A week after Astralis’ coronation at London’s Major FACEIT, eight teams regrouped to compete in Brooklyn. The Barclays Center hosted the 2018 ESL One New York Championship.
Last Wednesday, just three days after the closing of the London Major, eight competitors took a flight across the Atlantic to participate in the 2018 ESL One New York. The competition lasted five days leading to a grand finale that was played in the best-of-five series. On Sunday evening, seven of the eight invited or qualified names made an appearence at the prestigious Barclay Center: FaZe Clan, Team Liquid, mousesports, NatusVincere, G2 Esports, Fnatic, and Gambit. NRG was the only team who didn’t compete in London. Fnatic signed Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom to replace Robin “flusha” Rönnquist, while G2 Esports tested the arrival of Damien “maLeK” Marcel as their new coach.
The three teams that achieved legendary status at the Major were expected to be clear favorites. However, only Team Liquid was playing some quality games. In Group A, NatusVincere met great difficulties against their competitors. They were eliminated early after two defeats against Gambit. Thus, after three days of competition, mousesports (2-0) and Gambit (2-1) obtained the first two places of the group. They qualified for the playoffs, eliminating the Ukrainians (1-2) and the new lineup of Fnatic (0-2).
In Group B, there were no problems for Team Liquid. After a semifinal finish at the Major, the American organization took advantage of their large map pool to demolish their opponents. They qualified for the playoffs without the taste of defeat. The second spot was claimed by NRG. They showed a good performance in the group stage, eliminating FaZe in their second game. Afterwards they beat the French squad of G2 Esports.
The following Saturday, NRG faced mousesports in the semifinal. The first map was somewhat evenly contested by both teams. However, mousesports won 2-0. Team Liquid then faced the team that eliminated Na’Vi, Gambit, in the 2nd semifinal. But Gambit couldn’t stop Liquid and the Americans went on to the Grand Final.
At the end of the competition, it was the North American side, Team Liquid, who faced the Europeans of mousesports. The first map of this best-of-five final was Cache, where mousesports comprehensively dominated. Despite the fact that the map was picked by Liquid, Jong “chrisJ” Chris’s men displayed a clean game and were able to find answers to the aggression of their opponents. Mousesports got the victory 16-12.
Then the teams fought on Nuke, picked by mousesports, where Liquid came out all guns blazing. They won 16-7. On the third map, Inferno, Liquid showed why they were the semifinalists at FACEIT. The team won 16-10. After that Liquid was just one game away from victory. However, mousesports had other plans since they won 19-17 after overtime. On the last map, Mirage, mousesports shined. In the first half, the Europeans sailed to a 10-5 advantage. They won the $125,000 prize with a 16-8 win.
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