Elisa Masters Espoo 2022 preview

Elisa Masters Espoo 2022 is a Scandinavian CS:GO tournament scheduled to take place in Finland, between November 16-20.

The event brings together 12 interesting teams, including ENCE, Astralis, and Fnatic. So it’s a must-watch for anyone who follows Scandinavian CS:GO.

Elisa Masters Espoo details

Elisa Masters Espoo offers $200.000 in prize money, half of which will go to the winner. In addition to this, the victor will also qualify for the Play-In stage of IEM Katowice 2023.

The format of the tournament is very simple. The participants will be divided into two groups of six. Each group uses the round-robin method. The winners advance to the semifinals. The second and third place teams advance to the quarterfinals.

In the group stage, every match is best-of-one. In the playoffs, the match format is best-of-three.

Because of the round-robin format and the large number of teams per group, the first stage will have 30 matches. That’s a lot of action that will be packed in just two days.

Participants

The 12 participants will be divided into two groups, A and B.

Group A

• BIG
• ENCE
• HAVU Gaming
• HEET
• Sprout
• GamerLegion

Group B

• 500
• Astralis
• Bad News Eagles
• Complexity
• Fnatic
• SAW

In group A, the favorites are BIG, ENCE, and Sprout. Even though none of them qualified for the Champions Stage of IEM Rio Major, their results were good enough to indicate that they are quite strong right now, especially for this competitive level.

Elisa Masters Espoo is not an S-tier tournament, only an A-tier one. So most of the world’s best teams are not here. In their absence, a team like BIG or even Sprout could easily win the trophy. But it may prove to be a bit difficult if Astralis or Fnatic are in top form as well.

Group B should be easy for the Scandinavian giants. In particular, Fnatic just came back from Rio de Janeiro, where they played in the quarterfinals of IEM Rio Major.

The fact that they finished in the top eight at a tournament in which competitors like Team Vitality, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and FaZe Clan were eliminated in the Legends Stage is very impressive. Fnatic are not the same team they were at the start of the season. They have rebuilt their roster and are one of the best teams in the world.

At this LAN event, Fnatic are definitely one of the favorites. As for Astralis, they have a lot to prove right now. They missed the Major completely and their newest roster looks a bit weak. But the team’s IGL, Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander, is still one of the best in CS:GO.

Header: Elisa Esports