ESL One New York 2019 Preview

What is ESL One New York 2019?

ESL One New York 2019 is the fourth year the tournament series returns to the Big Apple. This year sees $200,000 on the line and has three of the current top five teams in the world attending, in the form of Liquid, Astralis and NRG.

With eight teams in attendance the format of the event is rather simple. The teams are split into two GSL-style groups of four, with all games a best-of-three, with the top two teams moving on to the playoffs. The semi-final matches are best-of-three, before the tournament concludes on the Sunday with a best-of-five grand final.

ESL One New York 2019 odds

The odds below represent the outright winner for ESL One New York 2019. For a complete list of odds, head over to our dedicated section for ESL One New York 2019 odds.

Clash of the Titans

One of the main teams to be focused on coming into New York will be Astralis (2.06*). The Danes will be competing at their first event since lifting the StarLadder Major trophy in Berlin. Astralis proved many doubters wrong as they picked up their third Major title in a row, cementing their status as the best ever, but doubts still linger for the squad. If Astralis truly want to return to the pinnacle, they will need to commence a winning streak similar to the one they started after winning in London last year.

Liquid (3.32*) on the other hand are looking to keep a hold of their crown. After suffering disappointment in Berlin, any hope of an immediate online bounce-back through ECS Season 8 was dashed by upstart Brazilians Sharks. Liquid will need a good showing in New York to keep their current position on the top of the HLTV.org world rankings.

All of ENCE, FaZe, G2, OpTic and eUnited have made changes to their roster in the two months before ESL One New York.

With both titans being placed into their own group, and both being the strongest team in each, many would expect the two to meet in the grand final. To find the last time the two teams met in the championship match of a tournament you’d need to look to the BLAST Pro Series: Sao Paulo in March of this year. There, the Danish team came out on top in a 2-1 victory.

In fact, Liquid have only beaten Astralis in a tournament’s grand final once – a 2-1 victory back in January 2019 at iBUYPOWER Masters IV. Throughout the entirety of 2018, the two teams met five times in grand finals, and in each the Danish team rolled out as victors.

But in real terms, head-to-head there’s barely a sheet of paper between them. In 2019, the two teams have played 13 maps against each other, with Astralis narrowly coming ahead on seven wins to Liquid’s six. The most recent of those wins came at the StarLadder Berlin Major, where Astralis pushed through the North Americans to eventually take the title.

If you can’t split the teams head-to-head, you look at the star players instead. Comparing Nicolai “device” Reedtz and Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski’s statistics from 2019 sees the two players look near identical, with only hundredths of a point separating them in the vast majority of categories. When these two teams eventually face each other in New York, expect fireworks.

Dark Horses

When you look to the rest of the pack, NRG (8.43*) stand out from the rest. As one of three teams that haven’t shifted their roster in the past two months, the other two being Astralis and Liquid, meaning they have had more time than the majority of the field to have developed strategy. As with the majority of teams at the event, this will be NRG’s first LAN event after the Berlin Major, where they finished 3rd/4th. The North Americans will be looking

After them, the remainder of the pack seems adrift. All of ENCE (9.97*), G2 (15.67*), OpTic (37.02*) and eUnited (72.59*) have made and announced changes to their roster in the past two months, and FaZe (12.11*) have removed two players from their roster after the Major ended, and as of writing still haven’t announced their fifth player on top of trialling untested 16-year old Helvijs “broky” Saukants.

In real terms, head-to-head there’s barely a sheet of paper between Astralis and Team Liquid.

At first glance at the names on offer, usually ENCE or FaZe would be the easy choices to make up a fourth place finish. But here in New York, it’s not that simple. ENCE, after recently replacing their IGL, were embarrassed at BLAST Pro Series Moscow, where they only won one match. FaZe’s roster troubles are enough to be wary of anyway, with effectively a fresh roster coming into the event. Either team could still easily pack a punch, it’ll be down to what results they get in their opening matches for how far they can reach in the competition.

Rest of the field

The remainder of the teams, not to be too disparaging here, don’t stand much of a chance. G2, the stronger team in this pack, are coming in with a stand-in, and have a number of rumours surrounding the team’s future lineup. OpTic are struggling under the uncertainty of who they’ll continue to play under once their contracts are up, alongside having recently brought back former member René “cajunb” Borg. eUnited round out the attendees, and unfortunately they don’t really have the calibre to face off against the majority of the field in New York, even with the recent addition of experienced Ryan “freakazoid” Abadir.

ESL One New York 2019 is set to start on 26 September, with the grand final taking place on 29 September in the Barclays Arena. All the action will be covered on the organiser’s Twitch channel.

* Odds are subject to change