ESL Pro League Season 17FORZE secure ESL Pro League quarter-final spot over ENCE
The Russian squad continue to show pristine form as they secure their third straight victory in ESL Pro League against a higher-ranked team.
FORZE have come out on top in an unlikely ESL Pro League Season 17 Group D upper bracket final which pitted them against ENCE. This victory makes them the top seed from the group and hence will inscribe their name straight into the tournament’s quarter-finals, while the losing side of this upper bracket final will start from in the playoff’’s second round.
To make it all the way to the top of Group D FORZE left Natus Vincere and Spirit in the dust before taking their third straight victory, while ENCE beat ATK and Rare Atom in their first matches. Other teams like Liquid and Astralis were also knocked down to the lower bracket, which ended with the fourth and fifth highest-ranked teams pitted against each other in the final upper bracket series.
FORZE’s Overpass pick could not have been a more direct showing from the Russian squad, who breezed to a 12-3 lead on the attack with both Aleksandr "shalfey" Marenov and Vladislav "Krad" Kravchenko clocking over 90 ADR before the switch. The second half started off with a clean pistol round for Andrey "Jerry" Mekhryakov and his men and ended firmly after four rounds, 16-3.
After losing the first map one-sidedly ENCE took the first pistol round on Anubis, but were countered with three on the trot by FORZE. The half, which went the way of the Russians, was closed out by a struggling Guy "NertZ" Iluz who downed three with a P90, quadrupling his kill count from one to four, as his team dragged by five.
ENCE won the second pistol round but couldn’t follow it up, and although the map went all the way to the wire in the end it was the decidedly stronger FORZE side who came out on top despite an Álvaro "SunPayus" García 1.90-rating performance, 16-13, to end their astonishing run in Group D.
The closing series of the group stage is now set to go live at 19:30 between Liquid and Astralis, two old rivals at the top of the world that are now vying for the final ESL Pro League playoff spot through the triple-elimination last chance bracket. The winner of the series will squeak through to the first round of the playoffs, while the loser will not return for the final stage of the tournament which will kick off on Tuesday, March 21.
 FORZE |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 41 - 31 | +10 | 90.7 | 79.2% | 1.36 | |
| 39 - 22 | +17 | 63.8 | 83.3% | 1.35 | |
| 32 - 26 | +6 | 79.0 | 72.9% | 1.18 | |
| 27 - 29 | -2 | 72.1 | 72.9% | 1.01 | |
| 29 - 32 | -3 | 73.5 | 72.9% | 1.01 |
 ENCE |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40 - 28 | +12 | 80.5 | 77.1% | 1.29 | |
| 29 - 35 | -6 | 76.5 | 70.8% | 1.02 | |
| 24 - 35 | -11 | 75.4 | 68.8% | 0.86 | |
| 27 - 36 | -9 | 60.2 | 52.1% | 0.76 | |
| 20 - 34 | -14 | 54.8 | 60.4% | 0.66 |
Eetu 'sAw' Saha
Ihor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov
Keith 'NAF' Markovic
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis
Jonathan 'b0denmaster' Bodenmalm
Gareth 'MisteM' Ries
Andrew 'kaze' Khong
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