Preview of BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles 2019

Among the participants in the event we can see both the strongest representatives of the CS:GO stage and those who play at the sufficient level to win. Such teams as Cloud9, FaZe Clan, Team Liquid, MIBR, NRG Esports and Renegades are going to fight for the title of the champion.

Team Liquid (place in the HLTV rating — #1)
Win odds: 1.63

The main favourite to win the competition is Team Liquid being in a great shape. After their recent win at ESL One Cologne 2019, the Americans won the second season of Intel Grand Slam and gained $1,000,000 as a money bonus.

Despite the fact that according to all facts Liquid are the first to chase the main money prize of $125,000, we think that Liquid’s recent triumph can cause a relaxing effect on them. So there is a likelihood of a weaker performance than we expect from the Americans.

Team Liquid roster and rating of the players:

Nicholas ‘nitr0’ Cannella — 1.06
Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski — 1.22
Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken — 1.17
Keith ‘NAF’ Markovic — 1.17
Jacky ‘Stewie2K’ Yip — 1.08
Eric ‘adreN’ Hoag — coach

NRG Esports (place in the HLTV rating — #5)
Win odds: 4

In our opinion, one of the pretenders to victory at this championship is NRG Esports as well. At ESL One Cologne 2019, the representatives of the American stage performed well but not in the way they would like as it is bitter to stop at the quarterfinal.

NRG as well as Liquid and Cloud9, will have an advantage over the other teams which is absence of jet lag. The championship will take place in Los Angeles, at the native land of the Americans, so they don’t need to adapt to this time zone and climate which can’t work for all the other teams in Europe, Brazil and Australia.

We should mark the changes in NRG roster. Recently the roster released daps from responsibilities of a team player and their in-game leader. Damian Steel got replaced by Peter ‘stanislaw’ Jarguz who showed himself at the tournament in Cologne better than just good. At that moment the players almost didn’t have any practice and having some time for preparation in hand, the team is to make it to the grand final considering all the advantages they have. We should add that NRG will have to analyze Liquid properly and get prepared for a meeting with “Liquid horses” to make a serious battle for the latter.

NRG Esports roster and rating of the players:

Vincent ‘Brehze’ Cayonte — 1.18
Cvetelin ‘CeRq’ Dimitrov — 1.11
Ethan ‘Ethan’ Arnold — 1.11
Tarik ‘tarik’ Celik — 1.05
Peter ‘stanislaw’ Jarguz — 0.97
Chet ImAPet’ Singh — coach

FaZe Clan (place in the HLTV rating — #6)
Win odds: 10

FaZe Clan are having bad times now. Filip ‘NEO’ Kubski didn’t meet the expectations put on him so much that the organization wanted to replace the Polish by coldzera from MIBR. Regardless of whether FaZe can arrange for this transfer, this fact will affect the morale of all players negatively, especially their in-game leader NEO. Should we say that due to this reason FaZe Clan will not be able to make it to the tournament successfully and they are likely to finish their way at the group stage? If we add jet lag of the players after a flight to the USA to the mentioned facts, we will get several well-founded factors supporting the reason why FaZe are not so far from the status of an outsider as they would like to.

FaZe Clan roster and rating of the players:

Håvard ‘rain’ Nygaard — 1.13
Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač — 1.16
Ladislav ‘GuardiaN’ Kovács — 1.05
Olof ‘olofmeister’ Kajbjer — 1.05
Filip ‘NEO’ Kubski — 0.83
Janko ‘YNk’ Paunović — coach

MIBR (place in the HLTV rating — #13)
Win odds: 18

MIBR have the same situation as FaZe Clan. The roster has good players, but they can’t start playing properly. When LUCAS1 joined the team, fans of the Brazilian roster got a hope that everything could change for the best, however after ESL One Cologne 2019 got over, it was apparent that coldzera didn’t want to play for MIBR so much that he was ready to leave the roster, even though he would lose an invitation to StarLadder Berlin Major 2019. MIBR’s morale component is the main weakness of the Brazilians, and having such a mood the players are unlikely to be preparing in a well-orchestrated manner to perform at BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles 2019 together.

MIBR roster and rating of the players:

Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo — 1.19
Fernando ‘fer’ Alvarenga — 1.13
Marcelo ‘coldzera’ David — 1.19
Epitacio ‘TACO’ de Melo — 0.92
Lucas ‘LUCAS1’ Teles — 1.03
Wilton ‘zews’ Prado — coach

Renegades (place in the HLTV rating — #16)
Win odds: 7

On the one hand Renegades don't have any conflict in the team, on the other hand — we can see their bad gaming shape. At ESL One Cologne 2019, RNG played two unsuccessful matches against FaZe Clan and FURIA Esports and became the first to leave the competition. Renegades are the most unpredictable team of the championship. It is not a favorite of the event, but it is not an outsider as well. Nevertheless, we think that the odds 7 for the Australians are unreasoned. RNG are unlikely to make it to the grand final and as for the show match, the audience are likely to prefer C9 or MIBR, than the Australians.

Renegades roster and rating of the players:

Aaron ‘AZR’ Ward — 0.97
Justin ‘jks’ Savage — 1.14
Joakim ‘jkaem’ Myrbostad — 1.11
Jay ‘liazz’ Tregillgas — 0.97
Sean ‘Gratisfaction’ Kaiwai — 0.90
Aleksandar ‘kassad’ Trifunovic — coach

Cloud9 (place in the HLTV rating — #301)
Win odds: 30

Cloud9 have been having bad luck for a long time. In the end, the management of the roster got tired of watching unsatisfactory results and took to extreme measures. All the players apart from autimatic got released from their responsibilities and their places were taken by mixwell, koosta, TenZ and daps, who, by the way, have recently left NRG. Meanwhile, JamezIRL became a mentor for the fresh players.

The renewed roster haven't participated in official matches yet, so it means that BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles 2019 will become a debut tournament for C9. We think that the North Americans will be able to surprise and at BLAST Pro Standoff, where they are likely to be invited to, they will be able to fight well but will not win.

Cloud9 roster and rating of the players:

Timothy ‘autimatic’ Ta — 1.15
Damian ‘daps’ Steele — 0.85
Oscar ‘mixwell’ Canellas — 1.22
Kenneth ‘koosta’ Suen — 1.03
Tyson ‘TenZ’ Ngo — 1.19
James ‘JamezIRL’ Macaulay — coach

Suppositional results of BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles 2019:

1 place — Team Liquid
2 place — NRG Esports
3 place — MIBR
4 place — Cloud9
5 place — FaZe Clan
6 place — Renegades