The Americas Minor is taking place at the same time as the European Minor. It will likely be a less contested tournament than the European Minor as the field is a little less stacked, but it should be interesting nonetheless.
If you are still new to CS:GO betting, I would recommend checking out our article on how to bet on esports.
Furia are in an interesting spot right now. And when I say interesting, I don’t mean it in like a “I don’t have anything to say about Furia” sort of way, I mean they really are one of the most intriguing teams in Counter Strike right now.
Their trajectory over the last six months has been almost unbelievable, going from tier three Brazilian nobody’s to taking several big second place finishes, winning series over top five teams in the scene, and in turn becoming the next big thing.
The question for them now is, can they sustain it. You’d imagine with their LAN experience, and their upset ability that’s been showcased, they’d have no problems putting away bottom tier NA teams like eUnited. Last month’s ESL One New York qualifiers beg to differ however, were Furia were obliterated 16:3 on eUnited’s map pick, which ended up being the first map in a 2-0 loss to the Brazilians.
It looks like Furia may be losing their edge, as teams start to watch their demos more frequently. They played a hyper aggressive style that suited an upset team well, but if they can’t add more components to their gameplay they’ll soon be left in the dust, brawling with OpTic and Renegades over scraps at DreamHack Opens.
As far as how they’ll fare at the Qualifier, I have them penciled into the third place spot minimum. While they have been falling off a tad since the ECS Finals, they still have the talent to beat any of these teams on any given day, and playing these games on LAN should give them an edge.
NRG are another intensely intriguing team. Their newest roster change is exciting, especially Stanislaw can pull this scattered group of fraggers into a cohesive team. If he can, they become one of the most dangerous teams in NA, maybe even the world. While I do have all the faith in the world in Stanislaw, I’m worried he won’t have enough time to put his system in place.
They’re playing in Cologne as I write this, the week after they’ll head to Los Angeles for a BLAST Pro event, and the week after that they’re playing in the qualifier. That isn’t likely enough time for them to get any serious practice done, which could inhibit their performance in Berlin.
Again though, this might just be me handwringing in excess. NRG’s talent level is so much higher than the rest of the teams in attendance, they’ll likely dominate even with a looser system than what Stan will put in place once they get a chance to sit down and practice.
I have NRG penciled in to make it through the tournament as well, likely directly to the Major.
I’m probably the last INTZ fan on earth, and I’ve come to terms with it. Giving up on KNG is something that I’ll apparently never be able to do after watching what he was capable of on that Immortals team that made their run at the PGL Krakow Major.
Unfortunately, even with his talent level, this team has largely been treading water since losing Felps earlier this year. To say they have a lackluster resume over the last six months would be an overstatement, as their best win in recent memory is, I guess, a best of three win over Luminosity?
INTZ winning more than a single best of one at this tournament would shock me. Can we get KNG on a better team please?
These odds for eUnited confuse me. They’ve won their last 18 maps in a row, but the best opponent the played was probably Furia, depending on how you feel about complexity, who they barely squeaked by in a very close 2-0. Besides that, they’ve played Singularity, Party Astronauts, New Identity, The Quest, all of whom are pretty much no name tier two/three NA teams.
eUnited’s last LAN appearance was in late May, where they dropped best of three’s to Cloud9 and Ghost. Before that they were at IEM Sydney, where they lost a best of one to NiP and got 0-2’d by MVP.
Their resume does almost nothing to justify their odds here. +600 gives them the third best odds at this tournament, which seems wrong. Although, the more I look at the field, the more likely that seems. I suppose this depends on how you feel about Lazarus and INTZ, so I wouldn’t laugh in your face if you told me you were putting money down on eUnited.
The NA scene can be pretty confusing, so I wouldn’t blame you for not knowing who Lazarus is. They are they remnants of Swole Patrol, after Marke, food, and vanity left to join the aforementioned eUnited. The team replenished their roster with the additions of Zellsis, yay (who replaced dapr after the signings), Infinite, and Subroza, who joined Brax (formerly known as swag) on the roster.
Obviously, since brax is not eligible to compete in Valve sponsored events, Lazarus has to compete with a stand in, namely FNS.
This roster is so, so weird. Who is IGLing? I’d assume it’s FNS, as he’s historically been an IGL in the American scene, but he’s a stand in. Are they playing with a stand in IGL, or is one of their permanent players going to call for them? If so, why would they get FNS instead of a player that can frag at a higher level? Surely they aren’t expecting FNS to just drop in and be able to call for them with no prep. I would stay away from this team entirely.
Singularity are one of the hot up and comers in American CS. Their players are largely untested, but they’ve shown high potential in tier two/three. Their best win in the last month was probably taking a map off of NRG, or you could argue it was a 2-1 win over Envy.
While this team is on an upward swing, they aren’t nearly polished enough to do any damage at the Minor. Their hard carry, floppy, is 19 years old with almost no LAN experience, and no significant wins under his belt. The best opponent floppy has faced so far is G2, against who his team failed to get over 7 rounds in 2 consecutive maps. His rating across both maps was a measly .73, which is less than impressive.
It’s too early for Singularity. It’s probably better for them to fall short at this point, giving too much to players this young can throw them off.
Another baffling set of odds. Their LAN resume includes a 0-2 loss to Furia, a 1-2 loss to G2, and a loss to Valiance. They’ve only played three matches on LAN so far this year, and their online results have been mediocre as well.
Not only are their wins unimpressive, their stats are too. There isn’t a player with a rating over 1.07 in the last six months, with multiple players at 1.05 or under. This team doesn’t have the firepower to be considered a viable upset team.
This is Team oNe’s first LAN appearance since the Americas Minor for Katowice, where they went out in last place. Since then they made some roster adjustments, adding b4rtiN to the roster who has slotted in as a competent fragger.
Unfortunately for the Brazilians, I can’t imagine it’ll be enough. This team is +2500 for a reason.
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