Fragadelphia 17: What you need to know about teams competing

Fragadelphia, the semiannual North American Counter-Strike: Global Offensive LAN tournament based in Philadelphia, returns this weekend from Thursday through Sunday for Fragadelphia 17. The tournament will take place at Nerd Street’s Localhost Philadelphia. This iteration of the tournament is the first since Fragadelphia 16 in March and follows several months of qualifying events. Frag 17 is shaping up to be the biggest and most competitive Fragadelphia ever with the largest prize pool in its history -- $100,000 -- a handful of European teams among the competitors and many up-and-coming North American squads. To get you ready for Frag 17, here’s an overview of the teams competing, schedule and teams to watch.

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Fragadelphia 17 Last Chance Qualifier teams

• Apeks
• Evil Geniuses White
• Evil Geniuses Black
• Team oNe
• Victorum
• DETONATE
• Team 7AM
• BIG Academy
• X13
• Limitless
• Red Wolves
• Touch Point
• BLVKHVND
• Snakeden
• Vireo.pro
• InControl
• Team Esoteric
• Davenport University Black
• Revel
• kariESPORTS
• Arctic Ace
• Zenigma
• All Gas No Brakes
• Boyfriend_Peek6
• NoVum eSports
• Cyberstorm
• Addice
• Firstwave
• Atlas E-Sports
• B4it
• Davenport University White
• Phoenix Rising
• Bikini Bottom Babes

Fragadelphia 17 qualified teams

• timbermen
• Squirtle Squad (ex-Gaimin Gladiators)
• Davenport University
• ATK
• Vendetta
• Electrify Steel
• Argon Esports
• Phantom Troupe

Fragadelphia 17 schedule

Photo credit: David Patlut / Nerd Street

The 33 LCQ teams will play in a double elimination bracket on Thursday and Friday with matches beginning at 10 a.m. ET each day. The top eight teams will move on to the Frag 17 main event. Because there are 33 teams, the No. 32-seeded team Phoenix Rising will face the No. 33-seeded Bikini Bottom Babes in a play-in match to determine who will take on the top-seeded Apeks.

The eight LCQ teams will be placed into groups with the eight already qualified teams. The four groups of four will play out in a GSL format on Saturday with matches beginning at 12 p.m. ET. The top eight teams will advance to the single elimination playoff bracket on Sunday with play beginning at 11 a.m. ET.

European squads bound for Philly

The most notable European squad in attendance at Fragadelphia will be the Norwegian team Apeks. The team’s academy squad, Apeks Rebels, finished second to Strife at Fragadelphia 16 this spring, and now the main squad will be in Philadelphia. They’re only ranked 80th in the world by HLTV, but they have a high ceiling with the talent on this team. Apeks were ranked as high as 28th in February and March. Apeks’ most recent addition is Richard "shox" Papillon, a legendary French CS:GO player who was recently with Team Liquid. Prior to Team Liquid he was on Team Vitality and G2 Esports. Another one of Apeks’ notable players is Joakim "jkaem" Myrbostad, who finished second with 100 Thieves at IEM Beijing in 2019 and 3rd-4th with Renegades at the StarLadder Berlin Major in 2019.

BIG Academy are the second-highest ranked team that will be in attendance. They are obviously the academy team of BIG, and the all-German roster is ranked 60th in the world by HLTV. The other European squads at Fragadelphia will be the British teams BLVKHVND and 7AM.

Evil Geniuses double down

One of the most interesting sublots of Fragadelphia 17 is the fact Evil Geniuses are sending two of their three squads to compete. According to Dust2.us, EG.PA will compete as Evil Geniuses White, and EG.CD will compete as Evil Geniuses Black. Neither is EG’s top tier team, which is just known as Evil Geniuses or EG, but both are still ranked within the top 100 by HLTV.

Evil Geniuses White’s roster will consist of Ben "ben1337" Smith, Josh "PwnAlone" Pigue, Jonathan "djay" Dallal, Jonathan "Jonji" Carey and Wesley "viz" Harris. This team is ranked 64th and is the same roster that used to play for Party Astronauts and finished second at Fragadelphia 15 last fall with the core three of ben1337, PwnAlone and djay.

Evil Geniuses Black are ranked 99th in the world and the roster consists of Colby "Walco" Walsh, Jerric "wiz" Jiang, Connor "chop" Sullivan, Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz and William "RUSH" Wierzba. Walco, wiz and chop were previously on Carpe Diem and prior to that on RBG Esports, the team that finished third at Frag 15. Stanislaw has been a longtime member of EG and won ESL One New York with the team in 2019. RUSH was part of the legendary Cloud9 roster that won the Boston Major.

Top NA and SA contenders

Evil Geniuses’ two teams are the top North American contenders. Beyond these two, ATK, timbermen and Squirtle Squad also are NA contenders. These three will not be competing in the LCQ as they have already qualified for the main event this weekend.

ATK are ranked No. 52 in the world and finished 3rd-4th at Frag 16 earlier this year with largely the same roster.

Timbermen won the Frag 17: Fullerton #2 qualifier and are ranked No. 81. Timbermen’s Damian "droid" Boulware also was on the LGG Snakes Den team that won Frag 17: Fullerton #1, Frag 17: Denver and the Take Flyte team that won Frag 17: Philadelphia in the past few months.

The roster that formerly competed for Gaimin Gladiators before being released in August and is now known as Squirtle Squad also is a contender. This team is ranked 49th in the world by HLTV. Just before being released by Gaimin Gladiators, the team was one of the first two NA squads to qualify for the Americas RMR which is a qualifier for the Rio Major this fall. The ex-Gaimin Gladiators roster finished 5th-8th at Frag 16.

The one South American team in attendance to keep an eye on is Team oNe. The Brazilian team is ranked No. 72 in the world and recently qualified for the American RMR in the hopes of qualifying for the Rio Major. Team oNe have competed at Fragadelphia before. They finished 3rd-4th at Frag 16.

Who’s winning Fragadelphia 17?

There are six teams that stand out as favorites. The first would be the European squad with the most star power: Apeks. They should make it out of the LCQ and onto the group stage and playoffs of Fragadelphia. BIG Academy are the highest ranked of the European teams and should also make it through the LCQ. Of the two EG rosters, Evil Geniuses White is the higher ranked team and has the best chance of the two to make it deep into the tournament.

Among the qualified teams, ATK and Squirtle Squad stand out. They’re both within the top 50ish teams in the world and have recently qualified for the American RMR proving that they’re among the best teams in North America. And then there’s South America’s Team oNe who should represent Brazil well at Fragadelphia.

Lead photo credit: David Patlut / Nerd Street