Group C ESL Pro League Season 17 Recap

Group C of the ESL Pro League Season 17 has ended, four teams have made it to the playoffs, and now it's time to sum up the results.

Group C turned out to be the most surprising in terms of the result. Favorites changed places with outsiders, and even just looking at the result, one might not believe in such an outcome. So what happened in group C?

Rooster

It is difficult to say something special about Rooster. This was the first serious tier-1 event for the Australian team, and the tournament ended for them as expected - the last place in the group. So the only thing Rooster could do was win on one map against 00NATION.

Rooster gained experience and felt the game on the tier-1 stage. Nothing more should be expected from them. We hope to see them at future major tournaments.

Greyhound

Other Australians, but they were already able to surprise. In the opening match, they were completely unlucky with their opponent and quickly lost to Vitality. After that, however, Grayhound showed they were ready to declare themselves on the pro scene. First, the team sent the last-chance 00NATION to the grid and beat NIP after a 16-2 defeat on the first map.

Also, Grayhound performed well in the lower bracket finals, within a step of the playoffs. But the Australians failed to beat paiN, and at the last chance, the team lost to 00NATION, after which they left the event. Excellent performance from the Australians. Given the current instability in the scene, Grayhound can find a place among the top teams.

Related: From 1:14 to victory - Vitality made one of the most impressive comebacks in CS:GO history

OG

OG completely failed. After information appeared that Nemanja Nexa Isakovich would miss the tournament, it became challenging to perceive the team as one of the top teams. The absence of the captain was supposed to harm the result. However, no one expected that everything would be so bad.

Nikolai niko Christensen was used as a stand-in for ESL Pro League OG. And in the very first match, it became clear that the Dane was not ready to play on the stage at such a level. So despite OG winning the first match against 00NATION, niko's rating could have been more impressive - 5.7. And so it was during all the matches of the group - the Dane never finished the match with a score of 6.

OG did not have not only a captain but also a full-fledged fifth player who could resist the opponent. The result was defeat in three matches out of four and the last place in group C. An extremely disappointing performance from OG.

NIP

And one more loud disappointment, but now from the Swedish club. NIP also played with the replacement, which they made back at IEM Katowice 2023. Everything should have been fine by now, but it was not. Spectators felt bad after losing to Grayhound in the semifinals of the lower bracket and falling into the bracket of the last chance.

After the victory over OG, the situation evened out, however, the team lost to 00NATION in the exit match. What was the problem? It is challenging to answer this question.

First, Fredrik REZ Sterner disappeared from the server. The Swede failed in important matches, his rating in them fell well below six, and against FaZe the player showed a rating of 4.8. It is also worth noting the uncertainty of Christian k0nfig Vineke. He performed better than REZ, but his average rating is still only 6.0.

It looks like the NIP simply lacked firepower. And the team urgently needs to solve this problem because RMR is just around the corner.

00NATION

00NATION managed to surprise absolutely everyone. The team not only performed well, fighting against the top teams but also beat them, entering the playoffs of the ESL Pro League. After all, it was 00NATION who knocked NIP out of the tournament.

At first, the Brazilians fell into the last chance bracket, losing two matches in a row at the start of the group, but after that, they could come back and play three games without defeat quickly. Marcelo coldzera David was especially distinguished - the player showed an average rating of 6.3.

You can't build big expectations for the playoffs, but 00NATION has already achieved a very high result.

paiN

PaiN's result was also a big surprise. Their path in the group is very different from the path of 00NATION, and looks much more confident. If you say that some team won 3 out of 4 matches in Group C at the ESL Pro League, then almost no one will think of paiN, but the team did exactly that.

At the same time, paiN knocked out OG and Grayhound in the last chance bracket. With this level of play, the Brazilians can also surprise in the playoffs.

FaZe

It is difficult to say something specific about FaZe - the team did not surprise but did not disappoint either. Considering the group's overall level, the team had to be in the top 2, and the main question was - will FaZe be able to defeat Vitality? And they couldn't do it even though the circumstances of the French club's victory were shocking, and it was still a 2-0 defeat for FaZe.

In general, the performance of the European team can be assessed as extremely good. The team remains one of the favorites of the event. Robin ropz Kool, with an average rating of 6.8, should be specially noted.

Vitality

Initially, Vitality was considered one of the favorites of group C. But, yes, the fact that the team will have to perform with a stand-in was a bit embarrassing because Peter dupreeh Rasmussen took a break and was replaced by Odrik JACKZ Zhug. Because of this, Vitality would perform a little weaker than usual. However, everything turned out to be ultimately the opposite.

With Standin, the team strengthened - Vitality did not lose a single map in group C. And JACKZ stood out in particular - he not only performed well but became the best rifler of the team. Dan apEX Madeskleir has already commented on this increase in statistics.

I don't think that JACKZ was properly used in other teams. He can always run first and will never take his finger off the W button in his life.

Dan apEX Madesclair

JACKZ's rating after three matches was 6.9 - one of the event's best ratings.

The top final of the group against FaZe was especially memorable, namely the first map of this match. In the first game, FaZe led with a score of 14-1, but even with this score, Vitality was able to take the game to overtime and win it with a score of 16-19. This is one of the most important comebacks in the history of CS:GO.

The replacement not only did not weaken Vitality but instead strengthened the team and increased its firepower. It is also impossible not to note the almost perfect performance of Mathieu ZywOo Erbo - his rating was 8.0.

Group C turned out to be both disappointing and surprising. Outsiders showed an extremely unexpected result, and some favorites disappointed the audience with their game. And, probably, the most surprising was the performance of Vitality, which destroyed the band with a stand.

When will ESL Pro League Season 17 resume?

The next stage of ESL Pro League will be group D matches. They will start on March 15. All information about the tournament is available on this page.