ESL Pro League Week 4 Recap

ESL Pro League Season 3 had a one week break due to IEM Katowice 2016, where fnatic emerged victorious, and it continued from where it left off with a busy schedule. Astralis picked up de_mirage and de_dust2 against MOUZ to kick things off, with René "⁠cajunb⁠" Borg having a stellar performance on the second map as he finished with a 29:2 score and a 2.53 rating.

FaZe went up against Ninjas in Pyjamas but the European mixture had one issue after another, starting with Joakim "⁠jkaem⁠" Myrbostad dropping out after nine rounds. Robert "⁠RobbaN⁠" Dahlström stepped in for only three rounds before also experiencing problems due to DDoS. The rest of the first map was played 4v5, and Ninjas in Pyjamas won it 16-7. FaZe's manager Zebastian "⁠zbM⁠" Molinder stepped in on the second map but the Ninjas secured it 16-9.

Ninjas in Pyjamas carried over that good form to their subsequent two maps against Virtus.pro, defeating them 16-2 on de_cache and 16-11 on de_overpass. A French derby followed as G2 faced Envy, who recently added Timothée "⁠DEVIL⁠" Démolon to their roster to replace Fabien "⁠kioShiMa⁠" Fiey. Kévin "⁠Ex6TenZ⁠" Droolans & company came on top on both maps, with DEVIL struggling to make an impact with a 22:43 score. Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon, on the other hand, had a 53:33 score and helped to bring home the victory.

Envy bounced back with two wins against FlipSid3 and Natus Vincere overcame FaZe on both maps with Denis "⁠seized⁠" Kostin's monster 40:20 score performance on the first map which went to overtime. Kenny "⁠kennyS⁠" Schrub's strong showing against Astralis was enough only to get his team de_inferno, with the Danes picking up de_train.

Virtus.pro got their second win of the season against G2 on de_train despite Adil "⁠ScreaM⁠" Benrlitom picking up 30 kills. The storyline was different on de_overpass, where all G2 players had a positive K/D Difference and a rating higher than 1.13. FaZe vs. SK on de_cache was one of the highlight matches of the week as it went to triple overtime and Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard had 49 kills. Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif's 42 kills helped SK take this map but the Danes were demolished on the second one, losing 3-16.

SK extended their losing streak to three, coming up short against Astralis and losing 7-16 and 5-16 as they could not stop Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz, who had a 40:19 score across both maps. G2's two map triumphs boosted them higher in the rankings and marked FlipSid3's sixth loss in a row. The week in the European division ended with fnatic and MOUZ exchanging maps.

European division standings

Across the Atlantic Ocean Renegades beat Winterfox in humiliating fashion on two maps with Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage and Yaman "⁠yam⁠" Ergenekon going ham as they averaged 1.70 and 1.76 ratings respectively in this matchup. AGG tried to get their first win against Splyce but Andrew "⁠Professor_Chaos⁠" Heintz took charge with a 47:27 score in total and swept AGG.

The undefeated leader of the NA division, OpTic, took down Cloud9 thanks to William "⁠RUSH⁠" Wierzba and Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz's 1.30+ rating performances on both maps. Luminosity secured de_overpass against Winterfox with Fernando "⁠fer⁠" Alvarenga's 31:15 score but suffered one of the biggest upsets of the season on the second map, de_train, as they were beat 3-16.

The following match day saw the Brazilians of Luminosity smash NRG on two maps, led by Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David's 1.62 average rating. NRG played against Complexity in the same day and almost blew a 14-1 advantage on de_cache but closed it out 16-13 with Samuel "⁠SileNt⁠" Portillo's 37:21 score. They got the second map with the same score, and this time Peter "⁠ptr⁠" Gurney showed up with a 1.66 rating. They continued playing a day later, beating AGG and getting their fourth consecutive win.

After a close overtime win on de_overpass Cloud9 finished off Complexity 16-2 on the second map as Jake "⁠Stewie2K⁠" Yip had his best showing under Cloud9 with a 27:5 score. Josh "⁠shinobi⁠" Abastado, on the other hand, posted the second worst rating of his career on the second map (0.14).

OpTic and Renegades clashed on two maps in a match between two table-toppers, and it ended up with the teams getting one map apiece. This marked the first loss for OpTic this season. stanislaw shined on his teams' next two maps against Complexity with a 55:28 score and an average of 1.66 rating and made sure OpTic held on to the first spot in the NA division for another week. Renegades continued to follow OpTic though, as the Aussies beat AGG and secured second place.

Last match of the week brought Selfless and Cloud9 together. Stewie2K and Ryan "⁠freakazoid⁠" Abadir pushed their team to victory on de_train but Mitch "⁠mitch⁠" Semago stepped up in a huge manner and helped his team grab de_cache 16-4 with a 2.56 rating and a 33:8 score.

North American division standings

Player of the week:  René "⁠cajunb⁠" Borg

cajunb played six maps this week, four of which were against top 10 teams. He averaged a 1.36 rating. His K-D difference was +49 and he had the fourth lowest death per round value (0.56 DPR). On the second map of their match against MOUZ, he had one of the most insane performances of the year so far with 29 kills and 2 deaths.

Team of the week: Astralis

The Danes finished the week in the first place with 33 points and took huge steps to get closer to a spot at the ESL Pro League Finals. They crushed their fellow countrymen SK and did the same to MOUZ. They only lost one map to Envy and finished the week with five wins and a single loss.

What to look forward to next week:

Mar. 16 -	fnatic	vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas
Mar. 18 -	Renegades	vs. Liquid
Mar. 18 -	Cloud9	vs. Luminosity
Mar. 20 -	Envy	vs. Natus Vincere

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