ESL Pro League S11 EU Round-Up
ESL Pro League Season 11 came to a close yesterday with Swedish giants fnatic taking home the trophy - or having it delivered to their home, which is probably more accurate. A five-map epic saw them taking the last two maps to steal away the trophy from mousesports, with KRiMZ getting a triple-figure kill total, but young Brollan won his career-first MVP - just in time for the Krieg nerf.
Astralis and NaVi came in 3rd and 4th, with slightly disappointing finishes to otherwise impressive runs. NaVi missed out on playoffs narrowly after a 0-2 loss to fnatic in the group stage, while Astralis were dumped out in the semi by mousesports. It was ropz who took over that game, and he was mousesports’ best player through the whole tournament. device, as always, dropped a very respectable 72-55 scoreline, but it wasn’t enough for the Danes who aren’t looking quite as scary as last year.
The final two teams who made it to Stage 2 were FaZe and OG, two international teams. Both teams only won one of their games in the second part of the tournament, which is likely to be the chagrin of both of them, but FaZe will be more embarrassed. They carry a huge weight of expectation due to the sheer firepower they have, but despite having NiKo and coldzera, they were unravelled by fewer mouth-watering-on-paper line-ups. OG are still somewhat new but now is about the time you might start expecting some bigger results.
Click to enlargePerhaps the biggest disappointment of the tournament was G2, who ended up dropping out before even the Stage 2 play-ins. A tough group, yes, but 4th place behind mousesports, FaZe and OG is a little disappointing for a team who looked like a top 5 team not too long ago. Their French brothers Vitality haven’t fully recovered from the hit of losing ALEX just yet, as they succumbed to OG in the play-in to Stage 2. ZywOo might not hit the heights he did last year if his team keeps up this level, but s1mple too missed out on top three.
ENCE kept up their recent form of being totally useless, finishing in last place with just one win from five games, finishing below GODSENT and Spirit, who both showed some impressive performances but fell just short of NiP and Vitality in their group. NiP too performed as expected - decently, but never quite dining at the main table.
Four of the five lowest-rated players at the whole tournament were on TYLOO, with only somebody breaking that rule. Unsurprisingly, they finished bottom of their group, though they were in an impossible group with G2 and three of the top six teams. VP finished 5th with a respectable two wins in that group, but they’re still some way off paying back the price VP paid for the ex-AVANGAR roster.
The other player in the bottom five was MSL of North, who came in the bottom half of their group. Half the teams won 2 games - BIG, CoL and North, and the other three won three games - NaVi, fnatic and forZe. North will be a little disappointed they were pipped to third by forZe, though forZe has traditionally been a scary team online. coL will have similar qualms, as they would have come into the tournament hoping for at least a top-six finish, and despite having a difficult group, forZe finishing above them will irk them. BIG started the group with a 2-0 record, but they completely fell off after that and ended 2-3, which has tended to be the story of that team in recent times.
Image via ESL