OG hand forZe their first loss of ESL Pro League

OG edge closer to a spot in the playoffs with a flawless record so far.

FORZE found themselves on the wrong end of a 2-1 series in the top-of-the-table clash between them and OG, winning their map pick of Mirage before falling on Inferno and Overpass. With the victory, OG put themselves within touching distance of the knockout stage, needing G2 to do them a favour later against Complexity to guarantee a spot.

Despite losing the first map, Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen was still confident for the series; "I just knew outside again, that this is like their best map and it is our map pick next, and yeah everything is just good for us in this veto so we can still make it happen."

The series kicked off with FORZE's map of Mirage, a pick that seemed risky considering OG boast a solid win rate on it vs tier-one opposition. Starting on the T side the Russian squad made things chaotic right from the get-go, winning the pistol and second round only to lose the third to pistols and armour.

The rounds continued to be wild affairs, with entries going to either team round-to-round and clutches aplenty, but FORZE thrived more in the chaos than OG and built a 7-1 lead. OG managed to rack up four more rounds in the middle of the half thanks to a combination of mixing up their approach to mid-control, and getting better in the chaotic late round situations. Almaz "⁠almazer⁠" Asadullin and Evgenii "⁠FL1T⁠" Lebedev were simply too effective with their entry frags for OG to continue their streak, and FORZE won the rest of the rounds to end the half 10-5.

FORZE won their CT pistol and ran up a 14-5 lead, meaning the second half was done before it even fully began. OG did manage to grab a few more rounds of the back of a force buy, but the Russian squad proved too much for them and FORZE closed it out, 16-8.

The series took us to OG's pick of Inferno, and here we were in for a barn stormer of a game. OG got us started by racking up the first four rounds of their Terrorist half, before FORZE started to show us some CT aggression that the boys in blue struggled to handle. They ran the score back to 6-4 in the Russians' favour, before the half found parity and some rounds were traded to give OG a narrow first half win, 8-7.

The second half began with the same ferocity that the previous one ended with, the first three rounds going to OG in the midst of force buys and wild mid-round situations. Eventually FORZE's constant pressure on the OG economy bore fruit, and they broke OG before bringing the score back to 11-10 in their favour. The international squad relied on some big moments from individuals from this point, with Mateusz "⁠mantuu⁠" Wilczewski managing a big hold in round 22 and a couple of big moments from Valdemar "⁠valde⁠" Bjørn Vangså at A put them on map point, 15-12. Somehow FORZE managed to punish some mid aggression from OG on a deagle buy to give them hope, and they ran with that hope to win the final two rounds in the half and take us to overtime.

If we were hoping for more of the same in overtime, it wasn't quite to be. OG started on Counter-Terrorist in OT, and they racked up two rounds to give them the advantage going into the second half. They managed to get the rounds they needed off the back of a huge clutch from mantuu at 17-17, giving them the win on Inferno and leaving us needing Overpass to decide the series. OG had valde to thank on the fragging front, the rifler racking up an impressive 34 kills to power them to this map win. Aleksib was also key, making some excellent reads on OG's CT side.

The final map of Overpass wasn't quite the finale that the series maybe deserved. OG opened up the map by winning their T-side pistol, and converting to a 4-0 lead. FORZE then won an unlikely eco and ran the scores back to 4-4, utilising some creative boosts in the meantime, and it looked like we were in for another close map. OG then began to settle into their rhythm, once again with Aleksib making some astute reads to punish FORZE's chosen setups, taking us to 9-4 to OG. FORZE managed to scrape the last couple of rounds to give themselves a chance in the second half.

After losing the pistol in the second half and falling to a 12-6 deficit, FORZE managed to take their first gun round as the Terrorists to set us up for a potentially competitive half. valde had other plans, making a huge play on the B bombsite around a smoke to win OG a vital half buy that broke FORZE's shaky economy. From this point the win was a formality, with the Russians managing a solitary round from this point on to lose the game 16-8.