ESL Pro League Week 5 Recap

After a long fourth week in the ESL Pro League Season 3, the action took up 1where it left off as the same amount of games was played in this week as well. The first map featured Natus Vincere and Dignitas facing off as the CIS team grabbed de_mirage 16-14 with Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács' 30:19 score. Things fell apart for the Danes on de_overpass as they lost 3-16. All the Natus Vincere players had more than a 1.19 rating.

Next game brought SK and G2 together. Kévin "⁠Ex6TenZ⁠" Droolans' throwback performance on de_train combined with every G2 player having a 1.26+ rating assured the victory. On the second map (de_cache) Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon took the stage with his 33:14 score and 1.77 rating as his sidekick Cédric "⁠RpK⁠" Guipouy a.k.a. "The Tank" contributed in the 16-13 victory with a 27:20 score.

G2 faced another Danish team Dignitas in their next matchup as de_inferno went the way of G2 (16-6) with shox once again showing up, this time with a 28:11 score and a 1.95 rating. Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke's effort (28-15) on de_overpass ensured a 16-10 victory for the Danes as Ex6TenZ' 30:20 score did not prove to be sufficient.

The Swedish rivalry between Ninjas in Pyjamas and fnatic followed as Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg & company picked up the first map 16-6. The tables turned on de_inferno, fnatic's main domain, as Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson's 23:12 score was enough to give them a 16-10 victory.

FaZe's first games this week was against G2 on de_dust2 and de_cache. The first one ended up 16-13 in favor of G2 with shox's 25:19 score. Mikail "⁠Maikelele⁠" Bill's 29:20 and Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard's 25:20 could not stop the French-Belgian team. Adil "⁠ScreaM⁠" Benrlitom went beast mode on the second map with a 30:16 score and a 1.75 rating as his team got the three points with a 16-10 scoreline.

The monster that is Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač was unleashed on de_mirage against SK in the 16-8 victory for MOUZ as he posted huge stats including a 1.88 rating and a 27:10 score. The Bosnian player's 23:21 score on de_cbble did not prevent the Danes from picking up the second map 16-11 as Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif had a 1.41 rating.

NiKo’s supreme reign continued against FaZe as mouz won both maps and he had a 67:35 score in total and averaged a 1.66 rating. Then, mouz went on to face FlipSid3 and came up short on both maps as the Ukranian team got their first wins of the season.

fnatic demolished Dignitas 16-6 on de_train with Dennis "⁠dennis⁠" Edman's 25:11 score and Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell's 22:11. de_ovepass was similar to the first map as fnatic grabbed it 16-5 thanks to everyone on the team having more than a 1.15 rating. Another Danish team that fell to a Swedish one was SK who lost 8-16 on de_cache to Ninjas in Pyjamas and 16-19 on de_mirage.

Natus Vincere closed out Envy on both maps to get the six points with Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev and GuardiaN carrying the load. The last match of the European division saw Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz posting a 60:24 score against Dignitas as Astralis secured both of the maps.

European division standings

OpTic who are the leaders of the North American division played their only two maps at the start of the week against Winterfox. It went well for OpTic on de_inferno as they won 16-5 with Damian "⁠daps⁠" Steele's 23:13 score but Winterfox upset the leaders on de_mirage as they earned three points with 16-6 triumph. Following this match, Complexity and Splyce exchanged maps.

Cloud9's successful week started against Renegades as Aaron "⁠AZR⁠" Ward's 36:25 score wasn't enough to prevent the Americans from taking de_train. Jordan "⁠n0thing⁠" Gilbert & co. got the second map as well to acquire the six points while CLG got their six points against Complexity as Josh "⁠jdm64⁠" Marzano led the way.

The Aussies of Renegades took on Liquid and won de_mirage 16-11 with AZR's 26:15 score. Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev and Kenneth "⁠koosta⁠" Suen made their presence known on the second map (de_dust2) as they had 1.91 and 1.44 ratings respectively.

One of the biggest games of the week in the NA division was between Luminosity and Cloud9 and the battle commenced on de_overpass. Tyler "⁠Skadoodle⁠" Latham helped his team get the first three points with a 30:17 score as Cloud9 secured the map 16-13. It was all about Luminosity on the second map though as four players had more than a 1.20 rating and the Brazilians finished it off 16-7.

Winterfox had another upset, this time against Liquid on de_overpass. The first map was no big deal for the Liquid players as all of them had more than a 1.00 rating. With Derek "⁠desi⁠" Branchen showing up on de_overpass (31:18), Winterfox picked up three points as Liquid lost their sixth match out of their ten played games.

CLG suffered their sixth and seventh losses against Luminosity and put themselves in a really poor situation in the league. Tarik "⁠tarik⁠" Celik & co. faced Liquid in their next matchup, another struggling team. Liquid got de_cbble 16-5 and went on to win the second map in double overtime. With these results, CLG have nine losses and only three wins which puts them in the tenth place and although they still have a really slim chance to reach the top four, it would be a miracle to see them advance to the LAN finals.

Selfless secured six points against Splyce after beating them on de_inferno (16-5) where Michael "⁠Uber⁠" Stapells had an astonishing ace and de_cache (16-11). Selfless also managed to get one map off of Winterfox and had a fairly satisfying week for themselves.

In the last match of the week, Luminosity defeated Splyce to reach the number one spot in the North American division. Fernando "⁠fer⁠" Alvarenga had a 56:31 score on two maps and averaged a 1.52 rating.

North American division standings

Player of the Week: Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon

The Frenchman was in his best form in 2016 as he helped his team win five of the six maps with a 1.44 rating, most by any player this week. He had 0.92 kills per round and 0.56 deaths per round, the third most and the third least respectively. shox survived, had a kill or had an assist in 73.2% percent of the rounds and won six clutches, most in the leage in both divisions.

Team of the Week: G2

Ex6TenZ's team collected 15 points this week and only lost one of their games which was against Dignitas. They swept both SK and FaZe. They are currently in the third spot but they have played more matches than anyone in their division. They definitely put themselves in the conversation for the top four thanks to their showing this week but they will have to win a majority of their remaining six matches. Their next match will be against Natus Vincere, who are trailing the Frenchmen and this match will set the tone for G2's claim on the top four spots.

What to look forward to next week:

March 22	MOUZ	vs. Dignitas
March 23	Astralis	vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas
March 24	Cloud9	vs. Winterfox

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