The MLG Pro League season 1 finals kicks off shortly. Competing for the $85,000+ prize pool are several veteran teams, as well as revitalized and fresh rosters. Here is what you can expect from the competing teams.

Evil Geniuses

Evil Geniuses' latest roster debuted with a strong performance, placing third in the fifth season of the Dota 2 League, but anything short of first place was seen as a failure for North America’s biggest eSports organization. In February, they silenced their critics with a 3-0 sweep against Vici Gaming at the Dota 2 Asia Championships. Currently, EG holds a massive 74.2 percent win-rate since patch 6.83c was implemented.

Clinton “Fear” Loomis and co. topped the American qualifiers group with a 15-3 record, which would be impressive in any major tournament, but losses during a qualifier are unbecoming for EG. They split their round robin matches 1-1 against Void Boys, compLexity Gaming and Not Today, the last of which would be the only excusable loss as the Peruvian squad has been on the rise.

Despite the hiccup during the qualifier, Evil Geniuses are the frontrunners for winning the tournament.

Not Today

Not Today have been the strongest team in the South American Dota 2 scene for quite some time. They can take down other mid-tier teams with ease and they've been known to upset top tier teams. However, they haven't been able to do it with enough consistency that’s required to break into the top tier.

The last premier tournament NoT qualified for was The Summit 2 this past December, where they came in 5th-6th out of the six teams that qualified. In mid March, they qualified for MLG Columbus, but will return to The Summit for Season 3. It doesn't sound like much, but they've already made it into twice as many premier tournaments as they did last year, and its just over three months into 2015.

Despite their recent progress, they have a 50 percent win-rate for patch 6.83c; and Not Today is an underdog for the tournament.

Ninjas in Pyjamas

The Ninjas in Pyjamas are one of the few brand new teams that have made an impact in the top tier. Even though they only have a 48.8 percent win-rate after picking up Linus "Limmp" Blomdin on February 23, the all-Swedish squad is more than capable of taking games off the scene’s best teams.

It's hard to talk about NiP's recent performances without making direct references to Team Empire - their last premier tournament was the Major All Stars, where they knocked out Invasion e-Sports and Natus Vincere only to get themselves knocked out by Empire, taking home third place.

NiP and Empire met up again during the tournament’s European qualifier, and Empire swept NiP 2-0 in their matchup, but they ended up tied 11-3 for the top seed. This time NiP got the upper hand and won their tiebreaker and the invite.

NiP is one of the favored teams in the tournament, albeit below EG. It will be interesting to see how they stack up against Empire during the tournament proper.

Team Empire

Team Empire is one of the most stable and consistent teams in the CIS scene. They won Season 11 of the Star Ladder Star Series, and came second in the Major All Stars with a 59.7 percent win-rate in patch 6.83c. Team Empire is the favored team of the tournament, just behind Evil Geniuses.

As mentioned previously, they lost their tie breaker match against NiP and were set to face HellRaisers for the tournament’s third and final European slot. However, Dulat "goddam" Seidimomyn was unable to get a visa for the tournament and HR decided to forfeit the match, giving Empire the default win and the accompanying invite.

Empire also had visa issues with their offlaner, Maxim "yoky" Kim. But instead of dropping out, Empire will rely on Gleb "Funn1k" Lipatnikov as a stand-in. Lipatnikov is a veteran offlane player on the scene and should be a suitable stand-in for the tournament.

Balkan Bears Corleone

Balkan Bears Corleone is a mid-tier team similar to Not Today. They have the ability to take games off top tier teams, but lack consistency. The team currently sits at a 42.9 percent win-rate for patch 6.83c and they've failed to make it past the qualifiers for the Dota 2 Champions League and ESL One Frankfurt 2015.

In their group for the tournament’s European qualifier, BBC managed to tie HellRaisers for the top seed with an 11-3 record. Due to the previously mentioned visa issues, BBC were also given a default win and invite.

This will be the team's first performance at a premier LAN event, and it will be interesting to see how the added pressure of a live environment will affect their performance. Regardless, they are an underdog of the tournament.

MVP Phoenix

MVP Phoenix's roster went through major changes last month, only keeping Kim "QO" Seon-yeob and Park "March" Tae-won. Tae-won was selected as the new captain and the team added an Australian and a Singaporean to their roster, which was once purely Korean. Despite the plethora of changes, it seems to be working for the team as they currently sit with a 58.1 percent win-rate since the changes.

In the Asia qualifier, MVP Phoenix managed to tie with Rave for first place with a 12-6 record, but lost during the tiebreaker. Unfortunately, Rave were in a similar situation as HellRaisers and could not get their visas, forcing them to forfeit the match.

Like BBC, this will be MVP Phoenix's first premier LAN event since their roster change. They look stronger than their squad that finished 13-16th at the Dota 2 Asia Championships, but they are not expected to win.

Dennis Gonzales is a Toronto eSports writer who enjoys whiskey, Dungeon & Dragons and first-picking Timbersaw. You can follow him on Twitter.