CS:GO is ramping up to its spectacle event. With the StarLadder Berlin Major set to start at the end of August, the only tournaments remaining to confirm the eleven remaining teams are the four Minor Championships. Up next are the Asian and CIS region Minors.
What are the StarLadder Berlin Minor Championships?
The Minors are four offline events held before their respective CS:GO Majors. The four represent one region each: the Americas, Europe, CIS, and Asia, and they all have $50,000 on offer. The top two teams from each head to the Major, with the third seed teams heading to a final playoff to determine the last three spots for Berlin.
For the StarLadder Berlin Major, all four events will be held in Berlin. This follows the precedent set by FACEIT for the London Major, ensuring all teams attending the Minors will be able to attend the Major, assuming they qualify.
The format of all Minors will see the teams evenly split into two GSL-style groups, with the teams then moving onto a double-elimination playoff. The opening group games are best-of-ones, with the remaining matches all being best-of-threes.
As with the Minor Championships for the IEM Katowice Major, there will be no Grand Final, with the winning team from the upper bracket final claiming the top prize. The four Minors will be played over two weeks, with two tournaments being played over the same dates. The CIS and Asia Minors played over the week of July 24 – 28.
StarLadder Asia Minor Berlin
The odds below represent the outright winner for the StarLadder Asia Minor Championship Berlin. For a complete list of odds, head over to our dedicated section for StarLadder Asia Minor odds.
Widespread Asian Region
Due to the nature of the region, with it effectively being the catch-all region, it’s incredibly difficult to gauge the potential finishes for tournaments. With teams having representatives from Australia, China, Indonesia, Jordan, Kosovo, Lebanon, Mongolia, South Africa, South Korea, Syria and Thailand, it’s not easy to have a simple way of sorting the best team attending the Minor.
Grayhound (2.61*), MVP PK (3.43*) and TYLOO (3.56*) act as favourites for the top three coming into the Minor, in that order. This is due to all three teams holding the most experience and strongest results against international opponents. With the region being so widespread, not all teams have faced each other even in inter-regional competition.
The two teams most likely to qualify for the Major from the CIS Minor are forZe and Spirit.
The likes of Avant (17.93*), ALPHA Red (27.42*), Energy (106.05*) and 5POWER (9.48*) are yet to make an impact on a stage outside of their own domestic ones, and FFAmix (53.78*) are a mix team built for just this tournament. It is unlikely they will make an impact, but 5POWER would be the team most likely to cause an upset.
In terms of placing for the top three, Grayhound are the team most likely to come out on top as they look to reclaim their Major spot. The second place will be more of a toss-up between TYLOO and MVP PK, however the Chinese team are traditionally the stronger lineup, and do currently have a 19-11 record over the South Korean team. However, the two teams have remained close, and so far this year have an equal 2-2 series win rate. Whatever happens, expect fireworks when these two teams meet.
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Follow Pinnacle EsportsStarLadder CIS Minor Berlin
The odds below represent the outright winner for the StarLadder CIS Minor Championship Berlin. For a complete list of odds, head over to our dedicated section for StarLadder CIS Minor odds.
StarLadder Americas Minor Championship Berlin odds
Competitive CIS Region
CIS is set to be a competitive region, with teams all on fairly similar levels to each other. The two teams most likely to qualify for the Major are forZe (2.06*) and Spirit (3.71*). forZe have been incredibly strong against European competition over the start of the year, winning the second tier Copenhagen Games tournament as well as making a number of deep runs into tournament qualifiers. This includes a winning a spot at IEM Chicago through the recent qualifier, which they were forced to withdraw from due to visa restrictions.
Spirit on the other hand have been much quieter this year and, ignoring Gambit’s academy team, are the only returning Major attendees at the CIS Minor Championship. The majority of their focus has been on their ESEA MDL campaign, where their recent finish saw them to third in the league and second at the Global Challenge, after a loss to FURIA.
The Asia Minor sees teams featuring representatives from eleven different countries.
Spirit and forZe are the two strongest teams from the region not currently at the Major, so expect them to finish top two, but I’d narrowly go for Spirit to take the championship, simply due to them having a superior win rate of 11-2, over forZe – including a recent 16-0 win.
With teams in the CIS region able to beat each other, third place is incredibly difficult to determine. For the team set to reach the play-in, focus on either Nemiga (7.57*) or Syman (11.35*), as both teams have had a number of strong results against teams in their own region, and in the case of Nemiga, a few strong European results.
The StarLadder Minor Championships Berlin will take place between July 17 – 28 as the final qualification step before the StarLadder Berlin Major. The third place play-in, offering three final spots, will take place on July 29. The action for each $50,000 tournament will be streamed through StarLadder’s Twitch channel.
*Odds subject to change
