Tag: Season 12

Categories
CS:GO

ESL Pro League Season 12 North America – Who made it?

The ESL Pro League Season 12 North America Group Stages are over and it was an incredibly close four week of matches. There was a race for the fourth seed into the playoffs with 100 Thieves, Chaos, and Gen.G all racing for that final spot. However, 100 Thieves came out on top and head to the playoffs with Team Liquid, Evil Geniuses and FURIA Esports.

The race for fourth

The race for the fourth seed has been stemming from the beginning of the third week. The likes of Chaos, Gen.G and 100T had their super week, and it came down to the wire. Gen.G, unfortunately, had to compete against the top three teams after starting strong, but sadly they went 1-2 in week three. Meanwhile, Chaos started growing wins in week three with a 2-1 week, only losing to Evil Geniuses. 100 Thieves had a strong showing in week three, with a 2-1 week, only losing to Gen.G.

With these results, Chaos managed to take the fifth place from Gen.g, and the race was on between Chaos and 100T in week four. If either team lost and the other one it could decide the fourth-place team. Only in week four, both teams won. Chaos came in clutch with the 2-1 series win over FURIA. Chaos needed to get a sizeable round lead in their wins if they wanted to close the gap of positive round difference to contend against 100T. And that is what they did. Chaos brought their Overpass CT side to 16-3 in an impressive game three.

Chaos had a great Overpass showing against FURIA

Nevertheless, Chaos’ dream of making playoffs was shut down. 100T was the match after Chaos, and they got the clean 2-0 series win against Triumph. With that victory, 100T qualified to the ESL Pro League Season 12 North America Playoffs.

Evil Geniuses top the groups

Evil Geniuses remain the most consistent North American team in CS:GO. Throughout the four weeks of the EPL, Evil Geniuses has only lost one series to FURIA 0-2 and Triumph is the only team to take a map off them in their series wins. With Chaos beating FURIA, EG secured first place as the only team with a 6-1 record in the Group Stage.

Since FURIA and Evil Geniuses are the top two seeds from the Groups, they both head to the Upper Bracket Final. This will be a rematch, and it will be interesting to see if FURIA can beat EG once again on 24th September. Evil Geniuses are back-to-back North American champions, and they have continued to grow their trophy cabinet since coming back from the player break. Perhaps Evil Geniuses are destined for another trophy if FURIA is not able to repeat the Group success they had in week three.

Stay tuned to Dartfrog for all the latest news and analysis on CS:GO and follow us on our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitch. Image via ESL / Helena-Kristiansson.

Categories
CS:GO

ESL Pro League Season 12 Europe – The Group Stage winners

The ESL Pro League Season 12 Europe Group Stages are over. The top four teams from each group are decided and will head to the quarterfinals beginning on 29 September. With that said, let us take a look at the eight teams who made it out of the Groups.

Group A

Over in Group A, Natus Vincere was the most consistent team in the ESL Pro League Season 12 Europe. The team was constantly in the top two teams of the Group with a first-place finish by the end of Group A. The only team to beat them in their group was ENCE, who was tied first place with Na’Vi until they fell off in the final week. For Natus Vincere, this a huge deal after their recent tournaments has been sub-par considering their standard. The Group Stage of the EPL has woke them up into the giants we know they are.

As mentioned in the week before, Group A was becoming a lot tenser by the second week. The likes of Heroic, G2, OG and BIG were climbing and the battle for the three other seeds in Group A was tough. In the end, Heroic and BIG grew into the role of quarterfinalist, with BIG even knocking ENCE out of the top two to take the second-place group finish.

Heroic’s win over OG sent them to the quarterfinals

Group B

Over in Group B, Astralis came from being a bottom team to a top team in the space of two weeks. They are the most improved team in the ESL Pro League Season 12 Europe league by far. In Week Two, Astralis got their in-game leader, Lukas “Gla1ve” Rossander back. Every other game they rotated Lucas “Bubzkji” Andersen Patrick “es3tag” Hansen, which seemed to have worked. By the end of the Group Stage, Astralis sit in first place with a 6-1 record, just like Natus Vincere in Group A.

As for Group B, it was rather close as it was all the way through the group stage. Complexity fell off as the favourites for Group A in the final week as mousesports played upset and took the world number five down ina 2-0 series. Moving on, FaZe Clan somehow managed a victory over them, making space for Astralis to pass them. With mousesports clutch win, they managed to keep them in the playoffs race before locking it in with a win over Vitality. Surprisingly, Team Spirit made it through tho the quarter-finals after a great series. They made their way into the groups after their victory over mousesports in the final week.

mousesports getting in a key round which leads to a 2-0 series over Vitality

Quarters

On the 29th September, Natus Vincere will play mousesports in the first quarter-finals of the day. Moving on, Complexity and ENCE will battle in the following series. BIG and Team Spirit are the third matchup of the day with Astralis and Heroic closing the day with a Danish darby. The losers of these series will play on 30th September in the Lower Bracket Round One elimination matches. The action is expected to kick off at 14:00 CEST for both days.

Stay tuned to Dartfrog for all the latest news and analysis on CS:GO and follow us on our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitch.

Categories
CS:GO

ESL Pro League Season 12 Week 2 Europe – Complexity undefeated

The second week of ESL Pro League 12 is over and Complexity is on top of the world. The masters of Group B gained another two series victories in ESL Pro League Europe Week 2. Furthermore, Group A sees ENCE and Na’Vi at the top, but three key victories from Heroic has seen them get into a strong position heading into Week 3 of the Groups.

Group A

In Group A, ENCE and Na’Vi remain in as the top two teams in the group, each with a 4-1 scoreline. ENCE lost their first match this week against last-place GODSENT, bringing them back in line with Natus Vincere. On the other hand, Na’Vi earned two victories in Week 2, one against AGO and the other against OG. Although, Na’Vi had to earn their victory against OG, as the series went to the third map and they only won the decider on Nuke 16-14.

The more interesting narrative in Group A comes from the middle of the pack. Heroic, BIG, G2 Esports, and OG are 3-2 or 2-3, showing how competitive the third week is likely to be. Heroic’s 3-0 score in Week two comes after they had a great three-game series against G2 Esports, a close three-game series against BIG, and another close series against GODSENT. Two of these three victories are clutch results for Heroic as they took down two teams they are in direct contest with. The best thing is this makes them third in the group standings as they hold the head-to-head against BIG. Out of the mid-table, the ESL One Cologne Champions, Heroic, seem the likeliest candidate for advancing into the quarter-finals.

Looking ahead to Week 3, G2 and OG have some difficult games as they both have to take on ENCE and Natus Vincere – the top two of the group. G2 and OG need to put on a stellar show because their chances at advancing into the top four of the groups are slimming based on current results in this group.

Plays like this are what got Heroic a juicy 3-0 score.

Group B

On the other side of the European event, Complexity is dominating their opponents in Group B. Complexity had yet another fantastic week, taking down the likes of Team Spirit and Fnatic. However, Complexity went from two 2-0 victories in Week 1 to two 2-1 victories in Week two. Complexity’s grasp may be slipping after their star performance against Astralis and NiP in the ESL Pro League Europe Week 2. In Week 3, Complexity has three series to play against teams like mousesports, Vitality, and FaZe. The likes of mousesports and Vitality may give Complexity a proper good go since both teams are performing in ESL Pro League Season 12.

Complexity had to put in the work to take the series victory against Fnatic.

Another important aspect of Group B is the ability for any team to miss the quarters. As it stands, mousesports and Fnatic are the two mid-table teams in position to escape Group B. Although, almost every team outside the top two are 2-2, with the exceptions of NiP’s 1-3 score and FaZe’s 0-4 score. Also, every team has to play three games in Week 3, so whoever escapes Group B is the better team.

Stay tuned to Dartfrog for all the latest news and analysis on CS:GO and follow us on our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitch. Image via BLAST.