GamerLegion will attend ESL Challenger Atlanta with Andreas “aNdu” Maasing as a stand-in for Sebastian “volt” Malo?. While this isn’t necessarily a big blow quality-wise, the last-minute change definitely won’t benefit them.

Apeks have their full roster ready for Atlanta, where they will chase their first tournament title since Elisa Invitational Spring 2023. While Apeks haven’t won any tournaments in six months, they placed second at Elisa Masters Espoo 2023 at the start of December.

With GamerLegion winning only one of their last five matches, Counter-Strike betting sites have Apeks priced as -250 favourites. However, Apeks have produced some stinkers recently, with defeats against 3DMAX and FORZE, making it though to trust them at the offered price.

Monte having been making some noice in recent months. They ran top four in both ESL Pro League Season 18 and Thunderpick World Championship 2023, finished second at Roobet Cup 2023, and won ESL Challenger at DreamHack Winter 2023. The only concern heading to Atlanta is that Monte haven’t played a game in three weeks.

Since BESTIA came together in February, they have mainly competed in regional tournaments. They placed second at Copa BetBoom 2023 last month and then made the semifinals of the CBCS Invitational 2023. However, BESTIA have not beaten a team ranked in the top 10 this season, and they will have to play this event with two stand-ins — Roberto “reversive” Themtham and Nicolás “NikoM” Miozzi.

While the outsiders are bound to struggle, this is a best-of-one series and the round line is set at a 7.5, which is an absurd number. As weak as BESTIA might seem, they should be good for six rounds.

M80 have recently found momentum with four straight event victories, including ESEA Cash Cup North America Autumn 2023 #6 and ESL Challenger League Season 46 North America. While those weren’t big tournaments, M80 travel to Georgia World Congress Center in impressive form with just one defeat over their last 21 games.

Virtus.pro broke into the top 10 in the Counter-Strike world rankings following a stretch of impressive tournament runs. They placed second at Dunav Party LAN in August, added a gold medal from Roobet Cup 2023 at the start of November, and have since placed second at Thunderpick World Championship 2023 and BetBoom Dacha.

While Virtus.pro’s win percentage isn’t as high as M80’s, they have won nine of their last 13 series — mainly bouts against top-20 squads. VP rarely lose against weaker opponents, so backing them to cover the round line is a solid play.

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According to the games developer, the move was necessary because the COVID-19 pandemic has made it difficult for travellers in the US to acquire multi-entry visas. If the semifinals had gone ahead at Scotiabank Arena as planned, competitors would have had to travel from New York to Toronto and then on to San Francisco for the finals.

Riot came to the conclusion that moving the venue would make things more convenient for teams playing in all rounds of the competition. The semifinals of the 2022 LoL World Championship will now be held in the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, which can accommodate an audience of up to 21,000 spectators.

In the latter half of this year, the play-in rounds for the League of Legends World Championship 2022 will be held in Mexico City at the Liga Latinoamerica (LLA) Competition Arena. After that, the group stage and the quarterfinals will be held in the Hulu Theatre inside Madison Square Garden in New York City. Thereafter, it will head to the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, and then the Chase Center in San Francisco will bring the tournament to a close.

Riot Games has stated that the move will offer players a viable way to triumph across all phases of the competition.

Naz Aletaha, Global Head of LoL Esports at Riot Games, commented: “We are committed to upholding our tradition of a multi-city Worlds tour despite the challenges presented by the pandemic and look forward to hosting the 2022 Semifinals at the state-of-the-art State Farm Arena in Atlanta.

“This news is no doubt disappointing to our fans and partners in Canada, and we want to sincerely thank Toronto, Scotiabank Arena, and our community for their understanding. We look forward to bringing a major LoL Esports event there in the future.”

The difficulty of obtaining visas for players is an issue that has troubled the esports industry for years. In 2021, The International – the premier Dota 2 esports tournament – had to be moved from Sweden to Romania since the Swedish Sports Federation voted to not include esports in the federation. Thus, anyone seeking to get a visa for entry into Sweden in order to attend the event would be rejected.

Riot Games has not yet disclosed any details on the dates of the event or the timetable for the competition, which returns to North America for the first time since 2016. Details on ticket sales, dates, and selection will be provided later this summer.

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