ELEAGUE Group E recap

Group E featured the buffed North Americans Echo Fox, MOUZ which we might as well call NiKosports, the group favorites Natus Vincere and Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy's FlipSid3 who keep pulling off upsets even in 2016 as they proved it by qualifying for ESL One Cologne 2016.

Natus Vincere had a shaky group stage, getting upset twice in their matches. After they beat Echo Fox 16-6 on Train, Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács & company lost 11-16 on Dust2 as Shahzeb "⁠ShahZaM⁠" Khan & Daniel "⁠roca⁠" Gustaferri each posted ratings more than 1.19.

Natus Vincere witnessed a rare sight in their subsequent match as all MOUZ players performed and beat Natus Vincere 16-6 on Mirage. Things went back to normal on Cobblestone, though, as MOUZ players not named Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač disappeared off the face of the earth and GuardiaN's 29:13 score earned his team the match with a 16-6 scoreline.

Natus Vincere got their third and fourth wins against FlipSid3 as the former beat the latter 16-8 on Overpass and 16-6 on Train. Denis "⁠seized⁠" Kostin caught the eye in these ones as he had a total of a 43:24 score and a 1.43 rating.

MOUZ, on the other hand, also ended up having four wins but got the second seed. They traded match victories with FlipSid3 as the German team grabbed Train in overtime despite Yegor "⁠markeloff⁠" Markelov exploding with a 35:24 score and FlipSid3 picked up Cobblestone thanks to Georgi "⁠WorldEdit⁠" Yaskin's 27:10 performance.

After winning Cobblestone against Echo Fox, NiKo's team came back from a 4-11 deficit on Train and secured it 16-13. Timo "⁠Spiidi⁠" Richter averaged a 1.37 rating against Echo Fox and was his team's best player during these two matches.

Last two matches of the group were between Echo Fox and FlipSid3. ShahZaM's 24:13 score on Nuke gave a 16-5 victory to Echo Fox but WorldEdit went nuclear, blew up, exploded, went mad, and single-handedly killed Echo Fox with a 3.42 rating, a +31 kill-death differential, a 170.7 ADR and a 37:6 score as his team won 16-2 and secure the third seed.

Natus Vincere faced Echo Fox in their semi-final best-of-three series and won it 2-0, allowing their opponents to get only 13 rounds. Ioann "⁠Edward⁠" Sukhariev led all players with a 1.61 rating while Sean "⁠seang@res⁠" Gares who had a 14:38 score was invisible.

The other semi-final ended with the same score (2-0) as FlipSid3 ran away in the first half in each map (13-2 on Overpass and 11-4 on Cache). All FlipSid3 players had at least a 1.00 rating while the German trio of MOUZ, Johannes "⁠nex⁠" Maget, Spiidi, and Denis "⁠denis⁠" Howell, averaged a 0.68 rating.

WorldEdit tried to win the first map of the grand final against Natus Vincere on his own as he posted a 32:16 score and a 1.67 rating but he came up short as his team couldn't support him enough and Natus Vincere took it 16-13.

Mirage where Edward had a 2.39 score and a 27:5 score hosted a brutal beatdown which ended with a 16-2 victory for Natus Vincere who won the group with the said result.

Group E MVP: Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács

The Slovakian player dominated in every category this week, earning his team the group victory. He led all players in his group with a 1.26 rating and his deaths per round was the least with 0.55. He won six clutches and had a success rate of 59.5% in opening duels. GuardiaN showed us once again that if he is performing, Natus Vincere are a tough nut to crack.

Final standings of Group E:

1. – Natus Vincere: 10 points: (4p GS + 2p SF + 4p GF) + A spot in the ELEAGUE playoffs
2. – FlipSid3: 4 points (2p GS + 2p SF) + A spot at the Last Chance Qualifier
3. – MOUZ: 4 points (4p GS)
4. – Echo Fox: 2 points (2p GS)

*GS: group stage – SF: semi-finals – GF: grand finals

Echo Fox become yet another North American team that gets eliminated in the group stage while MOUZ has a chance to grab a spot at the Last Chance qualifier by becoming one of the two third-placed teams with the most points.

ELEAGUE will continue this Tuesday with Group F which is the last group to be played. Be sure to visit our tournament page for more information.

BenjaCS writes for HLTV.org and can be found on twitter.