It was quite a feat for the North American roster EG. With consistent performance, EG has secured the ESL One New York trophy for the region after their brethren Team Liquid fell down before the Danish giant. More impressively, EG did it in a nail-biting 6-hour-long Bo5 against Astralis – the notorious Bo5 king.
A dominant performance in the group stage
Recently, the longest-standing Esports organization in North America EG has announced the acquisition of NRG CS:GO roster. Both organizations have yet to reveal more details about the transition but a roster that promising like NRG’s should be a couple of million dollars at least. The ex-NRG roster – now EG looked to make their debut in ESL One New York – the homeland to both NRG and EG.
Under a new jersey and management, EG looked motivated more than ever with their first big tournament right in Brooklyn, New York. EG started the event on the right foot, defeating FaZe pretty handily on Nuke and Vertigo. They would go on and repeat the scoreline against Astralis – a heavy contender for the champion in the tournament. EG booked the ticket to play-off as a high seed, avoiding their North American brethren Team Liquid.
To break the curse
While Team Liquid had a long-running “finalist curse” where they would most likely choke in the grand final, the EG roster incurred another haunting curse. Both the EG organization and the ex-NRG roster are notorious for their #3 curse – most likely choking in the semi-final. This is especially true for EG Dota 2 which would most likely end up #3 in every big tournament they went to.
The ex-NRG roster prior to the addition of Peter “stanislaw” Jarguz also “consistently” ended up #3 in big tournaments. They seemed to have a haunting curse of #3 which prevented the roster from reaching the grand final.
After the home favorite Team Liquid fell down to Astralis, EG remained as the last hope for North America in the New York event. It would have been disappointing to see both home favorites eliminated from the grand final if the curse continued to haunt stanislaw and co. However, EG broke no sweat against G2 in the semi-final, winning 2 maps handily with 16-8 and 16-7 on Dust2 and Nuke.
An enticing grand final
EG would go on to face Astralis in the grand final, this time in a Best Of Five (Bo5). Astralis is notorious for their deep and strong map pool, apparently with no real weakness. Astralis has been invincible in any Bo5 grand final, remain undefeated since the formation of the team. This is partly due to the fact that Bo5 is rarely used in CS:GO, even the Majors. However, in any big tournament which the grand final Bo5 format is used, Astralis never lost any series.
With that in mind, EG has also practiced their map pool well enough to match what they need to do. EG also has a deep map pool with their only preferable ban being either Overpass or Mirage. However, Astralis had to ban Mirage themselves as it has apparently become the Danes’ weakness recently.
The grand final kicked off on Inferno, Astralis’ map pick. EG picked CT-side to ensure they have a good start. And that was exactly what happened. EG put up a solid defense to fend off any assault attempt from Astralis. EG made quick work of the Danes as they closed out the map pretty one-sided 16-3.
The second map was yet another story. Starting on the CT-side, Astralis barely won the first half with 8 rounds. They kicked off the second half with 4 rounds in a row, looking set to tie out the match scoreline. However, a great retake moment from Ethan “Ethan” Arnold seemed to set the motion for EG to come back. EG reverse swept Astralis with 9 rounds in a row to win the map, pushing Astralis to their limits.
Another tight overtime story and a sweet ending to EG’s name
0-2 down, Astralis had to play with their back against the wall. Coming to the next map – Train, it took a tremendous effort from the Danes to penetrate the tight defense from EG. A shining moment from Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander set the momentum for Astralis to win 7 precious rounds as Terrorists.
However, NRG also proved themselves as one of the best Train teams in the world when repeating the feat Astralis did. Both teams ended up in overtime with a staggering resemblance to the penta-overtime in the Berlin Major 2019. However, it only panned out in 2 overtimes as Astralis managed to close it out at 22-20.
The next map was Nuke – the once undisputed Astralis’ territory. However, times have changed and Astralis was no longer invincible on this very map. EG once against proved how well their T-side could be with the SG553 in the hand of Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte. 8 rounds as Terrorists, EG finished the job at 16-8 with another stellar performance from the duo stanisnaw and Brehze on the CT-side.
The hero North America deserved
With a strong and consistent performance, Brehze was named the MVP of the ESL One New York 2019. The SG553 user put up quite a show with his consistent performance throughout the tournament. His performance could be compared to that of Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski in Team Liquid with better ending results.
EG also tied with Liquid in the Intel Grand Slam Season 3 race with their success in ESL One New York 2019. Will we have another $1 million title winner coming up next after Astralis and Liquid?
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