The Counter Strike: Global Offensive Champions League Season 2 may have kicked off in Europe in the middle of September but after two months of solid competition, we are now almost down to
the final four teams from this 16-team event.
Earlier on this month, Hellraisers and Natus Vincere confirmed their place in the semi finals of the playoffs with 2-0 victories over E-Frag.net EC and PENTA Sports respectively. They were joined earlier this week by another unbeaten team in Team Dignitas who overcame DenDD 2-1 in their quarter final clash on the 16th September. That victory sets up Team Dignitas with a Semi Final match up against Group A winners Natus Vincere.
The final spot in the Semi Finals will be taken either by Flipsid3 Tactics or Virtus.pro with the latter being the bookmakers 2/7 favourite to win the match up on the 18th November. The winner of this game will contest the second semi final against Hellraisers at a later date.
The competition started with a Group Stage with 16 teams each divided into groups of four, from September and through October, these teams faced off against each other in their groups until the top two in each group was decided. These two teams then went through to the quarter finals which have been played most recently.
With $50,000 up for grabs across the tournament, this is an event that all the top CS:GO teams in Europe would like to win and provides a useful stepping stone to taking on some of the best teams from North America, China and South Korea in a number of other high profile tournaments.
You can get all the latest eSports betting on forthcoming CS:GO Champions League matches regularly at Bet365 Sport.
China’s Best League of Legends Team Ready Themselves for NEST 2015
Starting on Monday 23rd November and progressing through until Thursday 26th November, China’s top League of Legends team will compete in the National Electronic Sports Tournament (NEST) 2015. Eight of the best LoL teams will compete for a top prize that is the equivalent of US$32,530 in what is a straight knockout tournament between the teams.
The eight qualifiers for the event are: EDward Gaming, Invictus Gaming, LGD Gaming, Masters 3, Snake eSports, Team WE, Unlimited Potential and Vici Gaming.
The draw for the quarter finals, which get under way on Monday, has already been made and sees LGD Gaming take on Vici Gaming in the opening match up. This will be followed by Unlimited Potential facing off against Invictus Gaming in the second match and EDward Gaming taking on Masters 3 in the third game.
The fourth and final quarter will take place between Snake eSports and Team WE with the winners of each match progressing into the semi finals and the losers eliminated from the event.
Check out the usual places for all the latest betting on this big event for Chinese-based League of Legends teams throughout next week.
Solar Claims the SanDisk SHOUTCraft Invitational II
StarCraft 2 Legacy of the Void players will have no doubt been keeping a close eye on events this past week in South Korea where eight of the country’s top SCII players competed in an online 
tournament the SanDisk SHOUTCraft Invitational II for a total prize pool worth $20,000.
Over the three days of action, players were awarded prizes based on their finishing position within the tournament and also an extra $1,000 per day was awarded by fans watching the event by voting for their favourite player of that day from a community poll.
In the end, it was Samsung Galaxy player Solar who claimed the $10,000 first prize in somewhat comprehensive fashion. In his opening quarter final he defeated Stork 3-0 in a best of five match up and then in the semi finals, took on Bomber and emerged with a stunning 4-1 win in a best of seven match up.
The final was another best of seven game and this time Solar defeated TY, again by a 4-1 scoreline to claim the top prize. In the third place match, popular X-Team player ByuN defeated Bomber to claim the third place prize.
In the viewers vote though, it was ByuN who came out on top, taking home $1120 in prize money as voted for by viewers. Bomber and TY each received £460, while winner Solar received an additional $440.
StarCraft II action is a little thin on the ground over the coming days with the GPL 2015 International Challenge coming to a close on Saturday 21st although there is a big Legacy of the Void championship on the horizon in about ten days time.
Frankfurt Major Climaxes on Saturday – Who Can Still Claim this Major Dota 2 Title?
It seems fitting to end this week’s post with news on one of the biggest competitions in the world of eSports. The Frankfurt Major 2015, Valve’s first of three showpiece events to stand alongside The International each year will come to a close on Saturday and by then we will know which of the teams stands the best chance of taking home the staggering $1,100,000 top prize.
The Group Stages saw eight teams progress into the winner’s bracket (Evil Geniuses and Virtus.pro from Group A, Vici Gaming and Vega Squadron from Group B, Team Secret and LGD Gaming from Group D and CDEC Gaming and perhaps most surprisingly, Mineski from Group D).
The other eight teams formed the match up in the Lower Bracket Round one with losers from the winners bracket dropping into the losers bracket at various stages of the knockout tournament.
In the winners bracket, Evil Geniuses and CDEC Gaming won their quarter final match up to reach the Semi Final where they will play each other and Team Secret and Vici Gaming make up the second semi final after winning their respective matches.
The Winners Bracket Semi Finals and Finals will be played over the next few days to decide who qualifies for one Grand Final spot with the losers bracket games also being played out to decide which of the other teams will take their place in the second Grand Final spot.
As per usual, Bet365 will be offering a number of betting markets including which team will win the match and which team will win each of the maps contested on all games in the Frankfurt Major over the next few days, up to and including the final.
