ESL One New York, one of the premier tournaments for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive esports, has officially announced the eight teams that will participate in the competition that runs from Sept. 26-30. The teams are FaZe Clan, Fnatic, G2 Esports, Team Liquid, Mousesports, Natus Vincere, Gambit Esports and NRG Esports. These eight teams will be battling it for a prize pool of $250,000 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
The ESL One New York comes at an exciting time because only a few days prior is the final day of a major tournament, FACEIT Major: London 2018, which seven of the eight teams competing in the ESL One will also be at the FACEIT Major in London. This will make it interesting for betters and anyone seeking CSGO betting tips because you will have to wonder if any of these teams will be playing at a lower level due to the quick turnover from events.
The tournament will split the eight teams into a four-team group with the top two teams from each group advancing to the semifinals. The group stage matches are all best-of-three matches. The first-place team of group A will go on to face the second-place team from Group B, while the leader of Group B will play against the runners-up of Group A in the semifinals. The semifinal matches are best-of-three matches, and the grand final is a best-of-five.
Natus Vincere should be considered one of the favorites at the event based off their recent success. In the new HLTV rankings, Natus Vincere ranks No. 2 in the world, only behind Astralis. Navi has come in first place in three events this year – StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 5, CS:GO Asia Championships 2018, and ESL One: Cologne 2018. Navi also had won this event before, as they were champions of ESL One: New York in 2016.
FaZe, Liquid, and Mousesports will be three other teams to look out for at the event. FaZe, the reigning champions of the event, ranked No. 3 in the HLTV rankings and has won the ESL One: Belo Horizonte 2018 and the Intel Extreme Masters XIII – Sydney. Liquid currently ranks No. 4 and won the cs_summit 2 and came in second place in three premier events. Rounding out the group is mousesports, as they rank No. 5 and have won the StarLadder & i-League StarSeries Season 4 and the V4 Future Sports Festival – Budapest this year. Mousesports also earned a second-place finish at the ESL One: Belo Horizonte 2018.
As anyone that competes in anything, upsets can happen at any level of competition whether it’s in traditional sports or esports. It’s the same with competitive CS:GO and fnatic, NRG, G2 and Gambit winning the event would be considered an upset based off their recent rankings. Fnatic and NRG rank No. 8 and No. 9, respectively. G2 ranks No. 12 and Gambit is the lowest ranked team at the event at No. 18.
ESL One: New York is the final tournament of the ESL One circuit for the year, which can make for some exciting gameplay for fans watching in the Big Apple or fans watching around the world. All eight of these teams have a legitimate shot of being crowned ESL One: New York 2018 Champion.
