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ESL Pro League Season 5 - Week 8 standings (NA)



The end of the season approaches and the North America division of ESL Pro League is divided into two groups featuring teams fighting to secure a finals spot and to avoid relegation.
 

TeamRecord (W-L)Round DifferencePoints
1. Brazil SK Gaming17-411651
2. Brazil Immortals16-66248
3. United States Cloud916-68448
4. United States Team Liquid15-76245
5. United States NRG Esports14-77042
6. United States OpTic Gaming13-93239
7. Brazil Luminosity Gaming12-101236
8. United States Misfits12-101136
9. Australia Renegades12-101536
10. United States Counter Logic Gaming11-9-1233
11. United States compLexity Gaming5-15-6715
12. United States Rush3-17-969
13. New Zealand Winterfox2-20-1576
14. United States The Foundation1-16-893

 

1. Brazil SK Gaming


The real competition will start at the season finals for SK.

Clearly the best team of the region, SK Gaming dominated the North America division so far. The Brazilians haven't let any surprises and won against lesser teams of the league. Three of their four map losses came against OpTic, Cloud9 and Liquid, in other words, the other competitive teams of the region. Only a single negative outcome can be mentioned which is their Train performance, despite dominating other maps, SK played Train twice and lost the match on both occasions.

The man of the hour is undoubtedly Marcelo "coldzera" David. The Brazilian superstar has an tremendous ratio of 1.5 kills per death and averaged 85.7 damage per round so far. There aren't many teams that could threaten SK but these numbers are still unbelievable. Of course coldzera hasn't carried SK singlehandedly. The Brazilian roster played top-level Counter-Strike and their results back this statement, they've lost 8.5 rounds per map on their victories and held the opposition on single digits 11 times out of 17 maps they won.

2. Brazil Immortals


Immortals continue to improve and impress.

Immortals haven't had the best start and lost four of their first seven maps. But what came after that was amazing: 13 wins in 15 maps. For a long time now, Immortals have constantly improved and impressed but ranking second at ESL Pro League is beyond expectations as they surpassed likes of Cloud9, OpTic and Liquid.

On the other hand, their record against top-level NA teams aren't that impressive. Immortals lost 2-0 to SK and ended up with draws against NRG, OpTic and Liquid which are all placed in the top-6 currently. The reason Immortals occupy the second place is clear, they won whenever they were the better team and showed no mercy towards lesser teams.

3. United States Cloud9


Skadoodle supports youngsters as Cloud9 make their return to the top of US Counter-Strike.

After a long and devastating time of failing to achieve much with veteran players, Cloud9 finally found success with two youngsters, Jake "Stewie2K" Yip and Timothy "autimatic" Ta. On the shoulders of two under-21 players, Cloud9 are the best ranked American team in the pro league. As impressive as it can be seen, they had the chance to be the best of the whole league but a couple of defeats in the latest weeks saw them falling to third place.

Nonetheless, causing havoc on Cache and being able to reach 16 rounds on other maps already secured Cloud9 a spot at the season finals. Unfortunately for them, there won't be just North American teams at the finals and most of their European opponents are capable of besting Cloud9.

4. United States Team Liquid


Jdm will be present to showcase at ESL Pro League Season 5 Finals.

Last season Renegades gifted their season finals spot to Liquid as a result of a schedule conflict with the Asia Minor but this time around, Liquid will be attending the finals without any external influence. Liquid's performance wasn't great this season but it was enough to get a place in the top-6, however they haven't been flawless on any map other than Cobblestone and it may hurt them.

Another worrisome factor is that since 17 year-old Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken replaced Jacob "Pimp" Winnecke, their results haven't been great, narrow wins and a couple of defeats. Despite all these, they're one of the better teams of their region and have enough time ahead to prepare for the hard task.

5. United States NRG Esports


NRG, Leicester City of Counter-Strike.

Unless they screw everything up in the last few matches, NRG will be heading to the season finals and this alone is a huge achievement for Peter "ptr" Gurney and co. Despite their impressive placement in the league, disappointing LAN performance at Copenhagen Games led NRG to bench inexperienced Mexican player Omar "MarkE" Jimenez in favour of Derrick "LILMAN" Boyne.

Their results with LILMAN are decent but this replacement does not increase their chances against Europe's best at the finals. Over the season, Cache and Inferno have been their best maps and with a little luck they may play on these map against Europeans and advance further than expected.

6. United States OpTic Gaming


Can OpTic prove their stint at the end of 2016 wasn't a one-time paradise?

The sole team in top-6 that faces real threat of losing their place is OpTic. With 13 wins and 9 defeats, they are just one victory ahead of Luminosity, Misfits and Renegades. Luckily, they won't be facing any of the top-5 teams in the remainder of the season. Considering the fact that almost all of their losses came against those teams, it can be said OpTic are looking good to hold tight onto the sixth place. 

Yes, they are looking to end the regular season solidly but their stability issues may hurt them at LAN as for a long time, OpTic struggled to find a suitable player to complete their roster. Finally Jason "jasonR" Ruchelski became the fifth player but their star players who made it possible for OpTic to lift ELEAGUE trophy aren't playing as dominant as they had done at the end of last year. The Green Wall will be trying to prove they are able to reach top-level again but some may doubt they could.

7. Brazil Luminosity Gaming


There is a long way ahead of Luminosity until they make everyone say "Déjà vu!".

The first organisation that won a major without European or North American players are back in the upper levels of Counter-Strike with another Brazilian roster. Three Canadian rosters would have been a shock at ESL Pro League but thanks to the ambitious Brazilians, for the first time, it has three different Brazilian rosters.

In the beginning of the season, Luminosity were expected to fight to avoid relegation but as time passed by, it became clear that these new boys were aiming for better. And now, a win against Liquid and with OpTic's help they can qualify for the finals for real. Whether they attend the finals or not, Luminosity have already raised a few eyebrows and are looking to do much more in the seasons to come.

8. United States Misfits


Sgares is one of the greatest leaders of all time but he still can't frag.

Watching Sean "sgares" Gares work his masterful mind against world's best has always been a pleasure to watch but when he left Cloud9, it seemed like we would never had the chance to see him play at that level again. Fortunately, with the backing of Miami Heat he is back again and competing against North America's best.

Misfits also experienced a roster change in the middle of the season. They bid farewell to Twistzz and Skyler "Relyks" Weaver and signed French players François "AmanEK" Delaunay and David "devoduvek" Dobrosavljevic. The change worked incredibly and turned an average season to a much better one with Misfits still having chance to qualify for the finals. To do so, they need to win as many maps as possible against compLexity and Immortals but it won't be over. Then they'll be waiting for OpTic to give away some maps.

9. Australia Renegades


Renegades are experimenting intercontinental rosters.

Once Renegades were named Australia's pride, the dream Aussie team and more. Now, they have players from three different continents. Considering the play style difference between the new American player Noah "Nifty" Francis, Serbian Nemenja "nexa" Isakovi? and Australian three-men core, an adaptation process is understandable. However, this isn't the first time Renegades changed their roster, apart from the mentioned core, Australian team used six different players for the remaining two spots. Still having chance for the finals is pretty amazing.

10. United States Counter Logic Gaming


CLG's glory days are long gone.

Once a team that obtained legend status, constant roster changes led to the decrease of roster quality then it led to CLG's fade into mid-tier Counter-Strike in North America and that reflects to their position at ESL Pro League. Currently occupying 10th place, CLG have close to no chance of making it to the season finals. To make the things worse for them, two of their remaining matches are against OpTic and SK. Despite all that, CLG are still impressive on Mirage, however unfortunately for them, they can't play all their matches on it.

11. United States compLexity Gaming

 
compLexity need to avoid defeat against Rush.

If compLexity had been playing in the Eastern side of the Atlantic, they would be the biggest nominee of direct relegation to ESEA Premier. Fortunately for them, in North America, six wins would guarantee you another season at ESL Pro League. They are having a terrible season but thanks to Rush, Winterfox and Team Foundation having the worst seasons, they are just a single victory away from avoiding the relegation matches. Their matchup against Rush will decide which team goes on to play play-out match unless Rush puts on a miraculous run in the remainder of the season.

12. United States Rush


SileNt and co. adapted a new strat of "Rush ESEA Premier!".

Rush's promotion to ESL Pro League was a small surprise last season and they needed to improve a lot in order to remain there. Unfortunately they've failed to do so and with just three victories in twenty maps, there is little hope of avoiding at least a relegation match.

Unless Rush defeat compLexity and steal one map from CLG or Renegades, they will be facing one of the better teams of ESEA Premier. With their current trend of underperforming, it is likely that we'll see them in the lesser division next season.

13. New Zealand Winterfox


Winter has come and they weren't ready.

Winterfox was amongst the first organisers to put together a North American - European mix team but it didn't work out like they had planned. Then Winterfox went on to sign current Australian-New Zealander roster which, again, turned out to be a bad plan. However, in this failure, the players aren't alone to blame. According to rumours, the management treated their players terribly and failed to pay their salaries on time, didn't get plane tickets that they were supposed to and avoided to contact players regularly.

Under these conditions, only hard believers could imagine Winterfox would stay in the league. Considering the likes of Ghost, Splyce and eUnited would be their opponent at the relegation match, it won't differ much if they avoid direct relegation.

14. United States Team Foundation


kaboose's team tried everything but found no joy this season.

Jake "kaboose" McDonald and co. started their journey under Selfless name. Matches were played but with the exception of one rare occasion, the outcome was always the same, a big L. To change the course of the embarrassing season the team changed its roster twice. Things went as worse at they could have and at one point even Selfless' Owner, Steve "Ryu" Rattacasa had to play.

As the season became more and more shameful, Selfless management decided to cut ties with the team and the roster started to play under the Team Foundation name. The new name hasn't brought joy to the squad yet and they are still searching for their second victory. How they still have chance to remain in the league is beyond understanding but without victories against NRG and Winterfox, they'll bid farewell to ESL Pro League.

Images: SK, Immortals, DreamHack, ELEAGUE, NRG, ELEAGUE, Luminosity, DreamHack, Renegades, CLG, compLexity, Rush, Sefless

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