StarLadder Berlin Major 2019: Format, Participating Teams & Favourites; All You Need To Know

Astralis are the 2-time defending Major Champions

The Majors are CSGO's biggest tournaments of the year. These are some of the most popular esports events of the year. Astralis are the defending Champions and while they will look to make it 3 times in a row, several teams will be looking to spoil their dreams.

Favorites to Win

Astralis are one of the obvious choices to win. Although they haven't won a tournament since winning Blast Sao Paolo in March. They skipped several premier events since the last Major and their lack of match practice showed in the more recent tournaments. Regardless of their form, they are still one of the strongest teams to ever play CSGO and will look to become the first team ever to win 4 Majors.

However, Team Liquid are actual on-paper favorites to win the Berlin Major. Liquid has won the last 5 tournaments they have played. Not only did they win, they dominated every team in the tournament. People are expecting similar dominance from them and Liquid will be hoping to win NA's second-ever Major.

Vitality and ENCE are two of the other favorites to win the tournament. Relatively new to the tier 1 scene, Vitality and ENCE have reached the summit of CSGO in record time. They are certainly favorites to win if they can pull off an upset on Liquid.

Na'vi also deserves a mention considering S1mple is at the helm of the team. But they will certainly require more than S1mple's firepower to win the Major.

Dark Horses

Almost like a trend, Faze Clan are Dark Horses once again. They have not been on top for well over a year now but have never actually declined in form. They always seem one victory away from again reaching their glory days. They will be hoping the Major is the one.

Furia has replaced MiBR as the top Brazilian team and they even managed a huge upset over Astralis a couple of months ago. They have that immense upset potential and they can go the distance shocking everyone.

Mousesports are one of the other teams that will trouble the favorites. Led by Karrigan they have immense talent and can easily upset any team on their best day. The sheer unpredictability of the team makes them extremely dangerous.

NRG are the final dark horse we'll talk about. They are 5th on the rankings and on paper looks like one of the best teams in the world. But they have failed to actually win or even make the grand finals of a premier tournament in almost a year.

The Challengers Stage - Predictions

The Challengers Stage will have 5 teams returning as Challengers and 11 teams qualifying through Minors. The 5 returning teams are Complexity, Avangar, Vitality, G2, and HellRaisers. The 11 teams which qualified through the Minors are Mousesports, Cr4zy, North, NRG, Furia, INTZ, Forze, Syman, DreamEaters, Tyloo and Grayhound.

The 8 teams I pick that will qualify from this stage are Mousesports, NRG, Furia, INTZ, North, Vitality, G2 and Cr4zy.

The Legends Stage - Predictions

The Legends stage will have 8 teams from the previous stage and the 8 Legends. The 8 Legends are Astralis, Ence, Na'vi, Liquid, Renegades, NiP, Faze and MiBR.

The 8 teams I pick to go through to the Champions Stage are Astralis, Ence, Liquid, and Faze from among the Legends. Also, Vitality, Mousesports, Furia, and NRG if they indeed make it through the Challengers Stage.

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The Major will be streamed live on StarLadder's official twitch channel. Anyone can also create a CSGO account to watch the games live using the CSGO Game client.