Since them, plenty have happened, including roster changes, but AGO is still here.

Now, as impressive as AGO was back then, the Poles haven’t been quite as strong this year. They are the lowest ranked team in HLTV World Rankings in the event besides FNATIC which doesn’t have a rank. Also, out of seven matches they’ve played in 2022, they have only won one, and they got beaten by the likes of Astralis’ academy team and Looking for Org.

Still, much like the aforementioned LFO and Party Astronauts, AGO can still take a lot out of EPL Season XV. For one, due to the group stage’s format, they can face a variety of teams which will give them some much needed experience. Then, this is a LAN tournament, which will also give these players a taste of how the offline environment is.

At the end of the day, there’s no way to expect a lot from AGO here. They are underdogs, and while we’d plenty of surprises in the tournament already, we aren’t seeing miracles yet. AGO is, much like Party Astronauts, a team fighting to take one map away and hopefully, make the most out of this run. Reality can be tough.

A DANGEROUS STEP – ASTRALIS

Astralis is coming to ESL Pro League Season XV with a new AWPer in their ranks. Replacing Philip “Lucky” Ewald is Asger “farlig” Jensen, who previously played for FunPlus Phoenix. Now, this move wasn’t a universally acclaimed roster move by the Danish organization, but it’s one they needed. During Astralis’ latest showings, it became clear that Lucky simply didn’t work under Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander.

However, we can’t pretend farlig will be a massive upgrade over Lucky. The Dane didn’t steal the spotlights in his time with FPP, and this change was certainly made more out of necessity than him being the ideal player that will solve all of Astralis’ issues. Now, Asger could become such player, but he has to prove himself. And it’s here, at EPL Season XV, where everyone will get a first taste of what farlig can do at this moment. It’s too early to judge? Yes. But the RMRs are just around the corner.

THE RIGHT AWPER…

Astralis issues, while not entirely related to Lucky not fitting with the team, were amplified by that. After all, an AWPer that the squad can rely on is a must-have nowadays, and not having one will affect everyone. Still, Lucky can only be blamed for so much. Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth and Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke weren’t performing well before IEM Katowice 2022, for one. They considerably improved at that event, but the question if they can keep that level or better remains.

Moreover, fans are already questioning how much this team is missing their previous coach. Danny “zonic” Sørensen was an essential part of the roster’s success years ago, after all. Perhaps gla1ve is struggling without him in these turbulent times. His individual level, at least, seem to have taken quite a hit recently.

Nonetheless, this is the Astralis we’ll be having in ESL Pro League Season XV. They have shown glimpses of improvement at their showings at Katowice, sure. However, both of the players mentioned above have to shown that they can keep the same levels they shown then. As for farlig, he might need time to fully show what he’s able to do in the server, but right from the bat he’s expected to be an improvement over Lucky. Is that unfair to expect from him? Maybe.

Astralis opening match in EPL XV will see them facing Evil Geniuses, which certainly should be a winnable encounter for the Danes. More importantly, it will be a perfect opportunity for farlig to shine. From that match onwards, Astralis will be facing more and more difficult opponents such as Heroic and Na’Vi, and they will be taking the underdog roles against those squads. What they can truly accomplish here is up to them. Dangerous bet.

SLOWLY GETTING THERE – COMPLEXITY

Complexity didn’t have the start of the year they wanted, but they have been slowly improving since them. During ESL Challenger 48, they managed to win against HEET, and they finished in first place at the open qualifiers for the PGL Major Antwerp Americas RMR after beating Team Liquid. It was a best-of-one series, and one that only mattered for seeding purposes, but still.

We can’t pretend that this roster has figured all the issues they faced earlier on, though. Right now, Complexity still has to figure one of their players’ performances, Paytyn “junior” Johnson’s. The 21-year-old AWPer hasn’t impressed anyone since he joined the team, and Complexity simply can’t afford having him if he doesn’t step-up.

Since we’ve touched on the topic of underperforming players, we can’t ignore Michael “Grim” Wince. The ex-Team Liquid player has failed to impress as Complexity faced mostly lower tier competition so far, and he’s another one that definitely needs to polish his own individual level, too. Still, he has shown improvements since January, while Junior is still being a reliability at times.

LOOKING FOR INSPIRATION

Since Complexity couldn’t attend IEM Katowice 2022, the fifteenth season of EPL will be this roster’s first performance on LAN since the start of the year. This certainly makes this run even more interesting, as there’s a possibility – a small one – that Complexity ends being up Group D’s ENCE or Movistar Riders of their own group.

At the same time, there’s also a possibility – not as small – where Complexity struggles to perform here, too. After all, Junior is already struggling online and it’s not unrealistic to think that he might struggle even more in LAN. It’s unfortunate how much of Complexity’s potential is riding on their AWPer, but at the end of the day, Justin “FaNg” Coakley and Ricky “floppy” Kemery can only do so much.

In any case, Complexity is expected to be one of the three teams fighting for the third place in this group. Their biggest threats here are Astralis and Evil Geniuses, and both won’t be easy opponents to beat, but considering their current form, these are impossible battles either. For Grim and Junior, there has never been a better time to step up and save the week. Rise up.

NOT PAYING OFF – EVIL GENIUSES

Since their debut back in January, Evil Geniuses has failed to impress. Even at the first open qualifiers for the Americas RMR in which EG shouldn’t have issues, they managed to disappoint and failed to qualify back then. The team managed to qualify for the Americas RMR in their second chance, but nonetheless, that first run left everyone with even smaller hopes for this team than before.

Now, Evil Geniuses biggest issue isn’t hard to identify once you watch one of their series. Their AWPer, the once promising Tsvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov, saw his individual form plummet during the online era. The Bulgarian had a disastrous year in 2021. So far in 2022, he doesn’t seem to be in a better form than then.

Unfortunately, CeRq’s form is a major issue, but not the only one with this Evil Geniuses roster. Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte, the other remaining player in this roster from past year’s EG roster, has also failed to impress. He has shown some glimpses of improvement compared to his 2021 form at least, but it won’t be enough for this roster.

THE BET THAT PAID OFF

Evil Geniuses did a number of bets by building this roster for the 2022 season. One was keeping Brehze and CeRq around – and this one isn’t paying off. The second one, though, was bringing Timothy “autimatic” Ta back from VALORANT. This bet, however, has paid off, as autimatic has proved to be in a much better place than when he left Counter-Strike. Moreover, if EG wants to have a shot here, they certainly will be relying on him.

Yet, autimatic is just one player, and as good as he might be, he can’t bring victories for EG alone. Jacky “Stewie2K” Yip is still making some vital plays while he takes the role of in-game leader. William “RUSH” Wierzba, if anything, is doing even better than expected considering he wasn’t the organization first choice for their roster. Yet, none of these players are bringing the frags, or the impact that a premier team needs.

So, this leaves us with an Evil Geniuses which has some good pieces in their roster, but these aren’t from the puzzle. It’s incredibly sad to see how far CeRq has fallen, and it’s even sadder to say this, but so far, he proved that keeping him was an error. Furthermore, there’s a very realistic possibility that this season of ESL Pro League is one of the last tournaments for him in this roster. Desperately hoping for better days.

THE PERFECT OPPORTUNITY – HEROIC

Heroic was one of the most interesting teams to follow back in IEM Katowice 2022. The Danes managed to look almost undefeatable at times, while at others they looked completely flat. It’s definitely difficult to shut Heroic’s main stars such as Martin “stavn” Lund down, but if a team manages to do it, Heroic simply can’t answer, as shown in their game against FaZe Clan.

Now, the big question is, which teams have what it takes to effectively counter Heroic fraggers? FaZe did so back in Katowice, but that team was in a completely different league back then. Team Vitality, Virtus.Pro and others have shown to be unable to do so, though, and this goes to show how well-structured Casper “cadiaN” Møller’s squad is. Heroic is often overlooked – and so are their players – but it’s undeniable how strong this team has become.

As for their hopes in Pro League, Heroic target here is the playoffs. In fact, considering how FaZe Clan, Gambit and VP have performed so far, Season XV is shaping up as an incredible opportunity for cadiaN and his boys to get another EPL trophy. Of course, ENCE and FURIA can’t be underestimated, but FaZe haven’t been the same team from Katowice, Gambit and Virtus.Pro forms aren’t perfect either, and Natus Vincere isn’t the undefeatable beast they once were.

So, it’s not an overstatement to say that Heroic has a golden opportunity at this season of ESL Pro League. The Danes might not be the most popular team around, but they are one of the best. Now, we’ll be seeing whether this team has peaked, or if there’s even more in this roster than what they have shown so far. Go for the gold.

HERE TO COMPETE – NATUS VINCERE

At the end of last year, Natus Vincere was building their own era in Counter-Strike. Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev had just won their first CSGO Major. Natus Vincere looked indomitable at times. Overall, the future just looked perfect for Na’Vi. Unfortunately, though, things didn’t go the way everyone expected.

Back then, Natus Vincere started showing the first cracks. They ended the year by lifting BLAST Premier World Final, but they weren’t quite the undefeatable team they once were. 2022 came, and more flaws showed up. Earlier in the year, Na’Vi was beaten by Astralis, Ninjas in Pyjamas and other teams that were way below Natus Vincere’s level.

Then, IEM Katowice 2022 happened. The team barely survived a scare by ENCE, but managed to reach the playoffs without being beaten once. However, during the event, as we all known, the Russian invasion of Ukraine started, and Na’Vi as a whole was impacted. As you might remember, s1mple gave an incredible speech in stage, and it’s fair to say that the ongoing conflict certainly has everyone in the squad not in their best game.

So, conditions are far from ideal, but s1mple, Valerii “b1t” Vakhovskyi, Andrii “B1ad3” Horodenskyi and the rest of the roster are coming to ESL Pro League to compete, and we have nothing but respect for this. Independent of which Natus Vincere shows up, we can be sure that everyone will be doing their best, and to be quite honest, that’s all we can ask from this team right now. It’s unfortunate, but it can’t be helped.

ESL PRO LEAGUE SEASON XV RESUMES SHORTLY

This Wednesday, ESL Pro League returns as its final matches of the group stage will be taking place until Sunday. In order to keep up with the tournament and everything Counter-Strike, make sure to follow us here.

The post ESL Pro League Season XV Group D Preview appeared first on Esports Betting Tips.

So, without any further ado, let’s take a look at the six teams heading to ESL’s servers this week. This are EPL Season XV Group C.

SEARCHING FOR THE PERFECT FIFTH – BIG

In nowadays Counter-Strike, a team simply can’t have players underperforming or inconsistent if they want to compete at the highest level of the game. Even outside of the top ten, teams are constantly changing their rosters in order to finally find that perfect mix of individual skill and tactical prowess. BIG is no exception to this rule, although they have never truly found that perfect balance. Even when they took the spot of best team in the world back in 2020.

However, the pursuit for the ideal roster still is going on, and BIG just did a second roster change for the 2022 season. This time, Nils “k1to” Gruhne has been demoted to BIG’s academy team, and Karim “Krimbo” Moussa has been promoted. The 19-year-old played his first games for BIG’s main squad during the third open qualifier for the Antwerp Major EU RMR, but his permanent place was only announced this past week.

Now, bringing Krimbo to the main team is definitely an interesting move. He was, after all, BIG Academy’s in-game leader, and having him on the main team open a couple of interesting options. Perhaps the team plans to use him to relieve Johannes “tabseN” Wodarz in his leading duties in order to further improve the team’s firepower. Another idea here – and a simpler one – is that BIG just want more consistency. Something that k1to seemingly couldn’t deliver.

AN IMPORTANT STOP

Nonetheless, ESL Pro League Season XV will be Krimbo’s first LAN with BIG. For Krimbo, it’s a shot to show that he’s the man BIG will want to bring to the upcoming RMR events. For BIG, it’s time to show that they can be a real contender. Earlier on, BIG gave fans some glimpses of greatness as Josef “faveN” Baumann had his first matches with the team. Afterwards, they absolutely failed at IEM Katowice 2022, struggled at the first qualifiers for Antwerp’s RMR events and didn’t do anything at Pinnacle Winter 2.

So, this is BIG’s opportunity to bounce back. Qualifying for the playoffs here – and hopefully going deep into the event – will help them build some much-needed momentum ahead of the RMR tournaments. After all, BIG will be playing at the most stacked RMR event, and a boost in confidence will help. Most importantly, this team needs to show – and know – that this roster works. Sure, EPL is a very important event on its own, but there’s more on the line here. Focus now while thinking about the future.

OPPORTUNITY IN DISGUISE – GODSENT

Earlier this month, GODSENT, the second-best Brazilian team right now failed to qualify for the upcoming RMR events. This means that the Brazilian squad led by veteran Epitácio “TACO” de Melo won’t be attending the next Global Offensive Major. This certainly has been heart breaking for the squad which finished 2021 in a high note after reaching IEM Winter’s playoffs. Furthermore, GODSENT is a team that was constantly improving over the course of the past year, so such a drawback definitely hurts.

Right after failing to qualify for the American RMR, GODSENT announced roster changes. Due to health and personal issues, GODSENT’s star João “felps” Vasconcellos will be leaving the team for the foreseeable future. The 25-year-old had a solid year in 2021, but failed to keep the same level this year. Without their star performing well, and still facing the lack of an AWPer, it’s not hard to understand what happened with the Brazilians.

In any case, GODSENT is bringing a very known name from Brazil to replace felps. After a disappointing year in 2021 and an underwhelming project in 2022, Henrique “HEN1” Teles is back to the big stage – even if just temporarily – with GODSENT. The 26-year-old AWPer was a big part in FURIA’s success before he left the team to play with his brother last year.

TWO BIRDS…

While felps’ situation is unfortunate, it gives GODSENT an incredible opportunity. For one, they will be adding some much-needed firepower to this roster, and in second place, this firepower come in as an AWPer. This GODSENT roster has been juggling the AWPer role since the project came to fruition, and having a proper AWPer will give us a display of how TACO will utilize the role. Of course, if it’s properly used, HEN1 could also help the rest of the team as it will relieve a lot of duties from the riflers.

One can keep speculating about what HEN1 will be doing for this team, but we’ll only know once the squad enters the server this Wednesday. GODSENT’s first series will see them facing Movistar Riders, and this is the perfect test for this roster. Under ideal conditions, the Brazilians would be the favorites. However, Movistar has been improving plenty since the start of the year, and HEN1 is a stand-in after all, making this a good test for GS with an AWPer. Hit, or miss?

THE FIRST SPANISH TEAM TO PLAY IN PRO LEAGUE – MOVISTAR RIDERS

2021 was a year of many firsts for the Spanish Counter-Strike scene. Sure, the most important those is that we had for the first time a fully Spanish team attending a Major, but it was also the first time that such team qualified for a season of ESL Pro League. Yet, while the qualification process happened last year, only now that we’ll be seeing Movistar Riders at EPL Season XV.

Still, as much as Alejandro “ALEX” Masanet’s Movistars have been improving, it still early days. Most recently, the squad managed to qualify for the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown by winning the RPT Arena Spring 2022. However, this result came right after the Spaniards failed to qualify for the Antwerp RMR circuit in a very disappointing fashion. And sure, winning the aforementioned event helps, but missing a Major will always hurt.

However, doing well at such a big event would definitely help them rebuild the momentum lost. In Group C – a group without three clear favorites – Movistar could definitely be the surprises just like FNATIC and ENCE did in the previous two groups. The potential is here, it’s just a matter of making the most out of every flaw their opponents show, and avoid showing their own.

Now, as for the Riders’ chances, realistically, they aren’t favorites, but if there’s one thing we learned in these past two weeks, is that no team is out of contention until the round-robin says so. Hopefully, the squad learned from their disappointing run at IEM Katowice 2022 and has done enough chances to at least put a good fight. Nunca darse por vencido.

THE PARTY CAN’T STOP – PARTY ASTRONAUTS

In late January, Party Astronauts asked for the community for help. The squad – which doesn’t have an organization backing them – needed financial help to bootcamp in Europe for ESL Pro League Season XV and the RMR circuit. Since them, it has been a wild ride for the squad, but at the end the day – and after a lot of uncertainty – they’ve made to Germany and will be playing at EPL 15.

Now, Party Astronauts is coming to this event after going through a rough road, but this didn’t stop them from grinding as much as they could during these past weeks. The squad has been doing fairly well at the North American ESL Challenger League Season 40, qualified for the American RMR with victories over ATK and Evil Geniuses, and overall, just has been a solid team for North American standards.

However, these standards don’t mean anything at Pro League. Party Astronauts is on paper one of the weakest underdogs here, perhaps just ahead of Looking for Org. So, it’s no surprise that much like the Australians, the Astronauts are coming here to get experience both individually and as a team before the RMRs start. Moreover, after everything that happened in February, Party Astronauts has an obligation with the community to make the most out of this opportunity. The calm after the storm.

PLAYERS, ABOVE EVERYTHING – PLAYERS [GAMBIT]

Much like Virtus.Pro’s players which kept their spot in ESL Pro League Season XV by using a neutral name due to the ongoing world events, Gambit’s will be doing the same. Vladislav “nafany” Gorshkov’s team is coming to this event as “Players”. Despite coming to EPL without the Gambit brand, fans are still hoping to see the same fierceness that the roster showed before. The players are clearly fired up to play too, despite everything that’s happening.

Nevertheless, it’s complicated to know what to expect from Gambit’s players at this moment. There’s definitely some extra weight in those players’ minds, but they are also clearly fired up to compete against the best in the world. We simply can’t forget that weeks ago, this team was aiming to retake the top spot in the world rankings. Gambit was the definitive second-best team in the world back then. They were quickly improving their form in LAN events as shown by the early stages of IEM Katowice 2022.

ESL Pro League Season XV will give Gambit a window to show in which state they are in right now. Again, fans shouldn’t take negative results from teams from the CIS region too seriously right now, but that doesn’t mean that rosters from that region will necessarily perform badly. As Entropiq has shown in Group A, these teams can still perform well, and if there’s one team with potential here, it’s Players.

THE ODDS

Even if Players aren’t on their peak, considering the kind of competition they’ll face in Group C, they shouldn’t have issues qualifying. Sure, the previous two groups have shown that what’s on paper doesn’t always concretize in the server, but Gambit should be a league above the likes of GODSENT, Movistar Riders and Party Astronauts. Anything else would disappoint even the players.

But then again, with a roster like this one, Players shouldn’t be having any issues here. Not only this group gives them an easy way to the playoffs, but it’ll also gives them a chance to play on LAN. Such experience is always welcome no matter how experienced you might be, and in Players’ case, they still are improving when it comes to offline tournaments after all. Don’t let the fire die.

THE BARE MINIMUM – TEAM LIQUID

While Team Liquid managed to quickly guarantee their spot at the Americas RMR, this roster has much to prove. Richard “shox” Papillon place in this team still is questionable, and Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella has yet to fully adjust since his return from VALORANT. The truth is: Liquid has managed to qualify for the RMR circuit but that’s the bare minimum. They still haven’t won an official match against a team from outside the Americas, and if this doesn’t change now, the situation will only get direr.

However, unless this roster is worse than expected, this shouldn’t happen. Liquid will be facing BIG and Movistar Riders after all, and at least the latter shouldn’t be a threat for this roster. If they can do more than that and win over BIG, for example, it would definitely be a pleasant surprise. Yet, Liquid will take anything at this point, and as long as they qualify for the playoffs, it should be enough.

The point here is – until when this roster will be content with the bare minimum? This team is the one supposed to be North America’s best, and yet, they’re coming to a tournament where no one’s confident enough to say that they will be definitely winning against the likes of GODSENT and Movistar Riders.

A TEST

ESL Pro League Season XV will give Liquid an opportunity to show exactly what they are able to do. The bare minimum here is qualifying for the playoffs by winning against the underdogs. The ideal result, though, would be Liquid defeating BIG and putting a fight against Gambit. If they can do that, them we’ll be finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel for this roster. If not, the squad’s future will keep being uncertain.

Of course, we also can’t forget about the less positive results. There’s a world that Liquid keeps their loss streak against European teams in this group. In that case, fans of North American Counter-Strike will have even more reasons to worry about this roster. Hopefully that doesn’t happen, but nothing is impossible in Pro League.

At the end of the day, we expect Liquid to qualify for the playoffs at least. Again, this group is fairly open, and there’s three teams that would be considered underdogs against nitr0’s team. It’s easy to remember Liquid’s underwhelming results so far, but we can’t forget the potential this team has. This is a roster with Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski and Keith “NAF” Markovic, two of the finest players in their region after all! Furthermore, Joshua “oSee” Ohm has also been quite good so far. Be unsatisfied.

PRO LEAGUE RETURNS SHORTLY

ESL Pro League returns live this Wednesday, 11:30 AM UTC. The opening game of Group C will see Players facing Party Astronauts. From then on, we’ll be in for another week full of surprises and great games in Counter-Strike.

In order to make sure you won’t miss a beat, make sure to follow us here!

The post ESL Pro League Season XV Group C Preview appeared first on Esports Betting Tips.

While Group B might not be as interesting as the previous one on paper, we can still expect some surprises. With FaZe Clan, FURIA and Team Vitality around, this group certainly will have some explosive matches.

So, without further delay, these are the storylines for the six squads in this group.

ENCE – THE QUICKSAND

ENCE has gone through some highs and lows, and right now, they seem to be in the middle of an adaption phase. The squad was already promising last year, but the team decided to bring in ex-FunPlus Phoenix Pavle “maden” Bošković in order to become even more dangerous. Unfortunately, this move isn’t quite seamless as ENCE wished it to be, and maden will be taking some time to fully integrate himself into the roster.

In the meanwhile, ENCE remains much like the same team we saw at the previous season of ESL Pro League. They are somewhat inconsistent, and there’s plenty of tactical issues with this team, from their map pool to their in-game strategies. However, they also are powerful. Individually, this team has enough firepower to compete with some premier teams, even. Their captain, Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer, also has shown to be able to call very well, adding even more potential to this roster.

Independent of which ENCE shows up at this season of EPL, the Europeans will have an uphill battle here. FaZe, Outsiders and Vitality are the favorites. Then, FURIA is supposed to be the team that will be on the watch, ready to punish any of the favorites to take their spot to advance to the playoffs. Against such roster, ENCE has a lot on their plate, but if there’s one team that can surprise, it’s them.

LOOKING AT THE ODDS

For one, beating FURIA should be a very realistic possibility for ENCE. The Brazilians won’t allow ENCE to have an easy time, but as long as Lotan “Spinx” Giladi and Paweł “dycha” Dycha are on form, and Aleksander “hades” Miskiewicz doesn’t disappoint on the AWP, it’s an open game. Considering that Sprout will be underdogs when facing ENCE, that’s another win for this team.

But them it comes the favorites, which ENCE will be playing in sequence from day one. Unless FaZe underperforms, it’s hard to see ENCE taking them down. Even winning one map will be complicated. Now, considering their latest showing, Vitality shouldn’t be an impossible task, but a difficult one nonetheless. It’s hard, but definitely not impossible to see Snappi’s roster upsetting the Danish-French mix.

However, and before we go deeper on the many possibilities surrounding this roster at Pro League, it can be concluded that ENCE will rely on upsets. It’s not a completely different situation than they faced at the fourteenth season, but they can’t count on a team failing to perform like Astralis did back then. Still, looking at the positive side of things, if ENCE somehow manages to reach the playoffs it’ll be time to start discussing to which tier this team belongs, and it’ll be time to stop calling their victories against high tier teams ‘upsets’.

FAZE CLAN – FAR FROM SATISFIED

FaZe won IEM Katowice 2022 just a couple of weeks ago, and they are back for more. This roster has tasted victory, and if there’s a time to peak and start getting titles under your belt and build momentum, it’s now. And Finn “karrigan” Andersen knows it.

However, for some players in this roster, winning here is more personal than ever. For Karrigan, he will be proving that Katowice wasn’t a fluke, or just a honeymoon win. Håvard “rain” Nygaard couldn’t be present at the playoffs stage in Katowice, so he wants to be here all the way, and show that FaZe won’t be better without him. For Robin “ropz” Kool, the 22-year-old Estonian player wants to make up for the time he wasted on MOUZ last year. For Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken, there’s a very realistic world where 2022 ends with him being the only North American player lifting an international trophy and being the one carrying the flame for the region.

At the end of the day, FaZe is a team full of storylines, and always has been. The difference this year compared to the last is that this time, FaZe isn’t fighting for relevancy. Karrigan doesn’t have to worry about avoiding finishing in last place anymore. Instead, this team is all about making up for the time they lost, much like ropz. This roster works, they know it, and they can very well take the spot of best team in the world.

FAVORITES

FaZe Clan are the favorites to take the first place in their group, unless Vitality shows something much better than they did in Katowice. Sure, one could point that G2 was also the favorites in Group A, but we can’t forget that G2 played most of the event without their in-game leader. So far, FaZe hasn’t announced anything of the sort, so we should be watching the full roster heading to the event.

But, at the end of the day, FaZe has set their eyes on ESL Pro League’s trophy. After all, it has been fourteen seasons and FaZe hasn’t won a single one. It’s time to change that – Karrigan knows it – and this squad is the favorites to do it right now. The only thing able to stop FaZe at this point is themselves.

FURIA – STEP UP

As mentioned above, FURIA is a team that isn’t one of the favorites. However, they will be the one team to eagerly wait to upset one of the big three and take their spot against the odds. There’s no denying that just like ENCE, they will be mostly focusing on Vitality after their last showing, but they will be pushing themselves to the limit against every team here.

In some way, it’s sad to think that FURIA could actually be one of the favorites in this event. Back when Henrique “HEN1” Teles and Vinicius “VINI” Figueiredo were with this roster, they were very close of making themselves a household name among the best squads in the world. After losing HEN1, the squad failed to achieve anything meaningful but a quarter-final finish at the PGL Major Stockholm. Now, FURIA has Rafael “saffee” Costa as their AWPer, and the 27-year-old is an incredible player. However, they have lost VINI, and André “drop” Abreu hasn’t been able to quite fill his shoes.

Still, FURIA is slowly improving and getting back to the point before HEN1 left the team. As seen in IEM Katowice 2022, they got very close against G2. They also gave a masterclass in Overpass against Astralis. The point is, FURIA is a good team. Furthermore, they have potential to be great. ESL Pro League Season XV will be the event to show how far this team is in their improvement process.

FEAR FURIA

ENCE has a lot of potential when it comes to firepower, but FURIA has potential in every area. As mentioned, saffee is showing to be the AWPer this team needs. As for drop, he is adapting to become the ideal support. But then you have the rest of this roster. Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato is the best rifler in Brazil, and is a force of nature on point.

FURIA’s captain, Andrei “arT” Piovezan, is an incredibly versatile player, too, as a second example. Andrei seems able to perform well independent of the pace his team takes. Also, whichever position they need him to be, he’ll do just fine. As for Yuri “yuurih” Boian, he is a strong rifler that might’ve struggled a bit recently. Still, once he picks up, he adds a lot to the squad.

This makes FURIA a team that you simply can’t sleep on, even if you’re FaZe, Outsiders, or Vitality, especially the former two. Every team will be on their limits against the Brazilians, and they only need one opening to take one of the three top spots that lead to the playoffs.

OUTSIDERS (VIRTUS.PRO) – DEFYING CONDITIONS

Teams from the Eastern Europe region are in a difficult situation right now considering the ongoing situation happening there. Still, players from both Russia and Ukraine want to keep competing, and the players from Virtus.Pro are here to show that despite conditions being far from ideal, they still want to perform, and play the game they love professionally against the best in the world.

ESL Pro League Season XV will be the perfect time to do just that. Outsiders is coming to the event as one of the favorites of Group B, and besides FaZe Clan, every other team here can be defeated by Dzhami “Jame” Ali and his teammates. The only question here is, are Outsiders in a position to play their best game?

Once Wednesday comes, we’ll be able to take another look at this team, and only them we’ll be able to know how they are right now. Until then, though, it’s hard to make any predictions for this roster. Yes, this is the same Virtus.Pro that was competing among the best a few weeks ago. But it’s not fair to have high expectations for this roster just now.

SPROUT – ONE STEP AT TIME

Finally, the underdogs of Group B of ESL Pro League Season XV. Sprout, the second-best German team in CSGO, managed to qualify for the event thanks to three players from Extra Salt moving to Complexity and leaving the spot open. While they failed to qualify for this tournament through the qualifiers, they still are a very interesting team that should make the most out of this opportunity.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to expect much more from Sprout than just them being a team looking for experience here. Rasmus “raalz” Steensborg certainly is proving to be quite the leader for this roster, and Timo “Spiidi” Richter’s experience in all tiers of competition certainly brings a lot to the table, but the squad as a whole just isn’t ready to face the likes of FURIA.

Still, Sprout can be proud of attending their first season of ESL Pro League, and hopefully, this is the first of many. Just like Looking for Org did this past week, as long as Sprout takes a couple of maps from the favorites, they can consider their attendance in EPL a success.

TEAM VITALITY – HONEYMOON’S OVER

Vitality is coming to their third event since they brought in Danny “zonic” Sørensen. Emil “Magisk” Reif and Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen. So far, their two results have been quite mixed. They did well at BLAST Premier: Spring Groups, but couldn’t keep the same form in IEM Katowice 2022. In Poland, Vitality disappointed. Besides winning a hard-fought game against MOUZ, they got beaten by Heroic and Gambit. And it wasn’t as closer as one might’ve expected.

During Katowice, the main talking point regarding Vitality is how both teams that defeated them managed to shut down their star. Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut couldn’t do much against either Heroic or Gambit, and the rest of their team failed to step up. It’s obvious that many teams took notes from these games and are hoping to do the same when they face ZywOo. If these teams are able or not, it’s up to the team’s coach, zonic, and their in-game leader, Dan “apEX” Madesclaire.

So, ESL Pro League XV will be the first real test for this roster. Is Vitality able to rely less on ZywOo and still find success? They have dupreeh, at the very least, but both Magisk and Kévin “misutaaa” Rabier will need to step up individually, especially the latter as no one in this team can afford to be “carried” anymore.

ALL OR NOTHING

Right now, Team Vitality is the only one that could challenge FaZe Clan on paper. At the same time, they could also be the perfect targets for FURIA. And losing to them and not qualifying for the playoffs here would hurt a lot. Sure, they aren’t together for more than four months yet. And it was expected that this roster could need some extra time considering the difference between both Danish and French players’ cultures. But even so, not qualifying in this group isn’t a positive result.

At the end of the day, excuses can only go so far. Team Vitality is one of the best squads here, and they should qualify for the playoffs. More importantly, this team might be still coming together. Yet, issues as prevalent as the ones exploited back in Katowice need to be fixed. If this roster keeps relying too much on ZywOo and this becomes their downfall here, they will be facing a very difficult situation ahead of the PGL Major. Antwerp RMR events.

So, ESL Pro League Season XV will put Vitality in a trial by fire. And they have to pass. There’s no Gambit or Heroic in their group, and they have five games to guarantee a spot in the top three. This includes one against Sprout, which should be a given victory already. More importantly, results alone won’t be enough. This team needs to show more cohesion on the server in order to be considered the stronghold Vitality’s supposed to be.

GROUP B STARTS THIS WEDNESDAY

This Wednesday (16^th) at 11:30 AM UTC, EPL XV’s Group B will be kicking off with Vitality and Sprout. From then, until Sunday, we’ll be having three matches from the group each day. The top three teams of the group will advance to the playoffs. Until then, make sure to follow us here!

The post ESL Pro League Season XV Group B Preview appeared first on Esports Betting Tips.

So, it’s time to take a look at the six teams stepping up to the stage this Wednesday. Group A will be kicking off things with a match between G2 and Looking for Org at 11:30 AM UTC. As a reminder, every game in this season of EPL will be played from an ESL studio in Germany. Meaning that all matches will be played in LAN format.

Now, without any further delays, here are the main takeaways from the six squads playing later this week!

ENTROPIQ – OFFLINE HITS DIFFERENTLY

Earlier this year, Entropiq was looking strong. So much, that they were holding the last spot of the top 10 at HLTV’s World Rankings. However, Entropiq lost all of their momentum last month, when they played at IEM Katowice 2022.

To be more specific, Entropiq bombed from the tournament. Besides winning a best-of-three against Renegades, they were defeated by both ENCE and MOUZ with a stand-in. In the following weeks, Entropiq returned to online tournaments, and the team didn’t fare much better, losing to the North Macedonian squad of BLUEJAYS and losing again to ENCE. Sure – they managed to win a couple of matches. But those were far below the level Entropiq is supposed to be.

Now, let’s be clear here. Entropiq mostly reached the top 10 because of how the ranking system works. Roster moves, end-of-year points decay and such all play a part in that, an Entropiq definitely was helped by it. However, that doesn’t change the fact that Entropiq is supposed to be a strong team. They have attended Majors. They have been together for some time now. This team can’t afford to drop of IEM Katowice 2022 before reaching the main stage.

So, coming to ESL Pro League Season XV, Entropiq’s objective here is clear. Prove that they aren’t a team that can only perform online. Prove that they can step out of the shadows of Gambit and Virtus.Pro. It’s time for Aleksey “NickelBack” Trofimov to show that he can lead a team to compete against the best in the world.

UNDERDOGS

Entropiq has a lot to prove, and Group A will be the perfect place to do it. There are three clear favorites to take the spots to the playoffs, and Nickelback’s team isn’t one of them. So, in order to take a step up, an upset against either G2, MOUZ or NiP will be required. Of course, they will also have to best FNATIC and Looking for Org, but that’s way more feasible.

So, Entropiq needs to do some upsets, but do they have a real chance of doing so? They definitely can! Aleksey “El1an” Gusev, Entropiq’s AWPer, didn’t had any issue at Katowice, for one, so we can expect good things out of him. Now, Igor “Forester” Bezotecheskiy and Nickelback certainly are going to need to step up their game. If they don’t, then Entropiq won’t be surprising anyone in EPL.

It won’t be long before we see if Entropiq’s question marks can perform at the level this team needs in EPL. Their first game will be a rematch from IEM Katowice 2022 against MOUZ. This time, MOUZ won’t have a stand-in, so they need to kick off things firing on all cylinders. Unfortunately, considering the ongoing situation involving the home country of most players in this roster, it’s understandable if they aren’t on peak form. It’s unfortunate, but as shown during Katowice by teams like Gambit, players are affected by what’s happening, and it’s taking a mental toll on them.

FNATIC – NO EXPECTATIONS

It’s hard to be excited for this current FNATIC roster. The team’s star, Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin, will only be with the team as a substitute, and their previous AWPer, Owen “smooya” Butterfield, don’t have any ties with the organization anymore. Instead of those two, FNATIC will be fielding two of their academy players. Those are Iulian “regali” Harjău and Peppe “Peppzor” Borak. Now, make no mistake, those are two promising names, but they need more time in the oven. They aren’t ready to compete on the level that a team like FNATIC is expected to play at.

In any case, it can’t be helped. These are the cards FNATIC, and its captain Alexander “ALEX” McMeekin have been dealt. Their objective here is realistically, win against Looking for Org, and try to put a challenge against everyone else. Any win besides LFO could be considered an upset. Unfortunately, unless this team shows something completely different than they did at the open qualifiers for the PGL Major Antwerp: European RMRs, it’s highly unlikely they manage to pull some wins.

Again, it’s an unfortunate situation, but the truth is that FNC is back to the place they were last year before signing ALEX and William “mezii” Merriman last year. At this point, once more we can just hope better days are ahead for this team. For now, though, they probably won’t be achieving much.

FNATIC is set to start their run at EPL Season XV with a match against NiP.

G2 – BACK TO ANOTHER FIGHT

G2 is coming to ESL Pro League Season XV with high expectations. After all, they’ve proven to be one of the best teams in the world already, and time will only help them. For Audric “JACKZ” Jug, Nemanja “huNter-” Kovač and Nikola “NiKo” Kovač, there’s also an extra objective here as they’ll be eager to erase any memories of what happened in the past season of Pro League, when G2 was eliminated in the group stage without a single win.

Of course, there aren’t any obvious reasons for that to happen again. G2 is under new leadership now, and this time, all games of EPL will be played on LAN, which certainly will make plenty of difference. Still, while G2 are looking great and are the favorites of Group A, G2 should’ve it’s fair share of challenges here.

Part of this challenge is coming from the other two contenders in this group, MOUZ and NiP. Both of these teams aren’t in their best forms, but they are still dangerous nonetheless. And then, we have to consider that G2 will be playing, at least for now, without their in-game leader.

STEPPING OUT

Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen tested positive for COVID-19 a day before the tournament starts. In his place, François “AMANEK” Delaunay will be stepping up. AMANEK is a highly capable player, and a very versatile one, too, but missing a player, especially a captain, will always put some extra strain on the squad. In G2’s case, fortunately, they know AMANEK, and shouldn’t have issues integrating him into their game plan.

At the end of the day, G2 will be kicking off EPL in less than perfect form. Even so, considering their group, G2 should make to the playoffs without any issues, and first place still is very attainable for this squad. Also, G2’s first opponent, LFO, certainly will be perfect to help AMANEK settle in until Aleksib returns and adjust themselves so they can prepare for any threat coming later on this week.

LOOKING FOR ORG – ALSO LOOKING FOR AN OPPORTUNITY TO STRIKE

Coming from Australia, LFO, led by Benson “Liki” Niuila, is coming to EPL Season XV, the biggest event they attended in quite a while. Unfortunately, though, LFO hasn’t done very well as of recently. Most recently, the squad failed to qualify for the PGL Major Antwerp: Asia-Pacific RMR, and with that, their hopes of attending the upcoming CSGO Major are over.

Well, their hopes for a good showing at Pro League are still on, but there’s no denying it. It’s going to be incredibly hard for LFO to get a single win in Group A. Even if one puts aside the three favorites, it’s hard to see this roster winning against Entropiq or FNATIC too. When taking in consideration how EPL currently works, nothing short of a miracle run will cut for LFO to reach the playoffs.

Still, it’s not like results are all that matter for teams coming from the APAC region nowadays. Since the pandemic hit, the region has been negatively impacted, and opportunities like these are perfect so these rosters can get some much-needed international experiences. Most importantly, EPL format doesn’t favour LFO’s chances of hitting the playoffs. However, it does allow them to face a variety of squads which will give them some material to study.

It’s a shame to see such promising regions like Asia and Oceania in their current states. Yet, we’re now seeing the beginning stages of their recovery, and it’s only by attending those events, even if these teams are absolute underdogs, that this process will advance forward.

Looking for Org will be facing G2 in their first game at EPL Season XV.

MOUZ – NOW WITH THEIR FULL ROSTER

During IEM Katowice 2022, MOUZ impressed. Many fans had doubts about this roster, these doubts being mostly related to Nathan “NBK-” Schmitt who has just returned from VALORANT. While there are some questions left for this team, it’s now clear that this roster has potential with NBK. Ádám “torzsi” Torzsás has shown to be an incredible pickup for the AWPer role, and they are going to be key for this team’s success going forward.

However, MOUZ left early in Katowice – and they can’t be really blamed for it. The team played with one of their academy players instead of Aurimas “Bymas” Pipiras. Now, heading to EPL, Bymas is back with MOUZ, and this will be the first tournament of 2022 where we’ll be watching what MOUZ’ full roster can do.

Expectations are high. Again, MOUZ did perform well in Katowice, and coming to the opening group of EPL, they shouldn’t have issues getting a spot in the playoffs. Despite G2 and NiP, the remaining three teams will come as underdogs when playing against MOUZ. This means that losing for Entropiq, for example, would already be considered a disappointing result.

Moreover, the pressure is on, especially on the returning player. Jon “JDC” de Castro, the stand-in for MOUZ in Katowice caught the eyes of many then. Now, Bymas is coming knowing that a very capable player is ready to take his place on this roster. Bymas needs to show why MOUZ is keeping him on the main team. He’ll be under the strict magnifying glasses of the community from now. There’s very room for mistake for MOUZ, and even less for Bymas.

We’ll be seeing whether MOUZ can live up to the expectations starting this Wednesday as they take on Entropiq.

NiP – STILL DEVICE-LESS

NiP is coming for another tournament without their main AWPer. It’s no surprise to see Love “phzy” Smidebrant once again taking the AWPer role on the team, but the community is starting to get worried. As for NiP, the team clearly wants to prepare for the future, and this situation is far from ideal.

Still, NiP is actually doing a solid job without their supposed-to-be world-class AWPer. Sure, phzy still is making some beginner mistakes as he adapts to this tier of competition. Also, Nicolas “Plopski” Gonzalez Zamora form, while better, still is far from great. Even so, Hampus “hampus” Poser is putting a colossal effort in the server, Fredrik “REZ” Sterner still is very competent with the rifles, and phzy is actually doing well.

Fortunately for NiP, this group will give this incomplete roster a lot of opportunities, and they should be one of the teams advancing forward in the tournament. We can see them dropping a map to the likes of Entropiq and MOUZ, but anything more than that would definitely raise some eyebrows.

The deal with NiP at this point in time is that, like mentioned above, they aren’t playing under ideal conditions. This roster with Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz wouldn’t be on the same level as G2. Yet, fans wouldn’t have doubts about their chances against a team like MOUZ, for example. Of course, this situation isn’t device or NiP’s fault, but still is disappointing to see the legendary organization falling to reach the standards they set back when they signed the Danish AWPer last year. They should have a roster contending for trophies. Or, at the very least, one able to consistently reach semi-finals.

NiP will debut in ESL Pro League Season XV facing FNATIC.

ESL Pro League Season XV starts shortly

Make sure to tune on ESL’s channels this Wednesday as EPL kicks off then! And in order to not miss a beat, make sure to also follow us here!

The post ESL Pro League Season XV Group A Preview appeared first on Esports Betting Tips.

So, whether it’s a qualifier to a bigger event later on, the start of a new circuit season or a standalone event, we’ve prepared this guide with all of the biggest tournament kicking off this month. As always, there are leagues and championships that already started before March. We won’t be covering those, so don’t be surprised if we don’t mention League of Legends’ multiple regional circuits, for example.

AGE OF EMPIRES

Age of Empires fans will have plenty to watch this month across various titles of the series. The first major event in the franchise starts this weekend, on the 5^th. The N4C is an offline tournament being hosted in Berlin, Germany, and using the 1v1 format. Eight players have been invited to the tournament, and a $100,000 prize pool will be in play. Age of Empires IV will be the game played then.

At the end of the month, AoE IV will be returning for another premier tournament, this time hosted by EGCTV. The Golden League will be starting on March 26^th, and it’ll feature 64 players from all around the world. The event will also be a 1v1 tournament much like the N4C. It’ll feature a $125,000 prize pool.

However, if you’re interested into smaller events, there’s also plenty to follow across March. Regional events for Age of Empires II will be plenty, such as the Argeking77 Cup, as well as the Only Land French Cup. AoE II players will also be having plenty of fun as Masters of Socotra, the Socotra-only tournament returns on the 7^th. 16 players from all over the world will be attending, and $3,333 will be offered as prize.

APEX LEGENDS

APEX LEGENDS fans will be having a quieter month in March of this year. At the start, we’ll be having the Twitch Rivals: Japan Showdown, which is kicking off and ending on March 6^th. It’ll be featuring various key personalities from the Japanese scene of APEX LEGENDS, so if you follow teams like ZETA DIVISION or UUUM, it certainly be worth a watch.

After the Japan Showdown, the next big thing happening in EA’s shooter will be an event hosted by Nerd Street Gamers. The Winter Championship 2022 will be a two-day event starting on the 10^th. It’ll feature 20 teams from all around the world, it’ll be played online and finally, it’ll be packing a $10,000 prize pool.

Once the Winter Championship ends, the ALGS will be all APEX fans looking for top tier esports competition will have for a while. This will change at the very end of the month when the Super League Arena – Finals start on the 31^st. Featuring 20 teams, including the likes of Cloud9, NRG and Renegades, it’ll also feature a $20,000 prize pool.

CALL OF DUTY

The Stage 1 Major of the Call of Duty League 2022 has already started. Featuring most of the big names in the scene, the CoD: Vanguard tournament is being played offline in the United States as usual. Twelve teams are taking part in the event, and the winner will be getting 65 circuit points in the league. Next week we’ll be seeing the start of both European and North American divisions of Call of Duty Challengers Elite League.

Fans of Call of Duty: Mobile will also have some content coming this way later this month. The China Masters 2022 Season 3: Stage 1 Playoffs will kick off on the 25^th, and eight teams will be battling for the ¥150,000 prize pool.

Once the China Masters event ends, it’ll be time for another Major. This time, played online, the Stage 2 Major will once again feature the same 12 known teams in the league, and once more, a total of 245 circuit points will be available.

COUNTER-STRIKE: GLOBAL OFFENSIVE

Counter-Strike truly never stops. It has been just a few days since we saw the end of IEM Katowice 2022, and the scene is already heading to its next premier event. This time, it’ll be the ESL Pro League Season XV. Featuring a $823,000 prize pool, circuit points and a spot at the BLAST Premier World Final, it’ll be a month-long event. The tournament will be kicking off on the 9^th, and for the next four weeks, one group of the tournament will be playing. At the end of the last week, it’ll be time for the playoffs. 24 teams will be competing at EPL, and the tournament will be played offline from an ESL studio in Cologne.

That’s not all CSGO has to offer in March, though. The Pinnacle Cup III series will be kicking off on the 14^th, and it’ll feature 32 teams and a $100.000 prize pool. A mix of interesting teams have already confirmed their presence such MAD Lions, Coalesce and Sharks.

Also, plenty of qualifiers will be running this month. As you may know, the qualifiers for the RMR events which will be taking place in April have already started.

DotA 2

DotA 2 returns to the stage later this month as the second Pro Circuit Tour is set to kick off in all participant regions. On March 14^th, the second division leagues will be kicking off. One day later, it’ll be the kickoff day for the first division of the Chinese, North American and West European leagues. On the 16^th and 17^th, the remaining two first divisions will also start.

The DPC divisions are, as always, month-long events, and these will take most of the space on DotA 2’s schedule. Until these events start, though, fans will be keeping up with the Beyond the Summit events which started in February.

PUBG

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds will be having a busy month this March. On the PC side of the game, we’ve already seen the start of the Champions League 2022 – Spring. The Chinese tournament features a ¥4,000,000 prize pool, 24 teams, and it’s being played offline in Shanghai. The event will only end in April, so there’s plenty of action coming our way.

Later in the month, the PSL Spring Showdown 2022 will also be opening up. The event will be played online in European servers with a €15,000 prize pool. Both the PSL and Champions League are squads FPP tournaments.

As for PUBG Mobile, an even busier month is ahead. In March, PUBGM will be seeing various regions kicking off their Pro Leagues. First, it’ll be time for the Brazilian and Latin American Pro Leagues on the 4^th. Then, the North American and Turk leagues are to follow next on the 21^st. Alongside those, we’re also supposed to see the Pro League CIS Finals this month, but the event has been postponed. It’s unknown what’s next for that region.

ROCKET LEAGUE

Rocket League fans are getting a lot of action later this month. The final Regional Events have come to an end, and all that’s left for the Winter circuit is its Major. The RLCS 2021-22 Winter Major will be played offline, in front of a live audience at the YouTube Theater in Los Angeles. It features 16 teams from all over the world, and a $300,000 prize pool.

If you want to know more about the upcoming Winter Major in Rocket League, make sure to check our coverage here. More to come soon!

SMASH

Fans of the Super Smash Bros. series will also have a Major tournament to keep an eye. The Smash Ultimate Summit 4 is already underway, and it’s being played in Los Angeles. The tournament features sixteen players from all over the world and a $152,443 prize pool.

A week later, another Super Smash Bros. Ultimate event will be taking place, this time in Europe. The Glory 2.0 is being held in Barcelona, Spain, and will kick off on the 12^th. 312 players will be competing for €3,120. On the same day that the Glory 2.0 starts, the Collision 2022 will also kick off in North America. The North Bergen event is set to host 750 players, and 187 doubles. It features a $11,250 prize pool for the main event, and $1,870 for the doubles part of the competition.

STARCRAFT

After an incredible event in IEM Katowice 2022, StarCraft II will be returning for action in March. The most noteworthy event this month certainly is the Global League Season 1: Code S. The event will be taking place in Seoul, feature 20 teams, and a $123,000 prize pool. Per usual, the event will be running on patch 5.0.8. This month we’ll also be seeing the WardiTV Winter Championship starting. Sixteen teams will be attending the online tournament, and they’ll be competing for $3,000

On the Brood War side of the scene, there isn’t much action. The China StarCraft Anchor Qualifying 3: Qualifier featuring 19 squads will be starting on 5^th.

KEEP UP WITH US!

And these are all the biggest, already announced events for March 2022! In order to keep up with everything esports, make sure to follow us here!

The post The Biggest Esports Events Taking Place in March appeared first on Esports Betting Tips.

From its play-in stage through the grand-finals, there’s a number of takeaways from the event to be discussed – and that’s exactly what we’ll be doing here. These are the main takeaways from IEM Katowice 2022 (spoilers ahead, by the way)!

IMMEASURABLE DISAPPOINTMENT – BIG

If you’re a fan of German Counter-Strike, IEM Katowice 2022 won’t be a tournament you’ll be remembering very fondly. While not much was expected from Sprout, the German underdogs which were also eliminated during the opening stage of the event, the same can’t be said for BIG. After a strong showing at BLAST Premier: Spring Groups, an event they attended before heading to Katowice, BIG disappointed massively in Poland.

As for what happened, it’s simple. BIG struggled from their first match, in which they faced Movistar Riders. After a disputed game, they left the server with a win, but it didn’t feel as comfortable as it should. Movistar Riders is a team with massive potential, but not a team that BIG should be getting headaches from. And the worries followed on.

BIG’s next game saw them in a best-of-three series against Astralis. Johannes “tabseN” Wodarz squad had beaten Astralis twice at the Spring Groups, though, and this shouldn’t be an issue for them. Yet, the Danes managed to take that series to the third map, Overpass, and they surprised BIG there. After being defeated by Astralis, BIG still had a chance to bounce back on the lower-bracket of the Play-In stage. This time, they’d face FNATIC.

The English squad wasn’t looking too hot in Katowice at that point, but that didn’t stop BIG from getting beaten. The Germans threw a 3 – 12 score line advantage on the first map of their BO3, and almost lost the series with a 2 – 0 record as FNC mounted a comeback on BIG’s map pick, too. In the decider map – Overpass, once again – BIG had a terrible attacking side. They tried to get back into the game, but FNATIC closed it before their comeback attempt became a threat, and sent BIG home.

CAN’T DROP THE BALL LIKE THIS

For a team like BIG, which is trying to, at the very least, keep their place as one of the best fifteen teams in the world, this result isn’t acceptable. After such a strong showing at the Spring Groups, disappointing at a LAN event like this will be opening more doubts regarding this roster. Nils “k1to” Gruhne, for one, had some great maps in these past weeks. However, he’s becoming a liability for this squad as he’s too inconsistent. As shown in the series against FNATIC, he can be at the top of the scoreboard for BIG in one map and at the very bottom in the next one. This kind of inconsistency simply won’t fly at the level BIG is playing.

Moreover, it’s time to point how BIG is adapting to the return of LAN events. The squad has attended six LANs in the past six months, and their better result was a 3 – 4^th finish at V4 Future Sports Festival. An event which didn’t feature as many high tier teams as the other five tournaments. While both k1to and Tizian “tiziaN” Feldbusch have issues both in online and offline matches, it seems that their struggles are even bigger offline.

Unfortunately for BIG, IEM Katowice 2022 is an event they left with their heads down. They never faced an impossible to beat kind of opponent, and yet they left the event before reaching the main stage. It’s time for them to have a hard discussion about what’s happening before they start getting left behind by the competition. Back to the drawing board.

IMMEASURABLE POTENTIAL – ENCE

ENCE left IEM Katowice 2022 in 13 – 16^th place, but don’t let this result fool you. The squad led by Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer performed well, and it’s clear how much potential they have. Yet, at the same time, it’s also very clear that they aren’t quite ready to compete against the best just yet. And it’s not a simply matter of time either.

ENCE started their journey by taking down Entropiq. With a strong defensive side, ENCE managed to send them to the lower-bracket without any major issues. Unfortunately, OG had their number, and ENCE was sent to the lower-bracket after barely putting a fight. Fortunately for Snappi and his teammates, ENCE had their next opponent’s number. GODSENT managed to win their own map pick, but nothing more than that.

Winning against GODSENT got ENCE qualified for IEM Katowice main event, and there they surprised. ENCE faced Natus Vincere in their first game, and they gave Na’Vi one hell of a headache. Na’Vi crushed ENCE attacking side on Mirage, the first map of their series, but on their own map pick, Nuke, it was ENCE doing the crushing. The series was then taken to a third-map, where ENCE’s fragging trio composed by Lotan “Spinx” Giladi, Aleksander “hades” Miskiewicz and Pavle “maden” Bošković pushed Na’Vi to their limits. Unfortunately, Paweł “dycha” Dycha, which was fundamental for ENCE’s success on Nuke had an off map, and at the end of the day, ENCE was sent to the lower-bracket.

In the lower-bracket, ENCE faced Astralis. ENCE was pushed to their limit in the first map. ENCE won, but Astralis had them exhausted. The Danish squad won the second map and showed why they are one of the most dangerous Ancient teams in the third one. ENCE was then sent home.

SMALL MISTAKES LEADING TO BIG LOSSES

ENCE has a lot of potential when it comes to individuals on this team. For example, dycha. The Polish rifler had a rough time with ENCE in early 2021, but he has been quickly improving. ENCE’s AWPer, hades, has also been quite the player to watch. The 22-year-old struggled in big events last year, but his performance in Katowice was quite the improvement.

However, ENCE is far from reaching their full potential. From players having the same issues as BIG’s k1to where they disappear in key maps, to a map pool that could use some work, ENCE has their work cut for them before they truly start rivalling the best teams in CSGO. As good as some of these players might be, individual power can only take you so high, especially when inconsistency is a factor to be taken in account.

So, ENCE can be proud of what they have accomplished in Katowice. However, they can’t be in no way satisfied with it. They got some highly valuable experience these past weeks, and it’s up to Snappi and coach Eetu “sAw” Saha to best use it. ENCE has an incredibly bright future ahead of them with this roster if they put in the work. Won’t be easy.

FINALLY, CHAMPIONS – FAZE CLAN

Finn “karrigan” Andersen and the rest of FaZe Clan’s Counter-Strike division have to be incredibly proud of what they have done in Katowice. Against the odds, this squad rose, whether they had their full team in the server, or a stand-in. After a long, rough year in 2021, it was no surprise to see the smiles of FaZe players lifting the trophy this Sunday, either.

Now, we’ve discussed FaZe’s journey up to the group stage, so let’s focus from the quarter-finals onwards. First and foremost, it needs to be said that FaZe had a spectacular playoffs run. The squad didn’t drop a single map against Gambit, Heroic and G2 after all. Most noteworthy, they demolished Heroic which up to that point, was looking very strong too – more on that later. G2, the other finalist, gave FaZe a challenge. Unfortunately for them, the trio of Helvijs “broky” Saukants, Robin “ropz” Kool and Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken gave them a taste of what they’re capable of together. As great as G2’s stars – or any other team for that matter – can be, it’s going to be hard to beat these three.

Talking about broky, the Latvian AWPer is also proving to be quite the gem for FaZe. Not that his usefulness for this team was ever in question, but since ropz joined he has been unleashed. Last year, his performances on Ancient were highlighted, but this year, no matter the map, he’s delivering the goods. Now, can you imagine if this FaZe becomes comfortable enough to bring Ancient against the likes of Gambit?

STAND UP

With Ancient or not, FaZe is one threatening squad at the moment. And let’s not forget about the stand-in situation. Justin “jks” Savage was incredible, no questioning that. Standing for two players in different roles, and doing so looking good proved that he’s the one benched player every team on the lookout should be sending offers to. However, as good as jks is, playing with a stand-in just isn’t ideal. Which makes this victory even more great for FaZe Clan.

Now, FaZe won’t be have much time to commemorate this win as their next challenge draws closer. However, with this performance, everyone will be looking at FaZe which very different eyes. In these past months they went from a disappointing team missing a piece of the puzzle, to a promising squad with ropz, to a real contender. So, it’s fair to say that expectations have just turned up to eleven. Everyone will be expecting a great showing from FaZe in EPL Season XV, and that’s justified.

Back to jks, FaZe’s stand-in for Katowice, we can only hope the Australian will find a home soon. His time in Complexity simply didn’t make justice to all of his talent, and he made the best out of this opportunity in Katowice. Congratulations to FaZe, and congratulations to jks, too! I can’t believe he isn’t signed yet!

BE SAD IT’S OVER – FNATIC

FNATIC didn’t had the easier time in IEM Katowice 2022, but no one expected the squad to simply break afterwards. Unfortunately, that’s what happened, and this event will be the last time – at least for the short while – where we’ll see that promising, mostly British roster rising against the odds.

Let’s not pretend for a second that Alexander “ALEX” McMeekin and his teammates had an excellent event. The squad started their run by being defeated by Copenhagen Flames once again showing that their defensive side had too many flaws. They managed to bounce back by eliminating Wisla Kraków, and then BIG, but none of these matches saw a really impressive FNATIC. That would change in the group stage, though.

In FNATIC’s opening match of the group stage, they faced G2, and they won. The Brits were demolished in their own map pick, but took G2’s to take the series to a third map. Then, thanks to ALEX precise calling and William “mezii” Merriman taking the charge, FNC upset the favorites. FaZe was next, and unfortunately, ALEX’ crew got demolished on their own map pick. Once more they recovered by taking FaZe’s pick, but they were no match for Karrigan and Twistzz on the decider map.

Finally, FNC faced Astralis in the lower-bracket. Once again, FNATIC couldn’t win on their own map, but managed to take their opponent’s map to take the series to a third map. They managed to take Ancient to overtime, but Astralis always felt like the more comfortable team there, and managed to win the game.

WHAT’S NEXT

Differently than FaZe, G2 or even BIG, this FNATIC doesn’t have a future. It’s over. As announced by the organization, the organization benched their AWPer, Owen “smooya” Butterfield first. The Brit was struggling since the start of the year in the squad, and it certainly didn’t help that he became aware of his upcoming move to the bench before the tournament was over.

The even worse news for FNATIC fans came after that, though. It was revealed through various sources that Ninjas in Pyjamas is looking to acquire Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin. The Swede has been the star of this team for a while, and losing him is a major blow for the squad. He has benched himself for the time being, and the squad had to take two players from their academy team to complete the roster.

It’s sad that this was the end of one of the most promising FNATIC rosters they had in the past year. For now, the team can only hope they manage to qualify for the upcoming RMR events. They have failed in their first try, but there’s three more chances ahead of them.

A WIN NONETHELESS – G2

G2 is leaving Katowice with their hearts broken. They reached the grand-finals of IEM Katowice 2022, but couldn’t cross the finish line against FaZe. This defeat definitely hurt the squad and their fans, but it’s far from a disappointment. What G2 did in Katowice definitely has to be considered an achievement when we look at the big picture.

When I mention the “big picture”, I’m talking about the current G2’s situation. It’s easy to forget that this squad doesn’t have even three months since they got together. Also, it’s not difficult to forget that their AWPer, Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov, just attended his first premier LAN with a live audience. It’s also easy to forget that G2’s captain Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen spent the last year playing in a team that refused to work together for various reasons. Yet, here they are, finalists.

Now, this isn’t saying that G2 had a perfect campaign in Katowice. The squad faced various issues across the group stage. For one, their match against FNATIC on Inferno had Aleksib completely out called by FNC’s captain. FURIA also managed to make the team look very uncomfortable on Mirage. G2 over-relied on Nikola “NiKo” Kovač at times, and that’s a bit worrisome, too.

Still, as many issues as this team has, there’s time to solve them. As shown by them in the playoffs, this squad already looks better than they did in the group stage. And we can’t forget that G2 actually went to the playoffs without their coach! Rémy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam tested positive for COVID-19 and had to take a break. The news came just after the coach received high praise from NiKo for his ability to bring the team together when things get difficult. His absence definitely hurt G2 chances at the end of the day.

KEEP FIGHTING

For G2, all they can do at this point is take the experience they got in Katowice and keep fighting. They are heading to the ESL Pro League next, and we expect to see a much more confident and solid-looking team from their first game there.

But if anything, they can be very proud of what they have done this past weekend. Both as a team and individually, too! Their AWPer definitely went above and beyond during the playoffs, and Nemanja “huNter-“ Kovač stepped up when his cousin couldn’t. NiKo had an off day at the grand-finals, but until then, he was definitely the one pushing this squad forward. At the end of the day, G2 is a team made to be successful, and they will. It’s a matter of time.

LOVE DOING HIS BEST – NINJAS IN PYJAMAS

Lastly, we have to talk about the Ninjas. NiP came to IEM Katowice 2022 with mixed expectations. Also, once more, without their AWPer, Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz. Sure, their current AWPer, Love “phzy” Smidebrant is doing everything he can to not disappoint his teammates. Yet, it’s undeniable that he isn’t ready for competing against the likes of broky or m0NESY.

Nonetheless, that didn’t stop NiP from having some great showings in Katowice. The team took down Wisla Kraków in their opening game, but was stopped by Copenhagen Flames afterwards. In the lower-bracket, NiP faced Movistar Riders and demolished the Spaniards to send them home.

At the group stage, NiP started right of with a bang. The squad faced Gambit, one of the favorites back then, and took them down. They managed to best Gambit in Ancient after a massive comeback led by Hampus “hampus” Poser and Nicolas “Plopski” Gonzalez Zamora. Then, Gambit took back the control of the game in the second map, and took the series to its decider. There, it was phzy’s show. The young AWPer paired with Fredrik “REZ” Sterner and hampus to shut Gambit down in an impressive showing.

NiP then faced Virtus.Pro, and the Swedes couldn’t hold the CIS plow. After being sent to the lower-bracket, they faced the impressive MOUZ we saw in Katowice, but the Europeans were no match for NiP. The team advanced after beating MOUZ with a 2 – 0 record, and faced Gambit once more. This time, Gambit made sure to shut phzy and only hampus did damage against them. It wasn’t enough, and NiP was sent home.

ROSTER MOVES ON THE WAY?

Now, phzy is a young player. He’s set to make mistakes as he faces the best teams in the world at this point of his career. The team will undoubtedly receive an upgrade if dev1ce gets back. Especially if he brings with him his form from 2018 or 2019. However, phzy isn’t NiP’s biggest issue right now. Unfortunately, Patrick “es3tag” Hansen, the team’s support player isn’t bringing the frags, and Plopski keeps struggling with his consistency. You simply can’t have your second rifler struggling like that when you also have a support player like es3tag.

As mentioned above, though, it seems that NiP is looking to do some spicy roster moves. If the rumors are to be believed and they are interested in FNATIC’s Brollan, then we could see Plopski getting replaced. Bringing Brollan to this team would most likely take this NiP from a team gate-keeping the top 10 to one challenging to break the top five. Once dev1ce returns, the sky will be the limit for this roster.

Until the rumors get confirmed, though, NiP is a team trying to do the most they can with the cards dealt to them. And when you see their situation like that, they have been doing fairly well. They might have left the tournament earlier than they would’ve liked, but it was a solid effort.

FINAL THOUGHTS

IEM Katowice 2022 was an incredible tournament, and once more, I’d like to congratulate FaZe Clan on their win. It was a colossal effort and an even bigger achievement for this roster.

Now, as you might’ve noticed, no team from the CIS region were given their own space in this article. The reason for that is that the form they shown at the playoffs shouldn’t be completely taken in account. Players from Gambit, Natus Vincere and Virtus.Pro certainly have a lot in their minds right now. And it definitely weighted on them. For Andrii “B1ad3” Horodenskyi. Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, and Valerii “b1t” Vakhovskyi, we have nothing but respect for the strength they have demonstrated over the entire tournament, both in the server and outside of it. It also goes without saying that all the empathy and support being shown from their colleagues is nothing short of beautiful. We hope for the best for these players and their families and friends.

The post IEM Katowice 2022 – Post Tournament Takeaways appeared first on Esports Betting Tips.

So, in order to get ready for one of the biggest Counter-Strike events of the year, here we are. This is everything you need to know about IEM Katowice 2022 playoffs, as well as the key storylines of this part of the tournament.

THE PLAYOFFS

The final stage of IEM Katowice 2022 is set to start this Friday (25^th), at 2:30 PM UTC. You can check which time that is in your zone through here. Opening the tournament in Spodek will be G2 Esports and Virtus.Pro. Which are going to be followed by FaZe Clan and Gambit to complete the quarter-finals.

As for the event format, the playoffs run a single-elimination bracket. The top teams of each one of the two groups from the previous stage have advanced directly to the semi-finals. These are Heroic and Natus Vincere. The remaining four teams listed above have finished their groups in second and third-place, and will have to play in the quarters before anything. All matches are best-of-three series until the grand-finals, which is a BO5 game. The grand-finals will be taking place on February 27^th, and it will start at 4:00 PM UTC.

Finally, the winning team will be taking home $400.000. The champions will also be getting 1800 points at the ESL Pro Tour circuit, and 3200 points for the BLAST Premier circuit. Now that we’ve the tournament details set in stone, let’s take a look at the storyline happening in Katowice this weekend!

HOW FAR CAN YOU GO? – FAZE CLAN

The guys from FaZe Clan can be quite proud of what they’ve achieved so far in Katowice. The squad led by Finn “karrigan” Andersen started their run in Katowice from the very start of the event at the Play-In stage, and they had to field a stand-in back then. While Justin “jks” Savage was great, playing with a stand-in, as good as they might be, always put a strain on a team. Nonetheless, FaZe Clan held their own with jks until Robin “ropz” Kool was cleared to play, and now the dangerous FaZe we saw at the BLAST Premier Spring Groups is back.

Yet, back then, we only saw a glimpse of what this FaZe roster can do. As we saw in their latest game, in which they faced Natus Vincere, this team is already showing further improvements. Surely, they couldn’t cross the finish line last week against the best team in the world, but they pushed them to the limits, and that’s a feat on its own. FaZe is looking great, and as long as the whole squad goes to the Spodek, they are a contender.

PUSHING AND BEING PUSHED

But it’s at the Spodek that this squad will be put to the limits. Surely facing Na’Vi was already a test, but now, there’s no room for mistake. They aren’t playing for getting a better placement in the next stage. This time, being defeated means being sent home. It’s up to FaZe to show how far they can go against the best teams CSGO has to offer right now at the biggest stage Counter-Strike has been in over two years.

At the end of the day, being sent home in the quarters won’t be a shame for FaZe or anything like that. It might be disappointing for fans after all effort everyone in the team has put, but nothing more. But here’s the thing: this FaZe team finally has the potential to be more than a “quarter-finals team”. They have found the right roster to dispute trophies, and there’s no better way to prove that than beating Gambit. Spodek is FaZe’s opportunity to break through the best teams in the world once more, and perhaps realize that this roster can achieve the ambitions Karrigan first had when he was brought to the organization back in 2017. Be proud of what you’ve achieved so far, but not satisfied.

NOTHING COULD STOP THEM FROM BEING HERE – G2

G2 had quite a rough road to reach the playoffs of IEM Katowice 2022. The squad kicked off their run from the group stage, and they were immediately surprised. After being sent to the lower-bracket by FNATIC, G2 managed to dominantly eliminate Team Liquid, but once again didn’t have a clean game against FURIA. Astralis was no match for them either, but even the shaky Danes were able to take a map of this team.

And the community couldn’t help but comment on what they were seeing in this squad. Once more, it was up to Nikola “NiKo” Kovač to bring this team through the finish line. Once again, it was NiKo’s show, for better or for worse. The difference this time around is that G2 has players that should be able to help him, but weren’t quite as effective for one reason or another. Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov, G2’s new prodigy AWPer, for example, is starting to show his lack of experience against high tier teams.

Yet, as difficult as things might have turned out to be, G2 managed to reach Katowice’s playoffs. And let’s not forget how they did it – by crushing Astralis in the two final maps of their series. G2 has shown that they will struggle at times when it comes to tactics, but if you don’t have the firepower to compete with them, you’ll be facing a very difficult task. That, alone, makes them worth of being here.

GOING FORWARD

However, from this point onward in Katowice, there’s no more Astralis. There won’t be a struggling Team Liquid or FURIA either. G2’s first opponents in the playoffs, Virtus.Pro, will already test them both in the firepower department and tactical side of their game. Their new AWPer, m0NESY, will have a major headache to deal with as he competes with Dzhami “Jame” Ali. NiKo is the best rifler you can have on your team, sure, but Evgeniy “FL1T” Lebedev and Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis aren’t half-bad either.

Let’s not forget about G2’s captain, Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen, either. He built himself a reputation years ago, but reaching the playoffs at Katowice already is one of his biggest achievements since after his time at ENCE. Does he still have enough to micro-manage the non-star players of this squad and keep G2 ahead of Jame’s VP?

All questions we have for G2 will be answered this Friday, at the opening match of the IEM Katowice 2022 playoffs. NiKo wants that trophy, but is this new G2 squad already ready to compete for trophies? Are your strengths enough to cover your weaknesses?

COMING FOR YOU – GAMBIT

The defending champions of IEM Katowice 2021 are going to the Spodek to defend their title. More importantly, there are here to show that this team is one of the best in the world, no matter whether is online or offline. While Gambit lost a bit of momentum once LANs returned last year, the Russian powerhouse is now getting used to the environment, and they are doing much better on it. However, things change now, as this is only Gambit’s second showing in front of a crowd, meaning that while they might be used to LANs, crowds are still a new element to most of this roster.

Yet, if there’s one team that is seemingly incredibly quick to adjust, it’s this Gambit roster. Their coach, Konstantin “groove” Pikiner has shown to be quite the asset. He was key on helping this team improve in offline events for one. Most importantly, he seems to be in perfect sync with Gambit’s in-game leader, Vladislav “nafany” Gorshkov. This means that while some teams would crumble given the pressure surrounding them coming to the Spodek, Gambit has the structure needed to support it. Furthermore, this structure is so well-made that it’ll give Gambit a major advantage over most teams around.

FAVORITES

If not by Natus Vincere, Gambit would be the clear favorites of their side of the bracket in the playoffs. Even with Na’Vi around, though, they still are a team that no one would be surprised of seeing at the grand-finals. With Natus Vincere starting to show up cracks, Gambit is in the perfect place to punch through those and break the stronghold of their rivals.

It’s obvious that this is exactly what nafany and his teammates want, too. As many should remember, during the first half of 2021, these two teams had a rivalry going, until Na’Vi went one march ahead of them and Gambit was left behind. Now, the exact opposite is happening, and Katowice is the place where Gambit can show that they have caught up to Na’Vi and now have the lead.

If Gambit manages to prove that, then they will definitely be the favorites heading into the grand-finals. However, let’s not start thinking too far ahead, right? First and foremost, Gambit has to assert that they are the better team over FaZe. And that alone will be a difficult task. They are the slight favorites going into that game, but FaZe has shown to be able to pack a punch, and they will put Gambit to the test. Step up ahead.

SLEEPER HIT – HEROIC

For some reason, when the conversation about the best teams in Counter-Strike right now comes, Heroic is often missing. Sure, they had a rough end of year in 2021, and they aren’t yet on a point to be the absolute best team in the world. Even so, the efforts put by Casper “cadiaN” Møller and his boys have to be acknowledged at this point. Sure, Heroic has some controversy surrounding them, but after everything that happened last year, it’s fair to say that they are here to stay.

Of course, all of Heroic accomplishments are thanks to the effort from all players and their support staff, but it’s hard to not highlight some key elements of this team. Martin “stavn” Lund has been giving some fundamental firepower for this roster, especially in Katowice so far. Rasmus “sjuush” Beck has also been doing an excellent job as a role-player. Together with cadiaN popping off every now and then – or at the very least doing the essential with the AWP – this team seems to be in perfect synchrony.

BRIGHT FUTURE AHEAD

Heroic has already impressed in IEM Katowice. The squad crushed both Team Vitality and Virtus.Pro during the group stage. With those wins – and in the way Heroic achieved then – the Danish squad now has plenty of eyes on them. Yet, as great as Heroic has done so far, they are yet to face their biggest opponent in Katowice. Whether they face FaZe or Gambit in the semi-finals, that will be Heroic’s hardest opponent yet. Gambit, especially, will be quite the headache for cadiaN & co.

However, nothing is impossible, especially here in Katowice where no team in the playoffs have a clear advantage over another. And those are the conditions that gives teams like Heroic an opportunity to prove that they are a team worth of being considered one of the best in the world. For Heroic, doing well here is about the prestige above anything else. It’s time for them being more than a sleeper hit, whether it’s online or offline. Keep overlooking them and see what happens.

HOW ARE YOU? – NATUS VINCERE

Natus Vincere finished 2021 as the best CSGO team in the world, but they have been slowly losing their momentum. Since the last couple of months, Na’Vi still is a favorite to win trophies, but they aren’t quite the undefeatable beast they looked like before.

So far in IEM Katowice 2022, Natus Vincere has looked far better than they did at the Spring Groups, but not as good as they once did. As shown in their game against FaZe Clan, they can have their players shut. Now, Kirill Sergeevich “Boombl4” Mikhailov is certainly a solid captain, but he isn’t quite on the same level as nafany or NiP’s Hampus “hampus” Poser. Hence, when one of Na’Vi stars is shut down, Boombl4 don’t have quite the ways to circumvent that.

Yet, it’s not like it’s easy to shut Denis “electroNic” Sharipov, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev or Valerii “b1t” Vakhovskyi. Not matter how negatively you look at this roster, these three players, when on point, won’t be broken by any other team around. And if one, or even two of them are having a quieter game, the remaining star can take the game on their own. This is the kind of player Natus Vincere has, and why they are so dangerous.

POSSIBILITIES

It’s easy to start looking too much into Natus Vincere performances at BLAST Spring Groups. When doing that, we forget how indomitable this team has looked. And sure, other teams have started planning against them, but even so, no one has figured how to consistently stop the entire Na’Vi squad.

Nothing but the trophy is acceptable for this Natus Vincere. Fans certainly won’t consider a disappointment if they lose to Gambit or finish in 2^nd place, but after all this roster has accomplished, there’s no other acceptable result than first place.

UNDERDOGS AMONG THE BIG DOGS – VIRTUS.PRO

It wouldn’t be surprising if in a pool questioning which of the six teams in the playoffs have the least chances to win IEM Katowice 2022, Virtus.Pro ends up in first. The CIS powerhouse just won ESL Challenger #48 before coming to Katowice, and they started strong in Poland, too. However, after getting beaten by Heroic, some doubts about this roster started to pop up. Sure, VP seems to be comfortably against teams like Copenhagen Flames, but do they have enough against more structured rosters like Gambit?

Yet, as better as the other contender in the playoffs might look, we cannot discard VP. Jame, the team’s captain, surely has his own style of AWPing – a very passive one – but it works. As mentioned above, FL1T and YEKINDAR are some of the best riflers the CIS region has to offer, and they have yet to show what they can truly do here. Timur “buster” Tulepov has also been playing fairly well so far, making this roster even more dangerous.

Virtus.Pro success – or lack thereof – in the playoffs, is a matter of how far they current structure can take them. They will be facing G2 in their opening match, which actually will be a fairly good test of this roster. Much like VP, G2 seems to be struggling to control some maps, and they often rely on firepower. Which team will manage to more efficiently deploy their guns?

MORE THAN ENOUGH

Gambit, Heroic and Na’Vi are still aiming at the trophy of IEM Katowice 2022. Virtus.Pro in the other hand, might have gotten a reality-check during their game against Heroic, and reduced their expectations. While a tad disappointing, this isn’t unexpected, as this team flaws on the tactical said become more and more prominent. It’s clear that teams like Heroic and Gambit will be exploiting them to break the FL1T – Jame – YEKINDAR formation. Other teams like Natus Vincere, will be able can overwhelm them with firepower.

So, for Virtus.Pro, a playoffs finish is enough. They managed to beat the teams they should be beating after all. Unless their defeat to Heroic was just the result of a bad day – which is unlikely – it’s hard to see Virtus.Pro winning a game in the playoffs. And for a team that’s aiming to be the gate-keepers of the top five, this is fine. Is it satisfying? Absolutely not. Bound to hit their limits.

IEM KATOWICE RESUMES THIS FRIDAY

Counter-Strike fans will be rejoicing shortly as IEM Katowice returns. This time, at the Spodek arena. And with a live crowd!This certainly is the esports event no one will want to miss in February. So, in order to keep up with the latest news, make sure to follow us here!

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