Autumn of Ukrainian esports: restructuring, scandals, competitions and ratings for the coming months

This year, Ukrainian esports teams are experiencing very different emotions and situations - from triumphant comebacks to global reboots. Our representatives are competing in the best disciplines and winning prizes, and the market is replenished with new teams. OBOZ.UA tells about the main esports tournaments in Ukraine and the world that you should pay attention to this fall.

NAVI is the leader of HLTV again

This summer, Ukrainians won the Esports World Cup 2024 and took the first place in the HLTV rating. This happened for the first time in more than two years. Then they let Team Vitality pass them, but only for one week: at the end of August, our team returned to the first place and, according to the latest update, continues to lead the world ranking.

The leadership seems to be consolidated. Last week, Natus Vincere started the 20th season of the ESL Pro League tournament with a victory, defeating the Chinese team Lynn Vision 2-0. And yesterday, the Ukrainians met Ninjas in Pyjamas and won 2-0 again. Our team made it to the playoffs ahead of schedule, but the battle in the group is not over - we need to beat Eternal Fire to get straight to the third round. In total, 32 teams are competing for a prize pool of $750 thousand.

Monte relaunch

The Monte cyber team started September by shocking fans: the leader of the SS division changed when Sergey Bezhanov left. It didn't take long to find a new coach, and the Counter-Strike 2 team was led by his assistant, Piotr "nawrot" Nawrocki, a Pole. He has played in several major tournaments, although this appointment has drawn a lot of criticism - fans point to a departure from the Ukrainian team's foundation.

Dota 2's prospects are not good at all, as it had to close its roster. The esports organization stated that the first attempt to create a roster was not successful enough to continue supporting the direction, so they did not risk starting the new season with it. There is work to be done on the mistakes. Previously, Monte won the second division of the European Pro League, but failed to achieve significant success in Dota 2 in the almost year of its existence.

Zinchenko's team without a tournament

Global Series: 2024 Split 2 Playoffs is taking place without our player's team - in late summer, Passion UA was not allowed to leave Ukraine. The team of the Ukrainian esports organization will miss the competition with Apex Legends. At the same time, the organizers themselves did not meet them halfway, refusing their request to play remotely.

This is not the first time that the team has been banned from traveling outside of Ukraine, as they missed the Esports World Cup 2024 in the middle of the summer.

Konoplyanka - from football to esports

It's been almost 4 months since Yevhen Konoplyanka started his esports career as a functionary: his kONO.ECF has already held several competitions and even won a tournament. The ex-footballer himself emphasized that the market was looking for the best players among free teams and literally signed those who shoot well and understand the game. The cyber team aims to get to the Major, which still has a long way to go and professionals will be invited to help:

They even want to create their own esports academy in the future, but first we need to see that Konoplyanka's project has the right to live and can adequately represent Ukraine on the international stage. The goal is ambitious: to reach the semifinals of Riyadh in the first year.

Fall is full of tournaments

Right now, our internal CS2 tournament is underway: the first two stages of the ROG AUTUMN CUP 2024 5×5 qualifiers have been held, two more will be held in three weeks, and at the end of September, the best teams will compete in the playoffs (the final on September 29). The tournament is open to Ukrainian citizens only. The winners will receive a check for 80 thousand hryvnias. The final part of the tournament will be broadcast on HLTV.

The International 2024 started this week. Unfortunately, there will be no Ukrainians there - neither the main nor the youth teams of Natus Vincere were able to qualify for the Dota 2 tournament. They failed to qualify in the Eastern and Western European regions. But they will have someone to cheer for, as four Ukrainians made it to the TI: Artem "lorenof" Melnyk (Aurora), Volodymyr "No[o]ne-" Minenko (Cloud9), Ilya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk and Myroslav "Mira" Kolpakov (both from Team Spirit).

And here's where we'll be - IESF 2024. The Ukrainian men's CS2 team won a slot in the World Championships. Yaroslav Buryak, Kyrylo Lytvynov, Artem Kapran, Zakhar Sideledchuk, and Denys Lyashenko will travel to Saudi Arabia in November. There they will face 16 of the world's best teams. The group stage will start on November 11 (the opponents are still unknown), and Ukraine will compete for the playoffs and the main prize of $50 thousand.

DRILLAS team will participate in another CS2 tournament. A few days ago, they won the qualification for the Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 Middle East, defeating Onyx Ravens. We are interested in this team because of two Ukrainians. Just before the PWSM, the RMR qualifier will be held with a record number of Ukrainian esports players - as many as 16 of our representatives, which is the highest number ever. The main tournament will be held in December, with a prize pool of over a million dollars. The winner of the first major, by the way, was the Ukrainian team Natus Vincere.