Evil Geniuses go 3-0; Complexity beat eUnited to place second in Group B of ESL Pro League

Evil Geniuses took down Cloud9 in a two-map series to go undefeated in Group B of ESL Pro League Season 10 Americas, while Complexity claimed a 2-1 win over eUnited to earn the higher seed for the second group stage.

Having already secured themselves a spot at the ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals in Odense following their win against Complexity, Evil Geniuses' sole goal against Cloud9 was to pick up a quick victory and end Group B undefeated.

A solid start for Cloud9 had Damian "⁠daps⁠" Steele's side open up the series with a 6-1 lead on their own pick of Inferno. Three kills from Tsvetelin "⁠CeRq⁠" Dimitrov was what allowed Evil Geniuses to rally back for a 6-5 scoreline, but a quad kill from Oscar "⁠mixwell⁠" Cañellas helped Cloud9 concede only one additional round as they led the half 9-6. The swap over to the defense was where Cloud9 faltered, only managing to hold off the Evil Geniuses offensive for one round before Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz and company took a 16-10 win.

A pistol victory to kick off Inferno was not enough for Cloud9, who immediately fell to a force-buy from Evil Geniuses in the ensuing round. stanislaw's side used the momentum swing to take five of the next six rounds of the map, but Cloud9 managed to stabilize towards the latter portions of the half to narrowly edge out an 8-7 lead. Evil Geniuses were given a taste of their own medicine as, after winning the pistol, Cloud9 found a force-buy win to mirror their opposition's round-streak from the first half, dropping just a single round as they pulled ahead 13-9. A number of retakes from Evil Geniuses put Tarik "⁠tarik⁠" Celik and company back in control, with the team shutting down Cloud9 for the remainder of the map to take a 16-13 win.

eUnited came out of the gates swinging in their match against Complexity, with both teams looking to defeat the other to claim the higher seed headed into the second group stage.

A T-side start for eUnited on their own pick of Overpass seemed to be of no issue as Austin "⁠Cooper⁠" Abadir's side dropped just one out of the first eight rounds, taking an early 7-1 lead. The two teams battled back-and-forth as the half drew to a close, with a number of multi-kill rounds from Owen "⁠oBo⁠" Schlatter and Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer allowing Complexity to slightly close the gap to 10-5. Three rounds off the back of a pistol win had Complexity close to evening the score, but eUnited remained resilient once they had rifles in their hands to take control of the map and ultimately claim victory 16-10.

Complexity were able to immediately bounce back as they opened Dust2 with a 6-1 lead. eUnited began to fight as five rounds in a row evened the score at 6-6, but another trio of rounds kept Complexity ahead at the half. A pistol victory gave blameF and company the chance to push up to a 11-6 scoreline, and eUnited were only able to post three additional rounds before Complexity took the map over the line at 16-9.

The deciding map came down to Inferno, where a 4-2 start for eUnited quickly dwindled as Complexity proved the superior side, winning the half 9-6. Three rounds in a row following the side swap had blameF's men further extend their lead over eUnited, with Victor "⁠food⁠" Wong getting his side on the board with a triple kill to take back two for themselves. It was a 1vs3 clutch from William "⁠RUSH⁠" Wierzba that sealed eUnited's fate in the end, allowing Complexity to gather their final rounds and take the win 16-10.

The final standings for Group B are: