I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween and ate tons of candy, but we have esports to recap! In the past month, The International concluded, League of Legends World Championship got underway, and PUBG wrapped up regional leagues in preparation for the World Championship in November.

The Road to the International Concludes

Heading into the International 2023, the Gaimin Gladiators has won every Major and is the favorites to win the tournament. But of course, there are other suitors to lift the shield. Team Liquid is coming in with the most qualification points despite the Gladiators winning streak. Team Spirit has won a handful of third-party tournaments, including victories over the Gladiators. So, there is no guarantee for any team.

Before the main event, each of the twenty teams were divided into four groups for seeding into the double elimination bracket. By the end of seeding, four teams were eliminated outright. Meanwhile, favorites Gaimin Gladiators find themselves in the lower bracket to start the main event, leaving them with no room for error. Also in the lower bracket is North American hopefuls Team Solomid. Both Team Liquid and Team Spirit, along with wildcard qualifier Nouns represent the western world in the upper bracket while 9Pandas from Russia and the newly reorganized LGD Gaming from China look to lead the eastern world.

In the upper bracket, nouns is quickly bounced by Chinese wildcard Azure Ray 2 – 0, while Team Liquid tops Talon Esports with the same score. LGD Gaming defeats 9Pandas in the battle of eastern superpowers, while Team Spirit, led by their Ukrainian players edge out Russian organization Virtus.pro 2 – 1. In the battle of Chinese teams, LGD defeats up and comer Azure Ray 2 – 0, while Team Spirit defeats Team Liquid in a close 2 – 1 match. For the upper bracket finals, Team Spirit claimed victory over LGD Gaming in a quick 2 – 0 match.

For the lower bracket two teams emerged as possible candidates for making a long run to the Grand Finals. The first is BetBoom Team. Their path saw them march past the Brazilian hopefuls of Keyd Stars, Thailand’s Talon Esports and Virtus.pro from Russia. But their world trotting road came to an end against Azure Ray, who defeated BetBoom 2 – 1. The other team that made a big run is the Gaimin Gladiators. The Gladiators arrived at their three major victories from the comforts of the upper bracket, so did they endure? They did. In 13 games played against six different teams, the Gladiators lost only one. Defeating Team Liquid, Azure Ray and LGD Gaming along the way.

The Grand Finals of the International saw Team Spirit faces off against the Gaimin Gladiators. This will be the first time these two teams faced off in a grand final this year. But in a shocking turn of events, the dark horse upset the favorite in a complete sweep. Team Spirit defeats the Gaimin Gladiators 3 – 0 to lift the shield and take home the $1.4 million grand prize.

Counter Strike 2 Makes Its Competitive Debut

Halfway through the month, the follow up to esports stable Counter Strike 2 made its competitive debut at IEM Sydney 2023. Fans have been wanting the pros to tackle the new product, but the players have concerns with the state of CS2 and warn that it isn’t ready. The biggest concerns that the pros have are the game’s rubberbanding and rocky gameplay. Despite this controversy, IEM Sydney premiered CS2 on the big stage.

Sixteen teams participated in IEM Sydney; a mix of ESL Partner Teams, ESL World Ranking Teams and Regional Qualifiers. The first phase of the tournament divides the teams into two groups. Each group had a double elimination bracket with the three teams surviving into the final bracket. In group A, a young Mouz squad with a loan from their junior team made splashes by getting a win over the veteran Natus Vincere and BetBoom to qualify as the top team from A. Speaking of Natus Vincere, their struggles on the big stage continue as they are eliminated by their rivals of Faze Clan. Faze, Mouz and BetBoom advanced for Group A. In group B, ENCE looks to keep up their momentum of strong finishes in tournaments this year and made it to the group finals, however G2 Esports had different plans as their defeated the Finish dark horse to claim the top spot. The last spot from group B went to Complexity, who have had a quiet consistent performance this year and often serves as America’s only hope for a major win. They succeed here by eliminating Cloud 9 and Ukraine’s Monte.

Despite the stories from underdogs like Complexity and ENCE, it was Faze Clan’s time to remind the Counter Strike community of their relevance. With 2 – 0 victories over both ENCE and Mouz, Faze Clan set up a date with Complexity in the grand finals. This match went the full three games, but Faze Clan achieved victory. They take home the $100,000 top prize and a spot at IEM Katowice in the new year.

The Month Long LoL World Championship Begins

Hosted in South Korea, the League of Legends World Championship is the biggest esports event of the year. The world’s most popular esport invites twenty-two teams from around the world for a chance to fight for the trophy. Four teams from the Korean league, four from China, three from Europe, and three from the Americas make up the teams who got to skip the play-in stage of the tournament.

For the Play-Ins, eight teams were divided into two groups, where two from each group moved on to the second phase of the play-ins. For the group stage, the two Vietnamese teams came to play. GAM Esports and Team Whales dominated. Team Whales qualified quickly going 2 – 0 in group play, while GAM Esports eliminated the Brazilian team LOUD. The Wildcard representative, Team BDS, who defeated the Golden Guardians to get to Worlds, fought past Japan’s Detonation FocusMe and the Flying Oysters from Taiwan to move on. The final team to qualify would be PSG Talon, who would avenge their fellow Taiwanese team to qualify. In the second phase, PSG Talon and Team BDS played an intense barn burner of a series, however the French would edge out their opponents winning the series 3 – 2. In the other matchup for the last spot out of the play-ins, we had a Vietnam showdown. Here GAM Esports eliminated their fellow countrymen of Team Whales after a 3 – 1 series win.

In the swiss stage of the tournament, the remaining teams play each other with the goal of achieving three wins. Once a team gets their three wins, they will advance to the final knockout stage that begins in November. The teams that established three wins the quickest was Gen.G Esports from Korea and JD Gaming from China, doing so in their first three matches. By round four of matches, three more teams qualified. NRG Esports from North America, LNG Esports from China and T1 from Korea. Round five saw the remaining teams last chance to qualify for the knockout stage. Here Weibo Gaming and Bilibili Gaming from China and KT Rolster from Korea. With the swiss stage completed, seven of the spots in the knockout stage went to China and Korean teams. The lone non-Asian team, NRG Esports, holds the hopes of America in their hands.

The knockout stage of the World Championship will begin at the begin of November and go until the champion is crowned on the 19^th of November.

Other Headlines

PUBG wrapped up its regional leagues earlier in the month and the last spots to the PUBG Global Championship were solidified. In the Americas, Friendly Fire won the Americas Finals and earned a direct ticket to PGC. Luminosity Gaming, Legacy and Team Falcons earned enough points in different tournaments to qualify to PGC. In Europe, Twisted Minds emerged victorious in the EMEA regionals, but since they already qualified through PGS points, so their spot went to the next best team. FUT Esports, Faze Clan, Acend, HOWL Esports, Question Mark and Exalt all qualified through PGC points. This means that the defending world champions, Natus Vincere will not get an opportunity to defend their title. Other major events in PUBG include Exo Clan defending their Oceania championship, Enter Force.36 take over from Sunsister for Japan and CERBERUS continues their reign as the kings of APAC.

At the Halo World Championship, Faze Clan emerged victorious after forcing a reset during the Grand Finals against Optic Gaming to claim the trophy and the top prize.

Events and Tournaments in November

·         CS: BLAST Premier Fall Final – November 22^nd – 26^th

·         LoL: World Championship – Concludes November 19^th

·         R6: BLAST R6 Major Atlanta – Concludes November 12^th

·         OW: World Cup – Concludes November 4^th

·         PUBG: Global Championship – November 18^th – December 3^rd