Preview of BLAST Pro Series Madrid 2019

Astralis (place in the HLTV rating — #1)
Win odds: 1.40

Astralis is the main and unquestioning favorite of the competition. The only serious obstacle to their way to victory for them is Natus Vincere players. At the moment Astralis is the strongest CS:GO team in the world that have set a higher bar for the game level for all the other teams, but they start to get closer to the level of their opponents that have lower positions in the world rating. The level of CS:GO competition is growing every day and it’s difficult for the Danish to keep the lights on. Nevertheless, they look pretty strong and they are likely to make it to the final of BLAST Pro Series Madrid 2019. Recently they have completed their participation in ESL Pro League Season 9 Europe Phase 1 on the first place and it means that they are in a good gaming shape.

Astralis roster and rating of the players:

Nicolai ‘dev1ce’ Reedtz — 1.22
Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen — 1.20
Andreas ‘Xyp9x’ Hojsleth — 1.18
Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander — 1.06
Emil ‘Magisk’ Reif — 1.21
Danny ‘zonic’ Sorensen — coach

Natus Vincere (place in the HLTV rating — #3)
Win odds: 4.50

Natus Vincere can surprise their fans pleasantly, however the likelihood of this event is not so big as they would like it to be. A month ago “Born to Win” won StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 7 and after that they reported that they were in a good gaming shape, they are extremely motivated and they are going to BLAST Pro Series Miami 2019 to win. Having flown to Miami, the CIS team didn’t manage to show striking results and got only the fourth place in the tournament bracket. If the players didn’t lose their time in vain and were preparing for the championship, they will be able to pass to the final of the championship. The main obstacle on their way to success will be Astralis and ENCE eSports. The Danish are the least convenient opponents for Na’Vi, while the rivalry between Natus Vincere and ENCE eSports has been lasting even since IEM Katowice Major 2019. Natus Vincere can boast about two individual players (s1mple and electronic) that took the 1 and 4 place in the list of the best CS:GO players in 2018 according to HLTV. If the other members of the team do not let down while Na’Vi have new preparations and interesting tactical decisions, the players will be able to raise the cup of BPS Madrid 2019 over their hands.

Natus Vincere roster and rating of the players:

Ioann ‘Edward’ Sukhariev — 1.04
Egor ‘flamie’ Vasyliev — 1.05
Aleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev — 1.35
Danylo ‘Zeus’ Teslenko — 0.96
Denis ‘electronic’ Sharipov — 1.24
Mikhail ‘kane’ Blagin — coach

ENCE eSports (place in the HLTV rating — #5)
Win odds: 5.00

When the Finnish took the second place at the Major tournament in Katowice, their results started to get worse. At ESEA Season 30 Premier Division - Europe the team took the 10 place, at BLAST Pro Series San Paulo 2019 the players made it to the third position and won over MIBR at Pro Standoff and at StarSeries i-League Season 7 ENCE left the tournament having the 5-8 place. However, it happened a month ago, so the Finnish couldn’t get into a good gaming shape. They can also bring joy to their fans with a good performance and their passage to the final of the tournament. We should also pay attention to the recent official matches held on 2 and 3 May where ENCE performed against Movistar Riders and Team Vitality losing against them by the score of 14-16 and 13-16. In our opinion ESEA is not a high priority for the Finnish, so they can afford not to show their maximum there. In any case it is rather difficult to say anything about the shape of the team that hasn’t performed at LANs for a month. ENCE eSports is likely to take the 3 or 4 place in the tournament. It seems to use, that they will fight at BLAST Pro Standoff with the team that will make it through Iberian Play-In where they will win and take the third place in the championship.

Roster of ENCE eSports and rating of the players:

Aleksi ‘allu’ Jalli — 1.07
Aleksi ‘Aleksib’ Virolainen — 1.02
Jere ‘sergej’ Salo — 1.11
Jani ‘Aerial’ Jussila — 1.04
Sami ‘xseveN’ Laasanen — 1.02
Slaava ‘Twista’ Rasanen — coach

Ninjas in Pyjamas (place in the HLTV rating — #9)
Win odds: 13.0

Despite the recent results of Ninjas in Pyjamas, this team should not be considered as weak. The roster is supposed to be one of the strongest in Sweden and may fight for getting to the final, however, it is likely to be a vain attempt as the level of the other participants in BLAST Pro Series Madrid 2019 is rather high. At the recently finished Intel Extreme Masters Sydney 2019 NiP performed in a good way. Having made it to the playoff, they completed their way to the quarterfinal and in the end they took the 5-6 place. In the world rating they, by the way, went down to the 9 place and it means that NiP have a lack of their gaming level in comparison to their opponents.

Roster of Ninjas in Pyjamas and rating of the players:

Patrik ‘f0rest’ Lindberg — 1.11
Christopher ‘GeT_RiGhT’ Alesund — 0.94
Fredrik ‘REZ’ Sterner — 1.08
Dennis ‘dennis’ Edman — 0.99
Jonas ‘Lekr0’ Olofsson — 0.96
Faruk ‘pita’ Pita — coach

Cloud9 (place in the HLTV rating — #40)
Win odds: 26.0

Cloud9 look the weakest among the invited participants of the tournament. The roster of the American team was completed at the beginning of April when the Danish player cajunb joined the team. Another interesting fact was that the teams plays with Daniel ‘vice’ Kim that is on probation period now. It means that the representatives of Cloud9 are not sure whether he could be useful to the team. This factor can affect performance of the team and morale of vice negatively. In the world rating, created by HLTV, the teams holds the 40 place. C9 have mixed results at their games, so sceptical thoughts about Cloud9’s ability to compete could be named reasonable. Taking into account the fact that weaker team also will participate in the event, C9 will hold the 5 place, not less. It will be extremely difficult for them to get higher than the mentioned position, however RUSH and his teammates are able to do it.

Cloud9 roster and rating of the players:

Timothy ‘autimatic’ Ta — 1.11
Will ‘RUSH’ Wierzba — 0.94
Maikil ‘Golden’ Selim — 0.90
Daniel ‘vice’ Kim (probation) — 0.98
Rene ‘cajunb’ Borg — 1.08
Soham ‘valens’ Chowdhury — coach

Movistar Riders (place in the HLTV rating — #37)
Win odds: 48.0

Movistar Riders will be fighting with Giants for passing to BLAST Pro Series Madrid 2019 at Iberian Play-In. The Spanish team holds the 37 place and is the strongest CS:GO roster in Spain. Representatives of Movistar Riders has real chances to make it to the tournament but we doubt that they will be able to go to the top of the tournament bracket, at least on the 5 place. Nevertheless, Movistar can have the hot hand and perform much better than we can expect. Booksports show that the audience expects to see the Spanish players in the list of the participants, but not their opponents Giants.

Movistar Riders roster and rating of the players:

Alejandro ‘mopoz’ Fernandez-Quejo Cano — 1.02
Oscar ‘mixwell’ Canellas Coloncho — 1.15
Aitor ‘SOKER’ Fernandez — 1.03
Alejandro ‘ALEX’ Masanet — 1.10
Raul ‘DeathZz’ Jordan Nieto — 0.97
Galder ‘bladE’ Barcena — coach

Giants (place in the HLTV rating — #99)
Win odds: 60.0

Giants, as well as Movistar Riders. are the strongest team in their country, which is Portugal. However, unlike Spain, the competition is less there, and if we take a look at the global rating, Giants hold the 99 place while Movistar — on the 37. If we pay attention to Giants’ recent official matches, we can see a series of three losses against DreamEaters, Nemiga and x-kom. These teams will not be able to compare with any of the participants of the upcoming tournament, so it means, that even if Giants are not able to make it to the LAN final, they will take the 6 place.

Giants roster and rating of the players:

Ricardo ‘rmn’ Oliveira — 0.99
Joao ‘KILLDREAM’ Ferreira — 0.94
Ricardo ‘fox’ Pacheco — 1.21
Christopher ‘MUTiRiS’ Fernandes — 1.08
Luis ‘ZELIN’ Lousada (probation) — 0.92
Ricardo ‘Alm’ Almeida — coach

Suppositional results of BLAST Pro Series Madrid 2019:

1 place — Astralis
2 place — Natus Vincere
3 place — ENCE eSports
4 place — Ninjas in Pyjamas
5 place — Cloud9
6 place — Movistar Riders