ESL Pro League Week 2 Recap

Valve's new update to the game brought with it a set of problems and bugs which led to some of the matches being rescheduled, meaning not all the matches were played on week two. As a result, MOUZ and Winterfox still have not made their debuts while six teams have played six or more matches.

Inconveniences aside, it has been an intriguing week with shocking results in both regions. To kick things off, fnatic faced G2 and utterly destroyed the Frenchmen with 16-5 and 16-7 scores on de_cbble and de_inferno respectively. Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist led his team with a 1.58 rating and a 46-23 K/D. The first map was Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon's second worst rating (0.20) in our records. His worst rating was 0.14 back in December when his team lost 2-16 to LDLC White.

Virtus.pro's lousy opening week got even worse when they lost on both maps to Dignitas as Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski continued to struggle with a 0.66 rating on average. The Danish team's star Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke contributed to the win with 57 kills.

Astralis easily defeated FlipSid3 16-7 on both maps as Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz took control and posted a 1.85 rating. fnatic took down Envy on the following match with a shocking 16-4 scoreline but the Frenchmen, undaunted, came right back with a victory of their own on de_cache (16-5). It was an interesting showing between two of the favorites to win the tournament as they both showed off what they are capable of when they get on a roll.

Virtus.pro's loss to Natus Vincere on both maps meant they were 0-8 this season. Last season, the third and fourth qualified teams on the European division had 14 wins and eight losses. It is pretty clear now that VP will not be able to advance to the LAN finals if a miracle does not occur. Ninjas in Pyjamas played their first match against Dignitas and looked a little shaky at first, but managed to close out both of the maps 16-8.

EU division standings

The North American division featured only eight matches this week, starting with Luminosity having a walk in the park against complexity as Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David put on an insane show with a 48-22 K/D. Complexity's veteran player Danny "⁠fRoD⁠" Montaner experienced a rough evening against the Brazilans along with the team’s newest addition Rory "⁠dephh⁠" Jackson.

OpTic went up against Splyce and cruised to the smooth victory on both maps with the help of William "⁠RUSH⁠" Wierzba who averaged a 1.76 rating. Renegades' easy win on both maps against CLG put them in the third position (16-5 on de_dust2 and 16-6 on de_inferno). The week ended in the NA division with Enemy and Complexity exchanging maps.

NA division standings

Player of the week: Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz

Astralis have only played two maps against FlipSid3 but the lack of great performances against good teams meant device is our player of the week. He averaged a 1.85 rating and +30 K/D differential. His form carried into the ESL Barcelona CS:GO Invitational presented by Mobile World Congress where he had a 1.23 rating and where his team came second behind fnatic.

Team of the week:  fnatic

It shouldn't come off as suprise to many to see fnatic getting another achievement. After going 3-1 this week on EPL, they went on to win the ESL Barcelona Invitational. With the addition of Dennis "⁠dennis⁠" Edman, they have five guys that can go nuclear at all times and this is reflected in their results. They have a +32 round differential and are leading the European division in this category.

What to look forward next week:

Feb. 23	EnVyUs	vs. Virtus.pro
Feb. 23	mousesports	vs. NiP
Feb. 24	Null element Na`Vi	vs. NiP
Feb. 24	SK	vs. fnatic

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