The preview of ESG Tour Mykonos 2017

The interesting tournament by the organization ESG Tour starts on September 7, the company wants to make this championship as unusual as possible and unlike other tournaments.

The general information

ESG Tour Mykonos 2017 will be carried out on the Greek island Mykonos on September 7-10. The event will be hosted at Destiny Villa, where players will be playing in the open air. In such a way organizers wanted to make something new for cyber-sportsmen in terms of carrying matches. The prize pool, that will be divided by 8 teams, amounts €200,000. Twitch TV is also related to this tournament, having become an official sponsor of ESG Tour Mykonos 2017, so we can be sure that the tournament will be good.

Seven of eight participants have received direct invitations to the tournament and only Team EnVyUs has had to pass through the qualifying round, in which besides the French such teams as Team LDLC.com, HellRaisers, and Space Soldiers have taken part.

The full list of participants of ESG Tour Mykonos 2017:

The format

ESG Tour Mykonos 2017 starts with the group stage in a classic way. There will be two groups with four participants in each. Teams will play matches by a GSL system in a Double Elimination bracket. Rosters will play Bo1 matches in the upper bracket, while teams will play Bo3 matches in the lower bracket. Two best participants will be determined from each group, they will get to the playoff.Participants of the tournament will see a Single Elimination bracket at the final stage of the tournament, where semi-finals and a match for the third place will be run in a Bo3 format and the Grand Final will be hosted in a Bo5 format.

According to the results of the championship, the general prize pool will be distributed among teams in the following way:

1st place — €100,0002nd place — €40,0003rd place — €20,0004th place — €20,0005th place — €5,0006th place — €5,0007th place — €5,0008th place — €5,000

Three best teams, besides the money prizes, will also receive invitations to the next tournament from ESG Tour that will be announced later.

It is unknown at the moment how the participants have been seeded by groups.

Groups look in the following way:

The analysis of participants

SK Gaming

SK is the team that has been holding the first place in the list of the best teams, according to HLTV.org, for a long time. The Brazilians have all chances to come out to the playoff stage and to win the tournament, however, the recent results can say that the roster plays not as confident as two-three months ago. Playing at DreamHack Masters Malmo 2017, they lost to North at the group stage and didn't get to the Grand Final. SK lost to the French from G2 Esports, that got to the Grand Final and became the champions, at the quarterfinal. There are no doubts about SK's coming out of the group but FalleN and his team will have to work hard to get to the Grand Final as there are few more potential winners at ESG Tour Mykonos 2017. Despite this, SK Gaming looks threateningly enough among other teams.

The list of SK Gaming's players and their rate:

Gabriel «FalleN» Toledo — 1.12Fernando «fer» Alvarenga — 1.22Marcelo «coldzera» David — 1.21Epitacio «TACO» Pessoa — 1.00João «felps» Vasconcellos — 1.07

Gambit eSports

This is the second team to be one of the favorites at ESG Tour Mykonos 2017. Gambit lost their coach together with the captain during the season of reshuffles but didn't become confused and signed an ex-player of Tengri, Bektiyar «fitch» Bahytov and Dauren «AdreN» Kystaubayev became a new captain of Gambit. Many people considered that the change of players and roles in the team and an absence of a coach would affect the development of the team in a negative way, however, besides coming out of the group, Gambit had got to the semi-final, where they lost to North. Teams at ESG Tour Mykonos 2017 will be much weaker than teams that participated in DreamHack Masters Malmo 2017, so Gambit eSports seems to be potential finalists. Considering that they might make an analysis of mistakes that had been made during their aspiration to the victory at DH Masters Malmo, the team will have to come out of the group and to aim to participate in the Grand Final.

The list of Gambit eSports' players and their rate:

Mikhail «Dosia» Stolyarov — 0.98Dauren «AdreN» Kystaubayev — 1.09Rustem «mou» Telepov — 1.12Abay «HObbit» Khasenov — 1.10Bektiyar «fitch» Bahytov — 1.07

Heroic

It is difficult to say something about this team at the moment. DreamHack Atlanta 2017 was the last LAN tournament for the team to take part in, they held the second place there. The result is good but it is worth to notice that teams, that had not got to PGL Major Krakow 2017, took part in this tournament and, accordingly, a level of teams, that participated there, was not so high. However, Heroic held the 1st-2nd place at the European qualification to ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2017, having left behind such opponents as Gambit eSports, FlipSid3 Tactics, Vega Squadron and others.The Danes will have problems at ESG Tour Mykonos 2017 in case if they don't prepare something special for their opponents. At least, it will be difficult for them to reach the playoff as two favorites of the tournament, SK Gaming and Gambit eSports will be staying on their way and, also, mousesports that might make problems for Heroic.

The list of Heroic's players and their rate:

Andreas «MODDII» Fridh — 1.03Marco «Snappi» Pfeiffer — 1.06Nikolaj «niko» Kristensen — 1.15Jakob «JUGi» Hansen — 1.24Patrick «es3tag» Hansen — 1.04

mousesports

mousesports lost two players, denis and IoWel during the time of reshuffles, having signed perspective suNny and an ex-player of HellRaisers, STYKO instead of them. Based on their results at DreamHack Masters Malmo 2017, the team has not started playing well together yet and the new players have not helped the team to improve its performance. mousesports got in Group C with such teams as Ninjas in Pyjamas, Gambit eSports and FaZe Clan at DH Masters Malmo 2017. Mousesports lost to Gambit eSports and FaZe Clan and finished their participation in the tournament on the last place in the group and on the 13th-16th place in the tournament, having earned only $2,000. Considering a level of their opponents in the group, in which mousesports have been put into, we can say that the European mix will unlikely come out of the group and repeat their last result, having held one of the last places at the tournament and left it among the first.

The list of mousesports' players and their rate:

Chris «chrisJ» de Jong — 0.98Tomáš «oskar» Šťastný — 1.19Robin «ropz» Kool — 1.07Miikka «suNny» Kemppi — 1.16Martin «STYKO» Styk — 0.97

Virtus.pro

The most durable CS:GO roster in the world is going through its rougher and rougher patch. After their triumph at DreamHack Masters Las Vegas 2017, the Poles can't get themselves together and start a new series of victories. Over the past half a year, VIrtus.pro achieved only one victory at Adrenalyne Cyber League 2017, the tournament, in which only four teams had participated. However, Snax with his team achieved a good result at the last Major tournament, having held the 3rd-4th place. Virtus.pro has a chance to get to the playoff, however, almost all teams are equal in Group B, so the Poles will have to make a good effort.

The list of Virtus.pro's players and their rate:

Wiktor «TaZ» Wojtas — 0.89Filip «NEO» Kubski — 0.96Jarosław «pashaBiceps» Jarząbkowski — 1.05Janusz «Snax» Pogorzelski — 1.08Paweł «byali» Bieliński — 1.04

Team Liquid

The North American team has been playing with such roster for five months. During this time, the team held the 5th-6th place at ECS Season 3 Finals and the 3rd-4th place at ESL Pro League Season 5 Finals. Team Liquid has a winning streak, consisted of four matches, at the moment. This means that the team might be in a good shape at the moment and it is worth to expect something interesting from them at the tournament.

The list of Team Liquid's players and their rate:

Nicholas «nitr0» Cannella — 1.11Jonathan «EliGE» Jablonowski — 1.18Joshua «jdm64» Marzano — 1.06Peter «stanislaw» Jarguz — 1.09Russel «Twistzz» Van Dulken — 1.23

BIG

The roster of BIG was assembled on January 2 this year. The players won three relatively small tournaments in 9 months: iGame Winter Invitational 2017, ESL Meisterschaft: Spring 2017 and Europe Minor Championship 2017 — Krakow. Besides this, the team also held the second places at DreamHack Leipzig 2017 and ESEA Season 24 Global Challenge. The Germans held the 5th-8th place at the last Major tournament and guaranteed themselves an invite to the next Major championship. BIG is in an unstable shape at the moment, a varied success in recent matches proves this. Considering the state of the teams that are in one group with BIG, the Germans might get to the playoff but it is more likely that Virtus.pro and Team Liquid will do this.

The list of BIG's players and their rate:

Fatih «gob b» Dayik — 1.03Johannes «tabseN» Wodarz — 1.24Johannes «nex» Maget — 1.13Kevin «keev» Bartholomäus — 1.03Nikola «LEGIJA» Ninić — 0.91

Team EnVyUs

The current roster of Team EnVyUs was fully completed on February 21, when the French team decided to sign ScreaM. During this time, the team achieved only one victory, having become triumphalists of DreamHack Atlanta 2017. The team has been being in an unstable state recently, so if the French reach the playoff, it will be a surprise for the public.

The list of Team EnVyUs' players and their rate:

Vincent «Happy» Cervoni — 1.13Christophe «SIXER» Xia — 0.99Cédric «RpK» Guipouy — 1.15Alexandre «xms» Forté — 1.05Adil «ScreaM» Benrlitom — 1.17

The list of talents

There will be lots of talents at ESG Tour Mykonos 2017 that have been beloved by the public due to their charisma. One of the most experienced persons in the eSports, Paul «Redeye» Chaloner will be a host of ESG Tour Mykonos 2017. It is worth to notice that he was the main host of PGL Major Krakow 2017. Duncan «Thorin» Shields and Tomi «lurppis» Kovanen will sit behind an analytical table. Henry «GenryG» Greer, Alex «Machine» Richardson, Harry «JustHarry» Russell and Niels «rizc» Topp will comment the matches. Familiar David «Prius» DJ Kuntz and Heather «sapphiRe» Garozzo will be the observers of ESG Tour Mykonos 2017.

The schedule of the tournament

Organizers have already published the full schedule of the tournament. It looks as follows (Time is listed as UTC +0):

Thursday, September 7

13:00 Team Liquid vs BIG14:40 Virtus.pro vs Team EnVyUs16:20 Group B Winners' match18:00 Gambit eSports vs Heroic19:40 SK Gaming vs mousesports21:20 Group A Winners' match

Friday, September 8

12:00 Group A elimination match15:30 Group B elimination match19:00 Group A decider match

Saturday, September 9

12:30 Group B decider match16:00 Semi-final #119:30 Semi-final #2

Sunday, September 10

13:30 Third-place desider17:00 Grand final