In Group C, MOUZ dominated GamerLegion with a 13-1 victory on Nuke but struggled on their own map pick of Mirage, requiring a 16-12 overtime win to secure a playoff spot in the Counter-Strike tournament.

Last seasons #ESLProLeague Champions are already guaranteed a spot in the playoffs!

Congratulations @mousesports pic.twitter.com/K1TVbv2hqs

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) May 1, 2024

Team Liquid also secured a playoff spot after a hard-fought 2-0 (22-19, 13-11) victory against Monte.

Despite slow starts on Ancient and Mirage, Liquid managed to close out the series with triple overtime on Ancient and all 24 rounds on Mirage.

The game showcased impressive performances from Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken and Casper ‘cadiaN’ M?ller, but Liquid’s shakiness and miscommunication were evident, especially with several team flashes on Mirage.

They face a tough challenge against MOUZ in the upper final, where a direct berth to the quarterfinals is at stake.

We have our second team from Group C to be guaranteed a spot in the #ESLProLeague Season 19 Playoffs!

Congratulations @TeamLiquidCS pic.twitter.com/32uwaHr9zW

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) May 1, 2024

In the lower bracket, ENCE struggled, winning Bad News Kangaroos’ Vertigo pick but falling 9-13 on Nuke.

They managed to restore some confidence with a decisive 13-0 win on Anubis, but questions remain about their long-term competitiveness.

FURIA suffered a major upset, losing 0-2 to a makeshift FORZE line-up, including a humiliating 0-13 defeat on Overpass.

Kaike ‘KSCERATO’ Cerato performed well, but FURIA’s struggles, especially with stand-in Kayke ‘kye’ Bertolucci, raise concerns about the team’s direction.

In Group D, BIG narrowly defeated BOSS 2-0 (16-13, 13-10), while Natus Vincere comfortably advanced by defeating FlyQuest 2-0 (13-5, 13-6).

FURIA’s loss means they drop down to the last-chance stage, facing Bad News Kangaroos next.

FURIA’s co-owner expressed frustration and promised solutions after the humiliating defeat, highlighting the team’s determination to bounce back.

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GamerLegion will clash with ENCE for the second time in 2024, with the Finnish side winning 16-14 in the second round of PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 European RMR B in February. GamerLegion have since produced mixed results and made a couple of roster changes, adding Henrich “sl3nd” Hevesi and Andreas “aNdu” Maasing to the active lineup.

Even with the fresh blood, GamerLegion have won only three of their last seven series — and those wins were against lesser opposition in MOUZ NXT, Copenhagen Wolves, and GUN5. ENCE, meanwhile, are 2-5 from their last seven outings, with concerning defeats against FORZE Esports, OG, AMKAL, FURIA Esports, and paiN Gaming.

ENCE placed top six at Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2024, but they’ve not shown much since. This looks like a 50-50 match, making it hard to pass on GamerLegion at outsider odds.

Ninjas in Pyjamas are in a difficult spot ahead of their first ESL Pro League Season 19 match, as they’ll have to compete with two stand-ins. Maoz “BluePho3nix” Paz will fill the final missing spot on the roster, while Kacper “xKacpersky” Gabara will replace Fredrik “REZ” Sterner, who was unable to fly out to Malta.

HEROIC field a complete roster but enter the tournament in shaky form. At the start of the month, HEROIC secured a respectable top-eight finish at IEM Chengdu 2024, but they later added a round-one exit from the Esports World Cup 2024 European Open Qualifier with a loss against Brazylijski luz.

Inconsistency has been the theme of this team since the turn of the year, so while HEROIC have the talent to do well, they rarely show what they’re capable of. For this reason alone, backing Ninjas in Pyjamas to win a map makes more sense.

After finishing in fifth-sixth place at Skyesports Masters 2024, FORZE Esports added Aleksey “NickelBack” Trofimov and Owen “smooya” Butterfield to the active lineup. And while the new-look roster looks solid, they have yet to play an official match together.

Monte haven’t made any roster changes since March, yet their results over the last two months leave a lot to be desired. With just one tournament title from RES Eastern European Masters Spring 2024, Monte look like vulnerable favourites for this match.

FORZE’s questionable synergy is a big reason to doubt their chances of winning on Tuesday. Still, they field a better lineup, and they’re against Monte, who’ve recently struggled against lesser squads.

FURIA Esports last met with Team Liquid in the second round of the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 American RMR, where they won 13-10. Since then, FURIA have played 15 series and lost all but five, with four of those defeats coming in their last five outings.

On the other side, Team Liquid are 5-1 across their last six series; however, they’ve beaten just two notable teams over that stretch: Legacy and M80.

Liquid should be priced as favourites with the top esports betting sites, but $1.45 is way too short for a team that has been anything but consistent over the last four months.

Esports betting tips

That leaves us with six teams and only three spots in the Legends Stage up for grabs in the final CS:GO Major.

The first three series on Wednesday featured the six outfits that were facing elimination, with TheMongolz vs Monte and GamerLegion vs OG kicking off the day with best-of-three series, followed by Complexity vs Team Liquid.

TheMongolz put up a good fight against Monte, but the latter side found a way to win the big rounds and secure a hard-fought 2-0 victory to send the all-Mongolian roster packing and set up a final-day matchup with paiN Gaming.

Many people would have had OG getting out of the Challengers Stage, but the world no.11 ran into a very determined GamerLegion roster and ended up losing 1-2.

The third of the elimination series was a grudge match between Complexity and Team Liquid, with one North American organisation set to go home while the other lived to fight another day.

Liquid as the world no.6 came into the series as overwhelming favourites, and they delivered with a quick 2-0 victory (16-11, 16-3).

The promotion clashes featured FaZe Clan and Apeks, who lost their 2-0 pool matches yesterday, with Ninjas in Pyjamas, forZe, Grayhound and paiN Gaming joining them in seeking a spot in the Legends Stage.

From the three series, FaZe Clan, Apeks and Ninjas in Pyjamas earned promotion, with FaZe and NiP winning 2-0 and Apeks defeating paiN Gaming 2-1 in a tough series that went the distance.

We now move on to the final day of the Challengers Stage, where all three matches are both elimination and promotion series between the remaining six teams.

Day 4 matches – May 11, 2023

• forZe ($1.57) vs GamerLegion ($2.25) @ 10:30 BST
• Monte ($1.57) vs paiN Gaming ($2.25) @ 14:30 BST
• Grayhound ($4.50) vs Team Liquid ($1.16) @ 18:30 BST

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The BLAST.tv Paris Major commenced as all CS:GO Majors do, with the Challengers Stage and a 16-team Swiss system, and day one featured the opening two rounds of best-of-one series.

Coming into the Challengers Stage, G2 Esports, FaZe Clan and ENCE were installed as the three top teams according to the HLTV power rankings, and those teams didn’t disappoint, winning all of their matches to go straight into the 2-0 pool.

Joining those three teams will be the surprise packet of day one, Apeks, who defeated one of the pre-tournament favourites with esports betting sites in Team Liquid (16-12), before going on to become just the second team to record a flawless 16-0 victory at a CS:GO Major, thrashing Grayhound.

On day two, Apeks will face G2 and ENCE will clash with FaZe, with the winner of each best-of-three series earning their way into the Legends Stage as the ninth and 10th seed, respectively.

At the other end of the spectrum, world no.7 Team Liquid and world no.11 MOUZ fell into the 0-2 pool and will be facing elimination on day two when they take on fellow winless teams GamerLegion and Fluxo.

The first of the elimination matches will take place on Tuesday, with Fluxo taking on Team Liquid and GamerLegion clashing with MOUZ as the final two matches of round three.

In helping G2 to their current 2-0 record, Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov was easily the player of the day, recording event-highs in overall rating (1.82), kill/assist participation (88.5%), average damage per round (109.7) and impact (1.93).

The star AWPer from Russia produced the best performance of the day against Complexity, where he carried his team to a 16-9 win on the back of 34 kills and nine deaths, earning a massive rating of 2.23 for the match.

Going into day two, eyes will be firmly on the last four best-of-three series, where we will find out who will be promoted to the Legends Stage at 3-0 and who will be sent packing at 0-3.

Below is a list of round three fixtures to kick off day two:

• 1-1 pool

  • Complexity ($2.20) vs paiN Gaming ($1.61) @ 10:30 BST
  • Grayhound ($2.00) vs TheMongolz ($1.80) @ 10:30 BST
  • forZe ($2.50) vs Monte ($1.50) @ 12:00 BST
  • Ninjas in Pyjamas ($1.90) vs OG ($1.80) @ 12:00 BST

• 2-0 pool (promotion series)

  • Apeks ($3.75) vs G2 Esports ($1.25) @ 13:30 BST
  • ENCE ($2.50) vs FaZe Clan ($1.50) @ 13:30 BST

• 0-2 pool (elimination series)

  • Fluxo ($6.50) vs Team Liquid ($1.10) @ 17:30 BST
  • GamerLegion ($2.75) vs MOUZ ($1.40) @ 17:30 BST

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After defeating Natus Vincere and Team Spirit on their way to the Group D upper-bracket final, FORZE went on to finish undefeated by beating ENCE 2-0 in the decider to secure a spot in the quarterfinals.

Most esports betting sites had FORZE as underdogs to win Group D, but the Russian team dominated ENCE 16-3 and 16-13 in an easy 2-0 win.

Despite losing in the upper-bracket final, ENCE secured a spot in the second round of the playoffs, leaving two spots in the first round to be filled from the lower-bracket final and last-chance stage.

After losing to FORZE in their first series, Natus Vincere finished the group stage strong with 2-1 wins over Astralis and Rare Atom before defeating Team Spirit in the lower-bracket final to secure their spot in the playoffs.

Team Liquid faced Astralis in the fourth-place decider, which the North American team won 2-0 (16-8, 16-12), allowing the world no.3 to take the final playoff spot.

The ESL Pro League now moves on to the first round of the playoffs, with the first four games set to take place on Tuesday.

Here is the #ESLProLeague Season 17 Playoff Stage Bracket!

Which teams do you think will make it to the Grand Final on Sunday? pic.twitter.com/TPV41IvuxZ

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) March 19, 2023

Below is a list of the opening-round matchups, with odds courtesy of GG Bet.

• Natus Vincere ($1.07) vs 00Nation ($7.50) @ 3:30pm CET
• FURIA ($1.66) vs Fnatic ($2.10) @ 3:30pm CET
• paiN Gaming ($3.75) vs Team Liquid ($1.25) @ 7pm CET
• G2 Esports ($1.05) vs Movistar Riders ($8.50) @ 7pm CET

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?Natus Vincere and forZe last met in April 2022, during the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 European RMR A, when NaVi secured a comfortable 2-0 win en route to the Major finals. But the Ukrainian team was much stronger back then.

After a rough patch, we saw a bit of a resurgence from NaVi earlier this year when they reached the semifinals of Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2023. However, they need to show more to convince anyone of their ESL Pro League title credentials.

Natus Vincere have better players than forZe, but they’re not the same beast they were in 2021 or early into 2022. Moreover, NaVi haven’t played an official match in over a month and are notorious for starting tournaments slowly.

At the offered CS:GO betting odds, forZe to win one map makes the most sense. They can be competitive in big events such as the ESL Pro League, and facing a rusty NaVi – who are still finding their new identity – will give them a perfect chance to prove it.

?Team Spirit enter this match as $2.10 underdogs with esports betting sites, which is interesting to see – not necessarily because Spirit are very strong, but rather because Astralis aren’t. Even though Astralis are still highly respected, the Danes are not playing at their best.

Astralis are 9-1 over their last 10 outings, with just two notable wins against OG (2-1) and Ninjas in Pyjamas (2-1). Still, even those minor achievements are overshadowed by unconvincing victories against EYEBALLERS (2-1), Aurora (2-1), and SAW (2-1).

In terms of tournament results, Team Spirit are in a similar spot; they’ve won two events since the start of 2022 and haven’t beaten any strong teams recently. So even though Spirit are not stronger than Astralis, they’re not that much worse.

This should be a close series between two struggling teams, so we’ll put our money on over 2.5 maps.

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“Welcome @r3saltCSGO to Forze! Evgeny is a young and perspective talent who is ready to show himself on the highest level. You could see him playing for VP.Prodigy earlier and being our substitute in recent matches,” the team tweeted. Our main roster is finally complete and is ready to fight”

R3salt has been in the competitive scene for just about two years. The 17-year-old rifler got signed to VP.Prodigy in March 2021 and only left the team on February 3, 2023. In his time with VP.Prodigy, he played in countless domestic tournaments; however, he barely won any. R3salt competed in the 2022 WePlay Academy League Season 3 and came out in fifth-sixth place. He also played in the 2022 SCL Season 6 Challenger Division, where they emerged in third-fourth place.

After failing to qualify for the Intel Extreme Masters Rio Major, forZe decided to tweak their roster a bit, which led to the benching of Aleksandr “KENSI” Gurkin and Evgeny “Norwi” Ermolin. Prior to the signing of r3salt, ForZe also acquired the 24-year-old rifler Vladislav “Krad” Kravchenko on December 2 of last year. The team have said that with the recent adjustments, they are now ready to take on the scene by winning themselves trophies.

ForZe’s CS:GO roster now consists of:

● Andrey “Jerry” Mekhryakov
● Aleksandr “zorte” Zagodyrenko
● Aleksandr “?shalfey?” Marenov
● Vladislav “Krad” Kravchenko
● Evgeny “r3salt” Frolov
● Artem “Fierce” Ivanov (coach)

The CS:GO team will be making an appearance in the ESL Pro League Season 17, which is scheduled to take place on March 15. ForZe will be up against Natus Vincere with odds of $3.41, and the latter is placed at $1.29.

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EC Kyiv and BLUEJAYS will clash on Thursday for the first time since IESF World Championship 2021 when BLUEJAYS won 2-1. The rosters have not changed much since, which explains why esports betting sites have the two teams priced at the same betting odds.

Moreover, the teams are equally matched talent-wise and even if we compare their form, both have won four of their last five games and had to face opponents of similar quality.

However, the map pool favours the Macedonian squad, who hold a better win rate on five of seven maps in the rotation – except for Nuke (which neither team plays) and Ancient (38% – 43%). Still, we wouldn’t say that the better maps win rate means BLUEJAYS are more likely to win.

Like many other games at this level of play, this is as close to a coinflip as it can get. Therefore, a bet on over 2.5 maps makes the most sense.

ForZe and Dynamo Eclot have never met before, mainly because forZe rarely participate in ESEA and other C-Tier events. And realistically, they don’t have to, since forZe are just too good to be playing in lesser tournaments like this one.

Dynamo Eclot, on the other side, have appeared in ten C-Tier events in 2022 and have done reasonably well – particularly this month. They won Tipsport Online Cup 2022 a couple of weeks ago, claimed a top-four at Sazka eLEAGUE Spring 2022 and were runners-up in the ROG Masters East EMEA 2022.

Still, regardless of their success, Dynamo Eclot are not at forZe’s level. The latter might not have won a single event since Pinnacle Winter Series #2 in February, but they’ve played in top events for most of the year and even appeared in PGL Major Antwerp 2022 in May.

ForZe don’t need to play at 100% to win, and there is a world where won’t take this match too seriously. However, that’s not an angle we’re ready to follow.

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Both sides enter this match with new faces on their roster. Team Singularity acquired Danni “smF” Dyg and Sebastian “larsen” Larsen as replacements for Tobias “TOBIZ” Theo and Casper “Celrate” Andersen last month, while FATE decided to replace Kaloyan “shaiK” Borisov and Milen “milky” Iliev with Kostadin “rafftu” Turbinov and Kalin “KalubeR” Еrenditzov.

Although good signings on both ends, we have to consider that FATE made their changes just this Tuesday, meaning some period of instability and poor synergy must be expected. The Bulgarian duo are definitely an upgrade to shaiK and milky, but that might not become obvious until a few weeks pass.

FATE are still good enough to win one map, but due to the questionable synergy, we have to side with Singularity.

Wis?a Kraków have been all over the place across the last month. After making some noise at IEM Katowice, where they lost to Virtus.pro (10-16) and Complexity (1-2), the Poles went on to defeat sAw (2-1), FATE (2-0) and HellRaisers (2-0), only to drop the ball against EXTREMUM (1-2) and Illuminar Gaming (10-16, 15-15).

That said, a majority of those losses came against stronger teams. This could be a problem since forZe are by no means a weak squad, although they enter this match in ordinary shape after narrow wins against FofTheWin (16-12) and ex-SPARK ESPORTS (16-11) as well as an 8-16 loss to Movistar Riders.

This match seems like a complete coin-toss, so punters have to favour the underdogs. If you believe forZe are stronger than their recent results might suggest, overs might be a better pick, but we just don’t see it.

The signing of Artem “Shockwave” Simakov, Artem “wTg” Morozov, Alan “Rask” Ali, Pavel “p4sh4” Kosenko, Pavel “Amision” Chebatkov, coach Kerim “Toda” Musaev and analyst Andrey “Andreezy” Bavian marks Virtus.pro’s first-ever entry into Ubisoft’s tactical shooter title.

Virtus.pro already have teams in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Fortnite, Apex Legends and two squads in Dota2, while having previously fielded rosters for Artifact and Paladins that disbanded in September and December respectively.

Talking about the new signings, Sergey Glamazda, General Manager at Virtus.pro, stated that they closely observed the development of the R6S scene and identified forZe’s roster as a perfect addition to their organisation.

“Finally, we settled on forZe esports players: we had a mutual interest with the players, and the organisation was ready to conclude a transfer deal. We have signed long-term contracts and intend to play with the good perspectives in this field,” said Mr Glamazda.

ForZe’s R6S roster came together in April 2018 and have since made a name for themselves as one of the strongest teams in the scene. Last summer they won Six Major 2019 – Europe and made it to the semi-finals of Six Major Raleigh 2019. Towards the end of the year, forZe also pocketed a silver medal from Challenger League Season 10 – Europe and Russian Major League Season 3.

However, some poor performances in the latter stage of 2019 ushered in some roster changes which saw the arrival of Rask and Amision, who replaced Denis “Shangri” Kazanin and Alexander “KaMa” Chernyshov in January and March respectively. With a new-look roster, forZe went on to finish fifth at Pro League Season 11 – Europe and win the Russian Major League Season 4 – Group Stage, where they lost only one game out of 14 played.

“We had been collecting this line-up since November 2018. There were reshuffles, there were changes, but in the end, months of hard training helped the team go from the fouth place of RML to the tier-one level,” said Sergey Ignatko, CEO of forZe.

“When the decision was made to sell the roster, the priority was to find an organisation that respected discipline as much as we did. I want to wish the players further growth and good luck in the squad Virtus.pro.”

Virtus.pro’s first Rainbow Six Siege match is slated to take place on Saturday, May 23, when wTg and co. will play CrowCrowd in the semi-finals of Russian Major League Season 4. The tournament features a ?1,000,000 RUB (? $13,562 USD) prize pool, with ?500,000 RUB (? $6,781 USD) reserved for the champions.