The review of BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles 2019
Ihor MatusWho has surprised?
FaZe Clan
This roster managed to surprise all viewers of BLAST Pro Series in Los Angeles. FaZe Clan hasn’t been able to create the game in the way, which would allow the European roster to perform successfully at a tournament. We think that their advancement to the grand final can be considered to be a success because there was a more obvious favorite to make it to the final match, besides Team Liquid.
FaZe was not able to beat two American opponents in the group stage: Team Liquid and Cloud9. They prevailed in the rest of the matches.
They managed to create a good struggle on Nuke in the grand final, having won 13 rounds, however, they had an unlucky fate on Inferno. Having achieved victory only in seven rounds, FaZe finished the participation in the tournament, having placed second in the standings.
FaZe Clan earned a money prize in the sum of $50,000 for their efforts.
Who has disappointed?
NRG Esports
The American team had been performing with an unstable success at the last tournaments and after the joining of stanislaw to the ranks of NRG, the team showed a good performance at ESL Pro League Season 9 - Finals. Just like a part of viewers, we thought that having enough time to practice, NRG would use it to prepare for the championship in the right way. Instead of this, stanislaw with his teammates was defeated in the matches against FaZe and Liquid, defeated MIBR and Renegades and made a draw with Cloud9. As a result, the roster was not able to advance to the grand final and finished its participation on the third place in the standings.
Viewers disliked NRG Esports so much that even decided not to choose them for the participation in the showmatch BLAST Pro Standoff.
NRG received a money prize in the sum of $25,000 for their efforts.
Who has performed at the tournament as expected?
Cloud9
Only people who know nothing about the esports and CS:GO and fans of C9 could hope on Cloud9’s success. Both of them didn’t receive what they expected. However, Cloud9 played pretty well with their renewed roster, having exceeded our expectations. Daps with his teammates managed to beat FaZe Clan, which advanced to the grand final, and made a draw with MIBR and NRG. They lost the matches against Team Liquid and Renegades.
Cloud9 received a money prize in the sum of $15,000 for the 4th place in the standings.
Renegades
The Australian team came to the championship, not as the favorite. No one was surprised by the fact that they were not able to get to the playoffs. At the same time, we were surprised with the fact that viewers had chosen RNG to participate in BLAST Pro Standoff where they lost. It’s worth to notice that they were close to a victory. Despite Renegades won three duels but due to MIBR made 28 kills totally and RNG scored 26, the victory was given to the Brazilians. Despite this, Renegades showed a very interesting show and left the championship, having placed 6th in the standings.
They earned a consolation prize in the sum of $5,000 for their participation in the event.
MIBR
The Brazilian team played at the championship with a stand-in in the face of the team’s coach, zews. Such a decision was made due to coldzera had left the main roster and now, MIBR thinks what to do with the talented Brazilian sniper Marcelo David. MIBR made a draw with Cloud9, beat Renegades and lost matches against the rest of the teams in the group stage. They were chosen to participate in BLAST Pro Standoff by viewers. They were close to a loss in the series of duels but prevailed as a result. By the way, zews didn’t surprise his fans and made the least number of kills in 1x1 battles. An interesting fact is that jkaem and Liazz from the opposing team made 3 and 2 kills, respectively.
MIBR earned $10,000 for the 5th place in the standings and, despite they were not able to make it to the playoffs, the Brazilians overcame NRG and Cloud9 in terms of grabs, having received a bonus in the sum of $20,000 for winning BLAST Pro Standoff.
Team Liquid
NAF — MVP of BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles 2019
We had doubts about Liquid’s success in the last match but we were sure that the Americans would advance to the grand final. Considering that they almost lost on the first map, it’s pretty difficult to call our doubts unjustified. In the group stage, Liquid prevailed in all matches and, having advanced to the playoffs, they defeated Cloud9 in the semi-final with a score 2-0, after which dealt with FaZe Clan in the grand final with the same result.
Liquid earned $125,000 and 10 BLAST Pro Series points for the first place at BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles 2019 and NAF became the most valuable player of the tournament.
This victory has become the fifth in a row with such events as DreamHack Masters Dallas 2019, ESL Pro League Season 9 - Finals, ESL One: Cologne 2019, and Intel Grand Slam Season 2.
It’s worth to notice the fact that for the first time in the history of BLAST Pro Series, the organizers made a decision to host three matches in the playoff stage instead of the familiar one.
The results of the tournament:
1st place — Team Liquid ($125,000)2nd place — FaZe Clan ($50,000)3rd place — NRG Esports ($25,000)4th place — Cloud9 ($15,000)5th place — MIBR ($10,000 + $20,000 for the victory at BLAST Pro Standoff)6th place — Renegades ($5,000)
BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles 2019 has come to an end and the overall prize pool in the sum of $250,000 was successfully distributed between the participants. The next events are Minor tournaments and Intel Extreme Masters XIV — Chicago 2019.