The world of professional Counter-Strike is constantly moving. The players on the world’s top fifty teams are always traveling from this tournament to that one, competing in online qualifiers and then departing again. It has been remarked that sometimes this makes quality practice sessions very difficult to come by. We see this frequently where new players are added to the roster and yet it will take seemingly months before a new player ‘fits’ in with his role. CSGO today is more competitive than it has ever been, and that requires superior teamwork than ever before. Let’s take a quick peek at some of the upcoming schedules.
Currently running are both the ESL Pro League Season 10 competition and the ECS Season 8 competition. These similar leagues somewhat monopolize the CSGO calendar twice a year. Teams play each other in groups to qualify for the LAN stage and huge prize pools. As esports betting is now a huge mainstream fixture, you can look at betting on your favorite CSGO team at one of many online sportsbooks. It is recommended to take a look at the format of the leagues before placing any money on the matches. Sometimes teams are already technically eliminated from the later stages so have very little to play for.
The ESL Pro League Americas conference has completed two of its four groups. The third and fourth are set to begin through the final two weeks of October. Liquid is the clear favorite to take Group C and it is extremely unlikely that they drop a map. That said, they have been somewhat slumping lately losing to several different teams, some of which they were heavy favorites against. At Dreamhack Malmo they lost to Grayhound Gaming out of Australia. In the entire history of Grayhound as an organization they had never beaten a top-five team. That said, Liquid would truly have fallen off the map if they do not top their group this week.
Group D features a hodgepodge of lesser-quality talent from the North and South American region. The betting favorite is without a doubt Sharks who have been somewhat in the form before and after the Major. They did make some roster moves after their elimination from the Berlin qualifying stages, however, they have seemingly gelled quite quickly. That said they are not in any position to take a map off as the other three teams in their group are very capable in beating them. It features two other South American teams; Isurus, comprised of a full Argentina squad and Infinity, from Columbia. It might be best to hold off betting either of these teams until we see how they are performing at this event after day one.
The ECS Season 8 features a very different format from ESL Pro League. Through a number of trials, teams will qualify or be recycled back into the next iteration of the competition. Each trial is comprised of a bracket where the top teams make it to LAN to compete in the huge prize purse. Some huge names are competing this week in the Americas division – Furia, Cloud9, Complexity and Evil Geniuses are the clear favorites in their opening matches. Evil Geniuses recently acquired the former NRG roster and won their first quality international LAN, ESL One New York. It was a very impressive victory over world number one, Astralis. Regardless of which league you decide to spectate this week, it is worth doing some research into the teams’ strongest maps. The thrill of winning money on a brilliant clutch by the world’s best teams is worth it!