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This is the fourth of the Minor events leading to the 2016 ESL One Cologne, with other tournaments already having taken place in Europe, Asia and CIS and the qualifying teams that have claimed their place in the big event in Germany later in the year already known.
In the Americas section, there have been four teams invited to the Minors:
- Tempo Storm
- OpTic Gaming
- Selfless Gaming
- NRG eSports
However, these have been joined by three teams that made it through the North American qualifier, Team SoloMid, Winterfox and Team Kaliber, plus one team that made it through the South American qualifier, WinOut.net.
The teams have been drawn into one of two groups for the initial stage of the competition.
- Group A – Tempo Storm, NRG eSports, Team SoloMid and Team Kaliber
- Group B – OpTic Gaming, Selfless gaming, Winterfox and WinOut.net
As is customary in many esports competitions now, only the first two fixtures in each group have been decided. In Group A, Tempo Storm take on Team SoloMid in the opening game of the tournament, followed by NRG eSports taking on Team Kaliber.
In Group B, OpTic Gaming face WinOut.net, while Winterfox face off against Selfless gaming.
In both cases, the two winning teams from the opening two games will compete against each other, with the winner of that match being named group winner.
The two losing teams also face off, with the loser finishing bottom of the table and eliminated. The final group game then pits the two teams with the 1-1 records together to decide the Winner-Takes-All match up for the runner up spot in the group.
The good news for teams reaching the knockout stages is that there is both a winners and losers bracket with teams that lose their Semi Final tie given a chance to progress in the losers bracket. The Grand Final will see the winners of both brackets compete to decide who takes home the $30,000 first prize.
The two finalists will earn a qualification spot at the ESL One Event in Cologne which takes place between the 5th and 10th July at the Lanxess Arena.
Fourteen of the sixteen teams that will compete in Cologne are already known with just the two teams from the Americas Minor still unknown.
Other teams that have already confirmed their participation in the finals are:
- Team EnVyUs
- FaZe Clan
- G2 Esports
- Mousesports
- SPlyce
- Gambit Gaming
- Flipside3 Tactics
- Cloud9
- TyLoo
- fLuffy Gangsters
- Team Dignitas
- Renegades
- Team Empire
- HellRaisers
Bet365 Esports are already offering Match Result betting on the matches scheduled to take place over the opening day of matches, so keep tuned for more CSGO betting on forthcoming matches in both the League and the Knockout phase.
Call Of Duty World League betting at Bet365 Sport
If you own a PlayStation 3 or 4 console, or an xBox or similar, then it is highly likely that you will have at least heard of, if not played and owned at least one of the famous of all Call of Duty games.
The first-person perspective shooter has millions of fans across the globe and is one of the most popular game franchises in the world today.
Despite this and despite its similarity to Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Call of Duty hasn’t been one of the major esports betting games, but that is set to change with the news that Bet365 Sports are now taking bets on matches at the current Call of Duty World League competition.
The competition has been under way since January 2016, with competitors in three geographic areas: North America, Europe and Australia.
Here’s the current standings for each of the tables with just a few league games remaining:
North America table
- Rise Nation (6-2)
- Faze Clan (6-2)
- OpTic Gaming (6-2)
- H2K (5-2)
- Dream Team (5-2)
- Team EnVyUs (5-3)
- Team Elevate (4-4)
- Cloud9 (3-5)
- 100 Thieves (2-6)
- Luminosity Gaming (2-6)
- Team SoloMid (1-6)
- compLexity Gaming (1-6)
Europe table
- Hypergames (8-0)
- Splyce (8-1)
- Epsilon Esports (6-3)
- Team Infused (6-3)
- Supremacy (5-5)
- Millenium (4-4)
- Exertus (3-6)
- Giants (3-6)
- Team LDLC (1-6)
- Vitality (0-10)
Australia/New Zealand table
- Orbit GG (9-1)
- Mindfreak (8-2)
- Chief Esports (7-3)
- Team Immunity (6-4)
- Tainted Minds (4-6)
- Apotheon Esports (3-7)
- NV (2-8)
- Excellence (1-9)
The remaining matches in each geographic division will be played every week from now through until the final game on June 17th.
Then the top four teams from the Australia/New Zealand section, top six from the European section and the top eight from the North American section will qualify for the next stage of the competition.
On Bet365 Sport, you can bet on fixtures in both the European and North American leagues and there will be plenty of betting opportunities available over the coming weeks as we head towards the end of Stage 2 in June across all the top esports bookmakers.
Two-day DreamLeague Season 5 Finals take place 21st – 22nd May
With just four teams competing for a prize pool of $100,000, the Dota 2 DreamLeague Season 5 finals take place this weekend in Sweden in a big offline event which promises $50,000 to the winning team.
Season 4 Champions OG earned their place in the finals by virtue of their success last year and they have been joined by Natus Vincere, No Diggity and Virtus.Pro who qualified via the league qualifiers for the event.
With just four competitors, the competition will be played out over two days, with a winners and losers bracket each contributing one team to the Grand Final.
The losers from the two semi finals (OG vs. No Diggity and Natus Vincere vs. Virtus.pro) will face off in the losers round, with the loser of the Winner Final then playing the winner of the Losers Round in the Losers Final.
The winner of that Losers Final then progresses to the Grand Final where they will take on the team that has won both its games so far in the event.
Bet365 Sport are offering a number of different bets both on the tournament outright and individual matches for the tournament and in terms of esports betting odds, they have the current champions OG as the 5/6 favourites to retain their title.
Natus Vincere are 5/2, Virtus pro 11/4 and No Diggity are the 25/1 outsiders.
