On May 15th, the ESL Pro League Finals begin. This tournament has nearly all the top 10 teams, plus a few outsiders.
GROUP A:
- Mousesports vs. Sharks; MOUZ WIN
Oskar nak
Ropz exit
SuNny Leo_druNky
chrisj Rcf
SYKO jnt
For once, a mouse is more threatening than a shark.
This one is fairly straight forward. Mousesports are one of the top 5 teams in the world and should have no problem comfortably beating Sharks. They have blistering star power from the likes of main AWPer Oskar and riflers Ropz and suNny. On the Sharks side of the sea, this is the first international LAN outing for this young Brazilian team. Considering Mousesports are willing to play any map, Sharks will have a hard time finding a weak spot in Mouz's map armor.
- FaZe vs. Cloud 9; FaZe WIN
NiKo Tarik
Karrigan FNS
Guardian Skadoodle
Xizt (stand in) RUSH
Rain AUTIMATIC
Right now, both teams have a series on the other. C9 2-0'd FaZe at Dreamhack Marseille, whereas FaZe bested C9 2-0 at the more recent IEM Sydney. Both of these teams historically match up well together as they rely heavily on individual skill. But, recent events show this opening match to fall in the favor of FaZe.
FNS was brought into Cloud9 to replace Stewie2k. What they gained in tactics they lost in star power. The style of Cloud9 was heavily based around the explosive, aggressive gameplay of Jake "Stewie2K" Yip, and by losing that talismanic figure in-game, C9 looks flat overall. The team is not as structured as one would hope, as a team with this drastic of a change would need a complete overhaul. They have a massive liability in the form of Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham, who continues to disappoint tournament after tournament with terrible statistics with the main AWP.
FaZe on the other hand, while not in best form, are coming off a huge tournament victory at IEM Sydney. Down under, they beat the best team in the world Astralis in one of the closest 3-0's to date, with Main AWPer Guardian delivering yet another world-class performance with the sniper rifle.
I would expect the map to fall on either Cache or Mirage, with FaZe picking up a win.
- NRG vs. Heroic; NRG win
Cerq Estetag
FugLy MODDII
Daps Niko
Nahte cromen (stand in)
Breeze Friberg (stand in)
NRG are the most promising NA team, save for C9 and Liquid. Headed by star AWPer CerQ, NRG recently come out of a close group stage exit in Sydney, where they took a map off of G2 (a series they could have won if some inexperienced plays did not occur) and took Astralis to overtime on an Overpass BO1.
In the last few weeks, Heroic have been hit by struggle after struggle. Losing both IGL Snappi and star AWPer JUGi to Optic, and losing coach Peacemaker. Finally, new addition RUBINO is out for an unforeseen amount of time due to illness. Heroic are seemingly in shambles.
Purely because Heroic are in shambles, I can see most any team taking a win over them at this tournament.
I expect NRG to pick Mirage, D2 or Overpass and cleanly smash Heroic.
- Na'Vi vs. MVP PK; Na'Vi WIN
S1mple Solo
Zeus HSK
Edward Glow
Flamie Zeff
Electronic Xgin
S1mple is on Na'Vi. He is in arguably the best player in the world, and possibly ever. Versus a team like this, I'm just being real here, the map doesn't even matter. This guy regularly drops 30 kills vs. the best teams in the world. Imagine what he is going to do to Tier 3 MVP PK. Backing up S1mple is Electronic, who has recently hit some excellent form himself and Flame, who while inconsistent, has shown he can absolutely take over games when he wants to. While normally Zeus and Edward are liabilities, here their poor play has no bearing on the outcome of the game.
Fire up the grill, because S1mple is preparing some spicy korean barbecue.