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With ESL One New York over, we look ahead to the rest of CS:GO for 2018
Mousesports took home the ESL One New York trophy over Team Liquid in a 3–2 series full of drama and amazing clutches. What does the weekend tell us about the remainder of the year though?
After a grueling five game series against mousesports, Team Liquid were unable to keep their heads above water at ESL One New York. Mouz often boast about how they love to silence hometown crowds, and they certainly sucked the air out of the Barclays Center on map four after mounting one of the most remarkable comebacks of the year, overcoming a 3–14 deficit on Dust2 to win 19–17 in overtime.
Chris 'ChrisJ' de Jong pulled off an even more astonishing feat on the decider map, Mirage, taking out the entirety of Team Liquid with an AWP to clutch out a narrow round win for his team.
This sort of heartbreaking loss isn't unfamiliar to Liquid. They have a reputation for starting to shut the door on their opponents, only to have them wedge their feet in and somehow slam it back open. As we look forward to the remaining months of 2018 – still packed with tournaments – will there be even more drama in store?
On the bright side for North America
Since the dawn of Counter-Strike, all the way back to the CS 1.6 days, North America's hopes have been fleeting at best. Europe was the land of the lions and North American teams were the antelope waiting to be devoured. The complexion of the scene has changed in recent years, however. North American teams can compete with European powerhouses now, a fact cemented by Cloud9's unprecedented win at the Boston Major earlier this year – a North American first.
"There's no doubt in my mind that NA and Europe are on the same page now. You can't refute this," former Cloud9 manager, Tres 'Stunna' Saranthus, says. "This isn't 1.6. It isn't the early days of CS:GO, where it was celebrated just taking a map win off of a team like Ninjas in Pyjamas."
ESL One New York featured two North American teams in the top four of the tournament. NRG fell to the eventual champions in the semi-finals, but they had to vanquish one of the previous ESL One New York champions, FaZe, as well as G2 Esports, in order to make it to the sems in the first place. Helmed by a veteran, and full of youth and room to grow, it’s only a matter of time until they break through to the next echelon. Team Liquid, despite their heartbreaking loss, were considered favorites going into their bout with Mousesports.
While ESL One New York took place, another major event wrapped up this weekend too. The grand finals of Blast Pro Series: Istanbul featured a clash between Astralis, coming off of their win at the most recent major, and MIBR, consisting of the former SK squad, minus Ricardo 'Boltz' de Souza Prass and seeing Jacky 'Stewie2k' Yip reunited with his former Cloud9 team-mate, Tarik 'Tarik' Celik. Like Liquid, MIBR lost, but in defeat they tore off the aura of invincibility that Astralis has been draped in as of late. Map one was a stomp favoring Astralis, but the next two went 16:14 favoring MIBR, and 14:16, giving Astralis a narrow 2–1 victory.
"I think the scene has changed to a point where Europe isn't as superior as they were before, excluding Astralis. NA can definitely compete with top European teams now," NRG's Ethan 'nahtE' Arnold told us.
European Counter-Strike is still European Counter-Strike
North America was still just the bridesmaid this weekend in competition. Not only did MIBR lose to Astralis, Mousesports brought everyone back down to Earth by beating the favored North American squad. With their new roster now starting to click, Mousesports will be even more dangerous as 2018 continues to unfold.
As for squads such as FaZe, Na'Vi, and Fnatic, who were dumped out of ESL One New York in the group stages, 'Stunna' thinks this is most likely a one-off anomaly, possibly related to the proximity of ESL One New York to the recent London Major and the hectic travel schedule of the teams.
Speaking of which, it looks like the travel schedule of top teams is unlikely to slow down, as there are still plenty of events set to kick off in the waning months of 2018: Blast Pro Series: Copenhagen, Epicenter 2018, DreamHack Atlanta, DreamHack Winter, and the ESL Pro League Season 8 finals. There's no off-season in professional Counter-Strike nowadays.
The packed out Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York
© ESL/Helena Kristiansson
"The scene right now is in good condition. I think the only thing is the amount of tournaments right now that oversaturate the scene," 'nahtE' tells us. "This can be good and bad. More tournaments equals more money and exposure for players, but leaves less time to practice and improve for the next tournament."
"Being tired from the last tournament is something that a lot of teams and players have to deal with in this day and age, because there's a tournament every weekend and they're in a different city every week," 'Stunna' says, before recalling being on the road for nearly six weeks straight during his time with Cloud9.
On a week that crammed in two major tournaments, an argument can be made that the scene is becoming oversaturated. With tournament organisers climbing over each other for limited real estate, the scene can even be split by overlapping events. "The real problem in my mind is that there are no official windows for how this is all supposed to be laid out," 'Stunna' explains.
All of this means more steady jobs for tournament crews and talent, more exciting CS for fans, more exposure and available prize money and opportunities and organizations, but more overlap between tournaments, more player burn-out, and less consistent results. Still, 'Stunna' describes this as a good problem to have.
2018 has been a whirlwind of a year. It's been absolutely jam-packed with some of the best Counter-Strike ever witnessed, and a density of tournaments that leaves fans spoiled. With only three months left in the year, there’s still so many events left, and so much room for the scene to develop.
Will North America continue to surge? Will Europe continue to answer the reinvigorated NA scene by being further energised themselves? Can Astralis be stopped? Will Valve step in to bring a modicum of order to the volume of tournaments taking place each week? So much remains to be seen, but what no matter the answer, what lies ahead is more jaw dropping CS.
