ESL One NYC, which took place just this past weekend, can only be described as an action packed event. At New York City, the Counter Strike community had the opportunity to witness some of the best teams in the world battle it out and the community did not leave disappointed. The gameplay at ESL One NYC could only be described as explosive, after all most of the best teams in the world, firing on all cylinders, faced off versus each other in an extremely exciting format.

Ultimately, the victors of the event emerged and it became clear to the general public that the scene is no longer in the state that most had become accustomed to. This article is an attempt to take a look at the major talking points post ESL One NYC and how they could ultimately come to play out within the international scene.

Natus Vincere is here to play

The debut of this new look Natus Vincere lineup was at Starladder where they completely underwhelmed in their first outing on the international stage. One of the largest criticisms of Natus Vincere’s play at Starladder was the fact that they left a large portion of their talent completely unused as they had Seized awping over S1mple in the secondary awp role.

ESL One NYC, however, was a completely different story for the perennial contenders from the CIS region. Guardian and his band of merry men finally managed to lay their hands on that oh so elusive trophy for a major event that had managed to dodge them for so long.

The question that remains on the top of everyone’s minds now is whether or not Natus Vincere can coalesce this raw talent and form in order to string a series of placings together. There is no doubt that Natus Vincere on paper possesses a team that could come to ultimately dethrone SK from their perch on the top of the throne, all that remains to be seen is whether they will do it.

The fall of SK?  

SK came into this event with a ton of questions surrounding them and sadly they also exited the tournament with the same amount of questions surrounding them. With all eyes on them SK failed to live up to their usual standards of excellence and failed to qualify for the finals of an event for the first time since Dreamhack Malmo. The most mind boggling aspect of SK’s play at ESL One NYC was that Coldzera had an extremely lackluster event, something that had not occurred ever since the dark days of IEM Katowice.

Lets not get ahead of ourselves however; one event, especially the first event back for Fer, is not the end all be all indicator of the future performances for SK. For all we know this was simply an event dedicated to fine tuning the SK engine and these next few events could simply be cruise control as usual for SK.

Be that as it may, if the SK era comes to an end over the next couple of months, ultimately the history books will come to mark ESL One NYC as the event where the castle came crumbling down on one of the greatest teams of all time.

Elige’s steps towards stardom

If one were to say that Elige had a very good event at ESL One NYC then said person would be understating the truth of the matter by a country mile. Elige did not just have a very good ESL One NYC, he absolutely killed the event, finishing with a 1.27 HLTV rating for the entirety of the event.

ESL One NYC comes as a subsequent follow up to Elige’s stellar performance at the last major, where he played a large part in Team Liquid’s upsets over international powerhouses in the forms of Fnatic and Natus Vincere. The key distinction that has to be made about Elige’s performance at ESL One NYC is the fact that he no longer resided within S1mples shadow.

The way that Elige performed at New York City reminds us of the type of performances that a superstar puts out on a consistent basis. It is far too early to tell whether or not this is simply a outlier event or Elige has truly begun to take his first steps towards international superstardom. Regardless of what the future may hold for Elige, there is no doubt in my mind that his development will be one of the most exciting storylines to play out on the international stage.

Virtus Pro, eternal contenders

When all's said and done in the books of Counter Strike, then it will become clear to the eyes of all that there never was nor will there ever be a team truly as magical as Virtus Pro. No matter how far Virtus Pro fall, they still manage to find a way to pick up the pieces and move forwards once again.

This became evidently clear at ESL One NYC where Virtus Pro managed to vanquish the team that had come to haunt them throughout all of 2016 previously. At the last two majors, Virtus Pro were the only team to even manage to take a map off of the eventual winners, SK, before yielding to the pressure from the Brazilians. ESL One NYC initially seemed like it was going to be a similar story -- Virtus Pro seemingly battling through two close maps in order to force a third.

In everyone’s mind, the clear favorites for the third map was SK; after all, this was the same map that SK had handedly vanquished Virtus Pro on at ESL Cologne 2016. Virtus Pro themselves seemed to disagree and quickly went about the business of dismantling SK finishing the game with a 16-7 scoreline in favor of Virtus Pro.

Though Virtus Pro ultimately could not come to close the deal in the finals versus Natus Vincere they did reaffirm one axiom in the minds of the Counter Strike community. No matter what season it is or whose era it is Virtus Pro will always have what it takes to win over any team in the World.

Conclusion

ESL One NYC has been firmly embedded inside of the minds of any Counter Strike aficionado and it will not be so easily scraped away anytime soon. By treating the community to a series of games between some of the best teams in the world ESL One NYC gave birth to a number of interesting storylines that will be analyzed moving forwards. Regardless of what path ultimately ends up being followed, it is already clear that ESL One NYC marks a fork in the road where the destination remains uncertain.

Follow the author for more CS:GO content at @Jwong2903.