The preview of ESL One New York 2019

Astralis (a place in the rate by HLTV — #2)

The Danish team, despite is not on the top of the world rate, has a right to have the status of the main favorite, in our view. The reason is Astralis’ gaming shape. gla1ve with his teammates have shown an incredible performance at the recently finished StarLadder Berlin Major 2019 and placed first. It’s worth to notice that AVANGAR won 5 rounds on one map and 6 on the other one in the grand final. It reflects that the Kazakhs literally were not able to oppose to their Danish opponents and Astralis is in a nice gaming shape. If they have had a chance to rest and prepare for a trip to New York, they will win another trophy. We think that this team will definitely make it to the grand final. Astralis got in Group B where will fight with FaZe, NRG Esports, and OpTic. Only NRG can be a serious danger for them, however, the Americans lose to Astralis in terms of gaming level, just like the rest of the representatives of Group B.

The roster of Astralis and the players’ rate:

Nicolai ‘dev1ce’ Reedtz — 1.21Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen — 1.15Andreas ‘Xyp9x’ Højsleth — 1.18Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander — 0.98Emil ‘Magisk’ Reif — 1.16Danny ‘zonic’ Sørensen — a coach

Team Liquid (a place in the rate by HLTV — #1)

Twistzz and his teammates are the second contender to win ESL One New York 2019. Liquid lost in the quarterfinal of the Major tournament, however, it’s not worth to write this team off because they have already won a lot of solid trophies in 2019 and has become the team with the biggest prizes won for some time. If Team Liquid prepares for ESL One New York 2019, they will definitely become one of the finalists of the competition. The question is if Liquid wants to make all efforts to prevail at the $200,000 tournament. The Americans have an advantage in the form of the absence of jet lag after flights. The majority of the teams represents the European division and they will have to pass through acclimatization after they come to New York. The Americans will not have to do this, respectively. We think that nitr0 and his company will not have issues in the group stage because the team has got in Group A together with such teams as ENCE, eUnited, and G2 Esports. Team Liquid will have to make it to the top four and will be able to advance to the grand final and fight for the championship trophy of ESL One New York 2019 if they try well.

The roster of Team Liquid and the players’ rate:

Nicholas ‘nitr0’ Cannella — 1.05Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski — 1.25Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken — 1.16Keith ‘NAF’ Markovic — 1.22Jacky ‘Stewie2K’ Yip — 1.10Eric ‘adreN’ Hoag — a coach

Evil Geniuses (a place in the rate by HLTV — #4)

The five from NRG Esports moved under the colors of Evil Geniuses today. The players performed very well at StarLadder Berlin Major 2019. There, we saw them from a new side and together with stanislaw managed to achieve the top of their shape, in which they had never been before. As a result, EG defeated Natus Vincere in the quarterfinal but were not able to show something against Astralis. Today, Evil Geniuses is one of the strongest American teams, which, like Astralis and Liquid, can claim victory at the New York competition. Evil Geniuses got in Group B together with Astralis, FaZe Clan, and OpTic Gaming. EG will probably advance to the playoffs together with the Danish team because FaZe has made two replacements and OpTic is far from stanislaw and his teammates’ level. According to our prediction, Evil Geniuses will make it to the playoffs, having placed second in the group. It means that they will face Liquid, which will place first in its four, and will finish the participation on the 3rd-4th place in the standings.

The roster of Evil Geniuses and the players’ rate:

Peter ‘stanislaw’ Jarguz — 1.06Tarik ‘tarik’ Celik — 1.07Vincent ‘Brehze’ Cayonte — 1.21Ethan ‘Ethan’ Arnold — 1.09Cvetelin ‘CeRq’ Dimitrov — 1.12

Chet ‘ImAPet’ Singh — a coach

ENCE (a place in the rate by HLTV — #6)

ENCE played nicely in The New Legends Stage of the Major and advanced to the playoffs with a score 3-0, however, it was the end. After that, the Finns didn’t cope with Renegades and finished their way on the 5th-8th place. ENCE told their captain, Aleksib, before the start of the tournament that he would leave the roster after the end of their performance at StarLadder Berlin Major 2019. suNny, an ex-player of mousesports, came on his position. The team didn’t show something interesting at BLAST Pro Series Moscow 2019 where ENCE really had a chance to fight for the championship. As a result, the Finns have placed fifth. If they are in the same gaming shape at the moment, they will not be able to win ESL One New York 2019. The Finnish team is lucky enough because it has got in the less competitive Group A where eUnited, G2 Esports, and Team Liquid will play, besides them. Despite this, many surprises might happen in the group stage, on the outcome of which ENCE will not show something spectacular.

The roster of ENCE:

Aleksi ‘allu’ Jalli — 1.14Jere ‘sergej’ Salo — 1.10Jani ‘Aerial’ Jussila — 0.96Sami ‘xseveN’ Laasanen — 0.95Miikka ‘suNny’ Kemppi — 0.85Slaava ‘Twista’ Räsänen — a coach

G2 Esports (a place in the rate by HLTV — #12)

G2 made it to the tournament through the European qualification, having defeated CR4ZY in the final. The fact that the French have come with a stand-in the face of kioShiMa makes the team one of the outsiders of Group A and, respectively, the tournament in general. ENCE, eUnited, and Team Liquid will also fight for getting to the playoffs in this four. G2 has good chances to beat the Finns and eUnited but the stand-in factor might play a bad joke with the French. Knowing that kioShiMa has been taken for a couple of tournaments, Fabien Fiey might play worse than he expects. It is important that the team left without its captain, shox, who created a play in a certain style. Now, G2 can be more lost and play not in the way it was with shox. Generally, the French look worse than the rest of the teams in Group A.

The roster of G2 Esports and the players’ rate:

Kenny ‘kennyS’ Schrub — 1.11Lucas ‘Lucky’ Chastang — 1.11Audric ‘JaCkz’ Jug — 1.10François ‘AmaNEk’ Delaunay — 1.05Fabien ‘kioShiMa’ Fiey — 1.09 (a stand-in)Damien ‘maLeK’ Marcel — a coach

FaZe Clan (a place in the rate by HLTV — #15)

FaZe Clan is one of the cases when we can not talk too long why the team will probably not make it to the playoffs. The Europeans got in the second four together with Astralis, Evil Geniuses, and OpTic Gaming. Astralis and Evil Geniuses are one of the strongest teams in the world at the moment. How can FaZe Clan oppose them? The Europeans have recently had changes on the roster. NEO and GuarndiaN left the team and their places were taken by coldzera and broky. Coldzera is a pretty important figure and, according to insiders, a big sum was paid for him but everything is controversial when it comes to broky. The Latvian is famous mostly for his performance in Epsilon Esports, the team, which level is way lower than FaZe. FaZe Clan’s management even doesn’t know if they should sign Broky, so he is on a trial period. The updated roster without team play will be unlikely to play that well to create a serious competition to Astralis and Evil Geniuses and even maybe to OpTic. All of this makes the team an outsider both in its group and at the competition in general.

The roster of FaZe Clan and the players’ rate:

Håvard ‘rain’ Nygaard — 1.03Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač — 1.06Olof ‘olofmeister’ Kajbjer — 1.02Marcelo ‘coldzera’ David — 1.13Helvijs ‘broky’ Saukants — 1.18Janko ‘YNk’ Paunović — a coach

OpTic Gaming (a place in the rate by HLTV — #35)

OpTic made replacements on its roster one more time in the middle and end of summer. TeSeS and cajunb have joined the Danes, they still don’t have contracts. This five managed to prevail at GG.Bet New York Invitational, due to this they received an invite to the LAN tournament. However, they performed badly at GG.Bet Beijing Invitational, so their gaming shape can’t be called stable. OpTic got in Group B together with Astralis, FaZe Clan, and Evil Geniuses. It will be incredibly difficult for the Danes to advance from these four, so we relate them to the main outsiders of the tournament. OpTic gaming will place 7th-8th at the championship. If they manage to advance to the playoffs, it will be a fantastic result.

The roster of OpTic Gaming and the players’ rate:

Kristian ‘k0nfig’ Wienecke — 1.13Mathias ‘MSL’ Sommer Lauridsen — 1.10Nikolaj ‘niko’ Kristensen — 0.98René ‘TeSeS’ Madsen — 1.04René ‘cajunb’ Borg — 0.99Casper ‘ruggah’ Due — a coach

eUnited (a place in the rate by HLTV — #50)

eUnited, just like OpTic Gaming, will probably hold the last place in its group and it means the 7th-8th place in the standings. freakazoid joined the team 3 days ago. It can’t be said that the team has become much stronger with him. Besides this, eUnited had not been a famous CS:GO roster before. Here, they will compete with Team Liquid, ENCE, and G2 Esports. eUnited will be able to win a match in the worst case and finish its way, having placed 5th-6th in the standings.

The roster of eUnited and the players’ rate:

Austin ‘Cooper-’ Abadir — 1.15Ryan ‘freakazoid’ Abadir — 0.00Edgar ‘MarKE’ Maldonado — 1.12Victor ‘food’ Wong — 0.95Anthony ‘vanity’ Malaspina — 0.97Armeen ‘a2z’ Toussi — a coach