ESL Pro League EU: Last Matches Coming Up

After a tense play-day, 75% percent of the playoffs teams for ESL Pro League EU are set. Vitality, OG, Heroic, and mousesports are still fighting for their ticket to the next phase. For teams like G2, FaZe, or fnatic, all help comes too late. 

GROUP A

From the “grave” that is the second-to-last place in Group A, AGO suddenly reached out, defeated G2 Esports, and pulled them under as well. So far, this has been the biggest shocker of the season and has brought down one of the stronger teams. Now, G2 want to go so far as to sign Nikola “NiKo” Kovac in order to achieve better results.

BIG and ENCE have already qualified for playoffs. But leading the pack is Natus Vincere, who have delivered a solid performance throughout the season. Heroic and OG are still in contention for the playoffs. And it couldn’t possibly get any better than this: They’ll face off against each other for the last remaining EPL points! So whoever wins there, gets to join the rest of the playoffs teams. But both teams have struggled to take down the big boys so far, although they did lead them to overtime matches quite often. A few more rounds could have helped one of these teams advance already, but now they’ll have to enter a duel for the playoffs spot.

The rest of the teams will only be fighting for placement points. Natus Vincere are actually not safe on their Group A throne. If they are to lose their match against G2 and ENCE win over BIG, then NaVi and ENCE will tie for points. As the Russians had lost their duel versus the Finns, ENCE would secure first place in this scenario. But if ENCE lose against BIG, NaVi can lean back and relax, as they had won over the Germans in 2-0 fashion.

GROUP B

Leading the pack is FaZe Clan, but on the wrong side of the standings! They surely didn’t expect to end up in second-to-last place, but the acquisition of Markus “Kjaerbye” Kjærbye certainly wasn’t the success story they had hoped for. In their last match versus Complexity, they can’t really do anything, except really mess up the placement for Benjamin “blameF” Bremer and his companions. At the moment, Complexity occupy the first place of Group B. This is due to their head-to-head advantage over Astralis, but in terms of points they have pulled equal. So Complexity will have to win against FaZe if they want to remain in first place. Astralis will probably have an easier time going up against Spirit and thus secure another win for themselves.

Both teams are guaranteed to make playoffs, alongside Spirit, who have really been the surprise stars of EPL. Nobody had expected them to play to this insane level. Instead, fnatic and NiP have really dropped the ball. So far, the Ninjas are even in last place of Group B, behind FaZe! Team Vitality and mousesports are still in contention for a playoffs spot. Just like in Group A, they’ll have to face off against each other for the points. The Frenchmen have played the better season overall, but both have been administered sound beatings by Spirit. So there isn’t a clear cut favorite in this match-up between the two.

The EPL season has delivered tense matches and surprising upsets. Now, it’s time for 8 teams to make their way to the next stage. After today’s matches, the playing field for the playoffs will be completed. On September 29, ESL Pro League will resume.