BPS Madrid is an upcoming CS:GO event that marks the third edition of the BLAST Pro Series in 2019. As usual, the tournament brings together some outstanding competitors and provides us with two days of spectacular matches.
BLAST Pro Series Madrid is scheduled to take place between May 10th – 11th. The prize pool of the event is $250.000 and the number of participants is six. If you want more information on the event check out our BLAST Pro Series Madrid Preview.
BPS Madrid Participants
BPS Madrid features the following teams:
- Astralis
- Natus Vincere
- ENCE
- Ninjas in Pyjamas
- Cloud9
- Moviestar Riders OR Giants Gaming (Iberian Qualifier)
The last team on the list will be decided via a qualifier, which is offered mainly to support the local CS:GO scene and attract more spectators to the event. Neither Moviestar Riders nor Giants Gaming is a relevant competitor at this tournament. But they’re still offered the chance to participate, simply because of the other factors we mentioned. In a way, choosing one of them as the 6th participant is like choosing Rocky to fight against Apollo Creed.
It’s BLAST Week, #Madrid!
First game will be between these local heroes, fighting for a spot in the main tournament! 🇪🇸
Don’t miss it: https://t.co/eImsCGll5Z#BLASTProSeries pic.twitter.com/hgWcGy1fyv
— BLAST Pro Series (@BLASTProSeries) May 6, 2019
The best two teams among these six are Astralis and Natus Vincere. ENCE is right behind Na’Vi in terms of strength, so we wouldn’t be that surprised to see an Astralis vs. ENCE Grand Final, should Na’Vi fail to deliver.
The most important teams and the ones that are most likely to play in the Grand Final are Astralis, Natus Vincere and ENCE. If you plan on making any educated bets, head on over to our CSGO Betting Sites Page to learn on how you can do so.
BPS Madrid Team Analysis
Here’s a brief analysis of the most important four teams that will be playing at BPS Madrid.
Astralis
BPS Madrid will be a very important competition for Astralis and will either confirm the rumors, that they’re no longer an almost unbeatable team, or prove to everyone that their last BPS failure was a fluke. At the end of this week, we may see a turning point and a massive change for the big stage of professional CS:GO. Over the last year, Astralis has dominated the scene with an iron fist, either winning or playing in the Grand Final of almost every single event they attended. But during the month of April they started to show signs of weakness.
At BPS Miami, Astralis lost three of their matches and finished 5th out of six teams. This hadn’t happened in a very long time so people have naturally started to wonder: is the reign of Astralis coming to an end? They say that no king rules forever and the Danes may have started to go the way of FaZe Clan, MIBR, Fnatic and other organizations who dominated the scene for a while and then simply collapsed, even though not entirely, for no apparent reason.
Recent Numbers Don’t Add Up, Especially For Astralis.
Some may say that what Astralis experienced at the previous BLAST Pro Series Miami event wasn’t such a big deal. However, based on the scores, we’re inclined to think otherwise. Seriously, 2 – 16 against MIBR? Or 5 – 16 against FaZe Clan? Not to mention the fact that after the event, Astralis played a match against BIG, which they won. But not before losing on their best map, Inferno, and having to play three maps instead of two. And keep in mind, BIG is not such a great team these days. To lose on your best map against BIG is definitely a bad sign for Astralis.
Going into BPS Madrid, we would like to see Astralis prove everyone wrong and show that they are still the best team in the world. However, there’s a good chance that they will fail to do that and their nemesis may turn out to be either ENCE or Natus Vincere. Historically, neither of these two teams proved themselves capable of defeating the Danes. And they both had their chance. In particular, Na’Vi already tried and failed several times, while ENCE lost against them in the Grand Final of the IEM Katowice Major, just a few months ago.
Based on the fact that there’s no Team Liquid, MIBR or even FaZe Clan at BPS Madrid, we expect Astralis to easily win the event if they’re still the team they used to be a short while ago.
Natus Vincere
Na’Vi’s been playing quite well so far in 2019 and they somehow managed to avoid losing any player. After their 3rd – 4th place finish at the IEM Katowice Major, a lot of people expected either Zeus or s1mple to leave the team due to misunderstandings or a lack of desire to continue with the same squad after years of victories and failures. But that didn’t happen. Na’Vi is still Na’Vi and they haven’t stopped winning titles. At the recent StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 7, the CIS team managed to beat Fnatic in the Grand Final.
The latest BPS event didn’t end well for Na’Vi, as they only finished 4th after failing to beat Astralis, FaZe Clan and Team Liquid. They didn’t play bad, but their opponent was each time better. Going into BPS Madrid, only Astralis is realistically stronger than them. So in theory, they should defeat everyone apart from the Danes and play in the Grand Final.
ENCE
ENCE is currently a top-five team in the global rankings and they are certainly playing well. For a while, people thought that their 2nd place result at the IEM Katwoice Major was a fluke and that they’ll soon start losing again even against the lower-ranked competitors. However, so far the rumors have been proved wrong by ENCE, as allu and his teammates have continued to win matches against top opponents such as FaZe Clan, NiP or MIBR.
At their last BPS event, ENCE finished 3rd at the end of a tournament in which they drew against Team Liquid, defeated MIBR, FaZe Clan and NiP, and lost against Astralis (14 – 16). Overall, quite an impressive performance for a team that doesn’t have any superstars in it, perhaps with the exception of allu.
ENCE’s most recent results include a rather disappointing 5th – 8th place at StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 7 and some unexpected defeats against Moviestar Riders and Vitality. However, we still have a lot of confidence in ENCE and we regard them as the 3rd best team at BPS Madrid.
Ninjas in Pyjamas
NiP is sitting at number nine right now in the global rankings. Their most recent tournaments ended with decent results for them considering their level of skill relative to other competitors. In 2019, NiP finished in the top eight at multiple tier 1 events, such as IEM Katowice Major (5th – 8th), StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 7 (5th – 8th), BLAST Pro Series Sao Paulo (4th) and IEM Sydney (5th – 6th).
Overall, our expectations from NiP going into BPS Madrid are not very high, simply because there are only six participants in total and at least three of them are considerably stronger. A 4th place result would be the best that they may hope for. Or, in a best-case scenario, they may end up finishing 3rd. But a Grand Final would be unthinkable at this competitive level. They would have to beat two of the top three teams to achieve that and the odds are stacked up against them.
