ESL Pro League Season 10: Finals, Odense 2019 is around the corner
November 30
With the regional qualifier group stages for ESL Pro League Season 10 coming to a conclusion, sixteen teams have secured their spot at the global LAN event in early December. Six teams have qualified from the Americas division, Eight from Europe division, and one team each from Oceania and Asia divisions.
During Week 1, Four teams each from Europe and North America advanced to the ESL Pro League Season 10: Finals by topping their respective groups.
The teams which found themselves at the bottom of each group were eliminated while the middle teams played in week 2 for the final spots. Europe had four more qualification slots compared to North America’s two. Oceania and Asia finished their qualifier groups securing one slot each for their respective regions.
From Europe: Mousesports, Heroic, Astralis and Natus Vincere were the topped their respective groups, while From the Americas: MIBR, Evil Geniuses, Team Liquid, and Sharks Esports were the toppers.
The final eight teams which qualified for the ESL Pro League Finals are: From Europe: G2 Esports, FaZe Clan, North and Fnatic; From the Americas: ATK and 100 Thieves; and From Oceania: Grayhound Gaming and from Asia: Tyloo were the ones to advance.
The groups of The Europe region were interesting. Each of them had three seriously competitive teams and one “easy” win team. FaZe Clan were undefeated, only conceding a single map to Fnatic. Fnatic also managed to edge out Team Vitality two maps to one, securing the final qualification of the group.
In the other group, G2 Esports, North, and Ninjas in Pyjamas were locked in a three-way tie. Instead of using the round differential tiebreaker, ESL used a map differential among the tied teams, which qualified G2 and North for the finals.
After facing defeat in the first match against NiP, G2 appeared to have drawn the short end of the stick. However, Kenny “kennyS” Schrub’s side bounced back in no time by scoring quick wins over North and BIG, with 2-0 wins in the best-of-three matchups in both cases. Nemanja “huNter-” Kovač, the squad’s latest member, he has fit right in with his new team as his performance in the last two wins was ground-breaking for his side. His ace to close out the match was the icing on the cake that was of his phenomenal performance.
North defeated BIG 2-1 in their first match, but got into trouble when they got owned by G2 with a 0-2 score owing to their shaky performance. The last team which they would face was NiP. North was required to secure a 2-0 victory over the Swedes to secure a spot at ESL Pro League Finals.
The first map, Overpass, saw a fierce battle between the two European giants, which was extended to a double overtime, with North finally winning the map. To come so close to winning and yet fail must have been frustrating for NiP, who would have regretted failing to close out their opponent’s map pick. However, NiP’s performance on Nuke was disastrous as they got dismantled 16-5, leading to North pulling off an incredible clutch to advance to ESL Pro League Finals as the second team, just under G2. The duo of Philip “aizy” Aistrup and Markus “Kjaerbye” Kjærbye had the most impact for the Danish side.
To round out the European qualifiers of ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals, group B remains with juggernauts including FaZe Clan, Fnatic, HellRaisers, and Vitality. Only two teams will make it out alive to play at the finals of the event.
The teams which played in the Americas region put up a great show as well. Team Liquid dominated their group with a 3-0 record, beating Renegades, ATK, and Team Singularity on to take first place. Evil Geniuses took their group 3-0 as well. Sharks Esports too secured top spot in their group by dominating the 3 other teams with a 3-0 win streak while MIBR stood at first place with 2 wins to 1 loss against Furia.
During Round 2, ATK managed to 3-0 their group, edging out the new Team Singularity squad.
When ATK took on Envy, they had a close 2-0 series win, needing all thirty rounds on both maps. ATK continued their climb up the group with a quick 2-0 over Singularity, with Ian “motm” Hardy dropping nearly 30 kills on both maps.
ATK then took on DETONA, the NA-majority side looking to guarantee their Odense appearance. ATK’s pick of Overpass saw them come out on top, though the Brazilian squad answered back with a win on Dust2 thanks to Vinicius “vsm” Moreira’s 32 kills. The match then went to Inferno, where ATK powered themselves to a 2-1 series victory that secured one of the two remaining spots in the Odense Finals.
100 Thieves dominated their group, going undefeated with a massive round differential. They didn’t drop a map and even tied Team Liquid’s absurd +50 rounds. The former Renegades roster looks promising heading into the end of the year.
100 Thieves had a quick series as they eased past eUnited with help from Sean “Gratisfaction” Kaiwai. In the next series The Aussie-American side took on Isurus. 100 Thieves produced one of the fastest rounds in pro CS:GO history after dismantling Argentinian squad in 11 seconds flat. Justin “jks” Savage poweredthe 100 Thieves side to the win on Inferno. Joakim “jkaem” Myrbostad mirrored that performance on Mirage as 100 Thieves found their second 2-0 victory.
The Aussie-American side next took on FURIA on the final day, Savage once again pushing the squad to a dominant 16-6 win on Vertigo. Inferno presented a closer affair, though Myrbostad came up with another strong performance to earn the 2-0 series victory. The clean-swept group earned 100 thieves the last available spot in the Odense Finals.
In the Oceanic qualifier, Grayhound showed a similar level of dominance by going 3-0, not dropping a map, and putting up a +46 round differential. Finally, TYLOO was a step above the rest of the Asian participants. They also went undefeated without dropping a map.
With all sixteen participants now decided, the ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals is just around the corner. Starting on December 3, these teams will fly to Odense, Denmark to fight for a $600,000 prize pool and an auto-qualification to IEM Katowice 2020. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive still has tons of steam as the year comes to a close.