Bad News Eagles take final Elisa Masters Espoo spot

The Kosovar squad grabbed the last invite following their excellent showing at the IEM Rio Major.

The final team for the Elisa Masters Espoo 2022 will be Bad News Eagles, the tournament organiser announced on Twitter. They join a raft of other Major-attendees at the event.

Running from November 16-20 in Espoo, Finland, the $200,000 tournament will feature 12 teams doing battle, first through a best-of-one round-robin group stage. Then a single elimination best-of-three playoff bracket will take over, with the top team from each group advancing straight to the semi-finals. A place at the IEM Katowice 2023 Play-In awaits the winner of the event.

Bad News Eagles recently eliminated world No. 1 FaZe from the Major

Bad News Eagles will arrive in Finland fresh from their IEM Rio Major campaign, where the Kosovars once again turned heads with their aggressive, free-flowing Counter-Strike. Not only did they march through the Challengers Stage confidently with a 3-0 record, but they also eliminated FaZe from the Legends Stage, before being eliminated themselves at the hands of Natus Vincere.

They will likely be one of the favourites to win the event, considering only ENCE, BIG and fnatic are ranked higher in the HLTV rankings right now, and they recently bested BIG at the Major. Victory may well require overcoming ENCE however, who confidently brushed them aside 7-16 in the Challengers Stage on one of Bad News Eagles' best maps, Ancient.

The full team list is as follows:

Astralis
BIG
HEET
HAVU
500
Sprout ENCE
fnatic
GamerLegion
Complexity
SAW
Bad News Eagles Astralis #18 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderKristoffer 'Kristou' AamandBenjamin 'blameF' BremerMikkel 'MistR' Thomsen FaZe #2 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenHåvard 'rain' NygaardRussel 'Twistzz' Van DulkenRobin 'ropz' KoolHelvijs 'broky' Saukants Complexity #19 Johnny 'JT' TheodosiouRicky 'floppy' KemeryHåkon 'hallzerk' FjærliMichael 'Grim' WinceJustin 'FaNg' Coakley BIG #14 Johannes 'tabseN' WodarzFlorian 'syrsoN' RischeNils 'k1to' GruhneKarim 'Krimbo' MoussaElias 's1n' Stein Bad News Eagles #17 Rigon 'rigoN' GashiSener 'SENER1' MahmutiFlatron 'juanflatroo' HalimiDionis 'sinnopsyy' BudeciGenc 'gxx-' Kolgeci ENCE #11 Marco 'Snappi' PfeifferValdemar 'valde' Bjørn VangsåPavle 'Maden' BoškovićPaweł 'dycha' DychaÁlvaro 'SunPayus' García Sprout #26 Ismail 'refrezh' AliFritz 'slaxz-' DietrichRasmus 'Zyphon' NordfossVictor 'Staehr' StaehrLaurențiu 'lauNX' Țârlea 500 #51 Nikolay 'niki1' PantaleevGeorgi 'SHiPZ' GrigorovDenislav 'dennyslaw' DimitrovIvan 'Patrick' IvanovAleks 'Rainwaker' Petrov Natus Vincere #4 Oleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' SharipovViktor 'sdy' OrudzhevIlya 'Perfecto' ZalutskiyValeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy HAVU #65 Jesse 'zehN' LinjalaJani 'Aerial' JussilaSami 'xseveN' LaasanenJoonas 'doto' ForssJarkko 'spargo' Rahja SAW #37 Christopher 'MUTiRiS' FernandesRicardo 'roman' OliveiraTiago 'JUST' MouraJoão 'story' VieiraMichel 'ewjerkz' Pinto fnatic #16 Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonDion 'FASHR' DerksenNico 'nicoodoz' TamjidiFredrik 'roeJ' JørgensenWilliam 'mezii' Merriman GamerLegion #24 Frederik 'acoR' GyldstrandMihai 'iM' IvanNicolas 'Keoz' DgusKamil 'siuhy' SzkaradekIsak 'isak' Fahlén HEET #30 Audric 'JACKZ' JugAlexandre 'bodyy' PianaroThomas 'Djoko' PavoniPierre 'Ex3rcice' BulingeAurélien 'afro' Drapier