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paiN Gaming and Grayhound surprise and advance to Mid Bracket final in ESL Pro League S17

The thrills of the ESL Pro League S17 continue, and after three days of competition, we have had some... Eduardo | 11. March 2023

The thrills of the ESL Pro League S17 continue, and after three days of competition, we have had some delightful surprises so far. paiN Gaming and Grayhound advanced to the Mid Bracket final after defeating OG and NiP, respectively.

Let’s remember that OG and NiP were the other two teams that were set to advance to the ESL Pro League S17 playoffs from Group C. Now, in the next few hours, paiN Gaming and Grayhound will fight for the third playoff spot when they meet in the Mid Bracket grand final.

paiN Gaming sends OG Esports to the Lower Bracket

Brazil’s paiN Gaming managed to show a spectacular level of play in the semifinals of the EPL S17 Mid Bracket after defeating OG Esports by a score of 2-1.

The series was played in Vertigo (paiN), Overpass (OG), and Inferno (Decisivo). We undoubtedly had a spectacular series, and South Americans and Europeans gave their all in every round played.

Vertigo

In Vertigo, it all started spectacularly well for the paiN boys, as they managed to win the first half 11-4 on the T side to show why they had been selected as the first map. Likewise, OG Esports’ response was not long in coming, and they managed to put the score 14-15 at some point in the match. Finally, however, in a 2v2 in round 30, paiN managed to take the victory and thus close an exciting map with a score of 16-14.

Overpass

Now we travel to Overpass, where we were all surprised that paiN had not banned this map because of how strong the OG guys had proven to be. Despite this, OG won eight of the first 11 rounds of the CT side that were contested to ensure they went ahead on the scoreboard in the first half, which ended with a tight 8-7 score.

Switching sides, OG Esports proved that they are really strong on this map and gave the Brazilians a thrashing by winning nine consecutive rounds to take the victory 16-8. In this match, three OG players finished with over 90 ADR and a rating above 1.35.

Inferno

Finally, the series ended in a true clash of titans in Inferno, where both teams performed spectacularly. Still, the Brazilians had the grit and determination to take the victory.

paiN Gaming once again proved how strong their T-side is on the maps by winning eight of the first 11 rounds. But, unlike in Overpass, the team managed to walk away with a 3-round lead at the turnaround. Felipe “skullz” Medeiros wreaked havoc with the OG defense and finished the first half with 110.3 ADR and a 1.69 Rating.

In the changeover, we saw one of the most exciting halves in ESL Pro League S17. OG applied the same formula as the Brazilians winning eight of the first 11 rounds to take a 14-12 lead. After that, however, paiN Gaming woke up and won the last four rounds to take the victory 16-14.

Grayhound surprises everyone and beats NiP

The surprises continued in the second match of the day when the Australians from Grayhound defeated the historic NiP team with an excellent 2-1 win. Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke and Daniil “headtr1ck” Valitov did everything they could for NiP to take the victory, but the spectacular collective work of the Australians prevented it completely.

The Mid Bracket semifinal between Grayhound and NiP took place on Ancient (Grayhound), Vertigo (NiP), and Mirage (decisive).

Ancient

NiP started the series with a devastating pace and managed to crush the Australians in Ancient, making us think that it would only be a matter of time for the Ninjas to win. However, the victory on this first map was violent and extremely fast, as it ended with a score of 16-2 in favor of NiP.

Vertigo

In Vertigo, things changed completely, as Grayhound showed that they practiced this map perfectly and managed to even the series 1-1. Declan “Vexite” Portelli had a spectacular CT side preventing NiP from quickly getting into either Site, and led his team to an 11-4 partial victory.

In the change of side, NiP tried to react by winning five of the first six rounds, but this was not enough, and with spectacular collective work and with some trades made to perfection, the Australians managed to take the victory 16-9 and send the match to the third map.

Mirage

In Mirage, we had a close match where both teams played, trying to avoid making mistakes that could harm the final result. With an extraordinary 8-7 with NiP on the T side, we would arrive at the exchange with many expectations, but everything pointed to NiP could take the victory.

NiP bounced back after losing the pistol round and won three consecutive rounds to take an 11-8 lead. However, round 24 had an outcome that undoubtedly ended all of NiP’s aspirations. Vexite was left in a 1v2 situation with less than 10 seconds to play against headtr1ck and Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin. He then managed to make a quick kill against headtr1ck, who was coming for “connector” with his AWP, and then, with only 2 seconds on the timer, got the drop on Brollan to win the round.

This round hit NiP hard, and of that, there is no doubt. However, round 26 was even worse for the Europeans, as Jay “Liazz” Tregillgas, who had a great awakening, won a 1v3 round that dealt the final blow to NiP.

With this, the Australian team took the victory 16-12 and will play the pass to the ESL Pro League S17 playoffs against paiN Gaming.

Header: ESL