Group A of ESL Pro League Season 14 didn’t end well for Astralis. The Danish team was eliminated, along with Team Spirit and Bad News Bears. But Group B looked like a walk in the park for the favorites. Both G2 Esports and Virtus.pro were, on paper, much stronger than everyone else. So it was impossible to foresee that on the first competitive day, all three matches would end up in disaster for the favorite teams.
ESL Pro League Season 14 Group B Partial Results
On day 1 of Group B, 3 matches were played.
G2 versus Sinners
G2 is currently ranked 3rd globally and finished 2nd at the recent IEM Cologne. Compared to them, Sinners (23rd) is a no-name. However, the Czech squad proved to be incredibly strong on the server. No doubt, the presence of veterans like oskar helped a lot. But the entire roster played a type of Counter-Strike that we normally associate with the top teams. Clean executes, great individual performances, and amazing clutches. The decision-making was off-the-charts. And it clearly caught G2 off-guard.
The first map was Vertigo. I really don’t understand why G2 left it in the pool, given that it’s their weakest map by far and Sinners’ strongest! This was a clear tactical error and it ended up costing G2 the match.
The second map was Inferno, G2’s strongest and Sinners’ weakest. Needless to say, the French squad won relatively easily.
The third map was one of both teams’ favorite: Mirage. All things considered, G2 should have won without too many problems. But oskar and SHOCK played incredibly well, securing most of the key rounds.
Hopefully, G2 will learn something from this defeat and come back stronger. I’m pretty sure it stings though. The players’ morale is likely to remain low for a few more days because of what happened here.
Virtus.pro versus OG
Virtus.pro entered this match as the clear favorite. Being ranked 5th globally and having a strong roster, the only possible result seemed to be a victory in their favor. After all, OG hadn’t done anything significant in a long time and was only ranked 14th.
Just like G2, VP made a huge tactical error by not banning its weakest map first. OG took advantage of the situation and picked it. The battle that took place on Mirage clearly showed how important maps are in CS:GO. The strength of a team is not universal but map-dependant. If a theoretically weaker team plays on one of its strongest maps against a stronger opponent, things can go very wrong for the stronger side if they don’t like that map at all.
VP had a win rate of 22% on Mirage (2 W – 7 L). OG had a win rate of 67% (6 W – 3 L). The final score was 11 – 16 in favor of OG.
The second map was picked by VP, so the expectation was that the CIS team had prepared some great strategies against OG. Otherwise why pick it? After all, VP’s win rate on this map was below 50%. In the end, the score was absolutely shocking: 6 – 16 in favor of OG. This was the second upset for the day.
Complexity versus forZe
The third match took place between two teams of similar rank (16th and 18th), but Complexity was still perceived as the considerably stronger side.
forZe picked Mirage, a map on which they had a huge win rate of 88%. Complexity couldn’t ban it because they had to ban Inferno, a map they simply never play. This situation clearly proved just how bad it can be to have to ban a map that you’re incompetent on instead of being able to ban a map that your opponent is extremely good on.
Complexity then picked Nuke, which is one of their strongest maps and forZe’s weakest. As you might imagine, forZe won on Mirage and Complexity won on Nuke. Ancient was the only map left and the match could have gone either way. However, thanks to a dominant T-side, forZe won 16 – 6, causing the 3rd upset of the day.
What’s Next
During the next 4 competitive days of ESL Pro League Season 14, we will get to find out if these initial results were flukes or if the favorites really are out of shape. Based on what I saw, I expect at least one of the underdogs to steal the spot of one of the 3 favorites. In particular, Sinners look quite capable of doing that. After their victory against G2, I’m pretty sure they’ll win against forZe as well. In total, they would need around 3 victories to secure a top 3 spot. And that’s perfectly doable.
Complexity seems doomed at this point, while G2 and VP are likely to recover after their day 1 disaster.
Photo credit: IEM|Sarah-Cooper
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