Monster Gaming Weekly

Belo Horizonte 2018 made history for the ESL One Counter-Strike series, as it was the first time that the popular tournament visited the South American country of Brazil. The country is becoming a major destination for esports, especially Counter-Strike, and the fans put on a show that none of the attendees or viewers at home will ever forget. With $200,000 on the line, eight teams dueled it out until only one challenger remained.

Team Liquid advanced from their Group B placement matches by defeating BIG with a total score of 4-0. There were good signs for Liquid in the tournament; strong T-sides in their second meeting against BIG was a positive sign. 

Unfortunately, the team struggled heavily when it came time to perform against FaZe in the playoffs. With only 8 teams in attendance, the playoffs were a one-and-out bracket that had no room for error. Though this quintet has had some very impressive performances so far, it’s clear that they are still finding their way. The young roster still needs a healthy amount of polishing to truly reach the highest level — and finally win a tournament in front of a live audience.

BUT, don’t let their early exit fool you. With a 16-14 win over FaZe on Dust 2 to even the semi-final playoff series, Liquid did show a glimpse of what the future could look like with this rendition of the roster. Both NAF and TACO fragged exceptionally well, dropping 24 and 22 kills respectively, while Nitr0 and EliGe showcased their duties as one of the most underappreciated fragging duos that Counter-Strike has to offer.

Unfortunate as it is, the third match resulted in Liquid’s exit from the tournament and ultimately paved the way for FaZe to march into the finals versus Mouz — an epic 5 game set with one of the most memorable endings in recent memory. Liquid will bounce back quickly, as there is no shame in losing to FaZe, a team that can sometimes be near impossible to beat. With ESL Cologne right around the corner, the boys in blue should arrive with more than a few lessons learned. 

Asia had its fair share of action in a month that featured tournaments all over the globe. CS:GO’s Asia Championships, hosted by PGL, invited some of the world’s best teams to test the mettle of Asia’s top squads. The region was represented by TyLoo, MVP and Vici Gaming, and they played host to a couple of European teams had made the long trip to Shanghai.

With modest expectations, EnVyUs arrived to take a shot at the title. Without their usual in-game leader, kioShiMa took the mantle for the weekend, where he led his team to a top four finish. Their run included a comfortable win against Vici Gaming and a close series against Heroic. ScreaM looked especially comfortable during the tournament, as he put up excellent performances on most of their maps — the kind that we had come to miss from the Belgian marksman.

Their run was stopped in its track by the heavy favorites for this event, Na’Vi. In a pool of teams of international caliber — but notably missing the cream of the crop — this was a must win for Na’Vi. Zeus and his crew lived up to their status of favourites as they marched towards the trophy, crushing opponent after opponent until there was none left between them and the title. Ending the tournament with a dominating 8-2 scoreline in maps, they were simply unmatched by any team at the tournament. Only the Ninjas in Pyjamas and Virtus.pro managed to score a map against them, in what were otherwise very one-sided affairs.

Mission accomplished for EnVy and Na’Vi in Shanghai, and even more so for S1mple who earned another MVP award for his ever growing collection — par for course for any tournament where they reach the finals.

The biggest Major of the year, aptly named the Supermajor, featured a prize pool of $1,500,000 and offered 2250 DPC points. For Team Liquid, this tournament was their last chance to win a Major this season, the one honor they had yet to earn. After numerous 2nd and 3rd place finishes at different Majors throughout the years it appeared that they may have needed to wait until after TI8 to reach another milestone together as a team. However, despite this they had already safely secured their direct invite to TI8 regardless of how well they would perform, something that could not be said of VGJ.Thunder who sat in 8th place overall and needed to either outperform OpTic Gaming in the top 4, or have OpTic drop out before earning points to secure their direct invite.

The group stage didn’t go according to plan for VGJ.Thunder and they found themselves in the lower bracket up against Newbee early on, and after losing two 60 minute games, their fate was out of their hands. They had to rely on other teams knocking out OpTic before the finals, and it was a nailbiter. OpTic defeated EG and TNC to reach round 4 of the lower bracket. Luckily Virtus Pro put a stop to OpTic’s run just shy of the top 4 and VGJ.Thunder’s invite was safe. Vici Gaming was also in the lower bracket after having an unfortunately tough group stage, facing VP, TNC, and EG. Their lower bracket run however saw them blaze past Na`Vi, Mineski, and Newbee with the help of some interesting support Zeus picks for LaNm. They ended up finishing 5th/6th and given the consistency of the team their chances at TI8 look promising.

Liquid on the other hand took the top spot in their group by beating Team Spirit 2-1 and Newbee 2-0. After dropping the first game against Team Spirit they went on to win their next 10 games in a row, 2-0ing TNC, Team Secret, and PSG.LGD in order to reach the grand finals. In a back and forth final series against Virtus Pro, Team Liquid finally managed to secure their first Major title, and with it Miracle- became the first player to win TI and have 3 Major championships under his belt. After coming out of the final stretch it is safe to say Liquid will be heading to TI8 as a strong favorite to defend the Aegis come August.

The Swedish Smash scene descended on DreamHack Summer with one goal in mind: Dethrone Armada as the Smash King of Europe. As expected, the Alliance Smasher demolished the competition to retain his firm grip on the scene. Armada swept aside every competitor all the way to the finals, where he dropped a single stage to his brother and fellow Alliance player Android.

Android too had a nearly flawless tournament, only losing maps to his god-like partner. The rest of the scene continues to lag far behind the Lindgren brothers, and in the end there was very little suspense at Elmia Convention Center. Similarly, the duo’s run through the double’s bracket was a cakewalk. In many of their matches, both players still had multiple stocks remaining, and the games looked even more dominant than the scores suggest. It seems like the event served as a warm up for Alliance’s trip to CEO, a premier tournament which Armada will surely be a favorite to win.

The Mid-Season Brawl brings together the best Heroes of the Storm team in the world in order to determine the hottest squad in the game over the first half of the HGC season. This year, the event was held in Sweden, first at the Monster Energy DreamHack Studio in Stockholm before moving to the Elmia Convention Center in Jönköping for the playoffs.

Fnatic once again represented the EU region as runners up in their region, but they had a greater reputation at the Mid-Season Brawl as the defending champions. In 2017, Fnatic won the tournament in dramatic fashion against Dignitas with two incredibly close sets. Unfortunately, this year it would be their fierce European rivals that would have the opportunity to contest for the title. 

After squeaking into the playoffs as the group’s 4th seed, Fnatic would have to climb all the way from losers’ round 1. They faced Method and once again pulled off a comeback after falling into a 0-2 hole. They advanced for a date against Dignitas, but this time, the roles were reverse. Despite claiming the first lead of the series on Infernal Shrines, Dignitas would shut out Fnatic in the rest of the series with 3 straight wins. The defending champions fell earlier than expected, but should be confident in earning their spot for the next international event — BlizzCon.