ESL Pro League Week 8 Recap

After DreamHack Masters Malmö, where Ninjas in Pyjamas triumphed to take home $100,000, ESL Pro League continued with 40 matches. As it stands, all the teams have two matches left which are going to be played in the last week and the top 4 squads from each group will qualify for the LAN finals.

The European division's first match saw MOUZ play against Envy. Vincent "⁠Happy⁠" Schopenhauer's 38:29 score and 113 ADR on Inferno did not suffice as MOUZ got an overtime victory with a 22-19 final score. Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač led the way as usual and had an ace on the CT-side. Cache was easier for MOUZ as they won it 16-8.

Later in the week MOUZ played Virtus.pro who are dead last in the standings. The first map (Cache) was a slaughter as it ended with 16-5 score but Virtus.pro recovered on Train to take it 19-15 in overtime. The veterean Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas was 30:18 and had a 1.38 rating in his team's third victory of the season.

fnatic, who are using Niclas "⁠PlesseN⁠" Plessen while Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer is recovering from his injury, faced Natus Vincere and they exchanged map victories. Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist was the star on Overpass as he had a 29:15 score, a 1.63 rating, and even a vintage 1v4 clutch to lead his team to a 16-11 win. Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev emerged on Cobblestone and his 28:18 KD and 1.36 rating paved the way for the 16-13 victory.

FaZe lost a 11-4 advantage on Dust2 against Astralis and lost the first map 12-16. Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz put up monstrous numbers, including a 114 ADR and a 1.36 rating. Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen took the stage on Inferno as helped his team win 16-9 with a 1.73 rating.

FaZe played six more matches this week, two of them being upsets against fnatic. Philip "⁠aizy⁠" Aistrup's 1.39 average rating in their series against the Swedes helped FaZe win 16-6 on Train and 16-10 on Inferno. They got two more wins against FlipSid3 and managed to get one victory off of Dignitas. FaZe ended the week with five wins and three losses.

Natus Vincere traded maps for the second time this week, hurting themselves in the top four race. flamie posted a 1.70 rating on Train and Natus Vincere secured the map but could not prevent a loss on Cobblestone (8-16).

Natus Vincere played their last two maps against G2. The CIS team won Train in overtime despite Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon's 37:24 score but G2 answered back with a 16-3 win on Overpass. Adil "⁠ScreaM⁠" Benrlitom had a 29:9 score, a 145.7 ADR, and a 2.38 rating as he wrecked Natus Vincere.

Ninjas in Pyjamas guaranteed themselves the first place in their division after this week's results. Ninjas in Pyjamas only played two matches this week and beat Envy in both of them. Christopher "⁠GeT_RiGhT⁠" Alesund went absolutely mad and slaughtered the Frenchmen with a 56:23 score and a 1.88 rating in two maps.

EU division standings

Splyce kicked off the action in North America against NRG and they each got a map win. Splyce won Overpass 16-11 but lost Train 10-16. Justin "⁠just9n⁠" Ortiz had a 46:35 score and led his team in terms of ratings on both maps. Shahzeb "⁠ShahZaM⁠" Khan, on the other hand, was standing in but he was Splyce's best player with an average of 1.19 rating.

KKona played six matches this week and won a grand total of zero of them. The squad who are at the bottom of the North American division lost two maps each to CLG, Winterfox, and Liquid. They played 4v5 in their matches against Liquid and lost 1-16 on both maps.

Before this match-week, CLG had already been ruled out of top four as they couldn't attain enough points and they lost all four of their matches in the eighth week. They first played Splyce, losing Cobblestone 8-16 as Jason "⁠jasonR⁠" Ruchelski had a 111.6 ADR and a 1.36 rating. It was closer on Train but Splyce were able to close it out with a 16-13 score.

CLG's second opponents were OpTic who are fighting for a spot in the top four. With the addition of Oscar "⁠mixwell⁠" Cañellas, OpTic ran through CLG as both maps finished with a 16-7 score. mixwell's 1.64 rating on the first map and William "⁠RUSH⁠" Wierzba's 25:11 score and 1.61 rating on the second map were the factors that helped OpTic finish the week in the second place.

The major champions Luminosity put on a strong performance against the Aussies of Renegades. Train was no challenge for the Brazilians as they won it 16-3 and then cleaned up Inferno to win it 16-13, guaranteeing themselves a spot at the LAN finals.

Cloud9 was and still is another team that is fighting to qualify. Their victory on Cobblestone and Overpass against Splyce was a huge step for them. Tyler "⁠Skadoodle⁠" Latham averaged a 1.41 rating in this series. Cloud9 will play KKona in their last two matches and if they manage to secure those maps, they will be going to the LAN finals.

Liquid and Selfless traded maps to end the week and they are currently tied but Liquid is ahead thanks to their higher round difference. Although they are equal in points, Selfless's chances of qualifying are rather slim because they will be playing against Luminosity. Liquid, on the other hand, will face Splyce who have no chance to qualify.

NA division standings

Player of the Week: Christopher "⁠GeT_RiGhT⁠" Alesund

GeT_RiGhT played only two matches this week but his performance was awe-inspiring. The Swedish player was leading many categories as he averaged a 1.88 rating, had a 119.8 average damage per round, and got 1.24 kills per round.

Team of the Week: Ninjas in Pyjamas

With the lack of good performances in this match-week, Ninjas in Pyjamas earned the Team of the Week award as they also locked up the number one seed in the European division. Envy could not stop the Swedes in either of the matches they played and the Ninjas looked solid as they picked up two wins with 16-10 and 16-3 scores.

Farewells so far (i.e. Teams that have no chance to qualify for the LAN finals):

EU Division	NA Division
Virtus.pro	KKona
MOUZ	CLG
SK	Winterfox
FlipSid3	Complexity
Dignitas	Splyce
FaZe
Envy

What to look forward to in the upcoming match-week:

April 26	Natus Vincere	vs. MOUZ
April 26	G2	vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas
April 26	Astralis	vs. fnatic
April 27	Splyce	vs. Liquid
April 27	Selfless	vs. Luminosity
April 27	OpTic	vs. NRG
April 27	Renegades	vs. Complexity

You can find the demos or the VODs of all the matches that have been played so far and you can also go to our stats page to see who's been performing the best in the third season of the ESL Pro League.

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