ESL Pro League EU Recap

We’ve already seen the first couple of teams in action during this month-long online event. Some of the teams that were unable to perform at ESL One Cologne have already gotten their first wins here. Complexity and G2 Esports are currently leading their respective groups in the standings.

GROUP A

G2 Esports were able to repeat their Cologne performance against OG. Back then, the players around Nemanja “nexa” Isaković only narrowly survided an overtime affair on the third map. Similarly, in EPL, they were able to clutch onto a 16-14 victory on map #3. Following two solid maps against GODSENT, they are now 2-0 in the standings.

BIG were successful in their opening duel with AGO. Johannes “tabseN” Wodarz and Ismailcan “XANTARES” Dörtkardeş played exceptionally well and helped BIG secure a great start into the league. The same goes for Natus Vincere, who are looking stronger than a week before at ESL One Cologne, after finishing GODSENT off in a 2-0 during EPL.

Heroic, the winners of Cologne, were hit hard. After their coach, Nicolai “HUNDEN” Petersen, was banned from DreamHack and ESL competitions recently, they can now only rely on the leadership of Casper “cadiaN” Møller. The Dane was unable to lead his team to victory, giving up a 1-2 match against ENCE. Losing to a comparatively weak team this fast after winning a trophy is a bad sign for Heroic!

GROUP B

So far, we have only witnessed four matches in Group B, but already we can see quite a few top teams at the bottom of the scoreboard. Vitality lost the first map against the Ninjas in Pyjamas, but struck back for a decisive 2-1 victory. Mousesports, after months of terrible results, were finally able to post a strong victory against a top team. Things are going well with Aurimas “Bymas” Pipiras, the 16-13 and 16-12 wins over FaZe certainly bode well for their upcoming matches. FaZe, on the other hand, seem to not have compensated the addition of Markus “Kjaerbye” Kjærbye just yet. Actually, he wasn’t even the weakest link in their mousesports engagement, Nikola “NiKo” Kovač only recorded 33 kills and felt absent for most of the match.

Fnatic are still shaky in their performance. They lost the opening map against Team Spirit on a 16-10 scoreline. Afterwards, Maikil “Golden” Selim put on the carry pants. With a 1.28 rating and 71 kills, he dominated the match to end it 2-1 for fnatic. This is an unusual sight for the otherwise quiet in-game-leader. Right before their match versus Complexity, Astralis announced that Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander would re-join the starting roster. He got off to a strong start with 50 kills, only surpassed by Emil “Magisk” Reif. On the other side, Valentin “poizon” Vasilev and Owen “oBo” Schlatter played similarly great. In two incredibly narrow 19-17 victories, they pulled Complexity through. Obviously, this wasn’t the start that Astralis had hoped for – but it could have been way worse still.

It won’t be any easier for them against FaZe, which we will see unfold tomorrow. Before that can take place, however, some more games from Group A are scheduled to play out. BIG, Heroic, NaVi, amongst others, will grace our screens today.