With the day coming to an end, we saw Gambit Esports coming out victorious to win NineToFive#7 securing their 5th championship in the NineToFive event series. They emerged victorious without dropping a single map, winning $35,000 in prize money and claiming the title of back to back champions.
We won the second #NINEtoFive tournament in a row without giving up a single map and took $ 35,000🏆
To start the event, Gambit were already invited to the Quarterfinals of the main event due to them winning NineToFive#6. Gambit’s first matchup was against Dignitas, and they beat with a clean 2-0. Next up in the Semifinals, Gambit were versus K23, the roster that was formerly known as Syman Gaming. In the first map, (Mirage) we saw an equal level of performance by the first half. But when Gambit switched over to the CT-side, K23 were done for. Next up was Inferno, which was a super one-sided match favoring Gambit, as they won the CT-side 14-1, and ended up winning the match 16-6. This win here meant that they secured a spot in the Grand Finals versus ForZe.
Credits: Gambit Esports
Grand Finals
ForZe had a tough path through to the Grand Finals. They first met with ex-Ethereal, which they beat 2-0, and then continued on to take on the new Cloud9 roster, and beat them 2-0 as well. Historically, both Gambit and ForZe have proven to have a very similar level of play, but the Finals might have just changed that perspective. First map (Mirage) ended 16-12 favoring Gambit, and Overpass went to overtime, finishing with a 19-12 scoreline, favoring the Gambit squad, winning not only the series, but the whole event.
What’s next?
This Gambit roster has seriously proven to be quite a solid team. Hopefully when more European tournaments involve teams like Gambit and ForZe, we’ll be seeing a major shake up within the rankings, proving a point that the CIS region has what it takes to beat teams at the highest level of play.
Astralis reveal its talent rosters – Who did they get?
League of Legends
For League of Legends, Astralis have acquired an extremely young roster which is hungry to improve and get to the highest level possible. Their roster is listed below:
Players:
Top – Carl ”Carlsen” Carlsen, age 15
Jungle – Mikkel “Mixsi” Bay-Schmidt, age 16
Mid – Mikkel “Rylle” Rylander Christiansen, age 19
ADC – Kasper ”Kadaver” Müller Nielsen, age 19
Support – Benjamin ”RotteBengi” Mahler Jørgensen, age 18
Coaches:
Head Coach – Mikkel Donby
Second Coach – Anders Schultz
We are very proud to announce our new Astralis Talent roster and welcome them to the #AstralisFamily
For CS:GO, Astralis have managed to gather Danish players from different backgrounds. Vester was previously playing for Esimed Esports, whereas void was representing the AGF Esport Academy. The rest of the team, including their coach VNG were free agents at the time. Here is their roster:
Players:
IGL – Mathias “R0nic” Pinholt, age 19
AWP – Andreas “void” Dietrichsen, age 17
Rifler – Rasmus “zyph0n” Nordfoss, age 16
Rifle – Mads “vester” Vestergaard, age 18
Rifle – Victor “vigg0” Bisgaard, age 21
Rifler – Mikkel “MistR” Thomsen, age 16 (begins Summer 2021)
Coach:
Dennis ”VNG” Vang
Meet the stars of the future. Our first Astralis Talent roster is complete.
This is what Director of Sports at Astralis Group, Kasper Hvidt, had to say about their Talent rosters.
We have prioritized hard based upon on criteria that, besides game sense and technical skills, also revolve around personality and the ability and desire to lean how to work as a professional in a culture like ours. Here we strive to progress every day, not just as individuals but as a team and as a part of the entire organization.
This Astralis Talent program will certainly prove as a challenge for both the team and its new players. But knowing Astralis’ background, there is no doubt that they will manage to achieve this task.
Yesterday evening, the HLTV podcast, HLTV Confirmed, brought on ENCE captain Allu to discuss the changes coming to his team, and his plans for 2021. At one point in the podcast Allu was asked about Aleksib, and why he was kicked from the team. Former ENCE player Sergej was then addressing Allu’s comments, saying the following on twitter:
I wouldn't take everything what @alluCSGO said/says as granted. He isn't as simple and harmless persona as it may look. Theres a reason hes the only one left in the team from the original roster.
After their heroic run at the IEM Katowice Major in 2019, the team was struggling to get consistent solid results. This eventually resulted in the benching of their in-game leader, Aleksib. According to Allu, while he did have a say in what changes came to ENCE, he was not a dictator that decided fully on what goes on. Here is the clip:
"[In ENCE] I'm not a dictator who decides how everything needs to go"@alluCSGO on how decisions are made in ENCE.
Take the short moments of the clip with a grain of salt, as we don’t know the behind the scenes of the ENCE team and its management. However, knowing that Sergey, being a former player, decided to voice this out to the public, definitely means that there was something wrong internally with the team. Current ENCE player, SuNny also had a comment about the situation, stating the following:
so far everything in this live is truth but not the whole truth and people deserve it now or never https://t.co/dEUNljwYFj
Miikka (SuNny) then continues on saying that he had to “say this to have peace with myself” which is honestly fair, considering he was the one that came to replace Aleksib in the first place. Hopefully the situation gets cleared in the near future, and ENCE find their place back in the rankings.
Credits: ESL
Be sure to keep yourself updated with www.esportsguide.com for more esports news!
This past weekend we saw an astounding level of Counter-Strike being played by the top teams in Europe. But in the centre of it all, we saw Team Vitality being crowned champions of BLAST Premier Fall 2020. Here is how they did it:
— BLAST Premier Fast Forwarding to 2021 💥 (@BLASTPremier) December 13, 2020
Final standings + winnings
1st – $225,000 – Team Vitality
2nd – $85,000 – Astralis
3rd – $40,000 – BIG
4th – $25,000 – Natus Vincere
5th-6th – $15,000 – G2 Esports
5th-6th – $15,000 – Furia
7th-8th – $10,000 – Mousesports
7th-8th – $10,000 – OG
Vitality crowned champions of BLAST Premier Fall 2020 – How did they do it?
Bracket
As their first match up in the upper bracket Quarterfinals, Vitality were matched against Mousesports. After 2 dominant matches from the frenchmen, the best of 3 series was won 2-0 by Vitality.
With this win, Vitality progressed to the upper bracket Semifinals and faced off Natus Vincere, one of the favourites at BLAST Premier Fall 2020. Matches in the best of 3 series were close, both leading to overtime, but eventually, Vitality were just the stronger team.
Vitality then took on BIG Clan in the upper bracket Finals. It was quite surprising to see a team like BIG reaching this stage of the event, considering the strength of the other teams at the event, but BIG surpassed them and reached the finals nonetheless. BIG started the series by taking the first map in dominant fashion by winning Vertigo with a 16-9 score line. Vitality then replied with a ridiculous performance, as they won both maps 16-1 and 16-2 respectively, getting them a slot in the Grand Finals.
— BLAST Premier Fast Forwarding to 2021 💥 (@BLASTPremier) December 13, 2020
Vitality kicked off the grand finals with a win of their own on Vertigo, another dominant showing from the frenchmen as they ended the match with a 16-4 score line. Astralis then replied with a win of their own on Dust 2, as they ended the map 16-14 in their favor. Lastly, for their final map, both teams played on Inferno. Vitality’s CT-side contributed heavily to their success as they managed to gather 12 rounds on just one side, leaving Astralis with only 3 rounds on the T-side. Eventually Vitality moved on to the Terrorist side and continued dominating the rounds to win the map 16-5 and win BLAST Premier Fall 2020.
— BLAST Premier Fast Forwarding to 2021 💥 (@BLASTPremier) December 13, 2020
What’s next?
The European Counter-Strike scene has shown the highest quality of CS:GO we have ever seen, and with more regional based events coming in 2021, we can only expect more of these intense, and action-packed events.
So make sure you keep yourself updated to www.esportsguide.com for more esports news!
Yesterday evening we had a very unusual situation within the CS:GO community. The 14 BLAST-partnered teams released a statement to address the voice comms concerns made by the CSPPA. The statement revealed that BLAST has resolved the issues around the usage of voice comms. This is the statement that all teams have signed:
Credits: G2 Esports
BLAST-partnered teams address voice comms concerns by CSPPA – Why did they post this?
On December 8th, the CSPPA (Counter-Strike Professional Players’ Association) released a statement which mentioned that BLAST was recording voice comms of players and teams and sharing them with analysts. These voice comms included sensitive tactical information and personal information which were spread among people in the community. The statement goes on to say that BLAST have not shared this information with the players themselves, and this has created a very sticky situation for both parties. This is their statement below:
Players refuse BLAST access to voice comms and video screen recordings without agreement on how information is handled pic.twitter.com/8RoofaQRA1
— Counter-Strike Professional Players' Association (@CSPPAgg) December 8, 2020
With the CSPPA statement released, BLAST were left with no choice but to negotiate a new deal. This new deal had to be suitable for both the Tournament organizer, as well as the players. And that is exactly what they did:
We stand with our teams and remain committed to upholding competitive integrity whilst creating the best entertainment for fans. We will work with the teams and players to improve the industry for everyone.
BLAST-partnered teams address voice comms concerns by CSPPA
Of course, there are two sides to the situation. On one hand we have BLAST and the ESIC trying their best to make sure no team has any unfair advantage when it comes to stream sniping or anything of that sort. And on the other hand we have the players’ situation. Where they would not like anyone to access their voice due to tactical information being spread and so on.
Hopefully for future events, tournament organizers are more vocal about their new features. And are more clear on what they intend to do with them and the players are more aware of what they’re getting into.
Throughout the years, the Intel Extreme Masters series has always been a reliable source of the finest competitive CS:GO. Accordingly, the 2020 IEM XV Global Challenge is coming up and we’re incredibly excited. Read on and we’ll let you know how to watch it the right way!
Event Background
Kicking things off, let’s first dive into what the Intel Grand Slam stands for. Organized by ESL and DreamHack though a sponsorship by Intel, a total of $1,000,000 are on the line to reward domination. Indeed, two claim the prize, it takes any team to win 4 out of 10 S-Tier events. This comes together with spoiling rewards too. Currently, a tonne of teams are tie with 1 victory – this is another opportunity!
Credits: ESL
Specifically for this event, 8 teams have been invited to compete for the majority of the $500,000 prize pool. The 2020 IEM XV Global Challenge will be ending the year with a bang, running from the 15th to the 20th December. Hailing from all over the world, here are 8 of the best competitive CS:GO teams in the world:
Besides the IEM Grand Slam and the prize pool, Blast Premier points are also on the line too.
Format
The entire event will be split into two stages. To begin with, a GroupStage will sort out the 8 teams into two groups of 4. These groups will take place through a typical GSLformat, with a double–eliminationformat.
We’ve got 5 action-packed days to look forward to. Accordingly, here’s a peek at the entire schedule:
Tuesday, Dec 15th
BIG vs Team Vitality – 12:00 (GMT+1)
Astralis vs Complexity – 15:30 (GMT+1)
Natus Vincere vs FURIA – 19:00 (GMT+1)
Wednesday, Dec 16th
Team Liquid vs Heroic – 12:00 (GMT+1)
TBD – 15:30 (GMT+1)
TBD – 19:00 (GMT+1)
Thursday, Dec 17th
TBD – 16:00 (GMT+1)
TBD – 19:30 (GMT+1)
Friday, Dec 18th
TBD – 16:00 (GMT+1)
TBD – 19:30 (GMT+1)
Watch the 2020 IEM XV Global Challenge stream on esportsguide
You can also watch the 2020 IEM XV Global Challenge live stream via our very own website. Providing an extensive list of the biggest esports together with streams for each esports match live today or upcoming matches.
With events like this, it’s always tough to distinguish a top contender from a pool of champions. The last event we can consult is none other than Intel Extreme Master XV – Beijing.
Credits: ESL
Looking at our European contenders,, here’s how they stacked up at the online event:
1st – Team Vitality
2nd – Natus Vincere
4th – Complexity Gaming
5-8th – Astralis, Heroic and BIG
In this last event, Team Vitality mounted a phenomenal event. Following an early loss in Group Stage, they stunned the region with a resurgence in the Playoffs. In this regard, they’re currently seen as the top dogs from the region.
What about the other invited teams?
Back in the NA region, Team Liquid has constantly been on the cusp of success. A 3-4th place finish at both the BLAST Premier: Fall 2020 Showdown and the IEM Beijing event make them a threat, though they need to work on closing out series.
On the flip side, FURIA Esports are definitely a team to watch after the recent victory at the BLAST Premier: Fall 2020 Showdown.
This past weekend we had loads of events going on; however, one that stood out the most was DreamHack Masters Winter. Here we saw Astralis reigning over Europe, and Chaos Esports dominating North America once more. Here is the DreamHack Masters Winter 2020 Recap:
Astralis kicked off the event with a disappointing loss versus Godsent in group B. Their loss meant that they were going to face off Team Liquid in the Group B losers bracket. They won the series 2-0 and moved on to play versus G2 esports in the 2nd Round. They won the best of 3 series against G2 as well, and qualified for the playoffs.
In the playoffs they faced off Gambit Esports first, and won the series with a clean 2-0. With this win they progressed through the Semifinals to meet Furia. They went on to beat them with another clean 2-0 score line and moved on to the Grand Finals.
Grand Finals
In the Finals they were against the resilient Mousesports roster. Astralis kicked off the bo5 series with a dominant win on Train as they ended the match with a 16-5 score line. Mousesports replied with a win of their own on Inferno (16-3) but unfortunately did not manage to grab another as Astralis gave them a difficult map on Nuke (16-13). The fourth map was Vertigo and it went the distance as the game ended 22-19 in overtime, favouring the Danish roster.
🏆🇩🇰 THE DANES ARE BACK ON TOP! @AstralisCS are your #DHMASTERS WINTER EUROPE CHAMPION! 🇩🇰🏆
Chaos Esports started out the event by placing 1st in Group A with a 2-0 score line. They were matched versus Rugratz for their first match, and closely after, a game against Rebirth followed. With these results they were automatically qualified for the playoffs of the main event.
They faced off Yeah Gaming for their first match in the playoffs, and managed to beat them 2-1 after a very close best of 3 series. They then advanced through to the Grand Finals where they would meet Team One from Brazil. The Best of 5 series featured the following maps: Nuke, Train, Overpass, Mirage, Vertigo.
Grand Finals
First map went to Team One after a dominant start, winning Nuke 16-3. Train was a closer map as the match ended 16-9, favouring Chaos. Overpass was a one-sided game by Chaos Esports as they finished the match 16-2. Mirage was the closest by far as after an intense 29 rounds played, Team One closed it out 16-13. Final match of the event was on Vertigo, and Chaos’s CT-side contributed greatly to their success as they won 12 CT-Side rounds to win the game and event.
This event has definitely solidified these teams’ dominance over their region. We’ve seen Astralis struggle in the middle of 2020, but have now regained their dominance with the acquisition of their former players. As for Chaos, despite the gruesome news of the organization parting ways with the players, this has not had an impact on their performance as they win back to back events.
Gla1ve announces return to IGL role – What does it mean for Astralis?
As some of you may know, earlier this year, Gla1ve took temporary leave from competitive CS:GO to pursue a lengthy break, to regain motivation and strength to compete at the highest level. During this period, Emil “Magisk” Reif took the in-game leading role, and as a result of this, the team did not manage to replicate the same performances as with Gla1ve. Here are some of their results during this time:
With Gla1ve at the helm, the team is certainly destined to get more trophies for his team. Astralis are currently participating in Dreamhack 2020 Winter Europe, and are battling it through the 2nd round of the lower bracket versus G2 Esports. Hopefully for them, with Gla1ve’s guidance, the team will move on forward to win it all!
Credits: Dreamhack
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The highly anticipated DreamHack Masters Winter 2020 Europe event will be kicking off today and in this article we’ll be going over everything you need to know, and how to watch it.
Get in here! Simple as that! #DHMasters Winter is starting! 😎🔥
Dreamhack is the World’s largest computer festival. This year they hosted only 3 events (DreamHack Anaheim 2020 & DreamHack Leipzig 2020, DreamHack Open Fall), as most of the events they had scheduled were cancelled due to the pandemic.
How to qualify for the main event
Most of the teams participating (10 teams) were invited to the event (Nemiga came as a replacement for Sprout. 4 teams (Astralis, Complexity, G2, Team Liquid) were slotted in as partnered teams and the others (2 teams) came through the closed qualifier.
Prize distribution
The total prize pool amount to be distributed is of $150,000 USD. Here below is a list of how the prize money is to be spread:
Watch the DreamHack Masters Winter 2020 Europe live stream on esportsguide.com
You can also watch the DreamHack Masters Winter 2020 Europe live stream via our very own website. Providing an extensive list of the biggest esports together with streams for each esports match live today or upcoming matches.
Predictions
When it comes to predictions for events like these, when there’s this huge amount of talent within the teams, we have to base out predictions on their previous results. In this case Heroic or Furia have the highest chances of winningDreamHack Masters Winter 2020 Europe.
Be sure to keep yourself updated with www.esportsguide.com for more esports news!
During 2020, we’ve seen multiple North American organizations stepping away from CS:GO as an esport. In this article we will be going covering the reasoning behind North America’s decline in CS:GO.
North America’s decline in CS:GO – What was the cause?
With the current global health situation, we’ve seen many organizations all-throughout the world suffering in more ways than one. Travel restrictions disallowed offline events to be hosted and esports events had to be moved to an online setting. This meant that events had to be based on regional competition, and for NA, with already having a handful of teams participating, was definitely a difficult period.
Credits: Riot Games
Not only that, but with VALORANT on the rise all summer long it was almost confirmed that players that did not manage to make a living out of CS:GO would switch over to try their luck in the new tactical FPS game. Luckily for some, they managed to slot themselves within a solid organization and make a name for themselves, however this meant that CS:GO in North America started declining. With players not being interested in competing in CS:GO, the demand for organizations to get into the esport became harder, and ultimately, most organizations decided to sustain their VALORANT squad instead.
Which teams dropped?
In mid-2019, Ghost Gaming was the first to announce their departure from CS:GO. They did not really state any reasoning, apart from some players having their contracts expiring. Ghost made it also unclear whether they would be signing another roster or leaving the esport entirely, and in the end, we know what happened.
Then, earlier this year we had Riot Squad releasing their CS:GO roster due to ESL’s changes to their ESL Pro League. The changes consisted of less North American teams representing the region, and resorted to Riot Squad participating in ESEA MDL Season 33 instead, which was a literal downgrade.
In the middle of October we had 100 Thieves dropping out due to them favoring their VALORANT roster. The team had found some success at IEM Beijing in 2019 and at this year’s EPL Season 12 in North America, however this was not enough to satisfy the organization. Ever since they got picked up, the team has never placed 1st at any big event.
Recently, we heard news of organizations like Chaos Esports and the New England Whalers departing the esport. According to reports, Chaos will be exiting CS:GO as a result of direction from their investors. The New England Whalers will also be releasing their roster as a result of the global pandemic affecting the organization’s finances.
.@whalersgg CS:GO Team Open To Explore Free Agency.
"…the organization would not be able to offer an extension to its top ranked Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) team." pic.twitter.com/LggPmA5wyY
Gen.G have also lost 2 of their core players in Daps and S0m as they decided to pursue a career in VALORANT under NRG. Despite this, the organization is still tied with CS:GO but is desperately looking for replacements.
We’ve also seen key figures like Nicholas “nitr0” Canella and Spencer “Hiko” Martin dropping out of CS to pursue a career in VALORANT. This left many CS:GO teams in NA searching for suitable replacements, and eventually resulted in multiple roster swaps.
Which NA teams remain?
With regards to big organizations, the only North American ones left are: Evil Geniuses and Team Liquid. These 2 have without a doubt been the most successful rosters in North American CS:GO history. Team Liquid had an exceptional 2019, winning the 2nd Season of the Intel Grand Slam, and many other events along the year. However in 2020, with the regional-based events, the team has continuously struggled to get consistent top results.
One solution that they have done was to travel to Europe. Travelling to Europe will allow the North American teams to compete versus the best in the World, as this completely eliminated the regional events.
North America’s decline in CS:GO What’s next?
Unfortunately, with the pandemic still present in today’s world, it will be very hard to predict what is the best step forward. However, this is a solid solution for the time being, and will hopefully create better storylines for future CS:GO events.
