ENCE & G2 seek trophy at the last big CS:GO event before the holiday season

CS:GO

December 18, 2019

The last considerable prize pool of the competitive esports season will be awarded this weekend in Saint Julian’s, Malta. The InterContinental Arena will host eight squads in their battle for $300,000 in prize funds and the Champions Cup Trophy. Four out of the eight participating teams are within the global Top30, as each of them seek to finish the year on a high note.

Groups Predictions

The teams are divided into two competitive (GSL) groups with the top two teams from each group advancing to the playoffs. Group A consists of ENCE, Furia, Movistar Riders and TYLOO, while Group B features G2, BIG, Hard Legion and Spirit.

Group A

When compared, it is clear that Group A is more competitive featuring two Top15 teams (ENCE, FURIA) as well as TYLOO, the winner of the Chinese Champions Cup. ENCE had a solid season in 2019 finishing runner-up in Katowice as well as a quarterfinal in Berlin, they also managed to finish 2nd at IEM Chicago and won BLAST Pro Series: Madrid 2019. Overall it was a good season for the Finns, but they do need a trophy here to round it out.

FURIA didn’t perform too well in the Majors but they did win a bunch of Minor events. They finished 2nd and 3rd respectively at the ECS Season 7 Finals and StarSeries & i-League Season 8. Trophies at the EMF CS:GO World Invitational 2019 and the Arctic Invitational 2019 round out their season with a solid earnings record.

TYLOO and Moviestar are hardly contenders in this group. Both teams had decent season considering their performance ceiling but should hardly contest FURIA and ENCE for the top spots in the group.

Group B

Group B is all about G2 Esports and their push at ending 2019 on a high note. The squad attended most of the Majors in 2019 but failed to reach decent placements in most showings. The only highlight of their season was a 2nd place at the ESL Pro League Season 9 Finals. A trophy ahead of the winter break is essential.

The competition (BIG, Hard Legion, Spirit) hardly had any notable success in 2019. All three squads have the potential of beating each other but none of them scales up to the level of G2. Among the three BIG stands out simply due to the amount of tournaments they managed to play this season. I mean, BIG gets around. The squad played about 30 events this season and should outperform the CIS squads just by their strength of schedule.

Conclusion

Sadly, the final event of the season does not feature any of the Top10 teams globally. We still get to see #11, #12 and #13 try to at least set themselves up for greatness in 2020 and potentially advance or swap places in the standings. 2019 was a season marked by the greatness of Astralis and Team Liquid, everyone else was just a placeholder. We hope 2020 will bring more excitement and competition for the global CS:GO throne.