Astralis has just announced that they will be transferring their recent addition Es3tag to Cloud9 to finalize their roster. Here is their announcement:
Astralis and Cloud9 have agreed to a transfer of Patrick @es3tag Hansen from Astralis to @Cloud9.
With Cloud9 claiming that they want to be the Colossus in the CS:GO scene, they obviously had to add a Danish star player. And who better than Astralis’ newest addition Es3tag? He has already shown the world that he’s one of the best players to touch the game, and with an opportunity such as this, he will only keep progressing as a player.
Credits: ESL
As it stands, Cloud9’s CS:GO roster is currently looking like this:
The news blew up the whole of twitter when it dropped yesterday. This is because Es3tag had only been under the Astralis organisation for about 4 months, which is quite a short period when put into perspective. When Astralis signed Es3tag, they still had to wait for his contract with Heroic to expire, to obtain him as a free agent. However with the news of him transferring to Cloud9, the expenses just got a lot higher. The organisation has invested a mere amount of $2,100,000 million for a 3 year deal, and has certainly profited Astralis in the long run.
The Colossus plucks the brightest star from the Danish night sky to complete a line-up with true astronomical power 🌠
The highly anticipated Dreamhack Open Fall 2020 is set to start today, and with the current online CS era, everyone has been eager to watch these great teams battle out for the title of the best in Europe.
Wondering where you will be able to watch #DHOpen Fall today?!
Dreamhack is the World’s largest computer festival. This year they hosted only 2 events (DreamHack Anaheim 2020 & DreamHack Leipzig 2020), as most of the events they had scheduled were cancelled due to the pandemic.
How to qualify for the main event
With regards to how to qualify for Dreamhack Open Fall 2020, the majority of the teams selected to participate were invited, based on their ranking in the RMR. A total of 11 teams were picked out from the RMR, whereas the other 5 teams climbed their way upward through the Closed Qualifier.
The 1st and 2nd placing teams from each group, advantage to the upper bracket in playoffs
The 3rd placing teams from each group advance to the lower bracket in playoffs
Playoffs:
Double-elimination bracket format
All matches are Best of 3
Credits: Dreamhack
Teams Participating
At Dreamhack Open Fall 2020, we will be seeing 16 of the best European teams competing against each other. These 16 teams will be split into 4 groups, consisting of 4 teams per group. Here is the full team list below, respective of their Group:
Group A
Team Vitality
Fnatic
OG
Mousesports
Group B
Astralis
Endpoint
G2 Esports
Heroic
Group C
Godsent
BIG
FaZe Clan
sAw
Group D
Sprout
Ence
North
Ninjas In Pyjamas
Credits: Dreamhack
Schedule list
Matches are set to begin today at 13:00 CET, closely followed up by another series at 16:30 CET, and then ending the day with a final series at 20:00 CET. Here below are the matchups for the 15th of October 2020:
Watch the DreamHack Open Fall 2020 stream on esportsguide.com
You can also watch the DreamHack Open Fall 2020 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.
Knowing that this event will be featuring the best of the best European teams, it will be very hard to determine which team will come out on top. However, if we had to base our predictions on previous or recent results, I would say that Astralis or BIG have the highest chances of dominating the tournament. We’ll just have to wait and see how the teams perform in these 10 days and if they’ll manage to stay consistent all throughout the duration of the event.
Last night, Valve opted to release a CS:GO update which will drastically improve the DemoUI. This patch had been highly requested since the release of CS:GO, so the update was quite a big deal.
Today we are shipping a beta depot aimed at improving seeking while watching demos. More information in today’s Pre-Release Notes: https://t.co/CJNo080jlO
– Added a new setting “demo_index” — when enabled, playback of demo files will create full frame baselines to improve performance of seeking forward and rewinding within demo files.
What is the DemoUI?
If you’re unfamiliar with what the DemoUI is, let me explain briefly. The DemoUI is a tool used by many, especially professional players to review their gameplay after a match. The DemoUI is used by loading up a demo replay file, and going through the demo round by round.
Image of DemoUI
The main issue with the Demo player before the update is the way it was reading the demo files. Every time that a user moves forward or backward in the replay, the demo would have to buffer it, and this caused enormous delays, which often resulted in the game crashing.
What did this patch do?
With this patch, the demo playback will now create full frame baselines, which essentially improve performance whenever a user fast-forwards or rewinds. Here’s an example of it being used below.
Honestly this is such a massive difference compared to how it used to be, whenever I rewound in the past it usually crashed my game or took minutes to do. Great update https://t.co/KAmakXjJ3Gpic.twitter.com/Mt4VToChPX
Valve release CS:GO update to improve DemoUI – Community reaction
The community’s reaction to this update was immensely positive. The professional players were not the only ones that were ecstatic about it, but Fragmovie editors like AnthonyPerfetto, which is famous for his “Echoes of” series was extremely happy that the DemoUI finally got a fix.
Despite the delay of the DemoUI patch, it is certainly satisfying to see Valve tackling other issues within the game other than cheating or in-game bugs. It’s the little things like these which make the game better, and we can only hope that Valve fixes more of these types of issues in the future.
Make sure you don’t miss out on any important esports news by keeping yourself updated on www.esportsguide.com!
Rumored by many, the reason as to why 100 Thieves have opted to drop their CS:GO team was due to their VALORANT roster. With the recent picks up of Diceyzx, Asuna, as well as Steel, the team was certainly not cheap to build. And with other rumors referring to 100 Thieves rejoining the COD League, there just wasn’t enough backing to keep this 100 ThievesCS:GO roster alive. Another possibility for the departure of their CS:GO division could be due to Complexity transferring Australian star-player Jks from 100 Thieves.
Credits: Starladder
100 Thieves CS:GO Background
100 Thieves originally joined CS:GO back in 2017 where they picked up a roster led by the brazilian brothers, HEN1 and LUCAS1, as well as kNgV-. Due to immigration problems, the roster did not represent the organization during the ELEAGUE Boston Major, and 100 Thieves released the lineup. However in late 2019, the organisation gave CS:GO a 2nd chance by picking up the Renegades lineup. The team overall was quite solid, but nowhere near the level of a team like Astralis, Evil Geniuses, Na’Vi or Liquid.
Credits: ESL
With North American organizations like 100 Thieves, NRG, and TSM choosing VALORANT over CS:GO, it brings up the question as to what is the region’s next step forward? There are very few players participating in NA in comparison to earlier this year, and this is due to a lot of factors. Some of the factors are as follows:
An increase in Tier 1 and a decrease in Tier 2 CS:GO
Pandemic affecting offline events and moving everything to online
Players that did not get their opportunity with a CS:GO team, transferred to VALORANT.
Organizations investing in cheaper teams in VALORANT
Hopefully both 100 Thieves, as well as its ex-players find this situation beneficial, and move on. With NA CS:GO dying, and NA VALORANT rising, it begs a serious question as to what will happen with the remaining CS:GO teams in the region. Make sure you don’t miss out on any important esports news by keeping yourself updated on www.esportsguide.com!
With another start to the week we see new reports stating roster changes within the best CS:GO teams. In this week’s CS:GO Rostermania involves Jks joining Complexity in oBo’s stead, Nivera to join Vitality as a 6th man, and Mongolian player Erkast to join NG esports.
CS:GO Rostermania – Jks to join Complexity
Starting with Jks’s potential move to Complexity. According to Dekay, the American organization has put all its focus on acquiring Justin “Jks” Savage from 100 Thieves. Jks has already shown the world his capabilities with the Renegades/100Thieves roster. And he will certainly be a great addition to Complexity’s international lineup if the deal goes through.
Credits: Starladder
Nivera to join Vitality as a 6th player
It has been reported that Belgian star player, Nabil “Nivera” Benrlitom will be getting signed by Vitality as their 6th player. He has been playing with Team Heretics since March of this year. With them he has managed to grab a 1st place at Cyber.Bet Cup & ESL Championnat National Summer 2020. Despite his young age and minimal experience, it will be beneficial for him to represent Vitality and learn from the more experienced players on the roster.
Credits: VaKarM
Erkast set to join NG Esports
According to multiple sources, especially some hints from NG’s official twitter, Erdenetsogt “erkaSt” Gantulga will be joining the team alongside ImpressioN and XigN. Erkast’s career highlights were when he was playing under the Grayhound roster alongside players like dexter DickStacy, Malta and Sico. With this talented roster, he managed to grab a 1st place at the Asia Minor Championship to not only grab $30,000 in prize money, but also qualify for the Berlin Major in 2019. Erkast has shown his potential with his previous teams and will certainly be an asset to any team that picks him up.
Credits: ESL
That pretty much wraps up this week’s CS:GO rostermania. Quite a lot of roster moves have happened this year, despite the impact that the pandemic has left on esports. This further goes to show that esports is far from dead, and that CS:GO from all esports is one of the biggest and most active out there!
We’re already 4 days into IEM New York, and we can already outline some major upsets and promising results. In this article we’ll be covering the current state of IEM New York and the storylines created so far.
Credits: IEM
Current state of IEM New York – Europe
Starting with Europe, the event is currently in its second stage, which means that it has completed its initial phase, the group stage. In the 1st group we have Vitality leading the pack, and Fnatic close behind in second. The teams that were eliminated in group A are surprisingly Complexity and G2. With regards to group B, we have OG topping the leaderboard, and FaZe Clan in 2nd place with 2 wins and 1 loss. Again, another surprising result for the 3rd and 4th placers as both BIG and Heroic are eliminated from the event.
Credits: Liquipedia
Now Team Vitality will be facing FaZe Clan, and OG will be going up against Fnatic in the Semifinals. Very hard to predict the outcomes of these 2 matches; however they will surely produce very excellent Counter-Strike.
Credits: Liquipedia
Current state of IEM New York – North America
In North America, the event is still in its group stage phase, however we can already see a couple of teams that will be advancing forward. In group A we have Evil Geniuses leading the pack alongside Furia, both having 2 wins. Whereas in Group B we have Chaos and Liquid in front, with 2 wins as well. It is very clear that the above 4 teams will be grabbing a solid placement in the group stage, and will be looking forward to their result conclusions over the weekend.
The current state of IEM New York, despite its early stages, is showing weaknesses of some of the top teams. Especially in Europe, where teams like BIG and Heroic, which have been dominating the region for quite a while, have been eliminated completely from the event.
We’ll be looking forward to seeing how the tournament progresses, so keep your eyes peeled on www.esportsguide.com for more esports news!
The CSPPA (Counter-Strike Professional Players’ Association) has announced that it is looking to resume LAN events, and is in talks with several tournament organisers.
— Counter-Strike Professional Players' Association (@CSPPAgg) October 9, 2020
CSPPA looking to resume LAN events – Why?
As you all may be aware, due to the global pandemic that emerged earlier this year, all esports events took a halt at LAN events and focused more on hosting tournaments online. Now, as you all may know, having tournaments online causes many issues. Mostly regional high ping issues, which results in professional teams not being allowed to compete against other regions.
Credits: ESL
The CS:GO scene took a huge impact from this, as many regions ended up playing against the same teams. Europe on the other hand, being the region with most professional teams did not suffer much. However there were some teams that had a lot of success with this online CS era.
In fact, the NA teams got so tired and worn out from playing the same teams over the couple of months that they were in talks to travel to Europe for the end-of-season tournaments.
North American teams in talks over European trip for end-of-season tournaments https://t.co/hyJkNFjCqU
Much like how Riot Games managed to host this year’s World Championship, the CSPPA will try its best to host CS:GO events with all the precautions and necessary measures. Of course, the LAN events will not include live audiences. This decision was taken to avoid risking the players, staff, as well as the fans themselves.
This global pandemic has impacted esports in unimaginable ways, but hopefully with moves like these from the CSPPA, we will be normalizing esports bit by bit.
Esports organization CR4ZY has announced that it will be parting ways with all its signed rosters. Here is their announcement:
⚠️ IMPORTANT UPDATE ⚠️ This year has been really challenging and eventful but now it's time to focus on the next chapter. Huge thanks to our Dota 2 and CS:GO teams on everything they did under the CR4ZY banner.
CR4ZY will be parting ways with their rosters because of the effect that the pandemic left on the esports community. Due to the current health situation, the organization was not willing to risk the health of their players, and allowed them to go back home in case of a lockdown. This complicated a lot of stuff for the team as it led to players participating in events with severe disadvantages like very high ping and time zone difference.
Here are some words from CR4ZY’s CEO, Antonio Meić:
“We would like to thank all of our players and staff who did an amazing job in really difficult times. Our Dota 2 team secured Top 2 finishes in BTS Pro Series Season 3: Americas and ESL One Birmingham 2020 – Online: North & South America, as well as a multitude of other Top 4 finishes. Our CS:GO team was able to break into the Top 50 teams in the world, while in Rainbow Six: Siege we were just a few steps away from qualifying for the R6 Pro League. In League of Legends, our only regional project, we managed to secure 2nd place in the Esports Balkan League and had our chance in the Play-In stage of EU Masters Summer 2020. Thank you for everything you achieved under the CR4ZY banner.”
According to their statement, the organization will now be focusing on smaller esports projects and products. This will probably mean that they will be working more on esports content on their youtube channel and maybe involving themselves with smaller esports games.
It’s a very sad thing to see whenever an organization is forced to let go of any of their rosters. Especially when it’s because of the unfortunate situation we are currently in with the pandemic. Hopefully the organization manages to cope in the coming months and regain its strength heading into 2021.
As you may know, earlier this year, Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth announced that he will be taking a break from competitive CS:GO. The game burned out Xyp9x’s energy and this led to a huge amount of stress and demotivation. But in recent news, Xyp9x has announced that he is back, and is set to return to the Astralis main lineup shortly.
We all know the strength of this Astralis roster, and it’s effect in the esport. The team has left a mark in CS:GO history as they have been dominating for the past 2 years. The team is currently playing with es3tag as a replacement for Xyp9x. In his short period, they have restructured and adapted their entire team. They were recently victorious at EPL Season 12, and if it weren’t for es3tag, the story might have ended differently.
Credits: Dreamhack
Xyp9x set to return to Astralis – When will Xyp9x return?
According to some tweets from the other players in the Astralis lineup, Xyp9x’s first tournament from his return will be BLAST Premier: Fall 2020 Europe. As listed by BLAST, Xyp9x will be taking es3tag’s place at the event. This means that after approximately 6 months, we’ll be seeing the old Astralis roster back in action.
Make sure you don’t miss out on any important esports news by keeping yourself updated on www.esportsguide.com!
Here are the final standings + winnings for EPL 12 Europe:
1st – $99,000 – Astralis
2nd – $54,000 – Natus Vincere
3rd – $34,000 – Heroic
4th – $30,000 – mousesports
5th-6th – $31,500 – BIG
5th-6th – $31,500 – Complexity Gaming
7th-8th – $25,000 – ENCE
7th-8th – $25,000 – Team Spirit
9th-10th – $20,000 – OG
9th-10th – $20,000 – Team Vitality
11th-12th – $15,000 – G2 Esports
11th-12th – $19,000 – Fnatic
13th-14th – $13,000 – AGO
13th-14th – $13,000 – FaZe Clan
15th-16th – $12,000 – GODSENT
15th-16th – $8,000 – Ninjas in Pyjamas
How did they do it?
Astralis started out the event by placing 1st in Group B with a 6-1 score line, only losing versus Complexity in the first week. This result got them placed versus Heroic from group A in the Playoffs. Heroic pulled the upset and won 2-0 versus Astralis to send them into the losers bracket.
Lower Bracket
From there, Astralis started climbing up slowly, game after game, series after series. First up was Team Spirit, which gave the Danes quite a rough time, but eventually Astralis won the series 2-0 in their favor. Next up was Complexity, which had recently beaten them in the Group Stage. This time round, with oBo out of the lineup, Astralis found no trouble in taking down the Juggernaut and won 2-0.
Credits: Astralis
In the 3rd round of the lower bracket, Astralis was faced with Mousesports, which were one of the favourites heading into the event. The series went the distance, having Nuke as the final map and overtime to close it out. After 36 rounds, Astralis secured the victory, winning 19-17 in the final map. This win gave Astralis another chance versus the Danes that took them down to the lower bracket at the beginning of playoffs. Despite the close rounds in the series, Astralis found no difficulty in taking them down this time round and won their series 2-0 to advance to the Grand Finals.
Credits: Astralis
Grand Finals
Astralis were matched up versus Natus Vincere in the grand finals. Na’Vi had an excellent run during playoffs, taking down all three rivals (Mousesports, Complexity, Heroic) and advancing to the Final Stage with a phenomenal performance. Despite receiving an automatic map win (due to not dropping to the lower bracket) Natus Vincere did not manage to close out the series, which allowed Astralis to complete the reverse sweep and win the series 3-2.
This Astralis win at ESL Pro League Season 12 will certainly shut any doubts about the team’s performance with their latest changes. The team is back, and even though Xyp9x is still on leave, the team is stronger than ever and it’s ready to dominate once more, in 2020.
