Checking the new roster of Virtus.pro and FaZe Clan after the holidays. Preview of Groups A and B at ESL Pro League Season 19
The next season of the ESL Pro League begins on April 23. The league from the tournament operator remains the only championship of this format that continues to exist on the professional Counter-Strike scene. The coming season will be the nineteenth and obviously will not be the last. ESL Pro League Season 19 is radically different from the usual GSL and Swiss system tournaments. In total, the tournament has four groups of eight teams, from each of them four teams will advance to the playoffs: the teams that take first place will go straight to the quarterfinals, and those who finish the groups second will go to the second round of the decisive stage. The third positions will begin the playoffs from the very first round, and you will still have to compete for the fourth position in the Last Chance Stage in each of the groups. Today we will talk about the first two groups of ESL Pro League Season 19 and give a forecast of which teams from them will make it to the playoffs.
Group A
The first group will feature FaZe Clan, Imperial, Astralis, Eternal Fire, Virtus.pro, fnatic, 3DMAX and SAW. Due to FaZe Clan’s vacation, the new VP lineup becomes the main favorite. After the transfer of Denis electroNic Sharipov, this team is one of the strongest in the region and throughout the world. Of course, now everyone will be watching her and players need to live up to expectations right here and now. Sharipov fit perfectly into the team based on the roles he played in Cloud9, and Virtus.pro should not have any problems with the restructuring. In the first match they will meet with fnatic, who now clearly cannot compete on the professional stage.
FaZe Clan will be greatly affected by the vacation before the tournament, but it should not be a reason for failure. However, it will not be easy in the group stage: the team always had problems with them anyway. FaZe will make it to the playoffs, but definitely not from first place. After an easy meeting with Imperial, a formidable opponent will be waiting for them in the form of Astralis, who must cope with Eternal Fire. Finn karrigan Andersen likes to start the playoffs with the first games and third place in the group will not be a problem for the team.
Astralis themselves surprised everyone with the performance of the new roster and are clearly not going to stop at 3-4th place at IEM Chengdu 2024 and will progress further. They can cope with the relaxed roster of FaZe Clan, but Virtus.pro are unlikely to be a match for them.
The last slot in group A will go to Eternal Fire or SAW. The Turkish team has lost its form, but it still looks like the strongest remaining contender for the playoffs. SAW surprised everyone at RMR and the first stages of PGL Major Copenhagen 2024, but they failed to consolidate their success. But this is still a team that can unexpectedly shoot and climb higher than it should have initially. However, we believe that Eternal Fire will emerge victorious from the Last Chance Stage.
The remaining teams represented by Imperial, 3DMAX and fnatic can hardly count on anything within the framework of ESL Pro League Season 19. Their group contains some of the best teams in the world, and the BO3 format will not allow them to create an unexpected sensation. While Imperial still looked like a strong team at PGL Major Copenhagen 2024, 3DMAX and fnatic haven’t shown significant results on the professional stage for a long time and can only boast victories over tier-2 teams.
Group B
Participants in the second group will be Team Vitality, Sharks, M80, BetBoom Team, Team Falcons, TheMongolz, TYLOO and G2 Esports. Unlike Group A, there will no longer be such fierce competition and the contenders for playoff slots are very predictable. Half of the teams do not expect to get into Tier 1, and they came to ESL Pro League Season 19 more for experience than for results. However, a serious fight awaits us for the first positions in the group.
After the disastrous playoffs of PGL Major Copenhagen 2024, Team Vitality should come back even stronger and are unlikely to lose first place in the group to anyone. In the debut match, the roster of Mathieu ZywOo Herbaut will have no problems dealing with the Sharks, who qualified for ESL Pro League Season 19 from the qualification for South America. BetBoom Team, despite the strengthening of their roster, is also unlikely to compete with the best player of last year. The real test of Team Vitality awaits them in the finals of the upper bracket, where G2 Esports should reach.
G2 Esports themselves are extremely happy that Ilya m0NESY Osipov remained on the roster until the end of the season and will pursue any opportunities, despite the problematic roster. A team in which only two players perform consistently still manages to get into the playoffs at major championships, which is already a good result. The trend shouldn’t stop at ESL Pro League Season 19. But with the team’s sniper in his best form, it’s time for G2 Esports to move on and fight for the title of champions. It is unlikely that Team Vitality will be able to cope with it, but none of the remaining participants in Group B will be able to take second place from the team.
Despite the strengthening of the Team Falcons roster after the addition of Peter dupreeh Rasmussen, the team still failed in all the latest qualifications. More confidence is instilled by BetBoom Team, which found its game after replacing Danil danistzz Roslyakov with Kirill Magnojez Rodnov. The team took first place at A1 Gaming League Season 8 and third at Skyesports Masters 2024 and clearly wants to prove itself at an important championship on the LAN. BetBoom Team may well climb above Team Falcons, but in any case, both teams are required to reach the playoffs. Outsiders like Sharks, M80, TheMongolz and TYLOO will not be able to compete for the last two slots. However, if the opponents in the group had been stronger, we could have been waiting for another failure of the star team of Danny zonic Sorensen.
The first groups of ESL Pro League Season 19 will be completely different in the intensity of passions, but both will definitely be rich in interesting matches and there is something to watch in them. We are waiting for the debut of Denis electroNic Sharipov for Virtus.pro, charged with new forces from FaZe Clan, another attempt by Ilya m0NESY Osipov to win the tier-1 championship alone and the first performance of the new BetBoom Team on LAN.
Final forecast for groups A and B within ESL Pro League Season 19:
Group A:
- Virtus.pro;
- Astralis;
- FaZe Clan;
- Eternal Fire.
Group B:
- Team Vitality;
- G2 Esports;
- BetBoom Team;
- Team Falcons.