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

ESL Pro League entered its final two weeks with almost all of the teams still fighting for a top-6 placement which offers a season finals spot.

The end of regular season play slowly approaches but the play-off battle still continues in the European conference of ESL Pro League. Danish side North and the European mix of mousesports are the sole teams that have slight comfort. On the other hand, more than half of the attending teams desperately need to finish the season with victories if they are to qualify for the season finals. Down below, Virtus.pro, EnVyUs and Kinguin are currently facing the threat of relegation. Here are the current ESL Pro League Season 5 European Conference standings:
 

TeamRecord (W-L)Round DifferencePoints
1. Denmark North15-76845
2. Europe mousesports14-83742
3. Denmark Astralis13-91939
4. France G2 Esports13-94439
5. Europe FaZe Clan13-92239
6. CIS Natus Vincere13-92439
7. Sweden Fnatic10-10-1230
8. Denmark Heroic9-11927
9. Europe HellRaisers9-13-2327
10. Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas9-11-2627
11. Europe Team LDLC9-13-3627
12. Poland Virtus.pro8-14-4624
13. France Team EnVyUs7-11-2321
14. Poland Team Kinguin6-14-5718

 

1. Denmark North


North's all-around superb roster needs to deliver at season finals.

North's current first place in ESL Pro League European Conference standings proves that the Danish roster is capable of fighting their countrymen, Astralis. After a long period of wasting precious time, North's core finally has a fair shot at becoming one of the strongest out there.

Backed by Danish football giants F.C. Copenhagen, Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen's men have everything they need to be successful and under his leadership, the Northeners are not only living up to the expectations but they are clearly surpassing them, at least in the fifth regular season of ESL Pro League.

North's great start to the season was halted by their defeat against mousesports and a draw in the Danish derby. But since then, excluding the understandable defeat in the hands of a brand new FaZe Clan, they have been dominating the maps. Apart from the mentioned loss, North only gave away two maps in the remainder of the season and impressively, each time just by three rounds.

It seems having the star duo of Emil "Magisk" Reif and Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke to back wasn't enough for René "cajunb" Borg, as the 27 year-old player stepped up when necessary and averaged better statistics than any other North player so far. In addition to cajunb's impressive form, establishing Overpass and Cobblestone as Northern strongholds helped them a lot.

2. Europe mousesports


Mousesports continue to entertain even without NiKo.

Losing your star player in the beginning of a long and important journey is a disaster. When that star player is Nikola "NiKo" Kova?, you may even feel hopeless. Fortunately for the German organisation, despite all odds, mousesports made the dream come true and took second place in the standings.

Mousesports started the season with NiKo and won three of their first four maps but then the Bosnian star departed for FaZe, leaving his former team to field two players who are known for their AWPing skills, Chris "chrisJ" de Jong and Tomáš "oskar" Š?astný. All eyes were on them, expecting failure but the new line-up worked wonders as set a winning trend a few more weeks. Alas, the magic disappeared and mousesports started to lose ground. Then a new saviour arrived from Estonia, Robin "ropz" Kool. With the 17 year-old youngster, they won five maps and lost three, two against the all-star team of FaZe and one to the French dream team, G2. An overtime victory against FaZe on Inferno plus comfortable wins in the matches when they faced lesser opposition were more than enough to hold second place. Having said this the season is not yet over and if they get complacent the punishment will be harsh.

3. Denmark Astralis


Astralis will be searching another title at ESL Pro League Season 5 Finals.

They are the number one team in the world, they are the major champions and failing to make it to the grand finals of an event is now considered a failure for them. Under these circumstances, it wouldn't be surprising to see Astralis leading the pack. In fact, the season started terribly for the Danes. The favourites lost five of their first nine maps they had played. But Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander's team managed to right their wrongs and went on to win all but two maps after the slow start until their latest match. In that match, Astralis lost to a destructive G2, but their chances are still high considering they haven't played against a struggling EnVyUs yet.

One may find it surprising that the same team except the IGL, gla1ve, had finished the previous season 10th and missed the season finals. Back then, Finn "karrigan" Andersen was leading the Danish stars and he was and still is a capable leader. As much as gla1ve is a crucial factor in Astralis' glory, he is not the only one to thank for it. The team, as a whole, improved dramatically over the course. Astralis reached the Grand Finals at an international event five times since the season four and won three of them. The massive confidence boost surely helped the Danish players perform to the highest of their potential. 

Looking at their map records in the league, it can be seen that Astralis' impressive performance on the latest members of the map pool, de_Nuke and de_Inferno made a difference. While having average results on other maps, they've won eight times on the mentioned maps whilst losing three times.

Yet still we may see them out of the finals but the more likely scenario is them adding another achievement to their brilliant form of late.

4. France G2 Esports


Kennys and shox remembered they are superstars.

The latest French shuffle saw a "dream team" forming to rule the Counter-Strike world. In reality, the first few months passed in the opposite direction. The team that had always been dreamt of got ruled by almost every opposition they had faced. After nine devastating maps, Kennys "Kennys" Schrub and Richard "shox" Papillon had only a single victory in their pockets.

The fans were expecting to see a title contender and eventually as the team started to play like one slowly, nothing was the same again. The second half of March and April witnessed the return of France to top-level Counter-Strike as their golden boys prevailed in twelve occasions out of thirteen in the pro league.

De_Nuke and de_Train were their home soil, Kennys and shox were the striking force. It was like 2015 all over again and slowly but steadily, climbing from the last place, G2 reached top 4 of the standings. A Virtus.pro team without any real hope of making it to the finals and a final test against FaZe awaits them. They could live even if they lose one of these match-ups but they can't afford losing both of them, otherwise they will have to support Fnatic's opponent in the last week.

5. Europe FaZe Clan


FaZe, at last, found the missing puzzle piece.

The European mixture, starting from its foundation, struggled a lot. Finally, 2017 brought luck (and a superstar) to them and FaZe name is being mentioned amongst the best nowadays. A below-par start turned to a strong finish after NiKo joined them, the numbers say. The first six maps of the season saw FaZe winning three while losing the same amount. The early days of NiKo weren't superb either but as time passed by, FaZe became a force to be feared: they won five of their last six maps. The single map defeat was against mousesports that had the momentum of signing ropz and even then, it went to the overtime.

The slow start prevent karrigan and co. from securing finals spot early on but nonetheless, everyone knows FaZe are now capable of achieving what is expected of them as they have shown in the previous LAN events. 

6. CIS Natus Vincere


Na'Vi looking to seize the day on Fnatic, VP and NiP's absence.

After a good start, Na'Vi struggled as weeks passed by but they still occupy sixth place which is enough for a season finals spot. The Eastern Europeans would have been sitting on top of the standings and looking down to all other teams now but their terrible record on de_Cobblestone and de_Nuke prevented it. To clarify, Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev's team played the mentioned maps six times and never managed to reach sixteen rounds, suffering six of their nine defeats on two maps.

In spite of that, they were fairly comfortable until last week but a draw with G2 and defeat against LDLC put them in the danger zone. In the coming weeks NiP, LDLC and Heroic will be trying to jump into the top-6 and considering Na'Vi have the same record as better-performing teams in G2, Astralis and FaZe, they're are the premier target for teams below. Four maps are yet to be played and they are versus ESL Pro League's surprise underdogs mousesport and their direct opponents Heroic.

7. Sweden Fnatic


Fnatic understood it is not 2015.

Fnatic are competing in the ESL Pro League with their once legendary roster but their name doesn't reflect the outcome. Having an even record of 10 victories and 10 defeats after 20 maps, Fnatic's chances of making it to the finals are not substantial. It is true that they've played two maps less than most of the teams but hard tasks are ahead of them as they will be facing Astralis, mousesports and Kinguin. If the Swedes want to break into the top-6, they need to win a lot more than they lose in the following weeks.

A crushing defeat in the hands of North opened the season for them but as we were reaching the middle of the fixtures, Fnatic were looking a solid candidate for top-6. Unfortunately, back-to-back defeats faded their chances and now, despite winning four of their last six maps, puts them on the brink of missing the finals.

8. Denmark Heroic


Denmark now has three top-level teams.

ESL Pro League features the best European teams and for most of them, 8th place isn't where they want to be. It is different for Heroic though. Danish team's main objective was to become a regular at the league and for now, they're looking to avoid promotion easily. Do not forget, they barely remained in the league last season after defeating Rogue in the play-out match 2-1. But this season, no threat of relegation is on the horizon for them. Their semi-final achievement at Intel Extreme Masters: Katowice 2017 proves Heroic's placement in the league is no coincidence.

Their results throughout the season have been stable. Heroic lost to Astralis, North and pre-NiKo FaZe but when they faced opponents they have been competing to avoid relegation, Heroic at least got a draw and more than often a win. Heroic are going to play two more matches than teams in top-6 but whether they qualify for the season finals or not, they already achieved their goal for this season.

9. Europe HellRaisers


HellRaisers proved a strong start isn't enough.

HellRaisers are on a free-fall right now, at least at ESL Pro League. A couple of weeks before, they had an impressive record of nine wins and six defeats but seven defeats in a row put them in the 9th place. To make the things worse, their next match is against FaZe and a potential defeat could see them in the relegation zone. 

The main problem for the team seems to be failing to establish a dominion over a map as they played all seven maps and lost at least once on every one of them. Plus, the Ukrainians haven't been performing well recently and the team desperately needs Kirill "ANGE1" Karasiow and Vladyslav "bondik" Nechyporchuk's contributions.

10. Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas


NiP's status in the elite-level faces serious threats.

NiP kicked-off the season with Jacob "pyth" Mourujärvi but the first weeks were a nightmare for them. Upon William "draken" Sundin's arrival, things became better and they started to climb up the standings. Lately the Ninjas have been struggling. Thanks to their mid-season performance, the likelier outcome is them avoiding the relegation battle. Another good sign is that their remaining matches are against North, HellRaisers and EnVyUs. Excluding North, these two teams aren't as much of a threat and NiP should be able to remain in the league.

On the other hand, securing a finals spot is a task too tall for them. The NiP name is a huge one in the Counter-Strike world but this season it was an opponent that could be defeated. Richard "Xizt" Landström and Adam "friberg" Friberg's unimpressive performance added to NiP's problems with the main one being their devastating defeats on all maps other than Cache and Cobblestone.

11. Europe Team LDLC


LDLC found success in old blood.

Kévin "Ex6TenZ" Droolans and Mathieu "Maniac" Quiquerez are both seasoned players and veteran of the majors. Until this year, majority of the CS: GO world was thinking their days were over but, especially Ex6TenZ by guiding LDLC to the pro league, proved everyone wrong. As of now, LDLC's ranking grants them another season at ESL Pro League but down at 13th, EnVyUs have four more matches to be played than LDLC.

LDLC were looking to get relegated in their first season but back-to-back victories against Virtus.pro and Na'Vi secured them the 11th place for now. The remaining matches for them are quite interesting as they will be facing Kinguin and EnVyUs, meaning two intense battles are awaiting the fans. Kinguin are deep below, but a defeat in the hands of EnVyUs may see them playing a play-out match versus one of ESEA Premier's top teams.

12. Poland Virtus.pro


VP need a miracle or ESL's help to avoid relegation matches.

The Poles of Virtus.pro surprisingly sit at 12th place. One cannot dismiss their strength but when it isn't a LAN event, Virtus.pro's fire seems to be burnt out. Opposite of their current ranking, VP started the season strong and found themselves a solid place in the top half of the table. The second half of the calendar went on disastrously for them as they only won once in their last ten maps.

They could still avoid play-out matches and relegation however the numbers say otherwise. Not a single VP player recorded a positive kill/death ratio over the season and in terms of kill/death ratios, Filip "NEO" Kubski and Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas are the two worst players out of current active players. They have two more matches left to avoid play-out matches or even relegation but they are against North and G2. A lose in the play-out match would see them relegated to ESEA Premier unless ESL bends the rules once more in order to keep the Polish giants in the league.

13. France EnVyUs


EnVyUs can't be happy with their current place.

EnVyUs have a single positive fact in their advantage, they have played only 18 matches while other teams played 20 or 22. Other than that, current placement of the "Boys in Blue" is inconceivable. Thanks to Kinguin, they may still remain in the league by winning the relegation match but EnVyUs' legendary name is shattering. 

Vincent "Happy" Schopenhauer's team began the journey well, but defeats in the hands of Na'Vi and North put them in the lower half of the table. Just as they were trying to feel a bit more comforted, mousesports and Kinguin defeated EnVyUs and put the Boys in Blue in the relegation zone. They still have a total of eight maps yet to be played but their latest showing prevents a real hope. EnVyUs must win their play-out match in order to remain at ESL Pro League.

14. Poland Kinguin


Kinguin paid an entertaining visit to ESL Pro League.

ESEA Premier title holders shocked when they won three of their first four maps of the season. But these victories were against pre-NiKo FaZe and notoriously subpar online performers, Virtus.pro. After that start, Kinguin grabbed the victory only on three occasions and settled down at the bottom of the league. An excuse would be the addition of de_Inferno to the map pool as one of their early matches was against FaZe on de_Dust2 and they won it, but a single map shouldn't change much.

It is unknown whether Kinguin still beleive that they could remain in the league but if so, they need to perform much better against Fnatic, Heroic and LDLC in their upcoming matches. A miraculous run of victories could still send another team instead of the Poles to ESEA Premier but the chances are as low as it could be.

Images: ESL, North, Gfinity, Astralis, G2, FaZe, ELEAGUE, DreamHack, Heroic, HellRaisers, NiP, LDLC, Virtus.pro, EnVyUs, Kinguin

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