Preview of BLAST Pro Series Global Final 2019
Ihor MatusGeneral information
BLAST Pro Series Global Final 2019 is the last tournament by RFRSH Entertainment before the start of BLAST Premier Series. The prize pool of the upcoming championship consists of $500,000, and the main money prize is $350,000. The monetary award will be divided by only four teams that got the biggest amount of points in the follow-up of the held BLAST Pro Series tournaments.
Astralis (place in the HLTV rating — #1)
Win odds: 1.72
Astralis is the main favorite according to the sportsbooks, analysts, spectators, and others. Due to the fact that there are only four participants in the tournament including Team Liquid who managed to beat the Danish team in the final only once in two years, it gets clear why the odds for Astralis equal 1.72. Everybody believes in the triumph of the roster so strongly that the outright bet “Won’t become the winner” equals 2.05, which is very rare for the esports world.
Astralis is in a good gaming shape and the players performed well at the last tournament but they lost the semifinal. This time, gla1ve and his teammates will analyze all the mistakes and will treat the tournament even more responsible. If we take into account the fact that the main prize will consist of $350,000, we will be almost confident that the Danish will win. Anything can happen, but if you want to make an outright bet, it should be Astralis only. Here the players have no peers.
Astralis roster and rating of the players:
Nicolai ‘dev1ce’ Reedtz — 1.22
Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen — 1.08
Andreas ‘Xyp9x’ Højsleth — 1.07
Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander — 1.09
Emil ‘Magisk’ Reif — 1.13
Danny ‘zonic’ Sørensen — coach
Team Liquid (place in the HLTV rating — #4)
Win odds: 3.70
The second contender of winning the event must be Team Liquid. The team can show a good game and, in our opinion, the players are to beat FaZe Clan and Ninjas in Pyjamas. They have a serious obstacle which is Astralis, that has been holding the first place in the HLTV rating for a long time. Liquid has big experience in performing against the team at the finals of various major LAN events. Over the last few years, the Americans have managed to defeat Astralis only once at the final of a LAN. Of course, we do not exclude the likelihood of Twistzz and his teammates winning the event, but the chance is quite low. Team Liquid is more likely to take second place but if the players win, the final is going to end up with the score 2-1, as Liquid is not in its best shape now.
By the way, Liquid got Astralis in the upper bracket. Due to this reason, we are almost sure that they will start from the lower bracket where the players are to kick the loser of the match FaZe vs NiP out.
Team Liquid roster and rating of the players:
Nicholas ‘nitr0’ Cannella — 1.01
Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski — 1.20
Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken — 1.08
Keith ‘NAF’ Markovic — 1.16
Jacky ‘Stewie2k’ Yip — 1.07
Eric ‘adreN’ Hoag — coach
Ninjas in Pyjamas (place in the HLTV rating — #10)
Win odds: 9.00
Ninjas in Pyjamas cannot boast about great results and the players do not have a lot of chances to win but, in our opinion, they have to climb higher than Team Liquid in the tournament bracket if it works good for them. At the last LAN tournament they participated in, the Swedish showed not the best results but everything can change at BLAST Pro Series Global Final 2019. NiP is the only participant of the event that skipped ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals, so it means that the Swedish had more time to get prepared for this championship. Besides, Ninjas in Pyjamas could watch the event of the tournaments and take notice of all the interesting moments used by Astralis, Liquid, and FaZe at the LAN final of the tenth EPL season. That is why we think that NiP should not take the last position at the tournament.
Ninjas in Pyjamas roster and rating of the players:
Patrik ‘f0rest’ Lindberg — 1.10
Fredrik ‘REZ’ Sterner — 1.02
Jonas ‘Lekr0’ Olofsson — 1.05
Nicolas ‘Plopski’ Gonzalez Zamora — 1.11
Simon ‘twist’ Eliasson — 1.05
Faruk ‘pita’ Pita — coach
FaZe Clan (place in the HLTV rating — #7)
Win odds: 7.00
After the recent victory at BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen 2019, FaZe Clan is dealing with some problems. At first, at IEM Beijing 2019 they took 3-4 position which is quite acceptable for them but at ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals, the players got 9-12 position in the tournament bracket which is not satisfactory at all. Here we should add the fact that broky is on trial at the team and it can either inspire the esportsman to show a great game or cause huge pressure on the young player. To our mind, FaZe Clan is the main outsider of the tournament even though the experts of sportsbooks think otherwise.
FaZe Clan roster and rating of the players:
Håvard ‘rain’ Nygaard — 1.04
Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač — 1.15
Olof ‘olofmeister’ Kajbjer — 1.03
Marcelo ‘coldzera’ David — 1.12
Helvijs ‘broky’ Saukants — 1.04
Janko ‘YNk’ Paunović — coach
We suppose that the tournament bracket after the end of the championship will look in the following way:
- 1 place: Astralis — $350,000
- 2 place: Team Liquid — $???
- 3 place: Ninjas in Pyjamas — $???
- 4 place: FaZe Clan — $???