The preview of ESL One Cologne 2019

Many teams, which performed on a pretty decent level, will be playing at this tournament because they showed at the recent events that this is a usual thing for them to surprise the public. Due to this, we decided to detach a few favorites, one outsider in this case and to consider the question of how the teams will perform with the renewed rosters.

The favorites

Team Liquid (a place in the rate by HLTV — #1)
Odds on the victory: 3.50

The American team heads the top of the world rate by HLTV for a reason at the moment. During the last month, Liquid achieved victory in two largest CS:GO championships, ESL Pro League Season 9 - Finals and DreamHack Masters Dallas 2019 with the prize pools in the sum of $600,000 and $250,000, respectively. If we take a look at the long distance, unlike Astralis, the Americans didn’t make big breaks and always were in tonus, participating in every big tournament. A permanent practice, a perfect gaming shape, and a rich experience make this team the main favorite to win in the upcoming championship.

The roster of Team Liquid and the players’ rate:

Nicholas ‘nitr0’ Cannella — 1.05
Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski — 1.21
Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken — 1.17
Keith ‘NAF’ Markovic — 1.18
Jacky ‘Stewie2K’ Yip — 1.08
Eric ‘adreN’ Hoag — a coach

ENCE (a place in the rate by HLTV — #3)
Odds on the victory: 7.5

ENCE is a Finnish roster, which managed to grow in one year from the team, which was unable to pass a qualification, into a strong roster, which has been staying in the top three for almost two months. Allu and his teammates are the team, which finished the epic series of Astralis’ 31 victories on their best map Nuke at BLAST Pro Series Madrid 2019. After the victory at the Madrid championship, ENCE took part in DreamHack Masters Dallas 2019 and placed 2nd, having lost to the players from Liquid. Despite they haven’t participated in ESL Pro League Season 9 - Finals, ENCE is one of the favorites of the tournament and we don’t see any reasons for the team to perform in the failed way. The team should advance to the playoffs and maybe enter the top 4.

The roster of ENCE and the players’ rate:

Aleksi ‘allu’ Jalli — 1.15
Aleksi ‘Aleksib’ Virolainen — 0.98
Jere ‘sergej’ Salo — 1.17
Jani ‘Aerial’ Jussila — 1.08
Sami ‘xseveN’ Laasanen — 1.01
Slaava ‘Twista’ Räsänen — a coach

Team Vitality (a place in the rate by HLTV — #4)
Odds on the victory: 8.5

Team Vitality is still the strongest team of France and still enters the top four CS:GO rosters in the world. NBK- with his teammates probably has found a key to successful performances and now is actively preparing for the upcoming tournament, to win which Vitality has a good chance. A month ago, the French triumphed at a large tournament, Esports Championship Series Season 7 - Finals with the prize pool in the sum of $500,000 and the team placed 1st-2nd on the outcome of the recently finished ESEA Season 31 - Europe. Vitality didn’t take part in ESL Pro League Season 9 - Finals, which took place in Montpellier, France but viewers wanted to see their favorites’ performance that much that the organizers made a showmatch with Vitality. At one of the last CS:GO tournaments, Vitality managed to beat Liquid, which is listed as the main favorite of ESL One Cologne 2019, so we are sure that the French will make it to the playoffs and the chances to see the final match with the participation of Vitality is pretty high.

The roster of Team Vitality and the players’ rate:

Nathan ‘NBK-’ Schmitt — 1.10
Dan ‘apEX’ Madesclaire — 1.09
Cedric ‘RpK’ Guipouy — 1.02
Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut — 1.29
Alex ‘ALEX’ McMeekin — 1.07
Remy ‘XTQZZZ’ Quiniam — a coach

The outsiders

MVP PK (a place in the rate by HLTV — #31)
Odds on the victory: 301

The team MVP.PK is in the role of the main outsider of the championship. The team competes well on its level in the Asian division, however, this region is considered to be one of the weakest in the world of CS:GO. Due to MVP.PK doesn’t have enough practice in playing with strong opponents, the team is unlikely to perform well at the upcoming championship and it will probably finish its participation in the group stage. MVP.PK places 31st in the world rate and odds on the team’s victory are equal to 301, which shows the terminal point of absence of trust into the power of the representatives of the Asian CS:GO. We think that this scenario is fair enough and MVP will not advance to the final stage of the tournament, having left the tournament one of the first. Despite this, many surprises can be expected from the players from South Korea because their individual skills are pretty well and they will probably be able to use the fact that no one expects serious opposition from them.

The roster of MVP.PK and the players’ rate:

Park ‘zeff’ Min-seok — 1.11
Lee ‘XigN’ Hyun-pyo — 1.21
Son ‘xeta’ Seon-ho — 1.27
Kim ‘stax’ Gu-taek — 1.18
Kim ‘HSK’ Hae-seong — 1.11
Pyeon ‘termi’ Seon-ho — a coach

Boombl4’s debut in Natus Vincere

The public can’t wait to see NaVi’s first performance with Kirill ‘Boombl4’ Mikhailov who has joined the team. The majority of viewers agrees that this transfer can’t be something else but the reinforcement of Natus Vincere. BoombI4 has practiced with the team at a bootcamp for a long time and, according to the players’ feedback, he managed to replace Ioann ‘Edward’ Sukhariev who moved to Winstrike and to close that weak spots, which appeared with the departure of the 31-years old esportsman. NaVi also considers BoombI4 as the next captain after Zeus who has already had plans to finish his career. ESL One Cologne 2019 will show us what Kirill can and all fans of Natus Vincere will finally see their favorite team in action.

Natus Vincere went down to the 13th place in the rate by HLTV and this event will be a nice opportunity for the CIS roster to return to the top tean. Odds on Na’Vi’s victory are equal to 10.

Will NaVi realize their chance? We will find out soon!

The roster of Natus Vincere and the players’ rate:

Egor ‘flamie’ Vasilev — 1.03
Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev — 1.37
Danylo ‘Zeus’ Teslenko — 0.99
Denis ‘electronic’ Sharipov — 1.28
Kirill ‘Boombl4’ Mikhailov — 1.06
Mykhailo ‘kane’ Blagin — a coach

The change of scenery for stanislaw

Peter ‘stanislaw’ Jarguz changed his scenery after a long stagnation at Complexity Gaming. Now, he plays for NRG Esports instead of daps who was benched and due to the Americans showed at ESL Pro League Season 9 - Finals, the change of the in-game leader was not in vain. The team managed to prepare for a championship in one weak in the way that placed 3rd-4th. Considering the fact and the level of participants of the tournament in Cologne, NRG might enter the top 6 but they will have to work hard to achieve this because none of the teams will give up without a fight. NRG Esports made it to the top five CS:GO rosters, according to the portal HLTV. They are unlikely to place higher but they will be able to reach the top 5.

Odds on NRG Esports’ victory, by the way, are equal to 13, conceding in this terms only to NaVi, Vitality, ENCE, Astralis, and Team Liquid.

The roster of NRG Esports and the players’ rate:

Vincent ‘Brehze’ Cayonte — 1.18
Cvetelin ‘CeRq’ Dimitrov — 1.11
Ethan ‘Ethan’ Arnold — 1.14
Tarik ‘tarik’ Celik — 1.06
Peter ‘stanislaw’ Jarguz — 0.99
Chet ‘ImAPet’ Singh — a coach

Will Plopski help Ninjas in Pyjamas to play in a new way?

The unordinary situation has recently happened in NiP. Dennis ‘dennis’ Edman announced his return on the professional scene after the break made in his career and resumed his activity on the Swedish roster. The results were not enough satisfactory for the management of the organization and as a result, the decision was made to make changes to the team. As a result, dennis was benched and GeT_RiGhT will soon share the same fate as his former teammate. The representatives of NiP told that they were in search for an esportsman who might replace Christopher Alesund on a long-term perspective. The young Swedish talent Nicolas ‘Plopski’ Gonzalez Zamora, the 17-years old ex-player of Team Ancient came as a replacement for dennis. This championship will be a debut one under the tag of this Swedish organization for Plopski who came to NiP on June 19. A big arena and the first performance on the event of such a level might both inspire the young player and make some kind of pressure on him. In any case, it will be very interesting to follow Ninjas in Pyjamas and Plopski at this championship. We are waiting for an interesting performance by the Swedes.

By the way, NiP holds the 14th place on the list of the best CS:GO rosters by HLTV and odds on their victory are equal to 34. Due to obvious circumstances, NiP’s main objective is gaining experience. If they enter the top eight with what they have, this performance might be called successful.

The roster of Ninjas in Pyjamas and the players’ rate:

Patrik ‘f0rest’ Lindberg — 1.12
Christopher ‘GeT_RiGhT’ Alesund — 0.89
Fredrik ‘REZ’ Sterner — 1.05
Jonas ‘Lekr0’ Olofsson — 0.93
Nicolas ‘Plopski’ Gonzalez Zamora — 1.16
Faruk ‘pita’ Pita — a coach

LUCAS1 as the way to improve MIBR’s results

Playing for MIBR, Felps was not able to perform well enough and he was the worst one in his team in many matches and in a particular match in general and often didn’t play well enough. The Brazilians have decided to stabilize the situation in the team, having made a replacement. Now, Lucas Teles, one of the Teles brothers, has come on João Vasconcellos’ place. LUCAS1, in turn, didn’t stand out with permanent stability but the first place taken by him on the outcome of a match was not a rare thing.

It’s worth to notice that the Brazilian brother duet, including LUCAS1 and HEN1, was divided for the first time in the history of their united performance. Due to this, the conclusion can be made that there was an important reason for LUCAS1 to transfer to MIBR and the Brazilian was directly interested in improving MIBR’s results.

Felps moved to LG as a leased player, while LUCAS1 became the representative of MIBR as a player who was leased. This happened a week ago and it means that MIBR didn’t have enough time to prepare well, however, as the practice shows, the professional CS:GO scene is full of surprises. For example, Complexity Gaming recently managed to play that well with the recently-joined 15-years old oBo in 7 days that defeated MIBR, being the obvious outsiders both in the match and in the tournament in general.

Not many people believe in MIBR’s victory at ESL One Cologne 2019. Odds on their victory are equal to 18 and the team placed 9th in the rate of the best CS:GO rosters by HLTV. MIBR got in Group B where besides them, such teams as Astralis, Vitality, ENCE, and others will take part in a tough battle for advancement to the playoffs, so we think that LUCAS1 will not be able to help the Brazilian roster to make it to the final stage, allegedly stopping in the final of the lower bracket.

The roster of MIBR and the players’ rate:

Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo — 1.18
Fernando ‘fer’ Alvarenga — 1.11
Marcelo ‘coldzera’ David — 1.19
Epitacio ‘TACO’ de Melo — 0.92
Lucas ‘LUCAS1’ Teles — 1.02
Wilton ‘zews’ Prado — a coach