FaZe, NiP, OG, and Team Vitality win on first day of ESL Pro League S17 Group C

The actions in Group C of the ESL Pro League S17 have already started, and with the first day of competition, we could see how the favorite teams took a step forward and took comfortable victories.

FaZe Clan, NiP, OG Esports, and Team Vitality won their respective series 2-0 to advance to the semifinals of the tournament’s Upper Bracket. Thus, we will have the top two teams qualified for the EPL S17 playoffs later today when the next matches are played:

• FaZe Clan vs. NiP
• OG Esports vs. Team Vitality

FaZe crushes Rooster without a hitch

FaZe Clan wants to return to the top in the CS:GO competitive scene, which was taken away from them at the end of 2022. After all, this winning FaZe lineup has the experience to do so, and they began to prove it in the first match of this Group C against Rooster.

The series was played on Nuke (Rooster) and Inferno (FaZe Clan), as the decisive map, Overpass, did not need to be played due to FaZe’s thrashing of the Australian side.

In Nuke, FaZe started with all their might, giving themselves respect on the CT side, achieving a flawless victory in the first half, 11-4. They started the second half in the same way, winning four consecutive rounds to put them 15-4 on the scoreboard and just one win away from securing the first map of the series. Finally, the victory was sealed with a 16-6, a spectacular Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken with 107.1 ADR and a Rating of 1.72. Additionally, we have to highlight Håvard “rain” Nygaard, who had 119.7 ADR and a 170 Rating.

In Inferno, the story started differently than in Nuke but ended with an identical outcome. The Australian side tightened the screws and won seven rounds on the T-side, which, in theory, is an excellent marker for what this map is all about. However, FaZe Clan proved that their T-side is very powerful and lethal, as they managed to win the first eight rounds to catapult the Aussies with a 16-7 win.

NiP suffers but manages to advance to the next round

NiP was surprised in this first match of Group C of the ESL Pro League S17 by Brazilians paiN Gaming. Although the final score was 2-0, the Brazilians fought tremendously and came close to winning both maps.

The series was played on Nuke (paiN) and Vertigo (NiP), as the third and decisive map, Mirage, did not need to be played.

In Nuke, the teams gave us a very intense first half, which ended with a 9-6 in favor of NiP thanks to excellent plays by Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen. In the second half, NiP started with three consecutive victories, and we all thought it would be the end of the Brazilians. But, no one was counting on a spectacular reaction from paiN, who managed to win seven consecutive rounds to take a 13-12 lead. However, Fredrik “REZ” Sterner put on his hero’s cape and managed to lead NiP to victory with a score of 16-13.

In Vertigo, we experienced an identical story because, in addition to the match ending with the same final score (16-13) and halves (6-9:7-7), paiN Gaming tried to pull off a surprise again at the end of the map. Even so, NiP only had to win one round to take the map, and they did it.

For NiP, Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin and REZ shined, who finished with 1.88 and 1.27 Ratings, respectively.

00 Nation lost out to OG Esports

After an intense first map that had to be defined in two rounds of Overtime, OG Esports managed to defeat the Brazilians of 00 Nation with a score of 2-0 to advance to the semifinals of the Upper Bracket.

The series was played on Ancient (00 Nation) and Mirage (OG), as the third and decisive map, Inferno, did not need to be played.

OG started with an exceptional TC play on Ancient, overpowering the Brazilians to take a 10-5 victory in the first half. However, 00 Nation showed why this was their map selection and managed to come from behind to send the game into Overtime.

After two rounds of Overtime and a spectacular performance by Israeli Shahar “flameZ” Shushan, OG managed to take the win 22-12 to move ahead in the series. Unlike flameZ, Marcelo “coldzera” David had a map to forget, as he finished with 65.1 ADR and 0.85 Rating, the lowest on the server.

In Mirage, things were completely different. OG Esports started with a 13-2 first-half victory on the T-side, which undoubtedly affected the morale of the Brazilian team. As a result, OG had no problem taking the victory in this second map with a great 16-6, which featured Adam “NEOFRAG” Zouhar with 113.7 ADR and a 1.72 Rating.

Team Vitality crushes Grayhound and reaffirms their status as favorites

The French team managed to crush Grayhound in such a way that we see two of the fastest maps so far in ESL Pro League S17. There is no doubt that Team Vitality is a far superior team to the Australians, but we expected a bit more resistance from the Oceanic side.

Team Vitality won 16-4 (Inferno) and 16-5 (Vertigo) to take a comfortable and quick victory in their first ESL Pro League S17 group stage match.

Header: ESL