ESL Pro League S19: Day 1 Results, Day 2 Predictions

Day 1 of ESL Pro League S19 featured six excellent matches. Four of them were played in group A while the other two were played in group B. Groups C and D haven’t started yet.

Group A Results

Strong start to Season 19 💪#ESLProLeague | #FaZeUp pic.twitter.com/KKTdFGuSv2

— FaZe Esports (@FaZeEsports) April 23, 2024

In group A, FaZe Clan started with a victory against Imperial but they didn’t win as easily as they had hoped. On both maps, the first half ended 6 – 6, which made the second half very tense. But, thanks to their vast experience, FaZe eventually won both times: 13 – 10 on Inferno and 13 – 6 on Nuke.

Their best player was frozen: 39 – 21. For ropz, who played in slightly riskier positions, the difficulty of the match was probably much more palpable. His score was 27 – 26. Overall, everyone on FaZe played well and finished with a positive KD score, including karrigan.

The match between Eternal Fire and Astralis offered the Danes the opportunity to get some revenge for what happened at ESL Pro League S18. The first half of each map was tense: 5 – 7 on Vertigo and 6 – 6 on Overpass. But, just like FaZe, Astralis proved to be the stronger team in the second half and won each time: 5 – 13 on Vertigo and 9 – 13 on Overpass.

Despite his IGL duties, dev1ce made a huge contribution and ended the match with a personal score of 27 – 18. His teammate, Staehr, was easily the man of the match with a score of 36 – 11 and a rating 2.0 of 1.45.

The battle between Virtus.pro and Fnatic was not for the faint of heart. All three maps had tight scores and lots of reversals. In the end, Fnatic won despite losing the first map. The scores were 13 – 11 on Overpass, 9 – 13 on Vertigo (after 8 – 4), and 11 – 13 on Ancient.

Despite the amazing performance of Jame (48 – 36) and electroNic (52 – 49), the Russian squad ended up losing. On Fnatic’s side, only afro (49 – 37) had a positive score.

The match between 3DMAX and SAW was not of great interest to most fans but it still offered an amazing spectacle. The scores were 16 – 13 on Vertigo and 19 – 17 on Inferno. On both maps, one of the teams had to make a comeback after a 4 – 8 first half. The favorite was supposed to be SAW but the French squad proved to be just a bit better.

Group B Results

🐝 > 🦈 #VITWIN

GGWP @sharksesportsgg pic.twitter.com/FIbr5f7D13

— Team Vitality 🐝 (@TeamVitality) April 23, 2024

In group B of ESL Pro League S19, there were no upsets on day 1. Team Vitality defeated Sharks Esports (2 – 0) while BetBoom Team managed to beat M80 (2 – 1). However, both matches were challenging for both sides.

Vitality lost the first half of the first map 3 – 9 and won 13 – 11 only because of their great teamwork. On the second map, the battle was one-sided (13 – 3). Spinx had a rating 2.0 of 2.21 on this map with a KD score of 21 – 4, which reminded everyone of donk.

For BetBoom, the first map went well and they won 5 – 13. But then they lost the second map 13 – 1 and their morale was close to zero. However, they ended up winning 11 – 13. Overall, their entire roster finished the match with negative scores. Only s1ren had a neutral score: 36 – 36.

Day 2 Predictions

“Returning to Astralis, I’m bringing back the importance of standing on my own two feet and taking responsibility for my contributions,” says @br0CSGO 💪

Having proven his worth in a challenging, high-level international environment, it’s now time for the former Talent player to… pic.twitter.com/ZQbzC412mF

— Astralis Counter-Strike (@AstralisCS) April 24, 2024

Day 2 of ESL Pro League S19 features plenty of hyped matches. The most important ones will be these:

• Team Falcons vs. The MongolZ
• TYLOO vs. G2 Esports
• FaZe Clan vs. Astralis

The first match will be a real challenge for Falcons because MongolZ have already proved their strength at PGL Major Copenhagen, where they qualified for the second stage of the tournament. This makes them a top-16 team in CS2.

Several days ago, in an interview with maden, he told me that his team played well over the past month or so in training sessions, getting lots of good results. This is encouraging and should allow Falcons to win this match. They have formidable players like SunPayus and dupreeh, so there’s no reason for them to fail with a coach like zonic.

But, as many players have come to believe, the skill difference between the teams is very small these days. And we had confirmation of that on day 1, when many of the top teams struggled to win against supposedly much weaker competitors.

A score of 2 – 1 in this match is the most likely outcome.

G2 shouldn’t have any problems against TYLOO. In a worst case scenario, they will lose one map. But losing a best-of-three in their current form against an Asian opponent is unlikely. Both NiKo and m0NESY played incredibly well at PGL Major Copenhagen, and both of them are in the top 5 globally at the individual level. Their synergy will be hard to defeat.

FaZe Clan and Astralis met each other twice at the recent IEM Chengdu. The first match was won quite easily by Astralis, while the second match was won by FaZe. Either team could win and the odds are almost 50-50.

Header: ESL