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However, with 2017 barely a week old, the next ESL One event is on the horizon, and this one is promising to be every bit as dramatic. ESL One Genting 2017 gets underway on Friday, Jan. 6 and runs until Sunday, Jan. 8.
Inside ESL One Genting
Once again, there is a healthy prize pool of $250,000 up for grabs, and there are eight teams, five of which have made it through a lengthy online qualification process to earn their places in the final.
OG are not back to defend their title; instead three different teams earned coveted direct invites to the event: Fnatic, Digital Chaos, and Wings Gaming.
They will be joined by five other qualifiers from geographic qualifiers that have taken place during the last few months. Team NP are the American qualifiers, as well as Newbee from China, Virtus.pro from Europe, WarriorsGaming.Unity from Malaysia, and Execration from the Southeast Asian qualifier.
Friday will see three matches in each group occur, followed by the second two games on Saturday, after which the two teams qualifying from each group will be known.
The playoffs begin Sunday with the winner of each group taking on the second place team from the other group. The winners of these two games will go on to contest the final later in the day.
The draw for the groups has following teams together for the opening stage:
- Group A – Virtus.pro, Fnatic, Newbee, Team NP
- Group B – Digital Chaos, Execration, Wings Gaming, WarriorsGaming.Unity
The opening matches in Group A pit Virtus.pro against Fnatic and Newbee taking on Team NP. In Group B, it is Digital Chaos vs. Execration and Wings Gaming vs. WarriorsGaming.Unity.
Bet365 offers a wealth of different markets on this popular esports event, and people can bet now on which of the eight teams will win the event outright. This is an evenly contested tournament with Virtus.pro the slight 2/1 favorites, ahead of the joint second favourites, Wings Gaming and NewBee at 3/1.
Outside that trio of teams, the odds drift slightly with Digital Chaos a 7/1 chance, Team NP 12/1, W.G.Unity 18/1 and Fnatic and Execration the two 25/1 outsiders.
In addition to the winner, people can place bets on 11 other markets prior to the tournament kicking off on Friday. These include backing a team to reach the final, which region the winner will come from, the group the winning team will qualify from, as well as match winner betting and a host of bets based on events within each of the matches.
ESL One Genting 2017 promises to be an exciting start to the busiest and most lucrative year of esports betting ahead, and that is not the only big event this weekend.
CS:GO fans eye Burbank this weekend for ESEA Season 23 Global Premier Challenge
After a lengthy online qualification process during the last few months, eight teams have finally made it through to the ESEA Season 23 Global Premier Challenge.
There are two distinct parts to this tournament, which is the main feeder into the ESL Pro League event for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams wanting to reach the elite level of the esport.
The action will begin on Jan. 5 with the two Premier Finals. These two matches will decide which of the European and North American teams will be promoted into the ESL Pro League for Season 5 and which team will remain in the ESEA Division for Season 24.
The EU Premier Finals pit Team Kinguin against Team LDLC.com, while in the North American final, it is Rush taking on Team SoloMid for that place in the Pro League next season.
After these matches, the Challenge commences with a group stage. The groups for this part of the competition have already been partially decided, with the results of the two Jan. 5 matches deciding into which groups the four participating teams will go.
They will join either Group A, which already has Bravado Gaming and Rogue in it, while Group B already has Tainted Minds and Muffin Lightning in it. Rogue and Muffin Lightning replaced two teams that originally qualified but can no longer attend, Big Gods and VG.CyberZen.
The group stages begin on Jan. 6 and 7 with the top two teams from each group heading into the playoffs on Sunday. From here, it is a straight knockout event with the two winners of the semifinals then going on to play in the final later that same day.
Bet365 is offering odds on each of the eight teams participating winning the event outright, with Kinguin the 6/5 favorites to win. Rogue are 11/4, with Team LDLC the 7/2 shots, and Team SoloMid 12/1. Outside of these four teams, the odds drift considerably with Muffin Lightning 25/1, Tainted Minds, and Rush both 33/1, and Bravado Gaming ranked as the 100/1 outsiders.
There are 11 different markets available with Bet365 for the big event in Burbank this weekend, including which teams will reach the final, match winner bets, handicap match betting, and the correct map score of the games in the league part of the event.
