MOUZ Takes First Place, Complexity In the Playoffs - Results Of the Most Unpredictable Group Of the ESL Pro League

Group C matches of the ESL Pro League have ended, three teams have reached the playoffs, and places in the following stages of the tournament were taken by teams that were not nominal favourites. Who showed the best game? Which team failed miserably? Let's summarize group C.

HEET

HEET did not pretend to show anything extraordinary but performed quite brightly, given that they were an obvious outsider of the group. The French won five maps in five matches and beat Astralis 2-1. At first, it looked like a sensation, but closer to the end of the group matches, it became clear that HEET was no worse than Astralis. By no means can it be said that HEET failed. On the contrary, the French performed with dignity and prepared well for the future RMR tournament, having competed with tier-1 teams.

ENCE

ENCE changed their roster a lot during the Player Break. Spinx left the teams, hades could not show a good level of play and was sent to the reserve. They were replaced by valde and SunPayus, who looked like a great replacement on paper. However, the results of the first tournament say otherwise. The team beat only HEET, losing to all other teams with a score of 2-0. At the same time, it cannot be said that new players showed a low level. On the contrary, valde and SunPayus performed well and sometimes pulled the team out on themselves. The problem lies in the structure of the game, which ENCE was unable to build, despite having a considerable amount of time. The team must urgently do something. Otherwise, they may not get to the Major, which will become a resounding failure, and may lead to a disbanding of a promising roster.

Astralis

Astralis failed miserably. The current composition of the Danish team has an extraordinary dynamic. At first, the team performed well, although much worse than the previous squad. However, the longer the five play together, the worse the results. Since the Player Break, the Danes have never performed at least satisfactorily. Failure at BLAST Premier Fall Groups, and even bigger failure at ESL Pro League. Lately, there have been rumours about replacing Farlig with device, which looks like a good buff, but this buff is only on paper. Looking at Farlig's stats in this tournament, we can conclude that he is the best player on the team, on par with blameF. The victory over MOUZ is largely the merit of the sniper, and in the rest of the matches, his rating is at least 6, except for the Heroic match, which Astralis can't oppose. The problem player is rather Xyp9x. In five games, the Rifleman has never scored a rating above 6, and with each tournament, the situation worsens. The return of device will definitely not save Astralis. The Danes urgently need to rebuild the game and are hard at work preparing for RMR. Otherwise, they may not get to the Major because the new format of qualifiers for Majors does not forgive mistakes.

Complexity

The Americans jumped over their heads and surprised most of the spectators. Complexity failed at all tournaments during the year, the line-up changed, and the results remained the same. However, a gap appeared in the ESL Pro League for the first time. It cannot be said that Complexity performed very brightly and overshadowed the rest of the teams. However, the Americans overtook Astralis, HEET and ENCE and deservedly took third place in the group. Will Complexity make it to the playoffs? It all depends on the draw, but you definitely can't expect the Americans to win more than one match. Despite this, the group's third place can be considered a success for Complexity, and if the team continues to improve their game, they will definitely become a strong middle player in the tier-1.5 scene.

Heroic

Heroic was rehabilitated well after the failure at BLAST Premier Fall Groups. After the first day, it seemed that the Danes would fail again, but this feeling was deceptive. Most likely, Heroic missed the map veto in the match with MOUZ, choosing Dust2, thinking that the opponents were not ready for this, which is why they lost 2-0. Otherwise, the Danes almost made no mistakes, although they did not play perfectly. Heroic lost the map to HEET and Astralis, which was obviously superfluous. Of the players, it is worth mentioning cadiaN, who is still in great shape. Sniper and captain of Heroic made it to the top five of the group. What will Heroic show in the playoffs? It all depends on the number of mistakes that the Danes will make. If we exclude inaccuracies in the map veto in the game, then Heroic are one of the best teams in the world and can claim the ESL Pro League championship.

MOUZ

MOUZ is the biggest surprise of the tournament so far. You can complement the sports director and coach of the club because every change improves the squad's results. There have never been failed changes this year, and the signing of xertioN to the main roster strengthened the team. It strengthened so much that MOUZ took first place in the group, beating everyone except Astralis. XertioN fit in well with the team, failing only once, against Complexity, which MOUZ won anyway. At the same time, the players already on the roster have not gone anywhere. Frozen became the MVP of group C, which says a lot about the level of the game. It is still hard to believe that MOUZ will be able to show such a high result in the playoffs due to the lack of experience on LAN for JDC, torzsi and xertioN. However, if this factor is excluded, the team can impose a fight on the best clubs in the world.

Outcome

MOUZ, Heroic, Complexity - all these teams were able to surprise. For Complexity, the result that they showed in the group is already quite high, and MOUZ and Heroic still need to show themselves well in the playoffs to record the tournament as an asset. And they can do it. At the same time, Astralis and ENCE have failed, and they urgently need to change something to get to the IEM Rio Major.