GG.BET New York Invitational - ESL One New York 2019 Qualifier
Closed qualifiers for GG.Bet New York Invitational concluded last weekend, meaning it's time for eight of the best teams in the world to face off against each other in hopes to finish ahead of the competition and earn a ticket for the ESL One: New York 2019.
As revealed by GG.Bet and organisers Maincast, GG.Bet New York Invitational will take place between August 3-8, featuring seven invited teams and BPro Gaming, who fought their way through qualifiers to earn their spot at the tournament. In addition to the Bulgarian team, the Invitational will also feature: AVANGAR, HellRaisers, BIG, CR4ZY, forZe, OpTic and Sprout as the seven invited teams to the event.
Just like previously held GG.Bet Chicago Invitational at the end of June, the New York Invitational will only offer a $5,000 prize pool, which will all be awarded to the 2nd placed team as a consolation prize, whereas the first-place team gets the highly sought after ticket to the ESL One: New York 2019.
Besides the prize pool, the format of the tournament remains the same, meaning it is split into two stages; group stage and playoffs.
In the group stage, eight teams will be divided into two double-elimination format groups of four teams. All the opening matches will be played in Bo1, whereas all the sequential will use the Bo3 format. Top two teams from each group advance into playoffs, which will use the single-elimination bracket with Bo3 matches throughout.
Team distribution in the groups is as follows:
Group A: AVANGAR, BIG, forZe, HellRaisers
Group B: BPro Gaming, OpTic Gaming, Sprout, Winstrike Team
As an event, which never fails to display exciting matches, willed with upset wins and impressive comebacks, GG.Bet New York Invitational surely is worth taking a look at, both from a viewer's as well as from a bettor's perspective. And while we can expect a handful of exciting matches, the most important thing we need to answer is which team do we believe have what it takes to qualify for ESL One: New York 2019.
Let's take a look at the favourites, underdogs and our prediction.
We will start with BIG Clan, who are arguably one of the worst teams at this tournament. The IGL role inside the team has shifted from Fatih "gob b" Dayik to Johannes "tabseN" Wodarz, which makes gob b practically useless in this team. The current rumours suggest that he will move to the coach position, however, until that happens the team is "stuck" with him. That ultimately means that there are a few incoming roster changes, which more times than not result in players not playing their best. All in all, there is quite a lot happening in the team, which is why I am confident saying anyone should steer clear of betting on BIG, as they do not look like a team that can seriously threaten top spots.
AVANGAR are coming into the tournament with a new line-up. Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev was signed and Bektiyar "fitch" Bahytov was let go. While we must mention AVANGAR have a fairly easy opening match against BIG, I don't feel confident betting on a team that just changed their roster, especially in an online tournament. Chemistry is understandably still not where they would want it to be, which will be a huge problem for AVANGAR and their chances to win the tournament.
The most recent tournament for Optic Gaming was the GG.BET Chicago Invitational - IEM Chicago 2019 Qualifier. There they managed to defeat GamerLegion twice, however, when put against teams of higher quality, such as Heroic and forZe, OpTic got outmatched. The team undoubtedly have some quality in the team, but when it comes to using it to produce notable results, OpTic falls short. They have not achieved anything notable yet, and I don't believe the GG.Bet New York Invitational will change that, especially considering it's an online tournament.
There is not a lot to be said about Bpro besides that they are the worst team at this tournament. They are currently priced at around $13 to reach the finals, which is a fair price, as they would need some kind of a miracle to achieve that feat. Furthermore, I hardly believe they can even win one match throughout the whole tournament, which is why there is no reason to bet on them.
As for our prediction, we have to go with the forZe. They just recently qualified for the StarLadder Berlin Major 2019 through CIS Minor by beating Syman, Unique and Team Spirit. Qualifying for the Major itself is not only a sign of quality in the team but also a massive morale boost and I believe they will look to keep the momentum going before they step into the ring with the best CS:GO teams in the world. Quite frankly, the only team that could threaten forZe is HellRaisers, however, even they do not look as solid as they could. Internal issues have severely weakened the team, which is why I don't believe they will be as dominant at GG.Bet New York Invitational as they could be. Although I believe HellRaisers can still reach the finals, they will struggle to defeat forZe, who looked extremely good ahead of GG.Bet New York Invitational.
forZe to reach the final
$3.50
