ESG Tour Mykonos Schedule and Preview

The Greek tournament is set to begin tomorrow morning starting with Liquid vs BIG. Here you can find the full schedule for the €200,000 event:

Thursday, September 7
06:00	Liquid	vs.	BIG	BO1
07:40	Virtus.pro	vs.	EnVyUs	BO1
09:20	Group B Winners match			BO1
11:00	Gambit	vs.	Heroic	BO1
12:40	SK	vs.	mousesports	BO1
14:20	Group A Winners match			BO1
Friday, September 8
05:00	Group A Losers match			BO3
08:30	Group B Losers match			BO3
12:00	Group A Decider match			BO3
Saturday, September 9
05:30	Group B Decider match			BO3
09:00	Semi-final #1			BO3
12:30	Semi-final #2			BO3
Sunday, September 10
06:30	Third place decider			BO3
10:00	Grand final			BO5

For looking at the teams attending the tournament, I've broken them into 4 groups based on their chances to win or get far:

• The true favorite: SK
• The other favorites: Gambit, Virtus.pro
• The possible deep run: Liquid, BIG, mousesports
• The possible upset: Heroic, EnVyUs

 The true favorite: SK

The #1 ranked team in the world has seen some rough times recently, with falling to Astralis at the major, and also failing to beat the new North and G2 in Malmö, but it's clear they are still a huge threat to any team out there. The Brazilian powerhouse had won 5 out of the 6 events they played leading into the major, and despite breaking down against Astralis, still looked dangerous.

None of their losses in Malmö were blow-outs, playing close to North and G2, and were actually the only team to take a map off of G2 in the playoffs. Marcelo "coldzera" David and Fernando "fer" Alvarenga were still a scary duo, and Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo's system was still very hard to break.

This event will be a big tell to what we can expect from SK going forward. Were the results in Krakow and Malmö  just flukes and small errors, and they will return to their dominance and win the the event? Or maybe perhaps something else has changed and their series of poor results will continue here.

The other favorites: Gambit, Virtus.pro

Both teams in this group find themselves in very different scenarios. Gambit is a team trying to continue the success they had gained with their previous leader, while Virtus.pro is trying to re-find the success they had at the start of the year.

Gambit suprised most everyone at DreamHack Masters Malmö, where not only did their new player Bektiyar "fitch" Bahytov play extremely well at the highest level, but Gambit once again took down Astralis and made the semifinals of a tournament where many thought Gambit would fail in the group stage. ESG Tour being so close to Malmö and Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko's departure means that Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev can still use many of Zeus's strats and Gambit will likely still be in their honeymoon period. While their form will likely deteriorate as time goes on, the Kazakh side should still be watched.

There really isn't much to say about Virtus.pro. They went out last in Malmö, losing to Renegades, but made the semifinals at the Major over North. The Poles could win over even SK, but they could also go out last here as well, it's just a matter of how they feel, and how good the gym is.

The possible deep run: Liquid, BIG, and mousesports

This group consists of the middling teams, looking to up their stock value and move up in the world. Liquid is still trying to make their roster with Russel "Twistzz" van Dulken work, but have had few chances since they missed the major and DreamHack Masters Malmö. BIG is looking to repeat their performance from the major, but have failed in online qualifiers recently (losing to Tricked in Europe Qualifier for the EL Premier). mousesports, with a fresh new roster, wants to show that their failure in Malmö was a one-off and that signing Miikka "suNny" Kemppi and Martin "STYKO" Styk was the correct choice.

This Liquid roster has actually been together for quite some time now, and their results have been up and down. After initial period of poor results at cs_summit and DreamHack Austin, they put in good performances at the ESL Pro League Season 5 Finals and ECS Season 3 Finals. They then had a poor result at the PGL Krakow Main Qualifier, but again played well at ESL One Cologne not even a week after. It's really hard to predict how this team will play, but recently qualifying for the ELEAGUE Premier over Renegades probably will give them a confidence boost. Expect Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski to be dangerous as always.

We also don't know too much about what to expect from BIG, as they haven't played much since the major. They failed in the online qualifiers for ESL One New York and ELEAGUE Premier and are currently 2-4 in Pro League. Their play at this event will likely come down to preparation and how well Faith "gob b" Dayik and Alexander "kakfu" Szymanczyk can anti-strat their opponents, as the team lacks in firepower. It is unlikely Johannes "tabseN" Wodarz can keep his form up forever.

mousesports are off to a rocky start after acquiring suNny and STYKO from PENTA and HellRaisers respectively, as they lost two quick best of ones to exit DreamHack Masters Malmö in quick fashion. Their results in EPL also haven't been too impressive, as far as the mouz online standard is concerned. After having time to integrate the new players and roles, Chris "chrisJ" de Jong should have everything straighted out with Sergey "lmbt" Bezhanov and we should see something closer to their true form here in Mykonos.

The possible upset: Heroic and EnVyUs

We first saw Heroic's new roster with Patrick "es3tag" Hansen at ESL One Cologne, where they understandably exited in the group stage (although taking down Virtus.pro with them). In Valencia, despite making the playoffs, their run wasn't altogether impressive, only winning maps off of KPI, Misfits, and Red Reserve, the last of which they lost a series to. DreamHack Atlanta contained their best performance yet, as they took down EnVyUs and GODSENT in the group stage, and HellRaisers in the playoffs. This obviously isn't the same level of competition as is featured here in Mykonos, so Heroic will still likely have troubles picking up wins this weekend.

EnVyUs has been extremely successful online and in the tier 2 and 3 scene in the last few months, but has had trouble converting their success to the biggest tournaments. They made the playoffs in Valencia and won Atlanta, and also qualified for DreamHack Masters Malmö, ESG Tour Mykonos, ESL One New York, and ELEAGUE Premier over many big name teams like HellRaisers, FlipSid3, Gambit, G2, and BIG. However, when they make it to the big important LANs, EnVyUs has failed, as seen at the EU Minor for Krakow, and in Malmö more recently despite playing close to both G2 and Fnatic. This team has big upset potential, but has very inconsistent players, and could easily lose 0-2.