ESEA-I Season 13 week 2 recap

ESEA Invite Season 13 is well under way and we decided to give you an update on the latest happenings just after week 2 came to an end. You'll be able to find all the scores, notable performances and information about teams right here in this article.

After a quiet first week of matches that took place in between several LAN events back in December, ESEA's European debut has come into the spotlight at the beginning of January as it became the premier source of CS:GO entertainment.

Perhaps a more discussed topic during the second week than the matches themselves was the map they were played on – de_dust_se. For those unfamiliar with ESEA's map system, each of the eight weeks has a different map designated to it, and since CS:GO is still not fully up to date with competitive maps (such as de_tuscan), the ancient dust2's predecessor fell into the mix.

The new map rotation was only finalized at the beginning of this month (after the season had already started) and although we saw one other old name fall out of the selection (de_aztec_se was replaced with Sal "Volcano" Garozzo's de_cache), ESEA didn't have an alternative for de_dust_se.

Nevertheless, it proved to be a big talking point as some people found last week's map to be a welcome refreshment compared to the standard ones, while others were very vocal with their criticism and disappointment with the map's CT-sidedness. All in all, de_dust_se will soon go back into history (perhaps forever), even though one more match remains to be played on it between fm.TOXiC and Absolute Legends later this week.

Now let's check out all the results from the last eight days:

Week 1 - de_mirage_go

Jan 7, 2013	Virtus.pro	vs.	mousesports	16:8
Jan 8, 2013	Virtus.pro	vs.	Absolute Legends	16:10
Week 2 - de_dust_se
Jan 8, 2013	NiP	vs.	ASES	16:7
Jan 9, 2013	ESC Gaming	vs.	mousesports	16:9
Jan 9, 2013	Absolute Legends	vs.	mousesports	16:6
Jan 9, 2013	ESC Gaming	vs.	ASES	16:8
Jan 10, 2013	Curse	vs.	Anexis	16:10
Jan 10, 2013	n!faculty	vs.	Curse	16:12
Jan 10, 2013	VeryGames	vs.	Virtus.pro	16:9
Jan 13, 2013	fnatic	vs.	Anexis	19:16
Jan 13, 2013	VeryGames	vs.	fnatic	16:8
Jan 13, 2013	NiP	vs.	fm.TOXiC	16:0 (forfeit)
Jan 14, 2013	Virtus.pro	vs.	n!faculty	16:11
	Absolute Legends	vs.	fm.TOXiC	Postponed

The action started off with two postponed matches on de_mirage_go, both featuring Virtus.pro who only then made their ESEA debut. The CIS squad ended up having a very successful week, winning three of their four matches, with the only loss coming to world's number two – VeryGames.

On the other hand, they beat mousesports, Absolute Legends and n!faculty, so they are now sitting at 3rd place in the standings and will surely be a serious contender for one of the four playoff spots. Mihail "Dosia" Stolyarov has been their best player so far, having an excellent 0.96 kills per round, which is the 2nd best record in the league.

Leading the team standings are of course Ninjas in Pyjamas and VeryGames with four wins each and as the only undefeated teams so far. The French side proved to be too big a hurdle for Virtus.pro and fnatic despite of starting off on the Terrorist side in both matches. After putting up solid numbers in first halves, VeryGames defended their bombsites almost perfectly by winning 18 of their 19 CT-side rounds, helping to make the case about the map's one-sidedness.

These two matches also marked the farewell for Cédric "RpK" Guipouy who announced his retirement during the week, and he will step down as the team's best fragger in ESEA until this point (0.82 KPR).

RpK played his last official match for VeryGames against fnatic

NiP didn't have a very eventful week in ESEA but they still made it out with 2 wins. The first one came in form of a 16-7 result against ASES (who are now struggling at 0-4), while the second one was an effortless forfeit win over fm.TOXiC. Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg added 22 kils to his account in the match against the Spaniards, just enough to keep him at the top of the fraggers list with 0.97 kills per round.

As far as fm.TOXiC are concerned, they had a great start in the league with victories over mousesports and ASES back in December, but as they were about to come back into action after the holidays, André "BARBARR" Möller's monitor reportedly broke down which prevented them from playing during the past week. As a result of that, they forfeited the match against NiP and postponed the clash with Absolute Legends to Thursday, and they now sit at the 6th spot with 2 wins and 1 loss.

Another team that is in great shape is ESC Gaming who added two relatively easy wins against mouz and ASES to increase their streak to three in a row. With their impressive play as of late, they showed that the 16-1 blowout loss against NiP at the beginning of the season is now far behind them.

At the moment the Poles occupy the final playoff spot, which shouldn't be jeopardized next week when they meet n!faculty and Absolute Legends, two teams they are expected to overcome. Jarosław "pasha" Jarząbkowski was the team's best player on de_dust_se, mainly due to his AWPing, as he recorded 29 kills with the big green over two matches.

Absolute Legends have shown so far that they are no pushovers as they actually have a winning record and find themselves in 5th place. The loss to Virtus.pro was quickly compensated with a convincing 16-6 win against mousesports in which their latest addition Andreas "schneider" Lindberg put on an impressive 34:11 performance. 19-year-old Lindberg has certainly been one of the best players in the league so far, having the 3rd best KPR of 0.96 and dealing the most damage on average among all players (98.4).

schneider making a name for himself in ESEA

After taking NiP to overtime and defeating fnatic in the first week, more was expected from Curse, but they only managed to be semi successful on de_dust_se. Firstly they beat Anexis 16-10, but then saw that negated straight away on the same night with a loss to n!faculty. Granted, they did replace Niko "naSu" Kovanen with Timi "aslak" Verkkoperä just eariler that day.

Nevertheless, they can't be expected to fare any better than their current 0.500 record after next week either, as a clash with VeryGames is awaiting them on Sunday, and while they should be able to beat ASES before that, the French will probably be too much for them to handle.

If not of their 2-2 record, the Finns do have something to be proud of though, and that is Aleksi "allu" Jalli's play so far in the season. In both of their wins he was the team's best fragger, but more importantly he leads the league in total kills (99) and is 2nd in damage dealt per round (95.0).

allu's CS:GO career might be taking off

n!faculty is also sitting on a 2-2 record following another semi-successful week, while fnatic managed to record their first win of the season. The Danish team officially presented its new lineup last week, while adding Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth as a new member. He already showed glimpses of what he will bring to the group, making an ace during overtime and ending up with a 29:20 score in a 19-16 win over Anexis.

However, the star of that match was without a doubt Michael "Friis" Jørgensen, whose 21 of 33 kills came with the AWP, including two 4-kill rounds and two 1-on-1 clutches. Jørgensen now leads the league in total AWP kills with 57, just slightly ahead of Kenny "kennyS" Schrub (54) whose VeryGames defeated fnatic in their second match on Sunday.

Friis' AWP has been superb so far

With fnatic getting out of the slump, Anexis, mousesports and ASES now remain the only teams without a victory and they will find themselves in heaps of trouble if it stays that way after the next round of matches.

ESEA Invite Season 13 Europe standings

#	Team	W	L	RW	RL	Diff	Streak
1.	NiP	4	0	67	23	+44	W4
2.	VeryGames	4	0	64	37	+27	W4
3.	Virtus.pro	3	1	57	45	+12	W1
4.	ESC Gaming	3	1	49	42	+7	W3
5.	Absolute Legends	2	1	42	27	+15	W1
6.	fm.TOXiC	2	1	32	32	0	L1
7.	Curse	2	2	59	54	+5	L1
8.	n!faculty	2	2	48	56	-8	L1
9.	fnatic	1	3	45	64	-19	L1
10.	Anexis	0	4	47	67	-20	L4
11.	mousesports	0	4	35	64	-29	L4
12.	ASES	0	4	30	64	-34	L4

Next week's map will be a somewhat unknown de_mill_b2, and if you must choose only a handful of matches to tune in to, we recommend NiP vs. Virtus.pro, Curse vs. VeryGames and ESC Gaming vs. Absolute Legends.

Stay tuned to HLTV.org for the exact schedule as we will update the hot match pages as soon as the teams agree on a date and time, and of course you will be able to find GOTV IPs and stream links here as well.