FiReLEAGUE Global Finals 2023 preview and favorites

FiReLEAGUE Global Finals 2023 is scheduled to take place in Barcelona, between November 8-12. This CS2 tournament has a prize pool of $150.000 and brings together eight strong teams, seven of whom have been directly invited to take part in it.

To many, what FiReSPORTS is trying to do may not seem all that relevant. After all, Counter-Strike has dozens of big events each year. One that features just eight teams and offers a $150.000 is just a drop in the ocean at this point in time. But that doesn’t take away from the merits of the organizer.

En sólo 3 años nos hiciste construir un Gaming Center que fue testigo de grandes hazañas, jugar una final en el Camp Nou y llenar un fucking Movistar Arena. Te queremos CS:GO.

Y a vos CS2 te decimos que no vamos a parar hasta traer un Major a Buenos Aires. Esto recién empieza. pic.twitter.com/cOlzkeLcYQ

— FiReLEAGUE (@FiReLeagueCS2) September 27, 2023

Details

If we look at the teams who will compete in FiReLEAGUE Global Finals 2023, we can instantly spot some prestigious names. The Spaniards from Movistar Riders will be there. Imperial Esports and Virtus.pro will also be there. Fnatic is another team that CS2 fans know a lot about and might want to watch.

Then we have the smaller teams, who are nonetheless in the top 50 in most cases and have the potential to cause upsets. The list includes paiN Gaming, 9z Team, SAW, and BESTIA. Only the 4^th of these participants is not well-known. But even BESTIA is ranked 60^th.

The competitive format of the tournament has not yet been announced. But based on the 5-days duration of the tournament, we can speculate that initially there will be two groups of four, played using the double-elimination format. Either two or possibly three teams per group will advance to the playoffs, which will likely be a single-elimination competition.

Two thirds of the prize pool will be awarded to the winners. The 2^nd place team gets $30.000, while the remaining participants get very little: $7000 for the 3^rd – 4^th place teams and $1500 for the bottom four. This means that unless you finish in the top four, this will not be a profitable event for any organization and especially for the smaller ones, who don’t have many supporters.

Favorites

There are three big favorites in the race:

• Virtus.pro
• Movistar Riders
• Fnatic

Arguably, Movistar Riders will have a confidence boost because they will be playing in front of their own fans. Spain has become much stronger in Counter-Strike in recent years, with players like SunPayus being accepted by top esports organizations like ENCE. If Riders can win this tournament, that will give the region an additional boost to take CS2 seriously.

Header: FiReSPORTS