The top pro teams in America will hault their progress in the MLG Pro League this weekend for the UMG 40K. The top 5 teams this weekend will split the $40,000 prize pool with half of the total pot going to the winners.
This weekend, UMG will be using Pool Play to help set the bracket for the tournament. The top two teams from each pool will advance to the Upper bracket, and the bottom 3 teams will be relegated to the Lower bracket. A team from the open bracket will also advance into each pool.
Pool A: OpTic Gaming come in with the Number 1 seed once again. They look to stretch their winning streak to 5 events and will be looking to win their 8th overall this year. They'll get stiff competition from the 8th seed in their pool, EnVyUs. Their new roster has looked strong, and was able to take OpTic Gaming to a Game 5 in the League. They'll be a stiff early test for OpTic Gaming. The pickup roster of XGN is also in this pool with the 9th seed along with the 16th seed of Dunkin No Donuts, made up of amateur players Derpin, Eleiviate, HumanJesus, and Nova.
Pool B: The Number 2 seed and heavyweight in this pool is FaZe. After a roster change that dropped Huke and Slasher, adding Clayster and Attach, this looks like the strognest roster FaZe has ever had. They'll be challenged in their pool by Rise Nation, Enigma6 and RodSquad. This should be a very easy pool for FaZe to advance through.
Pool C: The Number 3 seed is in this pool, and it's Denial. After originally dropping every player on this roster, Replays came back and now has Slasher, Huke, and Temp to help bring Denial back into the Top 2 teams after their disappointing Top 6 finish at the XGames. Denial is one of only two undefeated teams in the League and will be looking to steal this event away from the favorites. In their pool, they'll be challenged by Team Kaliber and vVv. Their strongest opposition though will be iSolation Empire who are still fresh off their win at the MLG Relegation Tournament.
Pool D: This pool should be described as the "Pool of Death" with the 4 and 5 seed teams, eLevate and OpTic Nation. Although they are seeded well, this new eLevate lineup, consisting of Slacked, Saints, Apathy, and Classic, have looked underwhelming lately. While OpTic Nation have been defeating everyone expectations. They'll be challenged by two teams that once were European and are now American. Those being TCM and Epsilon.
Predictions:
Pool A: OpTic Gaming and EnVyUs will advance.
Pool B: FaZe and Enigma6 will advance.
Pool C: Denial and iSolation Empire will advance.
Pool D:OpTic Nation and an open bracket team will advance. This will come off a wave of upsets and probably be determiend by a tie-breaker.
Of course, every team that doesn't make top 2 in their pool is still in the tournament. But they will have no room to give and a steep uphill climb.