Today marks the first day of the third season for the ESL Pro League. We will present you the results in our ongoing series of EPL recaps.
This season will commence with most of the best teams in the world and will host matches in both EU and NA respectively. The final four of each region will be tested in the offline finals which will be held in the United Kingdom.
Without further ado, let us dive right into the CS:GO action of this evening!
Astralis vs. Natus Vincere - Mirage & Overpass, 2 B01s
Astralis have recently managed to reach the semi-finals of the Global eSports Cup, falling short to Team EnVyUs, whereas Na'Vi have acquired two second place finishes in the last Pro League season and in the Starladder finals, as well as a convincing win at DreamHack Leipzig.
de_Mirage was the first map to be played. Quite convincingly, Na'Vi took the first three rounds, only to be shut down in the buy round. For a short amount of time, Astralis had a slight lead over the CIS team, but ultimately failed to deliver more than five rounds on their T-side. The second pistol round saw a strong Na'Vi taking it over, but the Danes' swift reply in the subsequent force-buy brought them down to an eco, while Astralis now had the economical lead and secured another round. Some server issues and general lags motivated ESL to shut the stream down, so no clues are given as to how Astralis managed to win 16-13, but they have assumingly bounced back on their CT-side.
On de_Overpass Natus Vincere had the chance to mount a comeback. Unfortunately, they were pretty much shut down in the early few rounds. A third-round buy for Na'Vi, despite not having planted a bomb prior, broke their economy down again as no equipment and a lack of helmets led them into a disadvantageous position, giving away the third point to Astralis.
Over the course of the map Nicolai ''device'' Reedtz and Peter ''dupreeh'' Rassmusen showed up very strong, whereas Ioann ''Edward'' Sukhariev did not have any kills until the seventh round. The CIS team was nowhere near dominating any of the following rounds and a 13-2 score line brought Astralis shockingly close to a second map win.
Sadly for them, things had changed as Na'Vi made the first four rounds of the second half their own. The 22nd round finally meant a round win for Astralis, which brought them to 14 points total. At 14:14, when Astralis had a two man lead, Yegor ''flamie'' Vasiliev made work with his infamous Autosniper, securing the round. The following force-buy was simply too weak for Astralis to come back. 16:14 was the final score line in favour of Natus Vincere, only dropping one round as CTs.
Team EnVyUs vs. SK Gaming - Mirage & Cobblestone, 2 B01s
This matchup of course puts EnVyUs in the role of a strong favourite, but a third place finish at Fragbite Masters and their recent performance in general suggests that a single map upset is not out of reach.
The first round of de_Mirage pretty closely went in nV's favour. SK Gaming then force bought on the CT side and a 4k by Jacob ''pimp'' Winneche, who was equipped with a Scout, sealed the deal and aided in a very early bounce-back. A cheeky defuse brought the Danes to four rounds, which they unfortunately could not hold as EnVy tied the game soon after. The half was closed 9:6 by a slightly stronger EnVyUs.
SK then straight rushed the mid area and brought themselves into effective positions, 4 men stayed alive whereas the French were totally obliterated. In EnVy's style, they took the following two rounds with a mere force-buy, but the first gun round went into SK's favour. A back and forth fight ultimately led to a 15:14 score line for EnVyUs, who had to do a semi-strong force-buy.
SK prevailed, and the overtime begun. Close rounds ultimately went in EnVyUs' favoUr, who won the first three rounds. SK answered with three for themselves and OT2 commenced, in which EnVyUs finally sealed the deal 21:19.
Cobblestone was set to be the revenge map for SK Gaming. Unfortunately things did not pan out this way, as the Frenchmen stole the pistol round and went away with the majority of the first half's rounds, 11:4. But SK broke that difference down by winning the second pistol round, only to lose to EnVy's force buy, that brought it to 15:5. Just as they seemed to run away with it, Jacob ''pimp'' Winneche clutched a 1v2 in order to let his team remain on the server. That, unfortunately, was not enough as the subsequent round was enough to secure the 16:6 win for Team EnVyUs.
