Unstoppable Vitality, Rebuilt NIPs and Uncertain NaVi - ESL Pro League Group A Results

The last matches of the ESL Pro League group A ended yesterday, and three teams got a place in the playoffs. So, it's time to look at and determine the current shape of teams.

Vitality

Vitality literally destroyed the entire group, leaving no chance for their opponents. The team lost only two maps, which Natus Vincere and Spirit took. After BLAST Premier Fall Groups, we wrote that Spinx strengthened the team, despite the poor result of Vitality in that tournament. And this was confirmed at the ESL Pro League. The top two players in Group A are ZywOo and Spinx. The individual shape is now at its peak, and team play has improved. It can be seen that Vitality is developing its style, and this can help to go even further in the tournament. Among the problems, one can single out the defence on Inferno, Vitality often does not get rounds for CT, and they have to compensate for this by playing on the attack.

Fnatic

The new Fnatic roster surprised us in the first match. The new international roster demolished NIP 16-4 on both maps, they also fought NaVi and Vitality, and after that, they easily defeated Spirit and Endpoint. The new roster has high potential and is already showing a great game. The team is still breaking against the top teams, but they can become one of these teams with some work. The most curious feature of the lineup is that none of the players drops out. All arrows show the same game, which brings them victories. The team needs to work on Mirage and Inferno. Those are the only maps that Fnatic have lost. With sufficient preparation, they can perform well in the playoffs.

Natus Vincere

The NaVi slot in the playoffs is a great success. At first, it seemed that the team was performing a little worse than usual, but after the defeat from Endpoint, it became clear that something was wrong. Players attribute poor performance to a lack of preparation, and it shows. S1mple was only the fifth player in the group with a 6.3 rating when ZywOo finished the group stage with a 7.5 rating. In addition to Endpoint, NaVi also lost to Vitality and NIP, while the Swedes had lost three out of four matches. The team is not showing its usual game now, and if it gets to the playoffs in this form, it will lose in the first game. However, we hope for good preparation because there are still three weeks before the tournament's next stage.

Spirit

Spirit is still in team status, a step away from the tier-1 scene. Perhaps w0nderful's lack of experience in LAN tournaments still affects them. After the first match, the sniper began to sag and did not show a rating above 6.5, which is a low result for a player with AWP. There were also problems with the map veto. Spirit played Nuke four times, two of which they chose themselves, and lost three. The team considers Nuke to be their strong card, but the game does not confirm this. If the team fixes the problems with the sniper's individual game and works on the map pool, Spirit will go to the playoffs of such tournaments, but until this happens, they will stop one step away from reaching the next stage over and over again.

Ninjas in Pajamas

NIP showed a very strange tournament. A complete failure in the first three matches, a restructuring of the game and a decent performance. The Swedes were in terrible shape at the beginning of the tournament and could not beat any team. However, after three failures in a row, NIP rebuilt their game in one evening, handed over AWP to REZ and started winning. This can be credited to hampus, who was able to rebuild the game in such a short amount of time, and it worked. Despite finishing fifth in the group, the NIP put on a terrific tournament, showing flexibility and adaptability that no other team has. We expect NIPs in the following tournaments with a new play scheme that is better than the last one.

Endpoint

There is hardly anything new to say about Endpoint. The team arrived at the tournament in the status of the main outsider of the group and left, taking the last place. The only bright moment for the team was the victory over Natus Vincere. However, this cannot be considered a great achievement because Natus Vincere was very far from its peak form. You can also highlight a good game against Spirit, but the team lost this match. At the same time, Endpoint failed to pass the open qualification for the European RMR, so they will not get a chance to play with tier-1 teams very soon, which will greatly slow down the development of the roster.

Outcome

At the moment, only Vitality looks like the tournament's favourite among the teams of group A. However, there are still three whole weeks before the playoffs, and during this time, everything can change. NaVi can return to good shape, and Vitality can lose the courage with which they walk through the group stage. However, right now, Vitality looks like the team that will make it to the ESL Pro League finals.