“What’s on this week?” is ESI’s weekly feature letting you know just what’s going on in the wonderful world of esports in the next seven days. Each week, ESI picks three events and provides a brief overview of what’s going down, where it’s taking place and how you can watch it.
Last week was a busy one in esports, with LoL All-Stars, Astralis claiming the Grand Slam, Black Ops 4 getting its first major event and a number of regional leagues seeing out 2018. That doesn’t mean 2018 is done just yet, however. We’ve got yet more regional finals this week as we head to Australia whilst we’re also off to Lisbon to have a blast and we’re trading in our traditional English bangers for some German bratwurst as we head to Germany for some ESL CS:GO action.
BLAST Pro Series: Lisbon 2018
Blast Pro Series, one of the final big events of 2018 is off to Lisbon. Some of the worlds top CS:GO sides will face off in this weekend-long event. The Group Stage will be a single Round-Robin in a Bo1 with the top two teams advancing to the Grand Final, which will be played in a Bo3. The event will also feature a ‘Standoff’ event: a series of 1v1 events, using a different weapon for each of the five matches in each series. We may even see the first appearance of CS:GO’s new Battle Royale game mode as BLAST tends to throw up a surprise or two.
For the main event, we have Cloud9, FaZe Clan, MIBR, Natus Vincere, Ninjas in Pyjamas and the Danish super team, Astralis. The Danes are fresh off winning yet another event this past weekend and claiming the IEM Grand Slam title. Teams’ map picks for the Group Stage have already been picked, with Dust 2, Inferno, Overpass, Mirage and Cache all unsurprisingly in play. It means we won’t be seeing any Nuke or Train during the group stages, however.
Stream: Blast Pro – Location: Lisbon, Portugal – Date: 14/12 – 15/12 – Sponsors: N/A – Organiser: RFRSH – Prize pool: $250,000 (£200,000)
ESL Meisterschaft: Winter 2018 Finals
The end of the year is normally the time that all the ESL regional leagues come to a dramatic conclusion. In the UK the Rainbow Six Siege Premier League came to an end last weekend. Now, we’re off to Germany for the ESL Meisterschaft Finals. Ten teams’ started out in Division 1 and only four remain to fight for the €23,200 (£20,000) prize pool.
The event will be played in a Bo3 format for both the Semi and Grand Final. Sprout v expert eSports and PANTHERS Gaming v ALTERNATE aTTaX are the two Semi-Finals with all games played on the 15th live at the EWE Arena in Oldenburg, Germany.
Stream: German, English – Location: Oldenburg, Germany – Date: 15/12 – Sponsors: Intel, Vodafone, paysafecard, Pringles, Warsteiner, NEEDforSEAT and ZOWIE by BenQ – Organiser: ESL Germany – Prize pool: €23,200 (£20,000)
Gfinity Elite Series Australia Grand Final
Gfinity has been growing in the past few years, from hosting their popular Elite Series in the UK to hosting several big-name esports in their London studio. The series expanded into Australia at the start of 2018. Now in season 2, the series is growing and the CS:GO series is our focus this week.
We’ve covered the Gfinity Elite Series Australia before, so it felt only fitting we return for the Finals. Played on the 15th, live from the Gfinity Arena in Sydney, Sydney Chiefs will take on the Melbourne ORDER, the sides finished 4th and 2nd respectively in regular league play. With £50,000 on the line, the Season 2 finals are set to end 2018 with a bang
Stream: Gfinity AU – Location: Sydney, Australia – Date: 15/12 – Alienware, Logitech G – Organiser: Gfinity – Prize pool: £50,000
That’s a wrap on this week’s picks, be sure to check back next week for another edition of the ESI weekly picks.
We want to feature at least one smaller event each week on the ESI weekly picks. If you want an event included in a future edition, send an email to [email protected].