Review of Groups C and D ESL Pro League Season 19. Teams await big changes.
Throughout the past week (from April 30th to May 5th), 16 teams battled for the final 8 slots in the EPL S19 playoffs. Groups C and D turned out to be much weaker compared to the first two, yet each match gained significant intrigue. The transfer rumors added extra spice, affecting most teams right during the tournament. Let’s delve into what happened in Malta over the last 6 days and assess the outcomes.
MOUZ still reign as kings of the group stages, while NAVI doesn't resemble Major champions.
In Group C, MOUZ were clear favorites and easily confirmed that status. The young team consistently advances to the playoffs of every tournament, almost always doing so without a single loss. EPL S19 was no exception, though it must be admitted that the opponents of the IEM Chengdu 2024 finalists were significantly weaker. Bad News Kangaroos, GamerLegion, and Team Liquid failed to show anything noteworthy, with all matches ending 2:0. Incredibly high individual performances from MOUZ make them nearly unbeatable due to the absence of weak links. In this team, anyone can step up and deliver a match, with half the players often not even needing to secure frags.
In the upper bracket final, they defeated Team Liquid, who secured second place. Considering the rest of the team list, this result can be seen as expected, but drawing conclusions about the form of cadiaN’s proteges is still premature. The team still lacks consistency, and unlike MOUZ, anyone can falter and underperform in a single match.
In Group D, NAVI and Complexity were clearly stronger than all others and played each other in the upper bracket final without any surprises. The American squad looked slightly better than their opponents and managed to secure a spot in the EPL quarterfinals. Along the way, they also defeated Pera Esports and Heroic. The winners of the first CS2 Major first took down Fly Quest, then almost stumbled against BIG, who have long been absent from tier-1 events. Anubis is the Achilles’ heel of the team, and Blade alongside Aleksib urgently need to improve their game on this map.
Advanced but doubtful prospects in the playoffs.
The winners of the lower bracket in both groups were BIG and GamerLegion. For both teams, this result can indeed be considered a significant success, but let’s take it step by step.
The German squad BIG has long been off the radar and struggles to qualify for most tournaments. And even when they did, the results were extremely disappointing. The team still features incredibly experienced players like tabseN and syrsoN, who seem to have found a way to mesh with talented German youth. Despite their performance against BOSS and the last two maps against NAVI not being successful, victories over Heroic in the lower bracket final were unexpected.
GamerLegion, after randomly qualifying for the Major in Copenhagen, made several roster changes and failed to show consistent results. A couple of failed online qualifications, where they lost to BIG, didn’t inspire hopes for a successful LAN performance. However, their advancement to the playoffs can be attributed to a fortunate bracket. They twice defeated ENCE and FORZE, both of whom arrived at the tournament amid roster shuffles and neither managed to make it even to the final of the last chance stage. Rumors suggest that GamerLegion has already signed a contract with FL4MUS, but who he might replace in the team remains unknown.
Last Chance bracket
The finals here were won by Monte and Fly Quest. Both teams didn’t particularly impress with their gameplay but managed to create quite a stir in the information space. Fly Quest’s captain, dexter, had a less than stellar tournament, leading to strong emotional dissatisfaction. The Australian continued to criticize himself on his social media, but managed to pull himself together for the decisive match against NIP and played with a positive KD.
Monte made headlines with their conflict with British player smooya, who stood in for the team at the tournament in Malta. After news emerged of his participation in EPL for FORZE, he stated that he wouldn’t wear the jersey of the Russian club, but ended up doing so anyway. Numerous posts on the social media of the Ukrainian club angered the British sniper, and during a rematch in the last chance bracket semifinal, he gestured obscenely towards the Monte players. We’ll evaluate their gameplay in the playoffs; a 2:0 loss to ENCE left many questions unanswered.
Outsiders who couldn't make it
The ESL Pro League is one of the best tournaments for less experienced teams to test their mettle against tier-1 collectives. With 32 teams participating in the group stage and half of them making it to the playoffs, in the 19th season, some teams failed to showcase much and even couldn’t fulfill the task of making it to the last chance finals.
Bad News Kangaroos, FORZE, BOSS, and Pera Esports failed to leave a mark with their performances and didn’t extend their stay in Malta. The Russian collective has an excuse as they arrived with a substitute, and two players had long been in contact with another organization, GUN5. SELLTER and tN1R announced their transfer on the last day of the group stage. The future of FORZE is uncertain, and the tag might not appear at major events for a long time.
More surprisingly, seeing participants from the PGL Major Copenhagen on the list of tournament dropouts. Furia bid farewell to Art a couple of days before the start of EPL S19 and replaced him with a young Brazilian. Although FALLEN praised the new addition to the team and stated that he performed admirably, the statistics say otherwise. Almost all of kye’s series ended at the bottom, and he didn’t even come close to a decent 2.0 rating. Let’s see how the Brazilian talent fares in the future, but parting ways with the former captain hasn’t benefited Furia yet.
Heroic continues to falter in the most crucial matches. The confidence and emotional charge left with cadiaN, and the team can’t find the inner strength to pull themselves together at the last moment. Individually, they look quite good, which is why they haven’t lost a single game without a fight. The chance was there, but Heroic still can’t muster the 2-3 crucial rounds they need based on morale. In addition to this, amidst the event, there was information from insiders that the Danish organization has signed a contract with the Russian sniper degster. Abdul Gasanov, who has been inactive for about a year, is supposed to replace nicoodoz, which seems like a controversial decision.
ENCE is also linked to transfer rumors. It’s said that the team is actively looking for a replacement for the veteran of the squad, dycha, but who exactly will replace the Pole is yet to be revealed. The only bright spot in their performance was the victory over Monte in the lower bracket. Considering how the Ukrainian collective struggled against FORZE, this victory can be marked down for ENCE as “satisfactory.”
The revamped lineup of NIP still doesn’t look like a competitive team, although they made it to the last chance finals. Bad News Kangaroos, BOSS, and Pera Esports can only be congratulated on their eventful week in Malta, but they are not yet ready to compete for higher positions.
Based on the results of Groups C and D, the following teams advanced to the playoffs of EPL S19:
Quarterfinals: Complexity, MOUZ
Round 2: NAVI, Team Liquid
Round 1: BIG, GamerLegion, Monte, Fly Quest