ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals

04 December, 2018 - 09 December, 2018 Odense, Denmark

The ESL Pro League is ESL's premier league for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The best teams in the world compete over a season spanning across 10 weeks, culminating in an offline finals held at a stadium in front of a live audience.

For 2018 the ESL Pro League Finals will be held in Odense, Denmark, at the Sparekassen Fyn Arena.

ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals Betting Tips

Made in BrazilvsTeam LiquidESL Pro League Season 8 Finals
2018-12-08 18:30:00
Win

Team Liquid (-1.5)

3.25

rainpainter

AstralisvsmousesportsESL Pro League Season 8 Finals
2018-12-08 15:00:00
Win

Astralis (-1.5)

1.66

rainpainter

AstralisvsmousesportsESL Pro League Season 8 Finals
2018-12-08 15:00:00
Win

Astralis (-1.5)

1.66

bijoBoy

Team LiquidvsNatus VincereESL Pro League Season 8 Finals
2018-12-07 19:10:00
Win

Team Liquid

1.66

bijoBoy

Team LiquidvsNatus VincereESL Pro League Season 8 Finals
2018-12-07 19:10:00
Win

Team Liquid

1.66

cheerslove

mousesportsvsRenegadesESL Pro League Season 8 Finals
2018-12-07 15:00:00
Win

mousesports

1.34

bijoBoy

AstralisvsTeam LiquidESL Pro League Season 8 Finals
2018-12-06 15:00:00
Win

Astralis

1.33

bijoBoy

AstralisvsTeam LiquidESL Pro League Season 8 Finals
2018-12-06 15:00:00
Loss

Team Liquid (1.5)

1.70

rainpainter

RenegadesvsG2 EsportsESL Pro League Season 8 Finals
2018-12-06 13:15:00
Loss

G2 Esports

2.19

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Natus VincerevsSharksESL Pro League Season 8 Finals
2018-12-06 11:10:00
Loss

Sharks

4.60

bijoBoy

Natus VincerevsSharksESL Pro League Season 8 Finals
2018-12-06 11:10:00
Loss

Sharks (1.5)

1.95

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NRGvsGhost GamingESL Pro League Season 8 Finals
2018-12-06 11:05:00
Loss

NRG (-1.5)

2.25

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NRGvsGhost GamingESL Pro League Season 8 Finals
2018-12-06 11:05:00
Loss

NRG

1.37

NocturaCS

mousesportsvsNatus VincereESL Pro League Season 8 Finals
2018-12-05 17:05:00
Win

mousesports

2.37

cheerslove

Ghost GamingvsORDERESL Pro League Season 8 Finals
2018-12-05 11:10:00
Loss

ORDER

3.17

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NRGvsNorthESL Pro League Season 8 Finals
2018-12-04 13:30:00
Win

NRG

1.93

Vqx7

NRGvsNorthESL Pro League Season 8 Finals
2018-12-04 13:30:00
Loss

North

1.82

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INTZ e-SportsvsBIGESL Pro League Season 8 Finals
2018-12-04 12:30:00
Loss

INTZ e-Sports

3.00

Vqx7

Team LiquidvsG2 EsportsESL Pro League Season 8 Finals
2018-12-04 12:15:00
Loss

G2 Esports

3.66

kongo

AstralisvsVici GamingESL Pro League Season 8 Finals
2018-12-04 11:10:00
Win

Astralis

1.09

shamalamadingdong

RenegadesvsHellraisersESL Pro League Season 8 Finals
2018-12-04 11:10:00
Loss

Renegades

2.48

shamalamadingdong

RenegadesvsHellraisersESL Pro League Season 8 Finals
2018-12-04 11:10:00
Win

Hellraisers

1.74

bijoBoy

RenegadesvsHellraisersESL Pro League Season 8 Finals
2018-12-04 11:10:00
Loss

Renegades

2.19

rainpainter

Preview

Who will win the last tournament in 2018?

What place could be more appropriate for the last major LAN championship in 2018 than Odense? In Scandinavia people love CS:GO, and Astralis at the moment – the best team in the world. Will the Danes be able to win such an important home title or will someone stop them? And one more important questions is that ESL Pro League S8 Finals is the last stop for the run for MVP award.

Favorites

Astralis

Despite the fact that Astralis won the finals of the sixth season of the ECS League, this victory could be the beginning of (at least) small issues of the Danish team. With the fact that Astralis dominated for six months are related two more facts. Firstly, it is impossible to be constantly at the peak of conditions. The second face is that one way or another, but opponents begin to pick up the keys to the game Astralis. If earlier the Danes as soon as they began to play seriously, literally went over the heads of their opponents, then in Arlington MIBR was able to beat Astralis once in the best of 3 and to strain as much as possible in the final match. It is likely that the Astralis will arrive at the Katowice Major in the best of its conditions, but ESL Pro League S8 Finals has enough teams that theoretically can disappoint Astralis. If it turned out at MIBR, it can turn out and many others.

Also, we should note that this is the last battle for the victory in the individual competition in 2018. Device is one of the two main contenders for the win and even though his personal performance isn't always that good, Astralis has won too much. And this is a great merit of the Device.

Natus Vincere

Natus Vincere, as always, unstable. We haven't seen them in action since IEM Chicago, where Na`Vi hardly failed, so it's very difficult to talk about their actual current conditions. As we know, if Natus Vincere are fine, they are really the second team of the tournament (and the world) by the strength. But if not...Good that Na`Vi, regardless of the mood perfectly prepared for opponents when preparing seriously.

If we talk about S1mple of course personally he looks more impressive in the race for the title of best player of the year. The only question is how the indicators will be measured. Natus Vincere won much less than Astralis and did not perform consistently during the year, but s1mple showed exorbitant numbers and took several MVP awards even where Na'Vi did not win the tournament.

Liquid

If Natus Vincere were not at LAN tournaments for about two months, the current conditions of Liquid we clearly can see in its performance at the Supernova Malta. Everything seems to be working out the moment with the psychological component in the decisive matches, but did the Americans have enough time to finally deal with themselves? There are very few questions about the game to Liquid – when the team is calm and does not eat itself with doubts, everything works like clockwork. A good pool of maps, decent preparation for opponents, good timings and broken pace of the game that Liquid shows, makes it as uncomfortable for most teams in the world. However, all this is crossed out by a complete failure in the finals of the sixth season of ECS. A small problem is that by the end of the year Liquid players went down individually, losing personal stability, which complicates the task of the American team to overcome really strong opponents. But theoretically, Liquid has a chance to win.

Made in Brazil

Such low odd on a victory of MIBR on the tournament in Odense is caused by very worthy performance of Brazilians on the finals of the sixth season of ECS. Finally for a long time Made in Brazil has shown a stable, high-quality and calm game throughout the top tournament, not a single map or best of 3 series. It may sound ridiculous, but it is. MIBR in 2018 gave their opponents as many comebacks as it made by themselves and even periodically high-quality performances of the team (for example, the semi-final of the London Major can be considered as a definite success) cannot be taken as a kind of standard. But the November tournament in Arlington showed that MIBR continues to work on themselves and their game. And to no avail. The Brazilian team has very ghostly chances to win, but the tournament hands are full. And in many of them, MIBR has a decent chance, at least to reach the semi-finals. But all this is valid only if the team Fallen came to Odense in the same cool condition that they had shown in Arlington and has not lost stability and attitude.

Mousesports

Mousesports are a bit away from the status of the favorite, but there are sixteen teams in Odense, and their spread in the level of the game is too large. It can be seen that Mousesports continues to seek their game and long-broken understanding and it's bad, and psychological problems remain in the foreground as it was before. Mousesports rather looks like a team that is able to deal with a particularly strong opponent in a single match, on a good day for themselves. However, this may be more than enough, at least for the playoffs. With the most insane scenario, Players can even claim victory in the finals of the eighth season of the ESL. But there is also the possibility of a total failure. We can say that now Mousesports is a budget version of Natus Vincere for if this concept is generally applicable to the players' composition of mice. The most likely outcome for Mousesports seems to be the quarter-final stage, but anything can happen.

They also got some chances

NRG

The American team opens a large group of teams that have almost no chance of winning and even the final but will fight for the exit to the playoffs. Directly to the semi-finals and quarter-finals both. NRG rises slightly from the ashes by the end of the year and is clearly gaining conditions, but the real ceiling of their capabilities NRG at the moment is unclear. If we take a look on the fact that NRG has groped its game and a fairly comfortable grid in the group, there is a possibility that the Americans will reach the final of the top grid of their group. Well, with two attempts, they may leave the group. That's barely even reaching the semi-finals will be a serious feat for NRG. Even if it comes out in the playoffs, most likely in the first match of the final part and will be stopped. They got very low chances to advance to the final or even win the tournament, but NRG had shown their power on the Supernova Malta. Why not try to repeat in Denmark?

Hellraisers

HR shows a very high-quality game for the team, that has recently made a replacement in its roster. The arrival of the Hobbit gave the team a strong moral impulse, but we don’t see the fundamental changes in the game of Hellraisers. Perhaps they will not change a lot – then the better for them. Hellraisers have a complicated grid and it makes their lives very difficult, so we should expect a fight for the quarterfinals. And there almost everything depends on the concrete opponent Hellraisers.

BIG

The German team – one of the main pig in the pokes of the tournament in Odense. Even taking for the original team game BIG, based on discipline, this does not guarantee them success in the group stage. We'll have to try hard because the peak conditions of the Germans has already passed and now it will be difficult to prove their worth at the last Major tournament before the Katowice Major. Perhaps the results of BIG in Odense will be disappointing, for them this tournament does not mean so much. They should focus on major. BIG is able to compete for the playoffs, but it is unlikely that the kakafu’s band will go beyond the quarter-finals.

North

If the condition of BIG is simply far from ideal at the moment, to say anything about the state of North is extremely difficult. Even if a few days ago the “northerners" showed a very bad or good game, it does not mean anything. Every tournament for North is like a clean sheet. Just as in the case of BIG, the quarterfinals seem to be the ceiling for North, but for the Danes this tournament is much more important than for the German team. North will make its way in Katowice through the Minor and it is important to keep the current form. If you choose from two teams, the chances of North at ESL S8 Finals, in theory, is preferable to BIG.

G2

Unlike many other teams in this tournament, G2 has no problems with stability. The only trouble is that a qualitative leap forward in the French is not yet obtained, although the composition is very decent. Yes, they consistently give good games, it is very difficult to resist top teams on G2 and this is the main problem of the French team. The last changes in the line-up should not greatly affect the French, the style of play will not change, and mutual understanding will remain. G2 has a difficult grid and it will have to work hard to reach at least the quarter-finals. But the French team will not leave without a fight, and it's good for us.

Renegades

When we talked about the big gap between the chances and the level of the teams to win, Renegades is one of the most obvious examples. It is impossible to classify the Australian as a low skilled team, but it is also the weakest in our second group. Renegades game still cannot settle down, and a short burst of the game after the changes in the composition was only psychological. Now they are looking for themselves again and it is hard. The coolest success for Renegades in Odense seems to be the quarterfinals, but even this will be extremely difficult to achieve.

They will not pass a group stage

INTZ

The Brazilian team is unlikely to show any serious result in the tournament, despite the impressive roster of players. Too many communication problems and too much instability in the team. Coupled with the lack of extensive experience of playing at the top level in a particular composition, it will be nice for INTZ if they will take a couple of victories in the tournament in Odense.

Ghost

Ghost shows a stable game after the August surge, but another thing is that this stability is not at the highest level. And despite the fact that Ghost came to the tournament from second place in the regional tournament, the feeling about its performance at a major LAN-tournament in Europe at least skeptical. The American team is more or less lucky with the group and it even has some chances to go forward in the group. Probably on the bottom grid. But the output and group of the question.

Vici Gaming

Frankly speaking, when at such tournaments it comes to the Chinese team, and if it's not Tyloo, the chances of success are very small. In addition, Vici received, perhaps, the worst sowing possible: in the first round it will meet with Astralis, and in case of loss in the lower grid of the Chinese, the loser of the Renegades - Hellraisers pair will be expected. Shortly, it will be good if Vici wins at least one match in Odense.

Sharks Esports

The second Brazilian team at the ESL Pro League finals looks much weaker than INTZ. And if the latter went to the finals in Odense through North America, Sharks - the winners of the South American League, so do not be confused by the abundance of Brazilian teams in Denmark. Sharks have a good chance of making sense of the bottom grid with North or NRG on their bad day, but nothing more. The exit in the third round of the losers bracket, or surprise victory over MIBR will be for Sharks with incredible success, but most likely the Brazilian “sharks” goes home with a zero in the column of victories.

Order

Australians are not the strongest team in their region and were able to qualify for the ESL Pro League S8 finals in an equal fight at the peak of their conditions. However, what to do next is hard to imagine. The first match is against Natus Vincere. To hope that Na'Vi repeats their failure with eUnited in Chicago, at least boldly. Order can theoretically compete for one win in the lower grid thanks to a successful seeding (probably Order will meet Ghost), but no more.

Tournament Format

Group Stage:

Two double elimination GSL-style groups of eight teams each, with group seeding based on online league placements. The initial round of series are Best-of-One, and all subsequent series are Best-of-Three.

Playoffs:

Single elimination bracket. Quarter- and semifinals are Best-of-Three, and the grand final is Best-of-Five.