ECS Season 8, ESL Pro League 10 Finals previewed in Asia Championships

Mousesports took home the top prize at the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Asian Championships while Vici Gaming pulled up the rear in last place.

Though the event was largely lost in the shuffle of the hectic CSGO tournament calendar, it was an excellent opportunity to see how teams stacked up ahead of the ECS Season 8 Finals and the ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals.

Asian CSGO teams have pulled off several major upsets in the past and teams that participated got an early taste of what they’ll be bringing over the coming months. ECS is just around the corner, and these inter-regional tournaments can give a glimpses into which teams might be dark horses, and which ripe for an upset loss.

Mousesports looks ready for the ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals

Mousesports took first place and the $250,000 grand prize with a 2-0 win over ENCE with dominant wins on both Train and Inferno. ENCE couldn’t get much going on either map and barely cracked double digits, losing 16-10 and 16-11. 

Finn “karrigan” Andersen’s leadership was on full display as Mousesports cruised through the bracket. The team already looks primed for a run at the next major as the Dane’s leadership seems to resonate with the talented lineup.

They’re going to be a dangerous team at the ESL Pro League’s Season 10 Finals. Other teams underestimate the veteran in-game leader at their own peril.

ENCE comes in second, but will miss both ECS and EPL

ENCE shouldn’t be upset with its loss. The team looked strong en route to a second-place finish, especially considering they’ve been shaky since their surprise run at the IEM Katowice Major. This was the team’s first performance in months where the departure of in-game leader Aleksi “Alexsib” Virolainen didn’t seem like a huge mistake. 

The team’s 2-0 win against MIBR in the semifinals proves that the team, when prepared, can stand with the best of them. While it’s too early to say if this result is another outlier, it cannot be written off as a fluke. Teams don’t enjoy second place finishes very often, and this could be a sign that ENCE is turning things around.

ENCE will miss both the ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals and the ECS Season 8 Finals, but this result hints that the team isn’t done as a CSGO elite quite yet. 

TYLOO might make an impact at EPL, ViCi can’t keep it together

TYLOO is clearly the best team in the Asian region after topping their group with a 2-0 at the expense of G2 Esports and MiBR. The team can get the better of supposedly superior organizations, but struggles to do so consistently.

Fans will be able to see Tyloo at the ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals, but it’s anyone’s guess as to whether they’ll be able to make real noise at the event. Even though the team performed well on home soil, international competition often gets the better of them.

Vici Gaming, on the other hand, did not have a great time at the CSGO Asian Championship. They had little to offer in terms of plan or structure and were unable to absorb or redirect pressure. The team had little to offer on offense and couldn’t hold back anyone while on defense.

It’s clear Vici needs to go back to the drawing board. An organization with their storied pedigree in other esports shouldn’t put a team like this on the field.

MiBR’s put on mixed performance ahead of ECS Season 8 Finals

MiBR still seems to be finding its identity since sending Marcello “coldzera” David to FaZe Clan, but the team looked better than it has in recent months. There’s still a long way to go before South America’s top brand returns to its heyday, though. 

The team landed in 5th-6th place after taking wins over Evil Geniuses and AVANGAR. Taking wins over two of CSGO’s highest-ranked teams is nothing to sneeze at, but its losses to TYLOO and ENCE hint that the team still has lots of work to do.

MiBR always brings the heat in both ESL and ECS events, so a semifinals appearence at ECS or a quarterfinals berth at ESL Pro League Season 10 isn’t out of the question. Then again, a quick group stage exit wouldn’t be surprising, either. 

Evil Geniuses stumble hard, a bad sign for upcoming tournaments

Evil Geniuses were just saving their strategies, right?

The North American team didn’t bring their A-game to Shanghai, going 1-1 in the group stage with a loss to MiBR and win over G2 Esports. From there, they were eliminated 2-0 in the quarterfinals by mousesports. 

It’s difficult to tell whether EG is starting to struggle or if the loss was the result of some heavy jetlag. Regardless, both the ECS Season 8 Finals and the ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals feature much tougher competition than this. They’ll need to do better than what they showed here if they want to continue climbing to the top of the rankings.

EG has an opportunity in the coming months to assert itself as the best team in the world. If they don’t, North American CS will keep bringing fans disappointment.

AVANGAR’s map loss to Vici is scary for ECS Season 8 title chances

This was a classic trap tournament for AVANGAR and the CIS team fell right in. While the Kazakhstani squad can look elite on their best days, their worst days see them dropping maps to the likes of Vici Gaming.

Despite coming in second place at the StarLadder Berlin Major, AVANGAR often finds itself as an underdog. While the team might have been able to sneak out wins over unsuspecting favorites before that event, nobody is sleeping on them these days. That puts them into a position where they need to outperform opponents and they just haven’t been able to reliably do so.

AVANGAR won’t be at the ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals, but they will compete at the ECS Season 8 Finals. AVANGAR is a classic coin-flip team. Fans don’t know whether they’ll see a grand final appearence or an early exit.

G2’s absence from ESL Pro League Finals is a bummer

French CS is a complete mess and G2 hasn’t been able to overcome that, despite fielding a mixed roster. That resulted in a disastrous group stage exit for the team from Shanghai after going 0-2. 

The latest iteration of the team has looked very good at points, but looked dreadful here. The team won’t be competing at either the ECS or ESL Season 10 finals and that seems like the best for them right now.