ESL Pro League Season 15Players overcome GODSENT to lock in Pro League playoff spot
The result means that Liquid are also guaranteed a spot in the playoffs, with Sunday's match determining who grabs the second seed.
Vladislav "nafany" Gorshkov's Players are through to the playoffs of ESL Pro League Season 15 after beating GODSENT in a three-map series, stalling out a comeback effort on Inferno and faltering on Overpass before cruising through Mirage to secure the series win.
The victory locks Players in for a top-three finish in Group C as they hold head-to-head wins against every team below them, and the same is the case for Liquid, with both teams only dropping series to Movistar Riders thus far. With the Spaniards already guaranteed a first place finish in the group, Sunday will have only one match that will truly have an impact as Players and Liquid will clash in a battle for the second seed at 18:30 , while GODSENT, BIG, and Party Astronauts are all firmly out of the running.
For Epitacio "TACO" de Melo's side, the loss and elimination from playoff contention marks a dismal start to their time with Henrique "HEN1" Teles, but isn't entirely unexpected given the team's recent change. The matches played provides the new composition some valuable experience together as they now look to close out their EPL campaign with a match against BIG before looking toward the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown, where they'll look to bounce back and earn a spot at the Spring Finals.
A pistol round triple kill from Sergey "Ax1Le" Rykhtorov allowed Players to recover a 3vs5 situation to kick things off in the series, but control wasn't in their hands as an immediate answer from GODSENT in the following round swung momentum the other way and helped the Brazilian side surge ahead to a 4-1 lead. Further multi-kill rounds from Ax1Le as well as Abay "HObbit" Khassenov went a long way in aiding Players in putting up a response, with the team managing to edge out a one-round lead by halftime heading into their T side effort.
An almost identical scenario unfolded after the side swap as this time it was GODSENT who took a pistol round win before faltering to a Players forcebuy, from where nafany's troops took the reigns and extended their lead to 13-8. The Brazilian team put a halt to Players' efforts to enter bombsites for a handful of rounds and make a comeback look like a distinct possibility, but that was halted at the final hurdle as Players edged out the map win in round 30.
Players remained in control as Overpass got underway, pulling ahead 5-1 before a response from GODSENT came through. Led by the joint effort of HEN1 and TACO, GODSENT managed to redeem themselves in the latter portion of the half, clawing back to put up seven rounds as they headed into the side swap. Following the switch, the Brazilians added three more to their tally to briefly take the lead before Players won four rounds of their own, but after a brief back-and-forth, GODSENT came out on top and ran away with the remainder of the map, securing a 16-13 victory to force a Mirage decider.
There, GODSENT ran out of steam, and it was Players who were in firm control from the onset as they crushed the defenses of the Brazilian side. Just two rounds went the way of TACO's men in the first half despite them holding a handful of advantages in early rounds, and Players were just too dominant of a force as they left no room for GODSENT to pull off any heroics, bringing things to a swift end.
 Players |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55 - 38 | +17 | 74.8 | 71.8% | 1.20 | |
| 58 - 56 | +2 | 80.0 | 67.9% | 1.13 | |
| 50 - 44 | +6 | 67.7 | 70.5% | 1.06 | |
| 52 - 60 | -8 | 71.4 | 66.7% | 1.01 | |
| 37 - 47 | -10 | 54.6 | 70.5% | 0.88 |
 GODSENT |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 54 - 42 | +12 | 79.9 | 79.5% | 1.27 | |
| 55 - 45 | +10 | 73.1 | 64.1% | 1.03 | |
| 47 - 57 | -10 | 76.4 | 67.9% | 0.98 | |
| 46 - 53 | -7 | 66.2 | 71.8% | 0.94 | |
| 42 - 56 | -14 | 60.2 | 71.8% | 0.81 |
Movistar Riders
Liquid
BIG
Party Astronauts
Jonathan 'djay' Dallal
Richard 'shox' Papillon
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