Bulletpoints: ESL Pro League S15 Group C

Let's take a look at the teams competing in Group C and preview some of the most interesting talking points.

With ESL Pro League S15 well underway, we have gotten a feel for the tournament format and the teams playing in the first two groups. WIth the results up to this point being far from expected, we are in no doubt in for some more nail biting battles.

Group C is in theory the weakest group at Pro League, with the Gambit squad competing as Players, due to ESL banning organizations with ties to the Russian goverment, being the only team ranked in the top 15. Most of the teams are newer rosters who are yet to show their full potential, or teams that are simply unproven at this level. They do however look very evenly matched and the group looks almost impossible to predict.

As each team in the group is facing trouble in one way or another, we are taking a quick look at the most interesting news coming out of each camp and their expectations for the tournament.

Players (#2)

- Questions about their future loom
- Playing under a neutral name
- Massive favourites despite background noise

The recent news about Gambit are ones of uncertainty, with the organisation announcing that Konstantin "⁠groove⁠" Pikiner has left his director position at the company, shortly after Aleksei "⁠OverDrive⁠" Birukov reported that the lineup is for sale. The team will also be competing under the Players tag due to ESL's ban on teams with ties to the Russian goverment, so the players will certainly have that at the back of their minds while playing.

Even with the precariousness of their situation, they are still massive favourites to go through to the next stage. But as we saw in the previous two groups, a lot of the bigger names got found out and struggled to put up results, so it is up to the CIS squad to prove they do not lack consistency.

BIG (#16)

- Krimbo in place of k1to
- Bouncing back after a disappointing Katowice

In the wake of an underwhelming showing at IEM Katowice, where the team lost to Astralis and fnatic and thus failed to qualify from the Play-In, followed by an unsuccessful first attempt at making it to the Europe RMR event, the team decided to bring in Karim "⁠Krimbo⁠" Moussa from their academy in place of Nils "⁠k1to⁠" Gruhne.

With Krimbo, they succeeded in qualifying for the Europe RMR at the second time of asking as the new recruit averaged a 1.19 rating in the games from the last 16 stage onwards. As he has never played at such a big event, it will be exciting to see how he adjusts to playing higher-ranked teams.

BIG certainly hope they have finally found the roster that will lose them the nickname of 'Gatekeepers of tier 1' that they have gotten over the last few years. We will see whether the addition of Krimbo is what they needed to take the next step.

GODSENT (#23)

- HEN1 in place of felps
- Turning around an underwhelming start of 2022

GODSENT's year so far has been nothing short of a disappointment, as the team has failed to build on the good showing at IEM Winter at the end of last year. The Brazilian team has failed to qualify for the main event in IEM Katowice, but the result that raised even more eyebrows was them failing to advance to the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 Americas RMR in both attempts, losing to TeamOne and ATK respectively.

With a less than convincing 28% winrate in the year so far, the team announced that João "⁠felps⁠" Vasconcellos will be taking a leave due to personal matters, with Henrique "⁠HEN1⁠" Teles standing in for him for the foreseeable future. Considering felps was the highest rated player on the lineup in the last year with a 1.15 rating, it will be tough to replace his star power and entry potential. HEN1 will also be taking over the primary AWPing, something that GODSENT have not had since the start of the roster as the big green was rotated between all of the members. It will certainly be interesting to see how that will impact the team's dynamic and performances of individual players.

Liquid (#33)

- adreN missing out on most of the group stage
- New lineup needs a positive result to show progress

SInce the inception of their current lineup at the beginning of the year, Liquid have been very underwhelming in international events, coming dead last in IEM Katowice and BLAST Premier Spring Groups. They did easily qualify to the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 Americas RMR, so that should give them a bit of confidence going into this group.

The North American team is also coming into the group stage without their head coach, Eric "⁠adreN⁠" Hoag, who is missing out on the first games due to personal reasons delaying his travel. He is however expected to travel to Düsseldorf in time for the final match of the group, in which his team will face Players.

Movistar Riders (#34)

- Failed to qualify for the RMR event
- Need to prove they belong with the big teams

The Spaniards are a team that has been slowly dropping down the rankings in the last six months, with the heights of 14th place they reached in October 2021 now a long way away. They are a regular attendee of the bigger events but have so far yet to prove they truly belong with the big boys with an early exit in the IEM Katowice Play-In, also failing to get out of the group at ESL Challenger February with a shock loss to 9z.

With the team missing out on the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 Europe RMR event, this tournament has become their priority and Movistar Riders definitely intend to prove they deserve the spot and make a good account of themselves, even though their current form doesn't make them favourites to advance.

Party Astronauts (#39)

- First foray into Europe
- Numerous player changes, participating with ptr as stand-in

The Party Astronauts core are a team who have long been a staple of the lower tier NA scene, with names like Josh "⁠PwnAlone⁠" Pigue, Jonathan "⁠Jonji⁠" Carey and Jonathan "⁠djay⁠" Dallal competing in the various North American tournaments for years. With their win in ESEA Premier Season 38 North America which ended in October of 2021, where they beat Extra Salt in the final, they have finally qualified for their first big event. It is fair to say that public expectations for the team are low, but they could always spring a surprise.

Another thing to note with the roster is that they have had two player changes in 2022 alone. In January, they brought in Jonji back from VALORANT to replace Gage "⁠Infinite⁠" Green and then, just a month later after they were forced to cancel their European bootcamp, replaced David "⁠cynic⁠" Polster with Wesley "⁠viz⁠" Harris. However, as viz will not have a passport in time to travel to ESL Pro League, the team will have the recently retired Peter "⁠ptr⁠" Gurney standing in.