ESEA Season 26: New York City is the location for ESEA’s Season 26 Global Challenge which shapes up to be a hotly contested event given how close many teams are in relative strength. A majority of the favourites come from the EU Qualifier, with AGO Gaming, eXtatus and Space Soldiers all having hopes of making the playoffs.
AGO have good form
AGO are arguably in the best form currently, given their best-of-three victories over Virtus.pro (2-1) and Space Soldiers (2-0) in the past few months. AGO also showed consistency throughout the regular season of ESEA, claiming second place with an impressive 12-4 record. Previously the Polish scene appeared to be lacking in overall depth, given only the presence of Virtus.pro on any sort of high level, yet AGO Gaming have slowly started climbing up the ranks. Valuable experience has been gained over the last few months, including playing against both Fnatic and Vega Squadron in best-of-three series. While perhaps lacking the overall pedigree of other teams, AGO’s overall consistency within the ESEA season gives them an opportunity to succeed at this event.
Space Soldiers need consistency
Space Soldiers are arguably the most well-known of the European sides, given their stunning 16-14 upset win over SK Gaming back at ESL One Cologne this past summer. Maintaining their name within the middle tiers of CS:GO since then, Space Soldiers have unfortunately struggled against both AGO Gaming and eXtatus in recent months (they lost 0-2 to eXtatus in the EU Qualifier, for example). Star player XANTARES has continually made a name for himself, with this event being a perfect opportunity to prove himself on a bigger stage. While struggling versus other teams at this tournament, Space Soldiers do have impressive wins over Fnatic, EnVyUs and Flipsid3 in recent memory, giving them expectations of playoffs.
eXtatus a bit of a wild card
eXtatus are a surprise participant at this event, given their eighth-place finish in the regular season of ESEA Season 26. An upset 2-1 win over the number one seed Fragsters, followed by another upset 2-0 success over Space Soldiers, put eXtatus in the unexpected position of qualifying for this event. The key map for eXtatus appears to be Mirage, with one-sided victories in both of the aforementioned best-of-threes (16-5 and 16-6 respectively). Map pool is a question mark for eXtatus, but the willingness to play Nuke, which almost no teams in the scene currently do, gives some flexibility even if others now know to avoid playing on Mirage whenever possible. Even as a number one qualifier, eXtatus have a shroud of mystery around them, but given the recent nature of their success over Space Soldiers, more of the same is expected.
Rise Nation lack a star
The other top contender for this event is North America’s Rise Nation, who have continued to impress in lower level events. Rise Nation have been slowly ascending within the NA scene, gaining consistency against lower tiered teams while threating tier one competition, including taking a map off of Cloud9 with this same line-up back in August. Rise Nation rely primarily on their team play, more so than a single star player. This leads to consistency, but they also lack top-end results. While not the overall favourites, a consistent nature and a fairly deep map pool will give Rise Nation a decent show against any team.
GX all about swag
Arguably the most intriguing side at this event are GX, the team based around the recently unbanned former-IBUYPOWER members. While DaZeD has stepped away, swag and AZK remain, with young up-and-coming talents Pollo and dapr in tow. The team have had less success than hoped, however swag still gives GX a chance in any match. Considered one of the brightest stars in the history of North American Counter Strike, swag is a dynamic player who could possibly take over an event of this nature. While overall, they are expected to struggle, swag does possess the ability to carry this team to the playoffs.
