Advertisement

What the results of ESL One mean for ELeague Season 2

Na'Vi after winning ESL One (ESL Counter-Strike Twtter)
Na’Vi after winning ESL One New York (ESL)

With Na’Vi taking home the trophy at ESL One New York (and $125,000 to boot), it leaves questions now of how the teams stack up headed into Season 2 of ELeague starting at the end of October.

ESL One New York gave out six invites, and had two open qualifier spots. The format of ELeague is a bit different, with the top eight from Season 1 returning to face off against eight new or returning teams that battled their way through the qualifiers in September.

The only team that played at ESL One that will not be participating in ELeague is Team Liquid. The North American team is considered a super squad to some, and a random hodgepodge of talent to others. They had a respectable run at ESL One, beating G2 on Train, besting the new Fnatic twice, and taking a map off Na’Vi, the inevitable champions, in the semifinals. While the team came second in the last major with Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev leading the charge, the team dynamic has taken a hit with the integration of Jacob “Pimp” Winneche, and the new coaching rules that put Luis “peacemaker” Tadeu on the sidelines. They showed progress with their results at ESL One, but unfortunately will be warming the bench for this season (unless someone gets disqualified again).

The Biggest Loser

G2 Esports had a near cataclysmic showing at ESL One. The French team, who took first at ECS in July and second at Starladder just last month, came in dead last at ESL One.

G2 went home after choking against Astralis and taking a rather convincing beating from both Team Liquid and OpTiC. Alexandre ‘bodyy’ Pianaro had an underwhelming performance at ESL One, bottom fragging nearly every map. In the match up against TL, he posted only eight frags. He did, however, end the event with the highest headshot percentage, with his teammate Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom taking home the most headshots per round, as usual.

The Biggest Winner

This one is s1mple.

ESL One was Na’Vi’s first real public showing with the young CS prodigy. After nearly tasting victory with TL at ESL One Cologne, he was clearly hungry for the win. S1mple won nine clutches over the course of the event. He had the highest kill-death differential. He tied Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski for most kills per round and ended the event with the highest rating of any player. S1mple simply went off.

Who will win ELeague Season 2?

SK Gaming.

You could make a case for Na’Vi to catch fire and begin a streak here, or Virtus.pro to repeat their win from Season 1, but the truth is the Brazilians are the best team in the world, especially when faced with adversity. In Season 1 of ELeague, they went 10-1 in the regular play period before getting disqualified. There is no doubt that if they were given the opportunity they would have won that tournament. They are back to back major champions, one of two teams in the history of CS:GO to achieve such a feat. While they only placed third at ESL One, it would be foolish to believe they won’t show up big time at ELeague to show they are worthy. Ole, Ole, Ole.

Dylan Walker is on Twitter @dyluuxx