ESEA Season 26 Global Challenge Preview
The Global Challenge of Season 26 of the ESEA Mountain Dew League is almost upon us and we have prepared a preview of the eight teams that will be attending the event in New York. The tournament will have two groups of four teams using the GSL system, followed by a single elimination playoff bracket. The winner will secure $18,000 of the $50,000 prize pool.
Europe
AGO
The now second best Polish team quickly rose through the ranks after it was formed with the previous INETKOXTV trio of Michał "snatchie" Rudzki, Mateusz "TOAO" Zawistowski, and Tomasz "phr" Wójcik and former AGG members Damian "Furlan" Kislowski and Dominik "GruBy" Swiderski. They made their way into the Mountain Dew League through the Polish National League, where they placed second behind Kinguin. Since Kinguin was already in MDL, AGO received the spot granted by the league.
The team’s last LAN was the Europe Minor for the ELEAGUE Major Boston, where they placed fourth following defeats to OpTic and EnVyUs. Earlier in the tournament they handed big losses to two of the other teams in their group, Windigo and GODSENT. This team is one of the favorites to win the Global Challenge alongside Space Soldiers. The main players to watch will be the eBettle and Vexed veterans Furlan and GruBy, who have extensive experience at a high level and have been the main performers for AGO so far.
eXtatus
In this team’s first season of MDL after being promoted from Main, eXtatus made playoffs with a 10-6 record and took down Fragsters and Space Soldiers on their way to the Global Challenge. The biggest results of this team in 2017 were winning the Cross Border Esport tournament, placing above teams like Tricked, ARES, AGO, and EnVyUs Academy, and qualifying for the Europe Minor, taking down LDLC, GODSENT, and Heroic in the Swiss group.
With the level of competition at the Global Challenge, eXtatus will be one of the top teams to watch out for. The clear star of the team is 15 year old David "frozen" Čerňanský, who has been doing a lot of damage in the tier 2 and 3 scene. Fellow Slovakian Richard "queztone" Strnátko can also do good damage, and is notable for having stood in for HellRaisers back in 2016.
Space Soldiers
Turkish team Space Soldiers is the one team at the Global Challenge who will also be playing in the Major later this month. They placed fourth in the online portion of MDL, and beat aAa and Virtus.pro in the playoffs on their way to the Global Challenge Finals. This team recently attended the WESG Europe Finals, where they placed third, beating teams like BIG, EnVyUs, and Fnatic during the event. They also won the recent Europe Minor, taking down OpTic and EnVyUs, to secure a spot at the ELEAGUE Major Boston.
Powered by Ismailcan "XANTARES" Dörtkardeş and Buğra "Calyx" Arkın, this team is very dangerous, and is easily the main favorite to win. These two players have a history of performing extremely well online, and have some of the best stats on all of HLTV. Engin "MAJ3R" Küpeli will be looking to lead his team to a victory in New York as good preparation for the rapidly oncoming Major.
North America
Rise Nation
This team has dominated the last two seasons of ESEA MDL, placing first and fifth in the online portions respectively. In the playoffs of Season 26, they easily beat Mythic and GX to qualify for the Global Challenge, and will face off against SoaR to determine the winner of MDL and who will earn a spot in the next season of ESL Pro League. Recently, this team won the first edition of the Dust2.us Masters, won CEVO Main Season 13, and attended DreamHack Winter and the Americas Minor. They didn’t manage to get out of groups at the two LANs, but the experience is invaluable.
The two stars of this team continue to be Kaleb "moose" Jayne and Will "dazzLe" Loafman, who consistently put up good numbers for this team. Jonathan "Jonji" Carey, while more inconsistent than the other two, also has the potential to have a lot of impact in a game. Expect this squad to likely acquire a playoff spot, or at least be in strong contention for one.
SoaR
SoaR took a path very similar to Rise Nation on their way to the Global Challenge this season. After an 11-5 online season, they took down Beacon and Ghost Academy 2-0 to secure their spot in New York. In their recent months, they placed 3rd-4th in the CyberPowerPC Winter Invitational, 3rd in CEVO Main Season 13, and 2nd in the Dust2.us Masters 1, which makes them one of the stronger tier 2 teams in the region.
The main player to watch out for from this squad is Michael "Grim" Wince, who has put up a huge 1.27 rating for his team in the past three months. This squad has the potential to make playoffs, but it will be a tough fight against the Europeans and other NA teams.
GX
Formed with the remnants of the ex-iBUYPOWER players, GX had extremely high hopes within the CS scene. Led by veteran Sam "DaZeD" Marine, GX entered Premier with expectations of making Pro League. However, after results didn’t go as well as they had hoped, DaZeD stepped down and retired, with Shawn "witmer" Taylor replacing him as in-game leader and primary AWPer. GX narrowly made it through to the playoffs of MDL this season, and with close victories over Gale Force and Ghost Academy, they secured a spot in EPL relegation.
The star player of this lineup is clearly Braxton "swag" Pierce, but Michael "dapr" Gulino is a good young player to keep a look out for at this upcoming event. It’s unlikely this squad will make a deep run in the event, but they could give some of the better teams a run for their money given the right circumstances.
Ghost Academy
The current edition of Ghost Academy was formed when the core of ex-Nitrious joined up with Chad "Oderus" Miller and Bryan "MAKKA" Drouillard from Good People. They placed highly in the online season of MDL, but could only place fourth in the playoffs. This means that Ghost Academy is unable to qualify for ESL Pro League, and in previous seasons wouldn’t have received a spot at the Global Challenge. However due to North America being granted four spots this season, they are also in attendance.
Andrew "ShoT_UP" Orlowski has been the team’s best player in recent months, but the young Jason "neptune" Tran is also someone to keep a lookout for. This is likely the weakest team at the event, despite Chiefs attending with an old roster, and their expectations should be to possibly get an upset win over a bigger opponent as well as gain LAN experience.
Australia
Chiefs
The Australians in Chiefs recently made the news as their star player Joshua "INS" Potter departed the team to play for Tainted Minds. However, due to roster locks, INS will play with his old team at the Global Challenge. They surprised in the online portion of MDL in that they took down Legacy and Kings in close games to make the final where they defeated Athletico for a spot at the Global Challenge Finals. The other two strong Australian teams, Grayhound and Tainted Minds, were upset on the other side of the bracket, which resulted in Chiefs having a fairly easy grand final.
After their famous upset over North at IEM Sydney, this squad held a tight grip on the Oceanic scene for a lot of 2017. Over time though, other domestic teams had begun to challenge them and eventually a roster change was imminent. With new team member Matthew "Texta" O'Rourke, Chiefs have already found success, winning the CyberGamer Premier League Championship.
Being placed in Group A is tough, and Chiefs won’t be favorites to make the playoffs. Keep a lookout for Liam "malta" Schembri, who has upped his game in recent months, along with leader Tyler "tucks" Reilly.
After the grand finals of both the Europe and North America MDL divisions, the main event will begin on the morning of the fifth. On Sunday, the grand final of the Global Challenge will take place and the beginning of EPL relegation will start right after. Be sure to tune in as all of the games will be covered by Dust2.us.
