Team Liquid defeat Virtus.pro, Astralis claims top spot in Group D ahead of playoffs

The standings in Group D settled in the last day, setting the stage for playoffs.

In their final game against Fnatic, Astralis secured the top spot in Group D with a 2-0 win. The first map, Train, easily went the way of Astralis as the match ended 16-10. Nicolai “device” Reedtz led the leaderboards with 40 total frags, eclipsing every other player in the lobby. Dust2 was a far better game for Astralis as a whole but ended in a similar 16-10 fashion.

Exiting Group D with the lead, Astralis will battle the undefeated Gambit roster to see if they will start in the quarters or semis in the ESL playoffs. Astralis should feel relatively secure going into this matchup, as though they dropped one more game than Gambit, Device has been the best individual performer of the tournament thus far. Ending the group stage with the highest overall K/D, Device has led Astralis to this winning position.

Evil Geniuses ESL run, though initially promising, ended on a sour not as they fell 0-2 to Endpoint. Perhaps deflated after losing out on playoff contention yesterday, EG lost off two relatively close maps. Shahar “flameZ” Shushan and Joey “CRUC1AL” Steusel have brought Endpoint this unexpected success and led their team in their initial 13-16 win on Inferno.

Marginally more winning for Endpoint, the European squad took Vertigo 12-16. By defeating Fnatic and Evil Geniuses, Endpoint made a name for themselves for many, ending only one win away from Virtus.pro and making a top 3 finish. Evil Geniuses on the other hand can take this as a learning experience while onboarding Owen “oBo” Schlatter, who had his second game as the overall topfragger. Perhaps a minuscule silver lining in a disappointing finish, EG showed their ability to contend top teams though ultimately failed to close out.

The final standings decider, Team Liquid won out over Virtus.pro 2-0. This matchup was an incredibly competitive series almost entirely contingent around the duels between Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski and Mareks “YEKINDAR” Galinkskis. EliGe dropped 30+ kills in both Dust2 and Vertigo, ending 64 frags over just two maps.

Both maps ended 16-13 in TL’s favor and claimed their second place finish. Facing G2 in their first playoff series, Team Liquid showed their ability to take full control of these competitive series by weathering the group of death.

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Image Credit: ESL