CCT Season 1 Global Finals Preview And Favorites

CCT Season 1 Global Finals is an S-tier CS2 event scheduled to start on May 16. For eight days, some of the world’s best teams, including Astralis, Team Liquid, and BIG, will compete for a total prize pool of $500.000.

This tournament takes place online, which made it possible for BetBoom to attend it despite competing in Belgrade at BetBoom Dacha during the same interval.

Competitive Format

The format of CCT Season 1 Global Finals is very simple. The 16 participants will be divided into four groups. Out of each group, two teams advance to the playoffs, which will consist of quarterfinals, semifinals, and a Grand Final. No advantage is given to the group winners. They will start in the quarterfinals like the runner-ups.

The match format is best-of-three. However, the Grand Final will be best-of-five.

Prizes

The $500.000 will be divided among the participants in the following way:

1^st place: $250.000
2^nd place: $100.000
3^rd – 4^th place: $50.000
5^th– 8^th place: $12.500
9^th – 16^th place: 0

The fact that half of the participants get nothing will encourage the teams to play with a lot more focus and determination in the group stage. Most of the rewards go to the top four teams, which is why everyone will want, at the very least, to play in the semifinals.

Participants

🌐🏆@eternalfiregg @BetBoomTeam @GaiminGladiator @MIBR @BIGCLANgg @TheAurora_GG @paiNGamingBR @AstralisCS @TeamLiquidCS @ENCE @FNATIC @GamerLegion @OGcsgo @sawggofficial @amkalesports @parivisiongg pic.twitter.com/eGe9BXciF9

— Champion of Champions Tour CS2 (@cctour_gg) May 10, 2024

Here are the 16 participants to CCT Season 1 Global Finals:

Astralis
Fnatic
ENCE
BetBoom Team
PARIVISION
GamerLegion
Team Liquid
OG
SAW
Eternal Fire
Gaimin Gladiators
AMKAL ESPORTS
MIBR
paiN Gaming
BIG
Aurora Gaming

The top nine teams on the list received direct invitations from Eden Esports, the organizer of the tournament. The other seven went through qualifiers.

Groups And Favorites

Here are the four groups and their favorites:

Group A

In group A of CCT Season 1 Global Finals, Eternal Fire and SAW will have a relatively easy path to the playoffs. These are the four participants:

SAW
Eternal Fire
PARIVISION
Aurora Gaming

It’s pretty clear that PARIVISION is just an improvised team with no real chances. But Aurora could pose some threats. This year, they won a B-tier tournament, Skyesports Grand Slam, finished second at ESL Challenger at DreamHack Melbourne, and won Skyesports Masters. The last of these tournaments was an A-tier competition.

Eternal Fire had a rough time in recent months. From the outside, the impression is that this team put in a lot of time to prepare for the Major, got eliminated in the quarterfinals, became very disappointed and then found it difficult to train with the same intensity as before.

At ESL Pro League S19, EF were eliminated very quickly and finished 21^st – 28^th. However, despite this result, the roster is still formidable and could easily qualify for the playoffs of this event.

Group B

In group B, there are three teams that could realistically advance to the playoffs and one with very small chances.

ENCE
GamerLegion
Fnatic
Gaimin Gladiators

We don’t know at this point what exactly motivated Gaimin Gladiators to build a CS2 roster but their chances of success are quite small. The players are all Danish, which looks promising on paper, but not every Dane is dev1ce or karrigan.

ENCE and GamerLegion are the big favorites in this group, with Fnatic having the potential to cause upsets. Of the former Swedish roster, only KRIMZ is still part of the team. In recent years, he has been joined by two Frenchmen, one German, and one Serbian player. The results have been modest. Fnatic is currently ranked 34^th globally.

Group C

Our @ESL Pro League run ends in Quarter Finals

GGs @AstralisCS 0-2 pic.twitter.com/VpWAR9OFjj

— Team Liquid CS (@TeamLiquidCS) May 10, 2024

Group C features the following competitors:

paiN Gaming
AMKAL
Team Liquid
OG

This group is full of strong teams and anyone could advance to the playoffs. Arguably, Liquid is the strongest, but the skill difference between them and the other three competitors is not that big.

For OG, this event means a lot because they’ve been struggling and downgrading their roster for many months. If they can’t do anything at an event like this, the org’s CS2 project doesn’t look like it will have a bright future.

The Brazilians from paiN won Global Esports Tour Rio de Janeiro less than a month ago. They also finished 9^th – 11^th at the Copenhagen Major. These results clearly indicate that apart from Liquid, nobody should be able to beat them in this group.

Group D

The final group of the tournament is full of tier-1 competitors:

Astralis
BIG
BetBoom Team
MIBR

Unfortunately for MIBR, their chances are slim. BetBoom will also have a hard time because they need to focus on two events in parallel, which leaves less room for preparation.

Astralis and BIG are the top favorites in this group and both of them are vastly stronger than the other two teams. Because of this, their odds of qualifying for the playoffs are above 80%.

At the recent ESL Pro League S19, Astralis finished in the top four while BIG finished 13^th – 16^th out of 32 teams.

Header: Eden Esports