ESL Pro league results and matches

ESL Pro league results and matches

4. March 2023 by Andrew Williams

In the ESL Pro League 17 BIG lost against Heroic. Heroic defeated BIG with 2:1 (19:16 Nuke, Inferno with 13:16 and Vertigo 16:14). Spanish team Movistar Riders took a 2-0 win over Complexity (Vertigo by 16-8 and Ancient by 16-13). MOUZ defeated FURIA 2-0 (Mirage 16-12 and Ancient 16-9) to secure a spot in the ESL Pro League playoffs. Imperial was defeated 2-1 by SAW after a tough series (16-7 Vertigo, 7-16 Overpass, 19-17 Nuke). SAW thus reached the semifinals of the Lower Bracket.

Movistar Riders vs. Complexity

Complexity did well on Ancient, their map pick, while the Spanish lost it lopsidedly to Heroic. The Map took the expected course, as Movistar Riders’ defense was unstable and Complexity was able to build a 10-0 lead. Spanish pro Alejandro “mopoz” Fernández-Quejo, who had been so brilliant on Vertigo, was completely absent, although the Riders were able to pull themselves together in the end and put four points on the board to keep a small glimmer of hope alive.

After losing the Pistolround, the Norse collapsed on the defensive end and let the Riders control the tempo. The win against a Complexity team that made progress earlier this year is an important one for the Spaniards, who recently defeated Spirit and Sprout at the CCT Malta Central Europe Finals, and is their first winning streak in almost half a year.

MOUZ vs. FURIA

FURIA started on the T-side of mirage and was completely helpless on offense and was literally overrun by MOUZ. A Win in the Pistolround put FURIA ahead again on the defense, but MOUZ finally prevailed with an Execute on the B-side and fought back. FURIA inched closer and closer to tying the game, but at 12:13 they lost another B-Execute. MOUZ picked up the couple of rounds needed to close the map at 16-12. FURIA came out swinging on Ancient’s T-side, converting its pistol win to take a 7-1 lead.

A force-buy win gave MOUZ the second round, bringing the European team to within four before a 4k from David “frozen” Čerňanský salvaged a 2v5 and brought a fifth. That missed chance seemed to discourage FURIA, and MOUZ carried the momentum to an
8-7 halftime win. Jon “JDC” de Castro provided the T-gun for MOUZ with a 4k, and from then on MOUZ was on the winning track, taking the map 16-9.

SAW vs. Imperial

The first game was on Vertigo and João “Story” Vieira led his team with almost 100 ADR. He was the deciding factor in the opening rounds with a 1v2 and a 3k in the round after. The portuguese squad pulled away with six rounds on the attack. The Brazilians still managed to win seven rounds in the second half, but SAW put up its own flawless defense in the second half, this time Thanks to Tiago “JUST” Moura, SAW was abel to retaliate with their own flawless streak as CTs after the Brazilians put up seven unanswered rounds themselves.

In the end SAW won the first map 16-7. On Overpass, Imperial took the lead. A 2v4 from Ricardo “boltz” Prass and FalleN in the fourth gave the Brazilian team enough of a cushion to hold off SAW. Eventually, Imperial was able to force Nuke with an 8-0 score. At first, it looked like Imperial was going to win. However, SAW was able to follow suit and even the score at 12-12. A back-and-forth overtime ensued, with SAW finally prevailing thanks to Michel “ewjerkz” Pinto. Imperial lost 17-19 and SAW won the map and the game.

Heroic vs. BIG

The match opened on Nuke and it was the Danes who got the better start, taking a 6-0 lead. BIG started waking up after that but ultimately fell short with a 10:5 halftime score. BIG started the second half with a pistol-round and the Germans cut the deficit to just two points before Heroic got back into the game with a pistol attack and the Danes took Map Point 15-9. BIG put together a six-round series, so there was no winner in regulation time. The game went into overtime and Heroic needed just two more rounds on the CT side to win the Map 19-16.

It was on to Inferno. Heroic took a 3-0 lead, but the Germans quickly evened the score before faveN’s clutch put them back in front. After closing in on BIG, the danes were only behind by one round when they switched sides. Then it started to become a dirty fight with rounds being traded for a long time until BIG slowly inched away and closed it out 16:13! Last up was Vertigo and BIG took a 5-2 lead, but Heroic quickly caught back up. BIG led 14-10, but Heroic started their comeback to equalize at 14-14. In the end, Heroic was stronger and managed to finish the map narrowly at 16:14.