The first phase of the ESL Pro League came to an end yesterday with the final games in group D. While Na”Vi, forZe and ENCE had already been determined as qualifiers beforehand, the last ticket was played out in a three-way battle.
Team Spirit, Astralis and Team Liquid.
A trio that, before the start of the Group D matches, could well have been considered a plausible outcome of playoff qualifiers found themselves in a do-or-die three-way battle for the last remaining finals ticket last night.
Before that, forZe and ENCE”s surprising runs across the group”s upper bracket had ensured that three big names but only one remaining playoff spot remained in the first place.
Three-way battle for the last ticket
The Lower-Bracket Semifinal first saw another clash between Astralis and Team Spirit.
The former Danish super team found themselves in the bottom bracket early on after losses to Na”Vi and just Spirit. After TS also lost to Na”Vi in the mid-bracket final, it was a repeat of the opening match. But this time without a double bottom. And with a completely different outcome than at the start of the group, when Team Spirit won the match against Astralis with a dominant 2:0 score.
The first game on Nuke went 16:12 to the Russian-Ukrainian roster, but with a 16:14 on Mirage and a 16:12 on Ancient, Astralis turned the game around and ended the play-off dreams of Team Spirit, who were considered the secret favourites before the tournament.
@AstralisCS complete the reverse sweep against @Team__Spirit! 💥
They advance to play later today against Liquid for a spot in the ESLProLeague Season 17 Playoff Stage
12-16 Nuke
16-14 Mirage
16-12 Ancient pic.twitter.com/jioNa5MLI6– ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) March 19, 2023
In the all-important match for the last remaining final round spot, the once bitter rivals Astralis and Team Liquid thus clashed.
Unlike the Danes, who were drawn only top teams with Team Spirit and Na”Vi and therefore ended up in the lower bracket, Team Liquid around in-game leader Nicholas “nitr0″ Cannella needed time to get into the tournament.
After the surprising opening defeat against the Asian team of Rare Atom, they were able to prevail against ATK, but then lost the following game again against Team Spirit and thus quickly found themselves with their backs to the wall in the lower bracket. Mind you, this was the 3rd ranked team in the world.
An elimination in the group phase would be tantamount to a minor sensation.
Liquid gets serious late
The Americans went into the game accordingly focused. After the first half ended relatively evenly at 8:7 on Nuke, Team Liquid conceded just one more round to Astralis after the change of ends and made a small statement straight away with the 16:8 victory
@TeamLiquidCS win 5 rounds in a row to take @AstralisCS” map pick of Nuke 16-8 💥
Mirage is coming up next!ESLProLeague pic.twitter.com/SWccljhXXi
– ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) March 19, 2023
On Mirage, however, the picture was completely different at first. Astralis, who started on the CT side, won the first seven rounds before Liquid finally made it onto the scoreboard in the eighth. It was 10:5 for the Danes going into the half-time break.
The first round after the change of ends also went to Astralis. But this was to be the last round until the score of 15:11, appropriately for Team Liquid! Especially Marek”s “YEKINDAR” Galinskis was hardly to be stopped and came at the end of Mirage on a very good 1.39 rating.
All in all, Liquid showed a very good team performance in the ultimately quite unchallenged 2-0 victory. With a rating of 1.08, Liquid was nitr0 the lowest rated player of the American team. At Astralis, on the other hand, old master Andreas “Xyp9x” Hojsleth (0.77) and Yung Gun Christian “Buzz” Andersen (0.61) were particularly disappointing.
This means that all 16 finalists of the ESL Pro League have been determined.
THE 16 TEAMS IN THE ESLProLeague PLAYOFFS!
Outsiders@Cloud9 @G2esports @FNATIC @heroicgg @mousesports @FURIA @Movistar_Riders @TeamVitality @FaZeClan @paiNGamingBR @zerozeronation @ENCE @forzegg @natusvincere @TeamLiquidCS
🗓️ 21st March 2023 pic.twitter.com/C6Ptpsmjmi
– ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) March 19, 2023
