A myriad of European squads have intriguing storylines heading into the new ESL Pro League season.
The most surprising shake-up has come at North, who benched MSL in favour of cadiaN, while also bringing back gade from his loan to OpTic Gaming. He replaces niko.
This is a massive change to team who recently not only had a 1st-place finish at DreamHack Masters Stockholm, but also did so on the back of an MVP performance from MSL.
In comes cadiaN, a player who has seen some decent success recently with a fairly lacklustre line-up at Rogue, with all the pressure now falling on his shoulders. cadiaN has a chance to prove himself has one of the best in-game leaders in the game today given the talent now at his disposal.
mousesports with momentum
After claiming the title at last weekend’s ESL One: New York event, mousesports have put themselves back on the map.
The FACEIT London Major had appeared to be the last rites for this line-up, with a brutal draw that saw them play against multiple top squads, compounding rumours of possible upcoming roster moves. However, mousesports then made their way to New York with the same five-man team and managed to take a narrow 3-2 victory in the final over Team Liquid.
While mouz dodged both FaZe and Natus Vincere due to upsets in the Group Stage, that fact still does not take away from the swagger and gusto they were able to display during their run.
suNny remains the key player for the team as he continues to show some incredible form.
G2 continue to struggle
The time is ticking for the G2 Esports experiment, with positive results needed in a hurry if this roster is to stick together. The clear issue with this team thus far has been the lack of overall firepower, with the likes of Ex6TenZ, bodyy and SmithZz all struggling in terms of consistent numbers.
While there is still a two-headed monster in the shape of kennyS and shox, the problem has been they appear unable to find top form at the same time. Just as shox suddenly found his form again, kennyS’ play began to dip and, coupled with the struggles of the other members, G2 are fading quickly.
All is not lost as G2 have found themselves in incredibly-close series on multiple occasions, but they need something to change if they are going to make the leap into the top tier of Counter Strike.
BIG looking for consistency
After reaching the quarter-finals of the London Major, BIG have the opportunity to prove themselves as a tier-one squad.
With legendary leader gob b at the helm, BIG have always been a difficult team to keep down, with their tactics giving them a strong base to build on. The long-standing question for the primarily-German side has been whether or not they can find consistent star players to power them through.
During the Major they had just that, with both tabseN and smooya performing incredibly well for much of the tournament. However, outside of the Major and ESL One: Cologne, BIG have been notoriously up and down.
BIG do have the advantage of playing Nuke, a map many teams currently are unwilling to play, and there is hope that the likes of nex can find some solid form moving forward. If nex can produce on a map-in, map-out basis, BIG will become one of the most dangerous teams in the league.
Much to look forward to
The 14 teams open up their play on Tuesday in what should be a fascinating season.
With lots of potential roster moves, this campaign seems likely to be memorable as the teams all look to knock Astralis off their throne as the best team in the world.
In Tuesday’s scheduled matches, the toughest to call, according to the odds, is North’s clash with BIG. North are 1.781 favourites with BIG offered at 2.060.
North are also odds-on to beat Heroic earlier in the day.
